Mr. Gary Reber, Editor-In-Chief and Publisher of Widescreen Review magazine in his presentation on the JVC D-VHS® D-Theater™ platform will cover the origins of the D-VHS format, the technical elements that constitute the format, the JVC-developed D-Theater copy protection encryption scheme, studio support, and the availability of D-Theater titles. Mr. Reber also will discuss why the platform should be supported and the value the format has for high value, high profile content production.

Text Of Presentation

The first working device for producing electrical signals for television transmission was a mechanical scanning system built by Paul Nipko in 1884. Later Valdimer Zworykin immigrated to the United States from Russia to develop an all-electronic television system. It was only after a technical paper given by Zworykin in 1929 that another Russian immigrant and then Vice President of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), David Sarnoff, was inspired enough to create a business. Sarnoff provided Zworykin with the laboratory resources to realize the dream and then in 1939 announced to the world at the New York World’s Fair that the beginning of a new era—an era where moving images and sound would be in every home—was at hand.

Sarnoff controlled both the manufacturing of television sets through RCA and the transmission signals via the National Broadcast Corporation (NBC). Sarnoff clearly understood that only with a combination in the marketplace of consumer TV sets and TV signals could the industry be born.
In 1996, fifty-seven years later, the Victor Company of Japan introduced a high-definition VCR platform that set the highest standard for consumer use recording and playback. The D-VHS format was introduced a year before the DVD-Video format is launched. Kazuno Kohda is credited with the invention of Digital or Data-VHS.

The D-VHS format sets the highest standard thus far for HD picture quality, and as well, sound quality in a home video format.

As a home theatre enthusiast magazine, I founded Widescreen Review with the intent to educate and serve as a technical resource that explored ”the best that it can be” in a home theatre movie experience. Widescreen Review is a magazine with no vested interest in any technology, nor egotistical interest in a particular product technology. Widescreen Review has been criticized by some people and others in the media who think that we’re posing D-VHS as a competitor to HD-DVD, or even the existing DVD format. This is absolutely not true. As an enthusiast publication, we are only interested in “the best that it can be,” regardless of technology or manufacturer, or price, and like everyone else we cannot always afford “the best” for the magazine’s reference systems, but we surely can appreciate the accomplishment.

Experience has taught me that by supporting “the best that it can be” in the magazine, the bar for excellence raises across the board, and often results in better performance in products that are far less expensive down the road.

We brought this platform to the attention of our enthusiast readers with our recent filled-to-capacity weekend D-Theater Movie Festivals. We premiered to enthusiast and leading industry figures the extraordinary dimensionality and resolution that the D-VHS D-Theater platform delivers as an “HD-plus” home theatre experience, far exceeding the performance capabilities of the very best DVDs, and even ATSC-standard (American Television Standards Committee) HDTV over-the-air and satellite-delivered broadcasts.

D-VHS was developed in order to meet the recording requirements of digital broadcasts while ensuring that the existing VHS video images that have accumulated thus far will remain accessible and will not become obsolete.

In the 21st century, not only will TV broadcasts and cinema exhibition go digital, but a wide variety of information will be transmitted as digital signals (bit stream data), and a household appliance that can record and store information will become necessary.

Among the various types of storage media, D-VHS tape media has the advantage of removable high-storage capacity (50 GB). Even next-generation optical discs can only store 15 to 27 GB (gigabytes) of data on a single side, which is only about half that of D-VHS.

As previously stated, the D-VHS format was launched by JVC, the developer of VHS, in 1996. The format features full HD record and playback capability, and can decode D-VHS video recorded in the 18 ATSC digital video formats. D-VHS shares the same form factor tapes as standard VHS. The format is backward record and playback compatible with Super-VHS and VHS.

D-VHS delivers an incredible 28.2 megabits per second (Mbps) bit rate. This is a substantially higher data rate than the 19.3 Mbps ATSC HDTV standard bit rate for over-the-air broadcast HDTV in the United States, and far exceeds the 4.5 Mbps DVD-Video average data transfer rate for a two-hour movie. As with the ATSC and DVD-Video systems, the format uses MPEG-2 compression. Because of D-VHS’s 28.2 data rate HD ASTC broadcasts can be recorded with no additional compression, thus capturing 100 percent of the broadcast signal quality.
D-VHS’s information density is 1920 x 1080 versus DVD-Video standard-definition (SD) 720 x 480. The format supports up to 50 GB of storage capacity. Such capacity supports up to four (4) hours of HD recording at 28.2 Mbps and 16 hours of SD (DVD-Video quality) recording at 6 Mbps, or eight (8) hours at 14.1 Mbps.

The D-VHS format adopts IEEE 1394 as the digital input/output interface (also referred to as FireWire® or iLink®) incorporating DTCP or Digital Transmission Content Protection (also known as 5-C) copy protection technology.

JVC’s first generation D-VHS D-Theater VCR, the HM-DH30000U, will output MPEG digital video from its IEEE 1394 interface (four-pin terminal), but only when that video is not copy-protected. Digital video from DVDs that are not copy protected can be recorded via the DVD analog video and audio outputs using the HM-DH30000U on-board A/D converter and MPEG encoder, but most DVDs are copy-protected.

The JVC HM-DH30000U features, in addition to IEEE 1394, an analog HDTV video output compatible with the YPbPr input included on most high-definition displays and will output YPbPr analog component video signals in the 1080i (interlaced), 720p (progressive), 480p, or 480i formats. The format and the JVC VCR are also capable of outputting 1080p. The platform’s supporting studios and JVC are working on the 1080p-mastering interface. It is the intent of the studios and JVC to eventually release D-Theater-encrypted movies in 1080p.

The D-VHS D-Theater platform is Dolby® Digital 5.1-capable in playback of prerecorded D-VHS and D-Theater content up to the full 640 kilobits per second (kbps) data rate. When recording through the IEEE 1394 interface the data rate of the source Dolby Digital bit stream will be recorded.

With respect to DTS®, there is a caveat—JVC is completing work on their DTS Digital Surround™ encoder so that future D-Theater titles can be encoded in the full DTS bit stream. The supporting studios intend to release D-Theater titles with a DTS bit stream.

In order to secure the support of Hollywood studios to release their movies on the format, JVC developed D-Theater-encrypted copy protection. This extremely robust encryption algorithm was introduced in 2001. Following extensive testing by the studios, the home entertainment divisions of four studios—Artisan Entertainment, DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and Universal Studios Home Video—joined with JVC to support the new D-VHS D-Theater software platform for high-definition copyrighted prerecorded content. The studios are satisfied that the D-Theater encryption scheme provides a secure level of protection to prevent the unauthorized duplication of their movies and other high-value prerecorded content. The support of these major content providers marks the next phase in the acceptance of high-definition as the new standard for home entertainment and television.

As of November 28 there are 40 prerecorded titles now available—25 studio titles D-Theater encrypted and 15 HDNet D-VHS titles without D-Theater encryption. HDNet is a HD channel carried by the DirecTV satellite network.

All of the D-Theater HD tapes are mastered in the 28.2 Mbps mode, a substantially higher data rate than the ATSC standard 19.3 Mbps for HDTV, so D-Theater movies can deliver even higher quality images than HDTV broadcasts. In fact, some terrestrial and satellite broadcasts do not even use the full ASTC bit rate.

The first day-and-date D-Theater title to be released simultaneously with the DVD-Video and VHS release was 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s Ice Age. The release date was November 26. Not only is this the first day-and-date D-Theater title, but Fox’s $180 million smash hit also features the first “Special Edition” on this new HD format, boasting an all-new, exclusively produced five-minute CGI animated short, Scrat’s Missing Adventure.

When the provision for D-Theater was introduced in 2001, JVC made D-Theater a part of D-VHS licensing. Still, there is at present only one D-VHS VCR marketed in North America with the D-Theater feature—JVC’s HM-DH30000U. Mitsubishi, which markets another D-VHS VCR in North America, chose not to license D-Theater, even though without the D-Theater feature prerecorded movies released by studios will not play back. The D-Theater feature is licensed for use only in North America at the present time.

The D-Theater feature adds chapter search, audio selection, running audio commentary, alternate foreign languages, and closed-captioning to the standard D-VHS feature set. While these features are impressive for a VCR, other interactive features found on DVD are not possible on the D-VHS D-Theater platform.

Why support?

The compelling reason to support the D-VHS D-Theater platform is the attraction of prerecorded HD movies. The other compelling reasons to support the platform are the capability to record HD, archival of content long-term, and compatibility with legacy VHS software.

Prerecorded movies are available now! I made the decision to support Widescreen Review’s readership, which I knew would embrace this platform, with a shopping service so they could purchase D-VHS and D-Theater titles directly from www.WidescreenReview.com and our subsidiary Web site - www.DVHSMovieGuide.com.

Looking back over the past ten years of Widescreen Review’s existence, I felt that the D-VHS D-Theater platform was a significant event in the history of imaging science. I have been a proponent of true high-definition video since the inception of the technology, and extensively covered the H(DTV) debate amongst the technologists, broadcasters, Federal Communication Commission (FCC), and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). Thus, I have been deeply involved in the issues surrounding the transition from analog to digital broadcast since founding the magazine. While the issues with respect to HDTV in the United States are still unresolved and there is much to write about, I think it is important to appreciate that the D-VHS format sets the highest standard thus far for HD picture quality and is playing an integral role in the transition to H(DTV).

An ultimate optical-based HD format will be required to equal or surpass such performance, in order for it to be embraced by enthusiasts. There are currently three main contenders for the HD throne, and each has its own combination of formats and codecs. All three variations of HD-DVD will require new players to read the discs. The DVD Forum, the standard-setting body for the DVD format, will use the 0.6-mm bonded disk proposed by NEC Corporation and Toshiba Corporation as the basis of its next-generation DVD standard utilizing a blue laser. This next-generation HD-DVD represents a minimal extension of the current DVD format with smaller pits and tracks, but no change to the data layer depth, although a blue laser is needed to read the disc. Video can be encoded with MPEG-2 or a new codec still to be chosen. While NEC and Toshiba jointly proposed the Advanced Optical Disk System to the DVD Forum in August, the Blu-ray Disk proponents, supporting a competing blue-laser technology, have decided to launch their format without the sanction of the DVD Forum, even though the nine companies supporting the format are also members of the DVD Forum. The third contender is the AOL Time Warner proposal for an HD-DVD-9 disc, an adaptation of the existing dual-layer DVD-9 format, requiring no changes to the physical disc, only a new codec for the video. Thus, as previously forecast in Widescreen Review past issues, an impending format battle is imminent. Even so, already, the D-VHS D-Theater platform is proving to satisfy current and future HD adopters, as is evidenced by the increasingly supportive home theatre Internet forums - www.hometheaterforum.com and www.avsforum.com - and the sales of JVC’s HM-DH30000U VCR and prerecorded D-Theater titles.

As a production tool the D-VHS format is a cost-effective medium for viewing HD dailies and other work. Blank tapes cost either $15 or $25, depending on storage capacity. Studios like the medium because of its full content security via D-Theater encryption. The presentation quality is equal to that of d-cinema screenings of motion pictures. Picture performance rivals the D-5 digital video studio master, even at 28.2 Mbps versus 375 Mbps. We performed extensive A/B comparisons at the Widescreen Review facilities using D-5 clones and D-Theater versions of several Universal Studios titles in our Reference Holosonic™ Home Theatre Laboratory using our state-of-the-art Runco and Sony 9-inch CRT projection systems and Stewart Filmscreen. The two sources were virtually indistinguishable. We concluded: “D-VHS is D-5, slightly softer!”
It’s more than HDTV.

The D-VHS D-Theater platform isn’t only about HDTV. The platform provides standard-definition digital recording quality that is far superior to anything available from an analog VCR. For those who keep a library of programming from satellite or terrestrial broadcasts, switching to digital tape will greatly improve picture quality.

There simply are no other current alternatives for prerecorded HDTV programming, and I believe competing self-interests, economic issues, and copy protection concerns still put a high-definition optical disc introduction two to four years away.

Even though D-VHS D-Theater is a step back in operating convenience, it is a giant leap forward in accessible video quality and the ability to choose what and when we watch HDTV.

I certainly hope that HD-DVD meets or exceeds the specifications of D-VHS.
Still, I support D-VHS, because right now it is technically the best video format available to the consumer in terms of picture (and sound) quality, and rivals the picture quality of d-cinema.

I think D-VHS can be an integral part of the overall transition to H(DTV), since in the United States we’re at a point in time now where some real tangible software is needed to demonstrate to a wider audience the capability of HD, as well as to serve the early and current adopters who have already invested in HD-capable displays and are eagerly waiting for true HD-quality source material. Having some really good HD programming from motion pictures is key in this respect.