Thanks to built-in support on Windows 98, DVD technology is set to follow in the footsteps of the CD-ROM.

You're on an airplane, about an hour into a painfully long coast-to-coast flight, and the in-flight movie is no help. What is it this time: Revenge of the Beach Blanket Bodyguards? Even if the flick looks mildly interesting, you can't see the movie screen over the backs of the seats.

So, what are you to do? If you brought your laptop, the solution is just a few clicks away. With Windows 98, you can now watch a full-length movie of your choice on your computer.

One DVD-23 CDs
With the advent of DVD, a feature film fits easily on a CD-sized disk. Add a DVD drive and your computer is a movie theater.

"The main thing with DVD is that it has an incredible amount of storage capacity," explains Kim Akers, product manager at Microsoft's Windows 98 group. "Each DVD holds the equivalent of 23 CD-ROMs."

If DVD sounds familiar, perhaps that's because the technology has been touted for some time as the "next big thing." In 1996, one computer magazine headlined a story about a computer trade show with "DVD Takes Comdex By Storm." The storm turned out to be more of a sprinkle. Only about 300,000 DVD video players are currently in use.

Movies just the start
With Windows 98's built-in support for DVD, however, the video disk technology finds a foundation for its long-promised emergence. People can add a DVD drive to a computer without much fuss, and computer manufacturers now have reason to include DVD drives on new machines as a matter of course.

Akers believes that DVD growth will go the route of traditional CDs and CD-ROMs: first used as an entertainment medium (in this case, for watching films) and later used as the standard in game distribution. Finally, software makers will sell applications on DVDs.

Many titles now available
Dozens of Web companies are already rushing to market the products. DVD Empire lists more than 1,000 titles in its online catalog. In April, a company called NetFlix opened a virtual video store with DVD movies for rent. NetFlix president Marc B. Randolph told Inter@ctive Week that he expects people will buy as many as 12 million DVD players in the next five years.

Game makers are also taking advantage of DVD's storage capacity. With DVD, gamers don't need to swap disks in the middle of the action, as they do with some CD-ROM games. And first-generation DVD games will feature added complexity, full-motion video, and surround-sound audio.

Encarta package on DVD
The Microsoft™ Encarta™ Suite uses DVD technology to create a single disk with three best-selling multimedia reference tools: Encarta 98 Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition, Encarta Virtual Globe 1998 Edition, and Bookshelf 98. Such a multimedia package would traditionally have required five CDs, says Encarta product manager Paul Major.

In addition, the DVD edition of Encarta is loaded with extras. "[The DVD product] has 40 percent more videos and 40 percent more of what we call 360-degree views. You'll also find better video quality, and cleaner audio files that sound better, " says Major. "Windows 98 will put finally put DVD on the map."