The article deals with the advantages of DVD both as a medium for data storage and entertainment medium. It appears that the advantages are many and limitations are few, giving it the edge over other alternatives.

History of DVD

Digital versatile disk (DVD for short) was developed initially as a substitute for VHS tapes, but quickly came up as portable data storage device. The development of audio CD into DVD took nearly 25 years. Whereas the audio CD was developed as a medium of entertainment in 1972, the DVD took over only in 1997 as a medium of entertainment and as a data storage device.

DVD as Storage Device - Compact and Useful

Compared to CD the DVD has more tracks since the pitch is reduced from 1600 nanometers to 740 nanometers and redundant information is reduced to minimum and hence the capacity can go up from 700 MB in case of CD to 4.5 GB in case of DVD. Also, unlike CD, the information can be stored in layers and on both sides of DVD giving it the obvious advantage in terms of size and cost.

Superior Data Storage - Advantage DVD

When it was developed, the only serious competition of DVD was from 3.5 inch floppies. The floppies had been in existence for quite a long time and had slowly been coming down in size from 10 inch to 5.5 inches and then to the standard 3.5 inches.

High density advantage of DVD: The capacity of floppies remained at a measly 1.44 MB, whereas the CD could store 700 MB and the DVD could store initially 4.5 GB and now you can have double sided double layer storing up to 17 GB. This had the advantage of storing 11000 times more data at just double the size of floppy.

Cost advantage of DVD: The cost of blank DVD is just 4 to 10 times that of the floppy or the audio CD, but the data storage capacity is huge and thus the cost per bit of data stored comes down considerably. With the costs coming down rapidly, the cost advantage of DVD becomes further obvious.

Duplication advantage of DVD: With DVD writers becoming just as cheap as the CD writers, the cost of carrying of data with you has reduced considerably. You can carry the data as cheaply and easily as the floppies themselves. You can do this without bothering about the costs.

This makes transfer of data quick and easy. Imagine sending 17 GB of data over 256 KBPS modem or through floppies and you will understand the advantage immediately. You might require remaining connected over the internet for more than one year or sending 11000 floppies instead of just one DVD

DVD For General Public

All the above might mean balderdash for you, if you are not connected with information technology. What if you are the member of general public for whom the movies is still the best source of entertainment? Do you propose carrying all those bulky VHS tapes around with you?

Stop and use technology of DVD. The best advantage in using the DVD technology is the portability. You can easily carry a stack of DVDs instead of carrying those bulky tapes and the bulkier VHS player. The DVD player can be fitted below the passenger seat in your car or at any suitable place in your toy hauler and every one can enjoy the movies you always wanted to watch together even while traveling.

The full length movie can be stored in a single DVD and the quality will not deteriorate over the time as there is no contact between the disk reader and the disk. This is obvious advantage over the VHS tapes where the quality deteriorates over a period of time.

Therefore, throw away all your floppies, VHS tapes and switch to DVD format for all your data storage and entertainment. You will have all the advantages without the accompanying costs.