I first heard about the release of Telugu films on DVDs a couple of years back from EVP. It was exciting to see a few screenshots, followed by clean crisp pictures on my computer and TV, respectively. I thought that this was the trend which was being set by EVP and which would be emulated if not bettered with the release of other films on DVDs. My dreams were shattered when I happened to see a couple of other films released by other companies (e.g MTV, DIGITAL VIDEO, T4U etc.)

The quality degraded to levels unseen in DVDs. It actually hurt human senses to watch such pathetic work "mastered" by equally unscrouplous and despicable people. My heart goes out to those unfortunate folks who have happened to view any telugu DVDs mastered by any other company other than EVP. In short all my excitement turned into immense frustration to see so many new DVDs being mercilessly butchered by these companies by degrading their quality.

When I was expressing my frustration about bad quality I was told that it is expensive to make high quality DVDs and yet be profitable. How come EVP is able to do quality work with their DVDs? Or Ayngaran with Tamil DVDs? I thought that Telugu movies have a bigger share of the market compared with their Tamil counterparts. People who give an excuse of a "limited demand base" are indeed naive, as it is well known that every other Indian programmer in the USA is a Telugu speaking person, willing to loosen their purse strings for quality ! Subtitles on these DVDs (for e.g Subhalagnam, Sankarabharanam) will sure help other Indians as well as non-Indians to enjoy these movies. So much for "a limited demand base".

Why Then is it so hard to make good quality Telugu DVDs that are worth collecting? We have DEI who do outstanding DVD authoring in Hindi and Punjabi and Ayngaran in Tamil. Why not someone in Telugu?

I think if we all refrained from patronizing bad quality DVDs, we can force the unscrouplous companies to see reason and quit their dirty games of taking their customers for a ride. Is it such a big deal to patronize companies that give us quality DVDs and in the process shell out a few extra bucks so that our TV sets can be filled with clean crisp and visually satisfying movies ? You make the choice.

These are some of the things one should strongly stress upon in a professionally mastered DVD.

• Picture should be presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio and if possible should be enhanced for widescreen TVs
• A soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1 for new movies and if possible for older movies also. If not possible for older movies a minimum Dolby 2CH sound should be presented.
• Subtitles in english for the vast plethora of non telugu speaking populace
• Extras like interviews with stars, directors, theatrical trailors, movie awards and functions, etc
• A clean film source to transfer to DVD
• Better artwork on DVD covers
  

Be a little bit more discerning and avoid all such shady and unprofessional companies that do not give you a quality product. Before buying a DVD seek a second opinion. You never know, you may be lucky in saving a few bucks or actually be happy that you invested in a quality product.