--- Forwarded Message from Ed Dente <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 11:41:28 -0500 (EST)
>From: Ed Dente <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #4805.3 DVD-Regional Standards (!)
>In-reply-to: <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>

------------------
On Tue, 26 Jan 1999, LLTI-Editor wrote:
Mike,
Thanks for your clear and succinct explanation of the format questions I
had. Your post answers all my questions, and is especially helpful in
pointing out the distinct issues of regional digital coding AND
Broadcast Standards (PAL/SECAM)recording, which I had run together in my
mind. Your comment about a forthcoming multi-standard player from Philips
brings a note of optimism to the issue. Thanks again for your thoughts.
Ed Dente

> --- Forwarded Message from "Michael Bush" <[log in to unmask]> ---
> 
> >From: "Michael Bush" <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: "Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum"    <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: RE: #4805 DVD-Regional Standards
> >Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 14:34:14 -0700
> >In-reply-to: <[log in to unmask]>
> >Importance: Normal
> 
> ------------------
> Ed asks some interesting questions here. I am working on an article on all
> of this, but since he raises the questions, here is some advance
> information.
> 
> He stated:
> > The regional standard  is set by the disk makers purposely
> > so as to avoid copyright infringement and/or guarantee
> > multiple sales in different countries.
> I think this is accurate, but it is also is a question of licenses and
> rights. For example I have seen French movies that have been released in
> this country that have the regional code set for North America. My
> understanding is that these companies have rights for this market but not in
> Europe so they set the discs can only be played in North America.
> 
> > 2. If this is the case, is the regional standard issue insurmountable?
> > How does one use a DVD brought back, say, from the Czech Republic
> > or Germany?
> You have to first deal of course with the issue of PAL versus NTSC data
> streams since these two are of course different. Do not fall into the trap
> that "because the data is digital we should not have this problem." We still
> have to deal with frames per second and lines per frame, both of which are
> different in the two primary TV standards. It is essential that he digital
> data representing these frames and lines must still be based on the TV
> standard on which the images will displayed. Nevertheless, this is not
> technically a very difficult problem to solve. The biggest issue is whether
> it is economically interesting for consumer electronics companies to make
> such capabilities widely available. Please note that the industrial DVD
> player from Philips scheduled to be available in February will play both PAL
> and NTSC discs given of course that you have a multi-standard monitor that
> will handle the two signals.
> 
> The next issue is one of the region code. My first thought has been that
> European companies have significant economic interest in addressing this in
> the widest possible means. On the one hand they will want to have the
> broadest possible market available. On there other they have licensing and
> distribution issues that they must address. Nevertheless, I have heard of
> black-market ROM fixes on the Internet that circumvent this issue. There are
> perhaps of course issues of legality here, but I have to wonder if one
> cannot change any player one owns. Members of the DVD Forum are
> contractually bound to respect the requirements of the Forum, but there is a
> question as to whether anyone with the technical skills to change a ROM
> should be able to do so. Of course if the ROM contains code that is a
> violation of copyright laws, then they are probably at fault in implementing
> it. I am of course not a lawyer but this seems to be a common sense issue
> (not always a good basis of judgement in legal issues).
> 
> > 3. In the event that foreign purchased DVD discs can be used in some
> > fashion, how are European DVD films generally audio recorded? Are they
> > likely to have multi-lingual tracks that can be selected? Are they likely
> > to have multi-lingual subtitles that can be chosen among?
> This is a very subjective issue and depends on the movie. There is a WIDE
> variety of  how companies are doing this. One interesting fact is that
> sub-titles and audio in the SAME language are often VERY different. As an
> extreme case, I just got permission to return an opened copy of Ponette to
> Amazon.com because company that produced the disc (Fox Lorber of New York)
> had used the sub-titled version from which the videotape was used, i.e. the
> sub-titles were on the video itself and could not be turned off and on like
> one can normally do with DVD. Between a disc that is "well-done" (whatever
> we think that might mean) and this example, there is a lot of room for
> variation.
> 
> One element of DVD that I have found to be extremely exciting is my ability
> to create compact discs in the Video CD format that will play on DVD
> players.  The Pioneer DVD V7200 player that we purchased this past fall will
> only play CD-RW discs, but the newer Philips industrial player will play
> both CD-R as well as CD-RW discs. I have impressed myself with what I can do
> with a Hi 8 video camera, a Dell 450 MHz PC with 128MB of RAM, a fast 14 GB
> Ultra DMA EIDE hard drive (I would get a little better performance and video
> quality using a fast SCSI 2 hard drive) motion JPEG video encoder card,
> Adobe Premiere, the Xing MPEG 1 encoder and Adaptec's CD Creator Deluxe.
> Given that I can also take snippets from VHS and videodisc movies, as well
> as use video from Hi 8 and JPEG graphics, the potential here for classroom
> use is enormous.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Mike
> Michael Bush
> Associate Professor of French and
> Instructional Psychology and Technology
> http://moliere.byu.edu/digital/
> 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edmund N. Dente
Director, Language Media Center    Ph: 617-627-3036
Tufts University                   [log in to unmask]
Medford, MA 02155
                               
"Nice night, if it doesn't rain."
                        -Joan Blondell
                         <<A Tree Grows in Brooklyn>>