DVD UPDATE
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DVD INSIGHTS
By Tom O'Reilly
Undaunted Divx-ers Begin Landing Studios
Despite grumblings from DVD Forum heavyweights that competing standards will frighten consumers away from the fledgling DVD market, the forces pushing the rivalDivx standard brought their wares to the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month and are pushing hard to have their standard recognized in the United States.
One of the primary leaders in that effort, Digital Video Express (DVX), unveiled its Divx hardware and software for the first time in a Las Vegas hotel suite during WCES.
A two-market launch (the markets have not been disclosed) will commence in April, followed by a national launch later in 1998 and will include one hardware player from Zenith (Thomson and Panasonic will release players later in 1998), and more than 100 titles from studios including Paramount, Disney, Dream Works and Universal.
DVX, Circuit City and the other Divx faithful haven't exactly made a lot of friends in the DVD industry for their efforts. Most of the anti-Divx sentiment so far has centered around the timing of its September Divx announcement, which many believed was designed to upstage potential sales of DVD-Video players during the holidays. But Paul Brindze, president of DVX, says that isn't the case at all. In fact, he said, the timing would would have been questioned no matter when the announcement was made. Additionally, SEC rules required that information regarding Divx be disclosed.
"You wouldn't want to wait until January [1998] when more people would have bought DVD-Video players," he said. "And if we had announced it earlier, then we would have been accused of [peddling] vapor ware."
Privacy, or the potential lack thereof using the modem-based Divx system, has also been a sticking point for the anti-Divx sentiment. But supporters note that there are government regulations that legally keep providers such as DVX from disclosing user information, and Digital Video Express would certainly abide by those regulations. Digital Video Express has also decided not to carry any type of adult content on Divx.
Brindze stressed that Divx is not looking to develop a format war with DVD-Video. Rather, Brindze and the other Divx drivers say they're putting the final decision about whether to buy Divx or DVD- Video hardware/software in the hands of the consumer. Will it work? Time will tell.
Tom O'Reilly is a contributing columnist to Multimedia Monitor and editor of DVD Report, a sister publication belonging to Phillips Business Information.
Panasonic Debuts Portable DVD Player
Panasonic Consumer Electronics Co. debuted the first portable DVD-Video player for the U.S. market. Scheduled to ship this spring for $1,300, the unit (DVD-L10) includes a 5.8-inch LCD monitor and weighs 5 lbs. The hardware can play back titles in 4:3 standard definition or 16:9 with the touch of a button. The hardware can be used in a stand-alone mode or can be hooked up to a TV set. (Panasonic, 201/348-7000)
U.S. Execs Applaud DVD-Video's First Year
While news about the rollout of High Definition TV dominated headlines at last month's Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, there was still plenty of news and discussion about DVD, particularly the first year of availability of DVD-Video players in the United States.
DVD-Video industry executives used the show as a stage to express their unanimously positive review of DVD-Video's U.S. launch last year.
"The early signs for DVD are very good," said Warren Lieberfarb, president of Warner Home Video, at a luncheon sponsored by the Hollywood studio. "DVD's effectively September 1997 launch was bigger in the first year than that of CD or VCR." Lieberfarb cited sell-in of 350,000 units for DVD-Video players in their first nine months of U.S. availability, compared with 35,000 CD players sold in its first year. Similarly, it took VCRs more than two years to reach a 200,000 unit sell-in.
"With the over-hyped market projections, some might be inclined to call [the 1997 results] disappointing," added Philips' Franz Von Houten. "But 700,000 units worldwide shipped, and 300,000 units shipped in the U.S., is not a bad number at all...We exceeded our own market projections."
Sonic Delivers Sub-$900 DVD Authoring Tool
Sonic Solutions targeted the corporate desktop with the release of DVD authoring tool, DVDit!, Jan. 6 at the MacWorld Exposition in San Francisco.
The software, priced at $899, produces a DVD disc image file which can be saved on a DVD-R for playback on DVD set-tops or DVD-ROM.
The company said the software caters to those delivering multimedia productions and presentations-sales representatives, ad agencies, consultants, multimedia developers, marketers and educators. (Sonic Solutions, Paul Lefebre, 415/893-8000, paul_lefebre@sonic.com)
WHV 1997 DVD-Video Revenues Exceed $50M
Warner Home Video raked in $50.6 million in DVD title revenues in North America for 1997, the company reported.
The majority of sales came from catalog titles (81%), as opposed to new releases (19%). Batman & Robin was the top-selling WHV title, with 91,521 units sold, generating approximately $1.5 million in revenue.
Five WHV titles surpassed the 60,000-unit mark and four brought in more than $1 million in sales each. Based on an average wholesale price of $16.24, WHV sold approximately 3.1 million DVD- Video titles in 1997.
WHV wasn't the only studio to enjoy success with DVD-Video in 1997. MGM's GoldenEye title sold nearly 80,000 units and generated more than $1 million in revenues, while ColumbiaTriStar had four titles surpass the 60,000 unit mark.
Even Disney, which didn't release its first eight DVD-Video titles until early December, had two titles that surpassed the 50,000 unit mark, and two more closing in on 50,000 units.
Warren Lieberfarb, president of Warner Home Video predicted that the two major Hollywood studios yet to commit to DVD-Fox and Paramount (although Paramount has committed to Divx)-will in 1998. "We believe studios that have not will announce their participation this year, " he said.
[Editor's Note: Lieberfarb predicted late last summer that two of the three remaining studios at that time - Fox, Paramount and Disney - would commit by the end of 1997. Only Disney committed.]
DTS Digital Surround For DVD On Its Way
Surround sound technology developer Digital Theater Systems, Westlake Village, Calif., announced initial plans for the release of DTS-compatible hardware and software as early as this spring.
It has been rumored that at least one notable Hollywood producer has held back movies from DVD until DTS was available. Initially, studios including Universal, Warner Home Video, and Fox will license certain titles to DTS Entertainment for distribution through Image Entertainment. While the first titles are expected in April, exact details including titles and shipping dates, will be announced in February.
DTS-compatible DVD-Video titles will include a full-bandwidth DTS 5.1 channel soundtrack. DTS-encoded movies will play on existing DVD-Video players, but a DTS-compatible DVD-Video player is necessary to take advantage of the DTS 5.1 soundtrack. DTS-compatible hardware will include a -DTS Digital Out+ logo on the front panel of the player, and presumably on the packaging.
Panasonic is expected to be the first hardware manufacturer to release DTS- compatible DVD-Video hardware this year in its DVD-A105, DVD-A110 and DVD-A310 models. DTS will launch a co-funded marketing campaign with several hardware manufacturers this summer.
Audio Spec Remains Far From Done
Despite the recent announcements that a DVD-Audio specification has been developed, it is still far from complete.
There were reports from Japan the first week of January that a DVD-Audio specification had been completed. Speculation was fueled at the Winter CES last month when a similar press release announced that the DVD WG-4 Audio Working Group (WG-4) "has released a draft of its DVD-Audio specifications to the original DVD Consortium companies, major music industry associations... as well as WG-4 members."
"Reports that a standard has been solidified are erroneous," said Scott Robertson, a spokesperson for the DVD-Audio Working Group (WG-4). He added that, "The press release was issued at WCES to encourage more comment from the Consortium companies and industry associations.
"All DVD-Audio proposals are still in contention," Robertson added.
Creativity will apparently be a key to the potential success of a DVD-Audio specification. "It is important that the format be capable of delivering enough options, allowing artists to be creative," said Rick Marquardt Jr., Warner Advanced Media Operations' vice president. "The format should not limit the flexibility of an artist to deliver his content in the way he wants to deliver it."
WAMO Perfecting DVD Replication, Begins Polishing DVD-9 Operations
There's no better place to get an idea of what's going on in the DVD replication field than Warner Advanced Media Operations.
Olyphant, Pa.-based WAMO has been at the forefront of DVD replication since the inception of the industry. It sold approximately 5.5 million DVDs in 1997, according to Rick Marquardt, Jr., vice president, by far more than any other replication facility.
And WAMO is leading the development of what is expected to become the de facto standard among the different DVD formats- DVD-9.
DVD-9 is still in its infancy-no more than 10,000 units per day of DVD-9 discs are being replicated worldwide, according to William Mueller, WAMO senior director of engineering.
WAMO itself has produced about 300,000 DVD-9s-its sister company, Warner Home Video, recently released the first commercial DVD-9 title, Contact. It is improving the DVD-9 process daily, Mueller said.
"We have added online bonding layer thickness measurement and a proprietary adhesive control system," he said. "Clearly, the next goal is to refine the methods to economically mass-produce [DVD-9]."
But WAMO is not solely concentrating on DVD-9. It is going a step further, working on what it calls a "hybrid" disc that would be compatible in both CD and DVD devices.
Currently, a CD will play in a DVD device, but a DVD will not play in a CD player or drive.
Technically, the reflective coating must be simultaneously reflective for both 650nm and 780nm laser wavelengths. WAMO has found the coating is the key to the process-even the slightest of imperfections in the coating can cause malfunctions in playback.
There are non-technical issues to overcome regarding "hybrid" discs, as well.
For one, current DVD-Video players are not designed to play these discs.
Also, it has cost WAMO about $2 million to produce 2000 functional hybrid discs, an average of about $1,000 per disc.
Mueller admitted that at this point, it is more economical to produce a DVD-5 and CD separately. |
