Audio Video News

According to the latest figures released by the <A HREF="http://www.dvdinformation.com">DVD Entertainment Group</A>, DVD hardware and software sales continued their rapid growth in the third quarter and are anticipated to accelerate through the holiday selling season.

According to figures recently compiled by the <A HREF="http://www.dvdinformation.com">DVD Entertainment Group</A>, DVD hardware and software sales continued on a strong upward curve in the first six months of 2001. In the first half of the year, the DEG reports, more than 5 million DVD players were shipped to retailers (not all have sold through to consumers), bringing the total units shipped since the format's launch to 20.4 million. Just over 3 million players had been shipped by the same time last year.

Hackers have succeeded in defeating the Digital Versatile Disc's copy-protection encryption, according to several reports that popped up in late October and early November. Source code for decrypting entire movies is now circulating on the Internet, and an underground trade in illicit copies has arisen.

As <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?465">reported last week</A>, more than 1.1 million DVD-Video players were shipped through the first half of 1999. Additional information released by the <A HREF="http://www.dvdvideogroup.com">DVD Video Group</A> puts these numbers in perspective: DVD-Video experienced 300% growth in the second quarter of 1999, when more than 730,000 hardware units were shipped (compared to 170,000 in the second quarter of 1998). Further, the Group says that shipments for the first six months of 1999 constitute an increase of 881,000 units over the same period in 1998, also representing more than 300% growth. (Over 1 million units shipped in the first half of 1999; in the first six months of 1998, slightly more than 260,000 units shipped.)

The holiday season was a big one for the Digital Versatile Disc. VideoScan, which tracks the sales of more than 16,000 video retail businesses, reports that almost three million DVDs were sold in the five weeks leading up to the New Year, accompanied by equally brisk sales of players. The new format entered its second official year as the fastest-growing new medium in history.

As of August 1, a premier trade association of hardware and software companies has a new name and a renewed mission.