Jon Iverson

Last week, the <A HREF="http://www.afionline.org/">American Film Institute</A> (AFI) commemorated the first 100 years of American movies by officially announcing their prestigious list of the 100 greatest films of this century, as determined by a "blue-ribbon" panel of more than 1500 members of the American film community. In a nationally televised broadcast, "AFI's 100 Years . . . 100 Movies," Orson Welles' classic <I>Citizen Kane</I> claimed the No.1 position.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.warner.com/">Warner Home Video</A> announced North American shipments to dealers of 1.5 million DVDs of <I>The Matrix</I>, generating $23.4 million in revenues and establishing yet another benchmark in DVD's market acceptance. Setting another industry record, <I>The Matrix</I>, released on DVD September 21, generated sales to consumers of approximately 780,000, or 52% of the shipment totals mentioned above, making it the most successful DVD in first-week sales. According to VideoScan, first-week consumer sales of <I>The Matrix</I> on DVD were three times greater than the next-highest-selling title to date.

<A HREF="http://www.brilliancorp.com">Brillian Corporation</A> announced last week that it has entered the 720p and 1080p high-definition television product market. Having developed its first 720p rear-projection HDTV platform in the third quarter of 2003, the company says it is now offering its liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) Gen II microdisplay-based digital television to brand-name original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), who will be offered an opportunity to rebrand Brillian's digital televisions.

A recently released study has found that the high price of digital television sets, high capital investment costs, lack of advertising support, and scant offerings from broadcasters have restrained the penetration of digital television since its rollout in November 1998. But the report concludes that "despite its anti-climactic beginning, digital television still represents an important and potentially lucrative market in the consumer television industry."