Dr. Panos Nasiopoulos is director, research and development at Vancouver’s Rainmaker Digital Pictures and adjunct professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of British Columbia.

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One of the most significant technological achievements in the consumer and entertainment industries is the development of the digital versatile disk.

In the past few years, impressive progress in computer-imaging technology, digital video compression and digital signal processing linked the futures of the computer, telephone and entertainment industries, converging them into an all-digital telecomputer system.

It began with the introduction of the all-digital hdtv, whose main objective was to provide high image quality, comparable to that of motion pictures.

The introduction of standard definition digital tv was not only the testing ground for this technology, but was also an initial step in preparing the consumer for the subsequent release of a new and revolutionary technology.

The introduction of dvd was the next logical evolutionary step. dvd is the first union of emerging technologies, bringing together computer consumer electronics and entertainment.

dvd is a lot more than just a storage medium, it’s a new multipurpose technology that will affect both the entertainment and computer worlds. As an entertainment product, dvd will satisfy the goals established by the Hollywood Digital Video Disk Advisory Committee, delivering extraordinary picture and sound quality. In addition, this technology will introduce a new creative and sophisticated degree of interactivity that involves a number of viewing formats (e.g. 4:3, 16 x 9 and letterbox), eight different languages, 32 subtitles, different camera angles and video clip paths including interviews with producers and actors.

Toshiba has already announced that it will ship two versions of dvd players by September 1996, which will retail between $599 and $699. Several other manufacturers such as Philips, Sony, Matsushita and Pioneer are also planning to introduce dvd players by the end of the year.

But it is the pc world where dvd will have its biggest impact. The first read-only dvd drives are expected to be introduced shortly after the video players. dvd-rom will offer over seven times the storage capacity of the current cd, and will also be able to play dvd movie titles and existing music cds.

The benefits to software and hardware manufacturers are endless. The dvd format is ideal for interactive multimedia titles, creating a new market for video games. High-efficiency data encoding will help reduce manufacturing costs and error correction can be improved tenfold, resulting in more reliable playback.

At all the consumer electronic and broadcasting shows this year, the arrival of dvd technology was singled out as the key factor that will drive demand for pcs in the next few years

ibm, Compaq and Apple all previewed dvd-rom computers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early this year. Toshiba’s America dvd division will be shipping several dvd-rom configurations by the end of the year.

If dvd fulfills all the expectations of the consumer and entertainment industries, then tomorrow’s telecomputers will find their way into our living rooms, linked to a large, flat screen which will be able to display hdtv, standard definition tv, video games, interactive movies from digital versatile disks or Internet, video telephony and computer graphics.

For the first time, Hollywood studios and consumer electronic companies have formed an alliance to support a new technology which will be critical for both sides. For this reason, this technology will succeed and is destined to reshape the world of communications and entertainment.