The World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) aims to have a final specification for digital versatile disk (DVD) by the end of the third quarter, paving the way for the technology to be introduced in flight.
DVD is the latest consumer technology to have captured the imagination of the in-flight entertainment (IFE) industry. Its benefits include improved picture and sound quality, and greater capacity and durability, compared with tapes. DVD hardware is also expected to be more reliable and compact, and lighter, than traditional tape players. A dual-layer DVD would be able to carry 270min of video programming, or 1,000min of audio entertainment.
Issues still need to be resolved before completion of the DVD specification, says Mary Rogozinski, manager of onboard systems at United Airlines and a member of the WAEA's DVD working group. Security is the biggest issue, with concerns about DVD piracy and content availability.
Virgin Atlantic Airways has pioneered the use of DVD in flight. Earlier this year, it conducted a six-week trial of Panasonic L-10 consumer players in its Upper Class cabin on a Boeing 747-400 operating daytime services to the USA.
Before the flights, Virgin conducted extensive laboratory tests of the DVD player, to determine electromagnetic interference, which was only slightly worse than that with the Sony Video Walkman units already available in Upper Class, according to product development executive Dave Tharp.
Virgin Atlantic will be ready to move to digital IFE when the industry has completed the final specification, he says.
Source: Flight International
