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Media
Information > Media DVD Coverage 
Archive
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| Updated May 26, 2005 DVD
NEWS DIGEST
1 -
Meet The Fockers (Widescreen) Universal Studios
DVDs are a great way to enjoy opera. Two recent releases are live recordings from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and bring the peak of world-class performance into our homes. Most opera DVDs offer optional subtitles, a boon to opera lovers in understanding the action they are watching. At an opera house, one looks up and away from the singers to see the words, while watching DVDs one can see the words without losing contact with the characters. On the television screen one automatically correlates the music with the words, and both with acting and staging -- the elements which must come together for opera's full power to be felt. Another option to consider in watching opera DVDs is turning off dynamic compression that will be found in the "Audio" part of "Set Up" options that appear when a disc is first inserted into the player. The sound will be still better if the DVD player's audio output wires are connected to one's stereo system rather than the television.
With DVD players now in most U.S. households and a next-generation format likely to launch as early as this fall, studios are pumping out “anniversary” DVDs at a breakneck clip. A 15th anniversary edition of Pretty Woman includes the same bonus features as the 10th anniversary DVD, plus a blooper reel. Also in the pipeline: a 15th anniversary DVD of Father of the Bride and a 10th anniversary DVD of Toy Story that includes a new documentary, “The Legacy of Toy Story,” in which prominent filmmakers discuss the importance of the pioneering computer-animated movie. Also upcoming: a 30th anniversary edition of Jaws and a 10th anniversary edition of Casino plus a Blues Brothers 25th Anniversary Edition. A 50th anniversary DVD of The Man With the Golden Arm will be released this autumn. Analyst Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research, projects that by the end of this year, 84 million U.S. households will have at least one dedicated set-top DVD player, up from a mere 13 million at the end of 2000.
Director Steven Soderbergh and 2929 Entertainment, a media company, unveiled a unique pact to make digital movies for simultaneous release in theaters, on television and on DVD. The same-day distribution challenges long-held practices for Hollywood studios that first place films in theaters, hoping for solid box office revenues, then sell them months later on DVD or videocassette and offer them to TV broadcasters. Under the deal, the director would make six movies using high-definition digital technology. The first, a murder mystery titled "Bubble," is currently in production. 2929 would release the movies in its Landmark Theaters cinema chain, which operates 58 houses nationwide geared toward art, foreign-language and independently-made films.
More than 400 million DVDs were shipped to retail stores during the first quarter of 2005, a 21 percent increase over a year ago, according to figures released by the Digital Entertainment Group [DEG]. There are now more than 43,000 DVD titles available and the total number of units shipped since the launch of the format in 1998 is more than 4.3 billion, the DEG reported. On the hardware side, more than 7.5 million DVD players were sold to consumers during 2005 ’s first quarter, a 13 percent increase from 2004. That brings the number of DVD households to 73 million. Since many homes have more than one player, the actual number of set-top DVD players, portable DVD players, DVD recorders and DVD/VCR combination players has surpassed 135 million and the DEG estimates that 80 percent of households in the United States will have at least one DVD player by the end of 2005.
Magazines are intensifying efforts to attract advertisers - developing elaborate offers that involve more than just running ad pages or advertorial sections in their magazines. Glamour magazine has signed three advertisers to sponsor a promotion centered on a film series, which offers readers a chance to have short stories they write turned into short movies. The three winning shorts will be submitted to film festivals and placed on DVD's to be bound into December issues of Glamour.
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