LATEST ADDITIONS

In the era of DVD, videotape gets no respect—some might say deservedly so. But according to the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) VidTrac program, considered by some to be the most accurate video rental point-of-sale tracking technology, the 2001 year-end rental revenue market share for VHS was 83.4% while DVD accounted for 16.6%. This variance means that VHS rental spending outpaced that for DVDs by $5.6 billion.

Proving to be one of the brightest spots in HDTV broadcasting, <A HREF="http://www.hd.net">HDNet</A> is adding another sport to its lineup of regular high definition television broadcasts. The company says that it has finalized plans to broadcast 80 Major League Baseball games in HDTV during the 2002 regular season. HDNet says the broadcast schedule begins with the Detroit Tigers&ndash;Minnesota Twins game on April 13.

MPEG-4 is getting plenty of attention from high-tech companies these days. On March 27, a joint venture involving the technology was announced in Tokyo by seven major electronics and technology companies.