Audio Video News

There's nothing else in home theater like a cinematically stunning film transferred to HDTV videotape and displayed at 720p or 1080i/p. The only problem is that the frame rates for the two formats are not the same, creating a syncing nightmare for the transfer studio. Solutions have involved running a single film frame through more than one scan of the faster DTV format to create a seamless presentation. As networks begin DTV transmission this fall, the ability to transfer film---a major source of primetime programming---and to create original high-definition content in a variety of DTV formats has become even more critical.

Home-theater fans are excited by HDTV, and the first display products are hitting the shelves right now. But how long will it be before high-definition signals become common as a broadcast medium? The answer to this question involves not only the television to receive the signal, but the entire broadcast chain, from camera to transmitter.

In what they've billed as their continuing commitment to the growth and development of the DVD marketplace, <A HREF="http://www.universalstudios.com">Universal Studios</A> announced 20 DVD titles with DTS audio tracks to be released in the first half of 1999. The opening volley, which includes <I>Dante's Peak</I>, <I>Waterworld</I>, <I>Liar Liar</I>, and <I>Daylight</I>, is expected in January. Other titles to follow are <I>The Shadow</I>, <I>Babe</I>, <I>The River Wild</I>, <I>The Getaway</I>, <I>The Nutty Professor</I>, <I>Apollo 13</I>, <I>Happy Gilmore</I>, <I>12 Monkeys</I>, <I>Dragonheart</I>, <I>The Jackal</I>, <I>The Frighteners</I>, <I>Born on the Fourth of July</I>, <I>The Boxer</I>, <I>For Richer or Poorer</I>, <I>Blues Brothers 2000</I>, and <I>Primary Colors</I>.

Where do captains of industry go when their cash cows begin to produce sour milk? To Washington DC, where they beg for regulatory intervention. That's where CBS Station Group Manager Mel Kazmarin was last week, and that's what he was doing---asking the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its prohibition against one TV network owning more than 35% of the available commercial broadcast stations in the country.

Last week, IBM announced the introduction of its <A HREF="http://www.ibm.com/homedirector">IBM Home Director</A> home networking system, controllable from a PC or television screen. Although initially targeted at the new-home construction market, IBM says that Home Director can be retrofitted to most existing homes.

Early indications don't look promising for <A HREF="http://www.circuitcity.com/">Circuit City</A>'s pay-per-view alternative as the DVD/Divx war begins to heat up in earnest. Recently, a neutral, informative <A HREF="http:www.abcnews.com/sections/tech/dailynews/divx980917.html">introducti... to Divx by Chris Stamper appeared on the ABC News website. Stamper's story included an opportunity for readers---who, presumably, had read the piece and were now reasonably well-informed about Divx---to vote on whether or not they would spend $449.99 for a Divx player.

Less than four years old, <A HREF="http://www.directv.com">DirecTV</A> announced last week that its subscriber base has hit the four-million mark, which puts it in one of every 25 TV households in the US. Other interesting statistics about DirecTV: 120 million pay-per-view movies and special-event purchases have been made; a total of approximately 200,000 hours of professional and collegiate sporting events have been broadcast; and a monthly churn rate of 1% has been maintained. (This is the percentage of subscribers who disconnect; DirecTV claims its churn rate is the lowest in the multichannel-video industry.)