Comments by "Neil Forbes" (@neilforbes416) on "DVD: The Death Knell of Laserdisc" video.

@akimbofurry2179 All the Harry Potter movies have 2 discs, but the feature is on one disc and the "extras"(interviews with the cast and producers, directors and J.K. Rowling herself) are on the second disc.
3
@akimbofurry2179 The movie must've gone well over three hours! If I burn a DVD, I burn at DVD SP grade(on a standard 4.7GB disc) which ensures no pixelation and I can fit about two hours and a touch over 20 minutes(I retain Power Director 8 Ultra[Cyberlink product] for this purpose). Commercially-made DVDs can go up to three or more hours as they are often dual-layered but if the movie you mentioned("Gangs Of New York") required 2 discs, then it clearly well exceeded 4 hours.
2
@akimbofurry2179 2 hours,40+ minutes, is that the playing time of "Gangs Of New York"? If so it should've been able to be accommodated on a standard 4.7GB disc with only a modicum of compression. Some of the latter Harry Potter series of movies go slightly longer than 2 hours, 40 minutes but they came out after 2003 and were accommodated on DL(dual-layer) discs without compression.
1
@akimbofurry2179 I was not asking about the vintage of the movie! I DON'T care WHEN it was made! I was ASKING HOW LONG the movie was, in hours, minutes and seconds! If the movie was 2 hours, 40-odd minutes, then whichever company did the transfer to DVD did an extremely shoddy job as, even by early DVD standards, the movie should NOT have needed a second disc to contain the feature movie! A second disc would've/should've contained the "extra bonus" material, like cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes views etc. If mastered correctly, the movie should've EASILY fitted onto a single-layer DVD disc with only a modicum of compression. Clearly the movie mastering to DVD was BADLY BOTCHED!
1
@akimbofurry2179 You underestimate the capacity of the single-layer DVD disc. From the get-go, the capacity of the disc was 4.7Gb, 2 gigabytes more than you gave them credit for. This was also the capacity for the first DVD+/-R discs(DVD+R or DVD-R) for home-burning of video content(home videos) or for file storage. Thus, a company transferring a feature movie to DVD(Digital Versatile Disc) should be able to get the entire movie onto one disc, with just a modicum of compression, remembering again the capacity was 4.7Gb, not 2.7Gb. A 2 Hr.40+m movie should, with the touch of compression, easily fit the 4.7Gb disc When the dual-layer DVD came along, the capacity increased to about 8.7Gb, not quite twice that of the single-layer disc but enough to provide more "headroom" for longer movies without needing any degree of compression. Some of the latter Harry Potter movies come within a sneeze of reaching 3 hours - epic features indeed! There is one huge drawback for DVD+R or DVD-R dual-layer discs, they're fine for storage of movies or data, but don't expect your home DVD player to handle them! I tried it! I burned some home movies onto a dual-layer disc and the player "just didn't want to know about them", totally refused to play the disc.
1
@akimbofurry2179 I'll accept you had a "typo" and meant to type 4.7Gb for the DVD capacity, but what I'm saying is that the quality of video would not have suffered as much as what you suspect, in fact, the quality loss would be negligible. The movie would've, if processed by a competent DVD processing firm, presented with its full 16:9 wide-screen aspect ratio, and its audio transferred intact, in full stereo. Which brings me back to what I've suspected all along. The processing firm did such a shoddy job at transferring the movie to DVD that they needed to put it across two discs, like the old Laser Discs had to spread the movie(any title) across both sides of the 12-inch LP Record sized disc, technology gain = "goose-eggs!" A lot of early DVDs were single-layer, carrying titles of over 2 hours in length with wide-screen aspect ratio and stereo sound. But they were processed by COMPETENT corporations. Thus you need to look at the package of your movie to see who manufactured the disc(s). Perhaps you'll be lucky to come across a new copy of "Gangs Of New York" which may be a two-disc set, but the movie will be on the first disc and "bonus features" on the second disc because the movie will be processed by a company who knows what they're doing.
1
@akimbofurry2179 I've gone as far as I can on this. There have been a number of movies made that "pushed the envelope" when being transferred to DVD, one of those is "The Dirty Dozen". I'll continue to put it down to shoddy work by the company charged with transfer of "Gangs Of New York" to DVD that they failed miserably to do the job they were asked to do.
1
Don't bother mentioning SECAM. It was an absolute rubbish system that deserves only utter contempt.
1
The one thing that CD and DVD eventually gave us was the ability(through use of computers) to make a DIY(Do It Yourself) DVD or CD. The DVD for home movies and the CD for compilations of favourite songs..... a facility not offered by vinyl records and on the home movie front, only in basic form by VHS or Beta.
1
Just for a joke, next time I burn a DVD, I might put a caption in, reading "Please be sure to rewind your DVD after play, to be sure, to be sure, to be sure!" LOL
1