DVD is the biggest change the audio/video world has seen in quite awhile. It has opened up a world of opportunities and has removed the 650 MB limits of the CD, while maintaining the CD size. However, a DVD may be the same size as a CD and it may hold a lot more information, what is it really useful for?

DVD was developed by the entertainment industry to bring multi channel sound and higher quality pictures to television sets everywhere. It was designed to bring home viewers the best audio/visual experience possible. To make DVD even more attractive, things like multiple sound tracks, optional subtitles, interactivity and watching scenes from different angles were added.

The educational world has also embraced the DVD medium. One DVD can contain the same learning material with different languages and with different subtitles. For example, students can benefit from the interaction, and only progress through the DVD after meeting some requirements.

DVD has also made it's way into the presentation world. Using it's high quality video and interaction, as well as it's multi-language capabilities, the same presentation can be used in different countries. DVD presentations can also include web links, brochures and self running demos.

DVD Formats:

DVD-ROM - DVD Read Only Memory - digital storage disk that can be read by DVD -ROM drives in computers. These disks can store between 4.7GB and 17GB of information

DVD-Video - This is the format of choice for home entertainment. The DVD-Video specification defines a type of data and interactivity that can be placed on a disk. DVD's that comply with the spec's will play back on a consumer DVD player and DVD-ROM drives in PCs

DVD-R - DVD Recordable allows information to be recorded to the disk one time. DVD-R disks can hold between 3.95GB and 7.9GB of information and can be played back on both types of dvd players.

DVD-RAM - DVD-RAM is aimed for the PC storage and multimedia worlds as it is erasable and re-writeable. Storage ranges from 2.6GB to 5.2GB

DVD-Audio - As the name implies this format handles high quality multi-channel audio. It can also include still images and interactivity