Friday, October 2, 1998
8:10am PDT -- Previews features a rundown of some nice titles to look forward to (and a few that haven't been announced for DVD -- notably DEEP IMPACT) in this October video-release briefing. Now that Dreamworks is in, when can we expect to see more Spielberg films making their way onto DVD? Hmmmmm?

8:05am PDT -- What we already know but like seeing in print, anyway: Techweb features an article about how DVD has outpaced CD's and VHS in early consumer acceptance.

7:59am PDT -- Universal announces 20 DVD titles that will feature DTS audio -- none that haven't already been released in DD 5.1 -- which is a good thing, in our view.

7:50am PDT -- Tit for tat: Last week, Divx snagged a whopping 21 of the U.S. Future Shops to schlep their splatter-ware. Today, Hastings Entertainment, Inc., a leading multimedia entertainment superstore retailer, announced that it will offer DVD software for sale and rental. They'll be renting players, too in all 125 locations by Christmas. 90% of their stores will have the goods by Thanksgiving. Let us give thanks.

Could Disney be planning ahead for a DVD multi-language release? British rock star Phil Collins has recorded songs in four languages for a new cartoon film for the U.S. Walt Disney studios, the Geneva newspaper Info-Dimanche reported. It said Collins, who lives in western Switzerland, had completed recording for the film, "Tarzan," in English, French, German and Spanish at studios in Geneva last week. Collins sings the theme for the film, "The Song of Tarzan," as well as other songs, Info-Dimanche said. The film is due to be released in late December for the Christmas holidays.

Special thanks to TBP's reader Don Argo, for alerting us to this humorous Computer article about the RCA Divx player, in which we're greeted with the optimistic news that Thomson's entry will effectively "double" the number of manufacturers providing Divx hardware to consumers.

Thursday, October 1, 1998
11:30am PDT -- The good folks at Trimark Pictures have recently joined most of the other studios and distributors in supporting The BIG Picture -- meaning more reviews! We've recently screened (and were very impressed with) PHOENIX -- and were totally disgusted and grossed out by DEAD-ALIVE, "the goriest fright film of all time". But unlike most of the other studios that prefer to keep new announcements shrouded in secredy for some unknown reason, Trimark has graciously provided us with a glimpse at their tentative release schedule and street dates through May of '99! Here we go!

9/29/98 Chinese Box
10/13/98 Interceptor / Sprung (16x9 enhanced)
10/27/98 Trucks / The Dentist (16x9 enhanced)
11/10/98 The Colony / The Landlady / The War Room
11/24/98 Phoenix / The Shadow Riders
12/8/98 Lawn Dogs / The Ugly
12/22/98 Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss / The Last Don (262 minutes - flipper)
1/5/99 Frank & Jesse / Leprechaun 2
1/19/99 Cube / Death Wish 5
2/2/99 Cronos / Iron Eagle 4
2/16/99 First Love, Last Rights / Bella Mafia
3/2/99 Slam / Hollow Point
3/16/99 Dean Koontz's Mr. Murder / Curve
4/6/99 My Teacher's Wife / Warlock 2: Aramgeddon
4/27/99 The Dentist 2 / Seperate Lives
5/11/99 Sometimes They Come Back III / The Last Don 2
5/25/99 The Eternal / True Crime

10:17am PDT -- Making our usual rounds, we were sorry to see that DVD Resources Forum page is temporarily off-line due to server problems. Apparently, the software being used by the site makes inordinately heavy demands on the ISP's server. We wish DVD Resource good luck and a speedy recovery and hope that Home Theater Forum (which uses the same software and Internet host) doesn't run into the same problems.

9:45am PDT - From today's Chicago Sun-Times: Motorola Inc.'s Semiconductor Products Sectors said it has licensed a new technology for producing high-quality bass sound from Israel-based Waves Ltd. Motorola will embed Waves' MaxxBass technology into its signal processors used in audio and video receivers, surround-sound decoders, DVD players, digital and analog TV sets and other audio applications. MaxxBass is designed to produce high-quality bass sound from ordinary speakers.

9:20am PDT - "In addition, visitors have given us a lot of feedback, which is mostly positive." This is our favorite quote from a Computer Retail Week story about Divx on-line DVD and Divx software sales. Considering that over 98% of Internet users abhor the concept of Divx, it's hard to conceive that statement as being... uh... completely forthright. Another interesting tidbit is while Divx sells open DVD's, they charge double the "handling fee" that they charge for Divx discs. Doesn't sound like Divx wants you to buy open DVD's from their site, does it?

9:12am PDT - Image Entertainment turns up the heat and launches an aggressive distribution plan to promote DVD. We like it.

1:25am PDT -- Wow! We're pleased (and humbled) to announce another record-breaking month for page views in September at The BIG Picture, with a net increase of roughly 17,000 page views with one fewer day to report than in August, when we reached over one million monthly page views for the first time! Thank you for contributing to our success, and welcome to the 4,000+ new visitors that discovered The BIG Picture in September!

12:59am PDT -- We're pleased to see that E-Town's server problems have been resolved. While we're on the subject, TBP is on very cordial terms with the moderators at Home Theater Forum. We have extended that site our cordial invitation to "borrow" our forum for their members if they ever find themselves having server problems in the future. Of course, users are free to visit any forums they wish, whenever they want -- we just wanted HTF to know that we're prepared to provide a temporary respite for their members should the unthinkable occur. And HTF has graciously extended the same invitation to The BIG Picture, which is a gesture we very much appreciate.

12:55am PDT -- Laserviews/Image have updated their street date page. The biggest buzz seems to be generating from MGM's decision to postpone KINGPIN (which we've never seen an official announcement for, anyway) and A FISH CALLED WANDA. Several readers E-mailed to express their hopes that MGM would is delaying these titles so they can release them in widscreen as opposed to P&S. We'll try to reach our contacts at MGM during business hours and see what we can find out for you, if anything. We're also happy to see the second wave of some terrific title announcements from Paramount.

Wednesday, September 30, 1998
4:24pm PDT -- DTS issues apology for DVD delay. In a letter which we've copied to our forum page, the CEO of DTS finally has something tangible to say about DVD and when proponents of the format can expect to start seeing titles.

9:55am PDT -- Congratulations to Walter Kuras of Laurel Springs, New Jersey, who e-mailed us within an hour of his name being posted to win the Criterion Robocop DVD from The BIG Picture. We'll be giving away another DVD soon! Thanks to all who participated! If we do this kind of drawing again, we'll leave up the names of those who qualified, but failed to claim their prize in time. Don't worry, even if your name was previously posted, you're name will go back in the hopper for our next round!

9:22am PDT -- You can apparently forget the rumors about reel.com carrying Divx. The ubiquitous PodBoy wrote to reel.com and received a reply from Erik Horn, Director of Business Development who said the rumors were fueled by: "...a misprint by Discovercard which they have now corrected... we are a supporter of DVD and not Divx". We're glad to help get the word out. That could have been one very expensive misprint -- and still might be.

7:54am PDT - Until we declare a winner for our ROBOCOP:SE DVD, there's still time to register if you haven't done so already. Remember, if you've registered on our contest page in the past, relax -- once you're in around here, you're in...

Tuesday, September 29, 1998
8:12pm PDT -- The BIG Picture proudly presents what we believe is the first, in-depth look at Criterion's unrated director's version of ROBOCOP:SE. Read Bob Banka's excellent review and good luck in winning the free copy from us!

7:49pm PDT -- All the king's horses and all the king's men... We've heard from several people that demos of the Divx discs aren't going all that well, often resulting in an on-screen error message saying SERVICING REQUIRED.

7:38pm PDT - Taking a good idea and making it even better: One of our regular guests, Chris Seaman, took a gander at a parody of a Good Guys! Divx ad over at DVD Resource and thought to make his own version that extolled the virtues of open DVD rather than poo-poo Divx. The result is spectacular! Chris has offered to make a full-size version available for anyone that wants to print it out and distribute it at video stores or wherever! Take a look!

Here's how to get into E-Town. Flux posted a message in our forum saying that E-Town is there, but they're having a name resolution problem. Here's how to get to their site in the meantime until they can resolve their problem.

Have you seen the television commercials for Gateway "yourware" featuring a laptop and DVD ROM drive showing a movie to a mother, daughter and admiring onlookers? Here's what all the hubub is about. Ah... One of these days...

Is E-Town having server problems? We've been unable to access the site since late last night. Disenfranchised E-Towner's are welcome to use our forum until E-Town can remedy the problem.

CNBC featured a five minute interview with Richard Sharp during their "Power Lunch" program today. The slant of the interview dealt with the uphill climb Divx faces and the interviewer lobbed relative softballs. He thought they were tough questions, I'm sure. Here's are just a few questions we would have asked:

1. "Wouldn't you consider a $4.49 rental has having a built-in late fee? I rent videos for anywhere from .99 to $1.99, maybe as much $2.50 -- but never $4.49."

2. "If Divx eventually takes off, what's to prevent you from raising the software costs?"

3. "Why do your stores still contain signs that claim not all movie studios are supporting open DVD, yet none of your stores point out that only six movie studios are supporting Divx?"

4. "Why pay extra to upgrade a disc to 'unlimited play' when in fact it's limited to my specific Divx player (account)?"

5. "What happens to the Divx discs if this thing doesn't fly? What then? Are the people that bought into this concept screwed, or what?"

6. "We're receiving numerous reports that Divx discs have some sort of a distortion problem when playing back. Is this true?"

7. "Exactly how may Divx players have been sold to date?"

8. "Why are you evading my last question, Mr. Sharp?"

Monday, September 28, 1998
FREE DVD ALERT!! Wanna save forty bucks and own a great movie? The BIG Picture celebrates the uncut director-approved, unrated version of Criterion's ROBOCOP:SE by giving away a FREE COPY within the next 48 hours. Here's how to win: If you haven't already entered your full name, e-mail address and phone number on our contest page, do so now. If you'e already submitted your info - relax, you're already entered! NOTE: all duplicate entries will be deleted, so please submit only one entry per person. Then, sometime within the next 48 hours, we'll be drawing a name at random from those submitted and post that person's name right here on our news page. The qualifier will have one hour to click on their name and claim their prize. If the person whose name appears does not claim their prize within the alloted hour that their name is displayed, we'll draw another name and repeat the process until a winner is found! A full review of ROBOCOP:SE from The BIG Picture is pending!

Good things take time. It was years before Clint Eastwood filmed UNFORGIVEN, choosing to keep the script in his pocket until he had reached an appropriate age to play the role of the murderous outlaw turned family man William Munny. Our evaluation of this enigmatic western classic on DVD has taken time, too. But we think you'll agree that Bob Banka's review was worth the wait. Is the video and audio transfer of this modern-day classic as enigmatic as the subject matter itself? Does an anamorphic transfer always guarantee high quality? Read the review of UNFORGIVEN and draw... your own conclusions, gunslinger.

Want to be the first on your block to make your own DVD AUDIO discs? This news almost makes me wish I would have stayed with that garage band I played the drums for when I was 12. Almost. For now, I'm content to wait for Capitol records to release the Beatles and Beach Boys albums in multi-channel DVD Audio. Oh, nobody has announced those plans yet -- but you know that eventually, they will. If there's any wayto repackage and re-sell what we've already bought, the record companies (as the movie studios are doing now), will jump right in -- and we'll gladly open our wallets.

Faster! Faster! To meet escalating demand, a 5.2X DVD ROM drive is now available for your PC from Digital Video Systems.

If you're on the fence, considering the purchase of DVD, then it's time to jump down and purchase an open DVD player. Here's a good article from the Washington Post that provides a glimpse at one of the key features that sets DVD apart from VHS and Divx software.

WEEKEND UPDATE
They must be taking lessons in politics from Bill Clinton: When the VersaDisc folks e-mailed their gushing press release for "Telling Lies In America", yesterday (see below), we figured you'd want to know what the aspect ratio was going to be. So, we sent them an e-mail to ask them. Their reply? "The aspect ratio will be the one that best fits VersaDisc and preexistent production specification. Keep in touch." Huh? Never before have we received such a disingenuous non-response to a direct question from a vendor wishing for us to help them promote their product. Draw your own conclusions. Ours? We take their contrived double-speak to mean: 4:3 Pan & Scan. Hooray. You get what you pay for. Keep in touch, indeed.

Here's another new review for you, written by your friend and mine, Jeff McNeal. Does MGM do justice to THE DIRTY DOZEN? Or must we abort their mission and send them to the gallows, too? Read the review -- you might be surprised.

Bob Banka and I would like to thank and acknowledge all the people who send in review requests. While we usually have our hands pretty full with current titles, we're pleased to announce that two recent requests have been fulfilled and more are on the way: Check out Bob's excellent reviews on SCREAM 2 and AMADEUS. While we're giving acknowledgements, we'd also like to thank the following studios, and distributors for their outstanding promotional support of The BIG Picture: Digital Eyes, NetFlix, Warner Brothers, MGM, New Line, Columbia TriStar, Image Entertainment, Artisan, Paramount, Fox, Universal and Dreamworks.

We received a press release from Versatile Media One (VM1) that their highly-touted Versadisc with a free full-length feature is being released at long last in October. If you sign up for their service, you're supposed to get a free DVD each month, filled with a plethora of goodies, including a "feature film", uncut and in Dolby Digital 5.1. The catch? Abundant advertising on each disc and your name and address info are probably fair game to other marketers. "Telling Lies in America," starring Kevin Bacon and Brad Renfro, will be their first free giveaway DVD movie release. Bacon plays a sleazy but charismatic radio disc jockey who lures a naive young immigrant (Renfro) into a web of deceit and dishonesty. Set within the world of rock 'n' roll radio in 1960, the story is from an original screenplay by "Basic Instinct" screenwriter Joe Eszterhas. A compelling menu of classic tunes highlights the soundtrack, including "Medium Rare," an R&B number written by Bacon. The San Francisco Chronicle called the movie "amusing and poignant," while the Chicago Tribune's Roger Ebert praised Bacon's performance as "one of his best." (Editor's note: Ebert works for the Sun-Times, not the Tribune) I've personally never heard of this movie, but having once been a sleazy but charismatic radio disc jockey myself for many years, (see below) I'm looking forward to seeing the flick.

A sleazy Jeff McNeal stands below his charismatic billboard promoting his afternoon drive
show on NBC's 99.7FM KYUU, San Francisco. This was before he had to start working for a living.