Friday, September 18, 1998
3:03pm PDT -- Key Dreamworks staffers are being "brought up to speed" on the DVD format, taking home a loaner DVD player and stacks of DVD titles to examine (and no doubt enjoy) over the weekend. It's no longer a matter of "if", but "when", and we'll be thrilled when that day arrives. Count on TBP to let you know when it happens.
2:05pm PDT - Columbia TriStar has announced three new titles for November 17th release: CAN'T HARDLY WAIT (including director's commentary and Smash Mouth video), LES MISERABLES IN CONCERT AND GERONIMO.
12:11am PDT - In case you've visited our Sony VPL-W400Q Forum and FAQ page (in which you can learn everything you ever wanted to know -- and some things you didn't -- about the highly acclaimed Sony LCD video projector), we're moving the site off the third-party forum hosting service that we've been using since late May and bringing the forum in-house. The new address (in which all news posts should be made) is here. The old forum will be dissolved on October 1, 1998. Feel free to copy any relevant posts from the old VPL-W400Q forum to the new site until then. The Sony VPL-W400Q Forum and FAQ has received over 95,000 page views to date. We're looking for sponsors interested in banner space.
12:03am PDT - Ah Trillium, we hardly knew ye... The elusive Trillium 9 (a self-proclaimed Divx insider that happens to hate Divx) has posted what he calls his "last communique" on The BIG Picture Forum. Among the highlights of his ramblings? That Paul Brindze is trying to secure exclusive digital media rights to the Clinton Grand Jury testimony to put on Divx... That Richard Sharp is going to resign from Circuit City and drive a stake through the heart of Divx himself if they don't sell 50,000 players by the end of the holiday season... That corporate cheapskates have cut off the bottled water and free coffee in the office building to save money... Ha ha. Aw, just read the post for yourself. If nothing else, it's good for a laugh.
Thursday, September 17, 1998
4:59pm PDT - Here's the ABCNEWS.COM story we promised you two days ago. In the story, BIG Picture editor Jeff McNeal speaks out against Divx. Those with Real Audio can hear his comments as well. Divx spokesman Josh Dare says: "People have stopped renting movies because of the hassle." While we disagree with this notion, noting that many video retailers are now renting DVD titles for $2.50 or less, we maintain that those who have stopped renting might be doing so because they are buying open DVD titles instead. Here's the link to the rhetorical question we already know the answer to: "Will Divx Do"?
10:59am PDT - The BIG Picture reviews TITANIC (the A&E documentary). This 3-hour special goes deeper into the secrets of the ill-fated vessel than any other source to date, culminating with the discovery of the wreckage 3 miles below the surface of the Atlantic. Check the review and chances are, you'll want this excellent documentary in your collection.
10:26am PDT - Today's Los Angeles Times features an article that will warm your heart. In "Doubts Arise as Divx Readies for National Debut", Circuit City chairman and Divx financier Richard/Rick/Dick Sharp is quoted as saying " certainly we'd like to have broader distribution... but this is a product in its introductory phase that needs explanation to consumers. We need stores . . . like Circuit City . . . that have professional salespeople to support it." Sharp declined to elaborate, but called the Divx test marketing "encouraging". Perhaps this explains why he sold off more than $9 million dollars of his Circuit City stock early this summer...
Wednesday, September 16, 1998
11:04pm PDT - The Hollywood Reporter says in this limited story that director Steven Spielberg's allowance of THE MASK OF ZORRO on DVD "opens the door" to open DVD acceptance, but a spokesman for Spielberg says that we probably won't be seeing any older "blockbuster" titles from the director on open DVD anytime soon. That's okay, we're willing to wait until after the holidays...
10:59pm PDT - Bob takes a good look at Universal's AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Is this director George Lucas' first DVD? We believe it is! And you won't be disappointed by it, either. On a personal note, I greatly enjoyed the "making of" featurette that was included. Excellent. I also appreciated Lucas' thinly veiled disdain for studios in general, including Universal, that gave the young director little encouragement, even after they agreed to support the film. Lucas makes a point to say that Universal forced him to cut five minutes out of the movie for theatrical release, but because of the clout he earned in Star Wars, he made the studio "put back" the five minutes, so we could see his version of the movie on home video -- not the studio's. Real interesting stuff. It was fun to discover a surprise or two -- like "Miss Yvonne" from Pee Wee's playhouse, driving the VW that Kurt (Richard Dreyfuss) and his ex-girlfriend are riding in. This is one pleasure of a disc to own. Enjoy!
10:53pm PDT - It is with egg on our faces and great humiliation that we apologize for the wild goose chase with abcnews.com. Yesterday afternoon we were told by the author of the story about the Divx rollout that the story would be featured in today's edition of the technology news section, but the story obviously didn't get posted for whatever reason. We'll be sure to let you know if and when it finally arrives and provide a direct link. Sorry again.
5:35pm PDT - Aahhhhh, the best laid plans: If you've been perplexed looking for that Divx article in the technology section of ABCNEWS.COM -- you're not alone. Hang in there, the day isn't over... yet.
5:33pm PDT - In case you were wondering "where'd they go?" The Digital Bayou has asked us to let you know that they've moved to a new URL: digitalbayou.com
9:45am - Columbia Tristar has announced several street date postponements:
Title Old Street Date New Street Date SEVENTH SIGN 9/29/98 10/13/98 REVENGE 10/29/98 TBA SNIPER 10/27/98 11/10/98 STRIPES 10/27/98 11/10/98 TO DIE FOR 10/27/98 11/10/98 THE WILD ONE 10/27/98 11/10/98
12:38am PDT - Laserviews updated their site yesterday with Fox's cryptic November announcements (much of the details were not definitive) but we noticed that THE ABYSS was indeed missing from the line-up and SPEED was listed instead, which is contrary to what we heard from Fox directly last week after the rumors of the 'ol switcheroo began surfacing. Hmmmmmm. It's unfortunate that the right hand apparently doesn't know what the left hand is up to over there. Guess we'd better make a call to the left hand sometime today...
Tuesday, September 15, 1998
7:36pm PDT - We don't know exactly what time it will be -- but sometime tomorrow (9/16/98) ABCNEWS.COM is going to be running a story concerning the national rollout of Divx somewhere in their technology section. So, how come we know before it's published? TBP's editor Jeff McNeal was interviewed for the story by correspondent Chris Stamper and asked for his thoughts about the viability of Divx. We can hardly wait...
1:15pm PDT -- We've got a copy of MERLIN, the miniseries on DVD to giveaway to the 20th site that joins The BIG Picture Banner Patrol. We'll also be holding random FREE DVD drawings among the first 19 sites that join! Titles to be given away include THE RUNNING MAN, BASIC INSTINCT and RESERVOIR DOGS.
9:19am PDT - As we reach mid-month, here are the five most-read reviews for September so far, followed by their respective page view counts:
Lost In Space 2,174 The Thing 925 Wild Things 802 2001: A Space Odyssey 482 The Replacement Killers 407
Here are the five most read reviews on The BIG Picture for the full month of August, followed by their respective page views:
Dark City 2,299
Wag The Dog 2,215
The Silence Of The Lambs 1,808
For A Few Dollars More 1,766
U.S. Marshals 1,687
8:28am PDT - Reel.com is already selling used copies of the Titanic VHS for $7.99. They prefer the term "previously viewed". Be kind, rewind. No thanks. I'll still wait for the DVD version. I gave up on the notion of buying the same movie twice long ago...
8:18am PDT - A cult sleeper in the making: Consider this an unofficial title announcement. Chicago Hope star Peter Berg's VERY BAD THINGS starring Christian Slater and Cameron Diaz, lost a lot on the editing room floor in order to get rid of an NC-17 rating. Berg said "You should see what we had, man. The DVD and laser-disc version will definitely freak everybody out." 
8:00am PDT - According to Gamespot, Motorola has envieled its first "Project X" box, dubbed "Blackbird". This unit combines 3D video game capabilities with DVD video playback, among other things. I hope my 14 year old son doesn't see this picture while cruising the Internet in his high school "Internet Publishing" class. I'll never hear the end of it! Meanwhile, Richard Sharp might be wondering: "is there room for a phone jack on this thing?"
Motorola's "Blackbird", courtesy of Gamespot
Monday, September 14, 1998
11:40pm PDT - Bob Banka reviews another one of those pricey litte Criterion titles for the "collector" -- the 1955 movie SUMMERTIME, starring Kate Hepburn. Read the review to see if you want to update your laserdisc, provided you have one. Speaking of LD, our New Line rep tells ous that for the Image Entertainment LOST IN SPACE laserdisc version, added value that is ALSO on the DVD will include:
Theatrical trailer
Future of Space Travel featurette
Building the Special Effects featurette
Deleted Scenes
TV Series Cast Members featurette
Separate audio track commentaries
Added value on laserdisc NOT on the DVD includes:
"Making of" featurette
Second theatrical trailer
12 TV spots
As you can see, the laserdisc appears relatively loaded also, despite
not being able to have the PC enhanced features of the DVD.
11:18pm PDT - The battle is joined. We're beginning to receive reports from different parts of the country that Zenith Divx players are beginning to appear on the shelves at Circuit City stores outside the test markets. The inherent beauty in this, of course, is that no amount of corporate spin will be able to hide the fact that Divx players aren't going to move well.
1:08pm PDT - This might be a first from Columbia Tri Star - they've issued a press release announcing a price drop from $24.95 to $19.95 for the November 3, 1998 release of GODZILLA.
1:05pm PDT -- We've received our copy of MERLIN from Artisan. Look for our review in the near future. But in the meantime, here's the bottom line. While preserving the 4:3 broadcast aspect and DD 2.0 surround mix (too bad it couldn't have been filmed in 1.85:1 and mixed in DD 5.1), the image quality is in fact, excellent. As long as you're aware of the format limitations, there's no reason to wait for the full review to buy MERLIN if you are so inclined.
8:00am PDT -- One of our regular forum contributors, Wayne Bundrick, has compiled a nice DVD vs. Divx comparision page free of much of the hype, hysteria and hyperbole found on some anti-Divx pages. Take a look. We've already e-mailed Wayne that Polygram, Image and Artisan (among others, perhaps?) should be included on his listing of content providers that will not be supplying titles to Divx.
Speaking of our FORUM page, we've recently given it a design overhaul like we did this page a little over a week ago. We're pleased to find more and more visitors joining the forum and welcome your participation! Our MAIN page is also undergoing a redesign that should be complete later today. Hope you like the new wallpaper, carpet and drapes!
WEEKEND UPDATE
Here are two new reviews from Jeff McNeal & Bob Banka. Jeff takes a look at last year's THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT while Bob reviews IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Both titles receive high marks and praise. Read the reviews to find out why.
Okay, here's some junk worth reading about. DVD Video Comes Thundering Back and Disney + Divx = poor value. Speaking of Disney, we're beginning to think the bad rep they're getting with open DVD consumers is well deserved. First, they reneged on their promise not to release any titles to Divx that also weren't coming to open DVD. The Rocketeer and Goodwill Hunting are two current examples. Let's face it, with the exception of a few standout titles, the Disney offerings for open DVD have been real Mickey Mouse -- pardon the pun. It's becomming sadly clear that DVD is a very low priority to the media giant and has been relegated to second class status. Our suggestion? Let "Beauty & The Beast: Enchanted Christmas" sit on the shelf and write Disney a letter expressing your profound disappointment in their cavalier attitude towards open DVD...
