Audio Video News

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.nimbuscd.com">Nimbus CD International, Inc.</A> announced that it has produced a combined total of more than 3.5 million commercial DVD-Video and DVD-ROM discs since the launch of the format one year ago.

Your local mom-and-pop video store might be on its way to extinction because of pricing benefits offered to large chains, complained the Independent Video Retailers Group last week at the <A HREF="http://www.vsda.org/">Video Software Dealers Association</A> trade show and conference in Las Vegas. According to the independents, mass-market outlets like <A HREF="http://www.blockbuster.com">Blockbuster</A> are given an unfair advantage by movie studios eager to increase rentals by putting more copies of hit movies in stores.

For the first few days in July, the engineering elite held forth at the posh Fairmont hotel in San Jose to discuss IEEE 1394. Also known as FireWire (Apple Computer), or I-Link (Sony), 1394 is being hailed as a "breakthrough technology for anyone in the world who uses a PC and a Television."

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a concert video in which the camera angle changes every three seconds, and during the charango solo we're shown a close-up of the vocalist drinking bottled water offstage. More than once I've wanted to reach through the TV and throttle the film editor. But if a recent announcement pans out, it could put camera control into the viewer's hands and bring a whole new meaning to the term "interactive television."

M<I>ira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Alexander Goodwin, Giancarlo Giannini, Charles Dutton, Josh Brolin, Alix Koromzay, F. Murray Abraham. Directed by Guillermo Del Toro. Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 (letterbox). Dolby Digital 5.1. 105 minutes. 1997. Dimension Home Video 14251. Rated R. $ 29.99.</I>

Yves Faroudja, founder and Chief Technical Officer of <A HREF="http://www.faroudja.com/">Faroudja Laboratories</A>, has been awarded the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award by the <A HREF="http://www.emmys.org/rindex.html">National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences</A>.

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.