DVD is short for Digital Video Disc.

DVD advantages over regular video is the ability to store up to eight hours of digital video and both wide screen and standard screen ratios can be placed on a single disc. It can also carry up to eight tracks of multi-channel digital audio in various languages which allows the viewer to select their language of choice.

An obvious advantage over a standard VHS tape is that an average movie is only two hours long so that leaves plenty of room on the disc to add bonus or extra material.

Almost all DVD rentals now include some type of bonus material on the disc such as deleted scenes, bloopers, etc.