Audio Video News

C<I>lark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia De Havilland, Thomas Mitchell, Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly McQueen. Directed by Victor Fleming. Aspect ratio: 1.33:1. Dolby Digital 5.1. 233 minutes. 1939. MGM 906311. Rated G. $24.95.</I>

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.cqmt.com/">C-3D Digital</A> and PICKSat announced that they have agreed to uplink an IP (Internet protocol) broadband version of C-3D Digital's three-dimensional (3D) satellite channel, which now transmits via the SpaceNet3 satellite. The uplink will originate from PICKSat's gateway facilities in Miami. In addition to its existing C-band distribution, the new format will allow C-3D Digital's programming service to be received by broadband Internet subscribers.

In a joint statement by Steve Jobs, chairman and CEO of <A HREF="http://www.pixar.com">Pixar</A>, and Thomas Schumacher, president of <A HREF="http://disney.go.com/">Walt Disney Feature Animation</A>, it was announced that <I>A Bug's Life</I> will be the first feature-film video release on DVD to be created entirely from digital data. Video releases of previous "completely digital" films, such as <I>Toy Story</I>, were created through an analog film-to-videotape process. The DVD for <I>A Bug's Life</I> is the first to be created using the original digital computer data and an all-digital process. The DVD release presents the film in its original widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is due for release on April 20, 1999.

Not exactly April Fools' Day, but close: <A HREF="http://www.whv.com/">Warner Home Video</A> announced last Tuesday that it will celebrate the annual Masters Golf Tournament with a reissue of the 1980 film <I>Caddyshack</I> on April 6. The Special Edition reissue package will include the original comedy starring Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray, Ted Knight, and Cindy Morgan, as well as <I>Caddyshack: The 19th Hole</I>, a new documentary including outtakes, rare footage, and interviews with the film's stars, producers Jon Peters and Mark Canton, and director Harold Ramis. Fans will also learn more than they ever wanted to know about Bill Murray's nemesis in the film, the indestructible gopher.

R<I>ichard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero, David Hemmings, Lionel Jeffreys, Laurence Naismith. Directed by Joshua Logan. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (alternate music-only track). 180 minutes. 1967. Warner Bros. 12238. Rated G. $24.95.</I>

Michael Nesmith could soon be back in the business: The former Monkee has been awarded $47 million by a jury in a Los Angeles Federal-court case. The judgment came Tuesday, February 2, after the jury found the <A HREF="http://www.pbs.org">Public Broadcasting Service</A> guilty of fraud, breach of contract, and contract interference over a video-distribution deal it signed with Nesmith's now-defunct Pacific Arts Corporation in 1990. Malfeasance by PBS caused the demise of Pacific Arts, jurors decided.

In a world of Amazon.coms and Wal-Marts, it takes a well-funded, compelling idea---or a very sharply defined niche market---to successfully set up shop. In the spirit of tightly defining a selling space, a new website has been launched by <A HREF="http://www.projectorcentral.com">ProjectorCentral</A>. The site is designed to create a very "vertical" Internet-based marketplace for buyers and sellers within the A/V and projection industry. It's intended as a "community environment" where industry professionals can trade ideas and information as well as products and services.