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A major consumer electronics store announced this month that
it will no longer carry VHS tape. This signals another nail
in the VHS coffin that many media observers have seen coming
(and cheered for!): The frustrating, poor-quality VHS is waning
in the wake of the much higher-quality DVD.
DVD
boasts sharper, cleaner, and more
realistic video and much better
sound. DVD has twice the resolution of VHS and performance
is better than VHS.
This
spells really good news for those whose product or service
must project the very highest standards. An analogy from
the print medium is that it's like going from dull, rough
paper to smooth, glossy paper to make images really "pop"
and showcase the content.
And
the benefits of DVD don't end there. Think of DVD as an
electronic magazine. Because
of its random access capability, your audience can pick
and choose what to view from up to eight
hours of content. A DVD's menu is very much like
a magazine's table of contents. No longer must viewers watch
a complete video end-to-end to access what they're most
interested in. Subtitles, turned
on or off and in different languages, are another great
benefit of DVD.
Many
companies are taking advantage of these superior benefits.
Existing content previously developed can have new life
adapted into the new DVD medium. How? Laptops these days
are manufactured with a DVD drive built-in. So viewers can
watch your high-quality program virtually anywhere!
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DVD
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VHS
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480+
lines of resolution
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240
lines of resolution |
| 220
lines of color information per horizontal line |
40
lines of color information per horizontal line |
| No
rewind |
"Be
kind, rewind" |
| Up
to 8 sound tracks and 8 audio channels on every
track |
Inferior
audio |
| Up
to 32 subtitles that can be turned on or off |
Only
one subtitle that cannot be turned off |
| No
wear-and-tear |
Eventually
wears out |
| Duplication
usually costs less |
Duplication
usually costs more |
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Comparison
at
100% size (unretouched) |
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| Menu
screen from the "Grandpa" video |
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