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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rande Is who wrote (6435)	5/7/1999 8:51:00 PM
From: MKTBUZZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57584

DISK - Image Entertainment, a DVD player, I'll get more info later.

To: Rande Is who wrote (6435)	5/7/1999 9:32:00 PM
From: Robert V. Cavaleri	Respond to of 57584

Hi Randy, Haven't posted here in a while. With regards to your request about companies associated with DVD, add LPAC to your list. Profitable small company, low float showing record revenues, and possible associations with SONY. I have been accumulating shares of LPAC since 1.5. It currently trades at around 4 - 4 3/4. I am expecting good things to come from LPAC this year especially with all the excitement over DVD/HDTV. Check it out for yourself, let me/us know what you think. Regards, Robert

To: Rande Is who wrote (6435)	5/8/1999 11:35:00 AM
From: BANCHEE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57584

Rande Yahoo! News Entertainment Headlines Monday May 3 1:09 AM ET DVD boom cuing up By Marc Graser HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Lower prices, growing consumer demand and the introduction of recordable DVDs could boost the number of players in homes to a better-than-expected 3.5 million by the end of the year, according to a new report. Earlier projections from industry watchers DVD Video Group and the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Assn. anticipated over 2 million players to make their way into homes this year, but investment firm Nationsbanc Montgomery is more bullish. ''Our most recent industry checks show expectations for DVD unit sales have increased due to strong carry-over demand from last Christmas,'' said Doug Gordon, managing director of Nationsbanc's consumer hardline retail division. ''We believe ... that this is a real product cycle and that it has a lon Nationsbanc's consumer hardline retail division. ''We believe ... that this is a real product cycle and that it has a lon g, long, long way to go.'' He added that unit demand will ''continue to be strong'' because of broadening consumer acceptance, increased availability of the product, rental availability in national video chains and a projected price point of as low as $199 for players this Christmas. Player sales also are expected to be fueled this gift-giving season by the introduction of recordable DVD devices from major manufacturers for as low as $250. The report went on to say electronics retailers Best Buy and Circuit City are expected to benefit the most from the surge in sales. DVD hardware and software sales already account for 2.5% of total sales for the Best Buy chain, while Circuit City attributes 1.5% of its sales to the technology, the report said. Best Buy controls nearly 25% of the market share for the DVD category among electronics retailers. The report said nothing about the future of floundering pay-per-view rival Divx, which lags far behind DVD in hardware and software sales. Circuit City owns a majority stake in the technology. Reuters/Variety

To: Rande Is who wrote (6435)	5/8/1999 2:11:00 PM
From: D. K. G.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57584

Rande, to any content provider the protection of your content over whatever medium you distribute is of paramount importance. Marcovision (MVSN) is a company involved in the copyright protection of DVD, CD-ROM and other assorted digital audio and video formats: macrovision.com (See also macrovision.com ) MVSN is not a cheap stock, however it has had a consistent record of beating estimates and is not widely followed by the street. Suggest to me what analysts that do cover the stock have not got their arms around it yet. biz.yahoo.com There is still greater potential as more and more content providers move to secure their content. You are already aware of the potential growth DVD and other digital media have in store: sec.gov DVD hardware and media became commercially available in the United States in 1997, and approximately 1.4 million DVD players had been shipped by manufacturers as of December 31, 1998. The introduction of DVDs presents serious concerns to the studios. Without effective copy protection, any one of the approximately 450 million VCRs throughout the world, when combined with a DVD player, can make unlimited videocassette copies of a non-copy protected DVD that are nearly equal in quality to a professionally prerecorded videocassette. Because of their superior picture quality, lower manufacturing cost, relative ease of use and smaller size, DVDs are expected to supplant videocassettes over time as the preferred home video distribution medium. As a result, the need for reliable copy protection is expected to become more important as DVDs become more readily available. ----------------------------------------------- Copyright protection is even more of a necessity now that one can download music and video from the Internet itself. This is a big threat to the established media companies. It cuts into the tradition distribution channels they are used to dealing in and undermines their power. As you are familiar with the industry, once established as stars some artists have gone to on to found their own labels and soon they can distribute their own content. Some already have. Correct me if I'm wrong but the big reason artists sign on to a big label is so that their content can be effectively distributed (marketing, manufacturing etc.). As a consumer I welcome this open trend. I look forward to the day I can select particular songs I like w/o paying for the whole album, downloading it from the internet and customizing my own playlist. The traditional analog business model is going to change to a great degree in the coming years. If I were an entertainment exec I'd be very concerned and looking for ways to adapt. Waging a pitch battle over VCR copyrights like they did a decade ago is not going to work in this new format. MP3 battle is the same old song redherring.com Players line up for battle over online music industry redherring.com HARD DAY'S NIGHT The music industry is struggling to adapt to the Internet. redherring.com Let me just add that while MVSN will benefit from the devolution of distribution it by no means ensures that their model of safeguarding copyrights will. MusicMarc Unveils End-All Security Solution to Digital Distribution of biz.yahoo.com respectfully submitted, dkg