Audio Video News

As the <A HREF="http://www.ce.org/">Consumer Electronics Association</A> sees it, the Digital Versatile Disc player is one of the most successful electronic products ever introduced. The format was introduced late in 1996, and began to gather momentum in 1998. Last year the players flew off dealers' shelves as prices approached the $200 level and the film industry began cranking out thousands of titles. DVD has been a huge hit in the US, which is in the midst of one of the longest economic upswings in history.

The DVD format reached a milestone in mid-June, out-renting VHS videocassettes for the first time.

The next generation disc format probably can't happen soon enough for Hollywood. Worldwide movie sales on DVD are likely to be reaching their peak, according to a recent report by In-Stat. Online rentals, computer downloads, video-on-demand services and even HDTV were cited as factors.

According to figures released last week by the <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> (CEMA), an additional 900,000 DVD-Video players were shipped to retail in the third quarter of 1999, bringing total year-to-date hardware shipments to 2.2 million. The CEMA statistics also reveal that DVD-Video experienced approximately a 225% rate of growth in the third quarter of 1999 vs. the third quarter of 1998, shipping 600,000 more hardware units than shipped in the third quarter of 1998. CEMA estimates that total players shipped in 1999 will exceed 3 million units.

Several eagerly awaited special DVD releases are poised to hit the shelves in coming months. <I>American Beauty</I>, winner of five Academy Awards earlier this year, will debut on DVD on October 24. DreamWorks says that the film will be released in a special "Awards Edition," which will include a "storyboard" feature with commentary by director Sam Mendes and director of cinematography Conrad L. Hall, as well as a "Making of" featurette.

According to recent figures released by the <A HREF="http://www.cema.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> (CEMA) last week, DVD-Video experienced continued growth during the first quarter of 1999. More than 360,000 players were shipped to retailers through March 26, with the <A HREF="http://www.dvdvideogroup.com">DVD Video Group</A> projecting that an additional 30,000 units would be shipped during the last week of March, bringing the quarter's total shipment to 390,000.