Flim Article And Free Download

Break out the bunting, light the candles on the cake: DVD turns ten this year. Help yourself to a glass and let’s drink a toast to a format that has done so much for film fans – not just the improved picture and sound quality, welcome though they are - but also the access it has given us to rare films. From an unpromising start, when we could choose from a wide range of films starring Wesley Snipes, we’re now spoiled with obscurities, classics and masterpieces, often garnished with generous extras.
But there is a spectre hovering over our celebrations. Some of those toasting DVD believe it will not be long before we gather again to mourn DVD’s passing. The omens are bad, they say: 2006 was the first year since its birth that the major studios did not see an improvement in their DVD sales. And, the argument continues, developments in hardware (larger screens, Plasma, LCD et al) make DVD look less impressive than in the days when TVs and sound systems weren’t so highly evolved. The conclusion they reach is that some sort of high definition (hi-def) format will act as DVD’s pallbearer: assuming it isn’t swept away when we all start downloading films anyway.
So, is it tasteless to be celebrating DVD if we’re going to be writing its obituary in a matter of months? Should we not be donating generously to send it on a valedictory trip to Disneyland before it pops its clogs and goes to sit on a cloud next to Laser Disc in A/V heaven? Before we start sporting a black armband and getting tearful when our shiny pal’s name is mentioned, I’d like to sound a note of caution. I don’t want to make predictions but I would like to suggest reasons why I think the ‘death of DVD’ is a wild exaggeration.
The most obvious threat to DVD comes from the hi-def formats, launched with a great fanfare a couple of years ago. There are two to chose from, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, and both promise detail and clarity that DVD simply cannot match. Trouble is, astute readers will already have noticed a fairly significant problem. There are two formats. And they’re incompatible. And films are generally only available in one format. If you buy a Blu-Ray player, you ain’t going to be playing anything on HD-DVD and if you’ve only got an HD-DVD player, Blu-Ray discs will be useless except as reflective coasters. You may remember the duel between Betamax and VHS: same thing. One format will lose, the other – the manufacturers hope – will bestride the market as surely as VHS did.
But this analogy breaks down quickly, for the whole concept of video was unique when Betamax and VHS were throwing it down. The general public simply sat back and waited for the format war to resolve itself and then flocked to the victorious standard. But hi-def is looking to replace an established technology and the sales figures show the average punter (the ordinary folk who made DVD the most successful product launch in history) are not waiting to see who the last man standing is in the hi-def wars.
They’re still buying DVD and with every DVD sold, that format becomes more entrenched. I can only speak for myself when I say that I think hi-def is plainly a good idea but as long as there’s any danger of half of any hi-def collection I assemble becoming obsolete, I’m not touching it. Sony have stuck a Blu-Ray player in their Play Station 3 but even this doesn’t seemed to have tipped the balance: in America, sales figures are measured in the hundreds.
I’ve seen both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in action and can confirm that they look great on a great screen. But neither offered the sort of epiphany I got when I first saw DVD. It took me about 30 seconds to become a DVD true-believer. I’m still agnostic about the hi-def formats. I have the same feeling about them that I had about DAT, DCC and Mini-Disc. They were audio formats, each an improvement on the humble CD; breathless techno-cheerleaders assured us we’d have shelves full of them in only a matter of years, having consigned our CDs to the landfill. But the improvements they offered weren’t sufficiently tempting and people stuck with their compact discs.
The other supposed great threat to DVD’s supremacy is downloading. Just as iTunes and their ilk have elbowed their way into the music market, so movies will be available on demand – legally on demand, that is – once the download speeds increase. But I have my doubts about this too. Firstly, the studios are utterly paranoid about piracy. I gather that’s the reason that there are two hi-def formats: because one lot of studios thought that the original specifications weren’t secure enough (both have been cracked anyway, incidentally).
When you’re dealing with people who are willing to sacrifice a stable change-over from DVD because they’re worried about piracy, the future of downloading and video-on-demand (VOD) suddenly becomes more opaque. After all, these are the folks that insisted on region coding and those tedious anti-piracy messages you can’t skip. If you think those are a nuisance, then we can only dread what the studios are cooking up for VOD. The safeguards that will surely be built in to the system (allowing it to be viewed from one terminal only, for instance) will take the edge off the convenience which should be its greatest asset.
(As a side note, I’m also concerned about the range of titles that might be offered. One of the great things about DVD is the panorama of films we can choose from. I’d like to think that the studios will open their vaults and stick their entire library on-line but that would take colossal computing power; more likely, it’ll be the headline films and a smattering of the greatest hits. Oh, and you can kiss any extras goodbye.)
I write all this fully aware that I might read it back in five years time and cringe at my lack of foresight. But I have a feeling that DVD will still be here: less buoyant, perhaps, but still afloat. Film buffs should be brimming with loyalty to a format that has bought so many great films into our living rooms, many for the first time. Masters of Cinema and Second Run (to name but two) regularly release films that seem to have slipped through the cracks, many of which are masterpieces. And, of course, they look better than ever. My shelves are clogged with films that I’d have never seen without DVD. It’s no exaggeration to say that it has revolutionised my viewing habits.
DVD is a cheap, good looking format that has been the best thing to hit cinephiles for decades. Films that once might only have been seen in the darkened chambers of the NFT are now freely available and at a reasonable price too. It enters its second decade with challengers to its crown, challengers who boast some vocal supporters. Maybe it’s time for those of us who know how DVD has enriched our viewing to do some cheering of our own. The future may indeed be filled with untold wonders, but what we’ve got now is well worth celebrating. Happy birthday DVD. And thank you.