DVD-Video


DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVDs. DVD-Video was the dominant consumer home video format in most of the world in the 2000s. As of 2025, it continues to compete with its high-definition Blu-ray Disc counterpart, while both receive competition as the collective delivery method of physical media by streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and an MPEG-2 decoder. Commercial DVD movies are encoded using a combination of MPEG-2 compressed video and audio of varying formats. Typically, the data rate for DVD movies ranges from 3 to 9.5 Mbit/s, and the bit rate is usually adaptive. DVD-Video was first available in Japan on October 19, 1996, followed by a release on March 24, 1997, in the United States.
The DVD-Video specification was created by the DVD Forum and was not publicly available. Certain information in the DVD Format Books is proprietary and confidential; licensees and subscribers were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The DVD-Video Format Book could be obtained from the DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation for a fee of $5,000. FLLC announced in 2024 that licenses would no longer be needed.

Video data

To record digital video, DVD-Video uses either H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 compression at up to 9.8 Mbit/s or MPEG-1 Part 2 compression at up to 1.856 Mbit/s. DVD-Video supports video with a bit depth of 8 bits per color, encoded as YCbCr with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.
The following formats are allowed for H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 video:
The following formats are allowed for MPEG-1 video:
  • 352 × 288 pixels at 25 frame/s, progressive
  • 352 × 240 pixels at 29.97 frame/s, progressive
The MPEG-1 Part 2 format does not support interlaced video. The H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 format supports both interlaced and progressive-scan content, and can handle different frame rates from the ones mentioned above by using pulldown. This is most commonly used to encode 23.976 frame/s content for playback at 29.97 frame/s. Pulldown can be implemented directly while the disc is mastered, by actually encoding the data on the disc at 29.97 frames/s; however, this practice is uncommon for most commercial film releases, which provide content optimized for display on progressive-scan television sets.
Alternatively, the content can be encoded on the disc itself at one of several alternative frame rates, and use flags that identify scanning type, field order and field repeating pattern. Such flags can be added in video stream by the H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 encoder. A DVD player uses these flags to convert progressive content into interlaced video in real time during playback, producing a signal suitable for interlaced TV sets. These flags also allow reproducing progressive content at their original, non-interlaced format when used with compatible DVD players and progressive-scan television sets.

Audio data

The audio data on a DVD movie can be Dolby Digital, DTS, PCM, or MPEG-1 Audio Layer II format. In countries using the PAL system standard DVD-Video releases must contain at least one audio track using the PCM, MP2, or AC-3 format, and all standard PAL players must support all three of these formats. A similar standard exists in countries using the NTSC system, though with no requirement mandating the use of or support for the MP2 format. DTS audio is optional for all players, as DTS was not part of the initial draft standard and was added later; thus, many early players are unable to play DTS audio tracks. Only PCM and DTS support 96 kHz sampling rate. Because PCM, being uncompressed, requires a lot of bandwidth and DTS is not universally supported by players, AC-3 is the most common digital audio format for DVDs, and 96 kHz is rare on a DVD. The official allowed formats for the audio tracks on a DVD-Video are:
  • PCM: 48 kHz or 96 kHz sampling rate, 16 bit or 24 bit Linear PCM, 2 to 6 channels, up to 6,144 kbit/s; N. B. 16-bit 48 kHz 8 channel PCM is allowed by the DVD-Video specification but is not well-supported by authoring applications or players;
  • AC-3: 48 kHz sampling rate, 1 to 5.1 channels, up to 448 kbit/s;
  • DTS: 48 kHz or 96 kHz sampling rate; channel layouts = 2.0, 2.1, 5.0, 5.1, 6.1; bitrates for 2.0 and 2.1 = 377.25 and 503.25 kbit/s, bitrates for 5.x and 6.1 = 754.5 and 1509.75 kbit/s;
  • MP2: 48 kHz sampling rate, 1 to 7.1 channels, up to 912 kbit/s.
DVDs can contain more than one channel of audio to go together with the video content, supporting a maximum of eight simultaneous audio tracks per video. This is most commonly used for different audio formats—DTS 5.1, AC-3 2.0 etc.—as well as for commentary and audio tracks in different languages.

Data rate

DVD-Video discs have a raw bitrate of 11.08 Mbit/s, with a 1.0 Mbit/s overhead, leaving a payload bitrate of 10.08 Mbit/s. Of this, up to 3.36 Mbit/s can be used for subtitles, a maximum of 10.08 Mbit/s can be split amongst audio and video, and a maximum of 9.80 Mbit/s can be used for video alone. In the case of multiple angles the data is stored interleaved, and so there is a bitrate penalty leading to a max bitrate of 8 Mbit/s per angle to compensate for additional seek time. This limit is not cumulative, so each additional angle can still have up to 8 Mbit/s of bitrate available.
Professionally encoded videos average a bitrate of 4–5 Mbit/s with a maximum of 7–8 Mbit/s in high-action scenes. Encoding at less than the max bitrate is typically done to allow greater compatibility among players, and to help prevent buffer underruns in the case of dirty or scratched discs.
In October 2001, aiming to improve picture quality over standard editions, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment offered "Superbit"—a premium line of DVD-Video titles having average bitrates closer to 6 Mbit/s. Audio quality was also improved by the mandatory inclusion of both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround audio tracks. Multiple languages, angles, and extra audio tracks were eliminated to free up more space for the main title and thereby to ensure the highest data rate possible. In January 2007 the Superbit line was discontinued.

Other features

Some DVD hardware or software players may play discs whose MPEG files do not conform to the above standards; commonly this is used to support discs authored with formats such as VCD and SVCD. While VCD and CVD video is supported by the DVD standard, neither SVCD video nor VCD, CVD, or SVCD audio is compatible with the DVD standard.
Some hardware players will also play DVD-ROMs or CD-ROMs containing "raw" MPEG video files; these are "unauthored" and lack the file and header structure that defines DVD-Video. Standard DVD-Video files contain extra information that DVD players use to navigate the disc.
The maximum chapters allowed per title is 99 and the maximum titles allowed per DVD is 99.

File system

Almost all DVD-Video discs use the UDF bridge format, which is a combination of the DVD MicroUDF and ISO 9660 file systems.
The UDF bridge format provides backwards compatibility for operating systems that support only ISO 9660. Most DVD players read the UDF filesystem from a DVD-Video disc and ignore the ISO9660 filesystem.

Directory and file structure

A DVD volume for the DVD-Video format has the following structure of directories and files:
  • AUDIO_TS directory: empty or not present on DVD-Video discs; contains files only on DVD-Audio discs; it is also known as an Audio Title Sets directory; included on DVD-Video discs for compatibility reasons
  • VIDEO_TS directory: stores all data for the DVD-Video; it is also known as a Video Title Sets directory. This directory is required to be present on a DVD-compliant disc.
  • Video Manager files:
  • * VIDEO_TS.IFO file: the Video Manager information file – stores control and playback information for the entire DVD – e. g. the First Play PGC, locations of all Video Title Sets, table of titles, number of volumes, domains for multiple languages and regional and parental control settings, information about subtitles, audio tracks, etc. This file is required to be present on a DVD-compliant disc.
  • * VIDEO_TS.BUP file: the backup copy of the VIDEO_TS.IFO file. It is part of Video Manager.
  • * VIDEO_TS.VOB file: the first-play Video Object of the DVD-Video disc, usually a copyright notice or a menu. It is part of Video Manager. This file is not required to be present on a DVD-compliant disc.
  • Video Title Set files:
  • * VTS_01_0.IFO file: stores control and playback information for the Video Title Set 01—e. g. information about chapters, subtitles and audio tracks. A VTS_zz_0.IFO file is required to be present on each VTS.
  • * VTS_01_0.BUP file: a backup copy of the VTS_01_0.IFO file. This file is required to be present on a DVD-compliant disc. It is part of the Video Title Set.
  • * VTS_01_0.VOB file: "Video Title Set 01, Video Object 0" contains the menu for this title. This file is not required to be present on a DVD-compliant disc.
  • * VTS_01_1.VOB file: "Video Title Set 01, Video Object 1" contains the video for this title. At least one file VTS_zz_1.VOB is required in the Video Title Set and each VTS_zz_x. DVD-Video can contain up to 99 titles with a maximum of 10 VOB files each. The last possible VOB file is VTS_99_9.VOB.
  • * … etc.
IFO files store control and playback information – e. g. information about chapters, subtitles and audio tracks. They do not store any video or audio data or subtitles.
BUP files are only backups of the IFO files.