Friday, December 18, 1998
8:27pm PST - The BIG Picture congratulates Michael Jacobson of Jacksonville, Florida for his winning entry in our Christmas Carol writing competion! The assignment of writing new words to a recognizable Christmas poem or song with all twelve movie titles and The BIG Picture included, was no easy task. The competition was brutal and the final decision very, very close. Over the week, we narrowed our choices down to two. In the final analysis, a technical error by one of our two finalists swung the decision in Michael's favor. We were totally impressed with each and every entry and appreciate the effort that went into them. THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO SPREAD CHRISTMAS CHEER on our forum! Michael just had a special flair for this competition, making a very difficult challenge look easy -- and we hope you'll agree that his selection was well-deserving of the prize of all TWELVE DVDs' of CHRISTMAS. We really dug the way Michael worked Divx into his clever prose as well. Here to enjoy once again is Michael's winning entry:
Twas the night before Christmas, and all DVD's
Were safe inside stockings and under the trees.
The people had blocked off their chimneys with grout
In hopes Richard Sharp, he would keep his ass out.
And Bob with a movie, and Jeff with remote,
Had settled to write a new Big Picture note.
When what to my wondering eyes, on TV
A man of no race, and he's smiling at me!
He could be Caucasian, I thought, though unknown,
Is he from Tahiti? Or is he Samoan?
His eyes, how they twinkled, his dimples, how merry,
He talks about DIVX, and man, it sounds scary!
"Begone, fool!" I cry, "can't you leave me alone?
It's NOT the best way to watch movies at home!
I must have my Psycho, my Young Frankenstein,
The version you have is not 16 by 9!
My Dances With Wolves, my Singin' in the Rain,
You can't give me Contact? Now THAT is a pain.
To get Lost in Space on Apollo 13,
But yours? Starship Troopers will NEVER be seen.
I just want the truth, but you give me lies,
I'll take U.S. Marshals, Tomorrow Never Dies.
I want Sweet Hereafter, the features are a plus,
I only wish DIVX had been on that bus.
With DVD, features and trailers and more,
There's nothing on your discs? Oh, what a bore.
You handed out payoffs to studios, so fat?
I'll bet your stockholders are thrilled about that!
So if you'll excuse me, your concept, my friend,
Is now on the Super Speedway to it's end."
I reached for my clicker and told him, "I'll pass,
You can shove that machine all the way up your (censored)!"
Then I heard Richard Sharp, as I ended my rhyme,
"Man, I just lost my job. Could you spare me a dime?"
Remember -- on Monday we'll announce the fifth and final way to win the entire collection of all 12 DVDs' of Christmas from TBP!
4:52pm PST - MGM sent us word today that the day and date release of RONIN on February 23rd will feature a never-before-seen alternate ending and commentary by Director John Frankenheimer. Also on the same day, THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (Faye Dunaway, Steve McQueen) will be released with a commentary by Director Norman Jewison. Also slated for release THE KILLER ELITE, THE TRAIN and THE HOLCRAFT COVENANT. In case you missed it, DISTURBING BEHAVIOR will street on January 5, 1999. On either January 5th or 19th (there's some conflicting info in the press kit), look for the Pink Panther in JET PINK, OVERBOARD (Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell), WARRIORS OF VIRTUE and THE PEBBLE AND THE PENGUIN. Great family fare. MGM is also announcing that a combined total of over 450,000 units of TOMORROW NEVER DIES and TOMORROW NEVER DIES: SE have shipped, making the most successful release in the lucrative James Bond franchise the new record holder for DVD sales as well. Is it any wonder that this title is one of our TWELVE DVDs' of CHRISTMAS?
4:19pm PST - This has nothing to do with DVD -- and it's a bit self-serving, but it's sorta cool trivia. Fox Interactive is currently in production of a new video game for PC's and Sony's Playstation: "Die Hard Trilogy 2". If you ever happen across this game in the future, you can hear Jeff McNeal's voice on the game as the Russian bad-guy "Viktor", who the McClane character (that would be you) has to take out. Jeff also plays several other parts, including a gambler, a prison guard and an innocent bystander who gets hit by a car. Ha ha. Jeff, a 20-year major market voiceover veteran, can also be heard on PC and Playstation games by Mindscape, Microprose and others. Gee, maybe someday we'll even get to The Grand Poobah of The BIG Picture on theatrical trailers! Wouldn't that be cool! The editorial voice of The BIG Picture on the BIG screen! Don't laugh -- it could happen! How about it studios?
4:17pm PST - We'll be announcing the winner of our Carol contest for the TWELVE DVDs' OF CHRISTMAS this evening, however, we are postponing the announcement of the fifth and final phase of our promotion until Monday.
9:41am PST - Here's another new review for you -- a surprise out of left field. Trimark's SWIMMING WITH SHARKS starring (and co-produced by) Kevin Spacey.
9:13am PST - J.D. Knight sent us the attached scan this morning with these comments:
"...I stopped by the Circuit City here in Orlando, FL to pick up a DVD for a friend for Christmas (Best Buy was out of this title). As I was waiting to check out I noticed a large stack of photocopied DIVX fliers next to each cash register. I found out that they are putting these things in everyone's bag when they check out. I have attached a scan of the flier in case you are interested. I find it to be highly deceptive. You will note that it makes a big deal about the $4.49 price but says absolutely nothing about the fact that it is a 48 hour rental."
8:57am PST - We received a lengthy response via e-mail to our comments about the Divx websites Wednesday. Roland Lee, webmaster of Absolute Divx, also happens to be located in Richmond, Virginia (however, Prodivx.com as reported below) has gone dark. We have reprinted Mr. Lee's comments on our forum page for your consideration. Without further comment (we're not going to change Lee's mind about Divx and he's not going to change ours), we invite our readers to draw their own conclusions. Your comments about the content of this exchange should be directed to The BIG Picture Forum.While we could certainly debate Mr. Lee on the subjects he brings up, we've got more pressing matters to attend to today -- like giving away another TWELVE DVD's and announcing the fifth and final phase of our giveaway. We'll be announcing the Carol-writing contest winner this evening. Sorry for the delay, but we're being pulled in many different directions today. Please remember that polite and proper decorum is appreciated, expected and required on our forums.
12:47am PST - Easy come, easy go... In a bizarre twist, one of those recent pro-Divx sites we mentioned (the one in Richmond, VA that was suspected to be a Divx-operated propaganda site) abruptly shut down yesterday with the following message:
Webmaster's Note 12/17/98:
"Greetings, I would like to thank everyone for making ProDivx such a great success. Unfortunately, it was too successful. I have had over a thousand people request the bulletin board service and hundreds of emails everyday.
To position this site where I would like it.. I would need to quit my job and do this full time. My wife would never let me.. haha
So instead of doing a partial job, I am going to withdraw my site. I hope everyone enjoyed it. I myself found it very educational and rewarding.
See you on the net"
Of course, you'll never know who the webmaster is, since he never identified himself. The rationale for abandoning his site after investing the money (domain registration) and time for HTML development only underscores our belief that this was simply a sham site. No webmaster worth their salt would abandon a site because it had become "too successful". Maybe that's the same logic that Circuit City will use when it washes its hands of Divx. Can't you just see it now? "We had to halt all Divx operations because they had become... too successful."
Thursday, December 17, 1998
1:48pm PST - The good folks at Image Entertainment have slipped us THE TWILIGHT ZONE Volumes 1-4. The first two should NOT be confused with TREASURES OF THE TWILIGHT ZONE and MORE TREASURES OF THE TWILIGHT ZONE -- they are different discs entirely. Each in this new series contains some remarkable TZ episodes! Volume one contains three:
Episode 47 - December 23, 1960 - "Night of the Meek": Christmas in The Twilight Zone... Art Carney is a forlorn department store Santa who takes to drinking -- only to find himself experiencing the nicest Christmas ever!
Episode 51 - January 27, 1961 - "The Invaders": A flying saucer lands on the attic of an isolated house inhabited by an impoverished woman -- who soon becomes panic-stricken as tiny spacemen begin to stalk her!
Episode 81 - January 5, 1962 - "Nothing in the Dark": An old woman has fought with death a thousand times and has always won. But now she finds herself afraid to let a wounded policeman (Robert Redford) in her door for fear he is Mr. Death. Is he?
Special features include an "Inside The Twilight Zone section, written by Mark Scott Zicree, author of the bestseller, The Twilight Zone companion. Includes biographical info on Rod Serling, History of The Twilight Zone, reviews of each episode, cast information and a season by season commentary. We'll provide the rundown on Volumes 2-4, which each contains Four TZ episodes, later this evening...
1:21pm PST - Aha! Our third "Twelve DVDs' of Christmas" winner has revealed herself and what a cute ornament she makes! To take a gander at Susan Burke-Huston, check the link or scroll down to the bottom of the page! Remember, tomorrow we'll announce winner number FOUR -- and reveal to you how to be winner number FIVE of the best 12 DVD's that money can buy (or be given away by your friends at TBP!).
10:22am PST - Our verified insider at Circuit City (employed in one of the top ten markets) wrote us this morning with his report on Divx sales this holiday season.
"The sales of divx players for my store are at 31 for the month of Dec., as of Dec. 9th. I expect we're at maybe 40 now, and I have seen a few returns. Of course, DVD player sales are dismal, as far as I can tell. obviously, no one's pushing them, since divx players are now paying 3x commission of DVD players. This might give an indication how "typical" CC stores are performing during a busy holiday season!"
For comparitive purposes, we wonder how well open DVD players are selling at a comparably sized Best Buy outlet?
8:22am PST - Wired.com blows the lid off the guerrilla warfare tactics that Divx is now engaged in on the Internet. It's a good read.
7:55am PST - "Love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight". We must not be the only cynics in the crowd. Since our story yesterday regarding the release of an altered version of "A Bug's Life" at the theaters tomorrow, we've been receiving a lot of angry e-mail from people who believe Disney is simply making a blatant attempt to sandbag Dreamworks' "Prince of Egypt", which also opens tomorrow. The general feeling is that it's dirty pool - and to be expected from Disney, who tried to put the squeeze on Anastasia last year by sandwiching the ambitious Fox animation between "The Little Mermaid" and "Flubber". This all reminds us of an old Beatles song, "I'm looking through you":
"I'm looking through you,
where did you go?
I thought I knew you,
what did I know?
You don't look different
but you have changed.
I'm looking through you,
you're not the same."
Wednesday, December 16, 1998
8:38pm PST - We're pleased to announce that the upgrades to both our forums are now complete. Visitors to either the Sony VPL-W400Q LCD Projector Forum or The BIG Picture DVD & Home Theater Forum will note that they can now hop directly from thread to thread within any given topic without having to use their "back" button to enter each individual thread. Both forums will also be self-repairing in the unlikely event the our message files become corrupted at the server. The new multi-thread tasking is going to be a real time saver for members of our forums and we're glad to be able to offer you these enhancements.
4:54pm PST - Jeff has just completed his review of THE NEGOTIATOR for your reading pleasure - hopefully.
12:26pm PST - You'll be pleased to know that we're putting the final touches on our devilishly-clever fifth and final way to award our final set of "The Twelve DVD's of Christmas". This will be a contest in which everyone will benefit -- one way or another. Stay tuned...
12:17pm PST - John Larsen from DVD Dish tells us that Disney is ending their DVD drought with WATERBOY: "In an effort to up their presence in the DVD marketplace, Walt Disney Home Video and all of their subsidiaries will release a total of seven DVD titles in March, up two from January, and up three from their normal release pattern. The March collection includes the Video and DVD day and date release of "The Waterboy" on March 16, priced at $29.99. The Adam Sandler comedy has grossed more than $120 million in theaters. Except for the Miramax Collector's Series release of "Il Postino," all titles retail for $29.99, and will be released on March 16. Here's the line-up:
HALLOWEEN H20: 2.35:1 widescreen/5.1 Dolby Digital Surround/Theatrical Trailer
MIGHTY APHRODITE: 1.85:1 widescreen/English & French Mono/Theatrical Trailer
MOTHER'S BOYS: 1.85:1 widescreen/Dolby Digital Surround/Theatrical Trailer
PARENT TRAP, THE: 1.85:1 widescreen/5.1 Dolby Digital Surround/Theatrical Trailer
SPLASH: 1.85:1 widescreen/Dolby Surround in English & French/Theatrical Trailer
WATER BOY, THE: 1.85:1 widescreen/5.1 Dolby Digital Surround/Theatrical Trailer
IL POSTINO: Miramax Collector's Series includes 1.66:1 widescreen, Italian & French Dolby Surround with English subtitles, audio commentary from director Michael Radford, "Poems of Passion: The Return of Pablo Neruda," Massimo Troisi Montage, Soundtrack Featurette, and Theatrical trailers and television spots. $39.99.
Thanks for the update, John! And WOW! We noticed some very kind words directed towards our site from The Dish in their December 12, 1998 news update. However, BIG Picture editor Jeff McNeal would like to point out that at 38, he's far too young to be anyone's "granddaddy". Thanks alot, DVD Dish! The feeling is mutual.
12:10pm PST - The accolades continue to roll in for DVD!! Digital Eyes' First Annual DVD Discy awards have been issued! (drum roll, please) And the winners are....
9:53am PST - Fighting fire with fire... Curious about the sudden proliferation of new Pro-Divx "fan" sites (at least one is located in Divx's hometown of Richmond, VA), we cruised several this morning and found some amusement in the following entry regarding The BIG Picture under one of the sites' DVD/Divx links section:
BIG Picture, The (Daily News and Forum)
http://www.ohms.com/bignews.htm
A frequently updated and well-maintained site. An excellent source for the latest general news in the home theatre industry and for DVD reviews. Divx information is unfortunately nearly always skewed negatively, often with the webmaster's own (usually incorrect) interjections.
We'll take the entire description as a compliment. Thank you. We publically challenge the authors to provide examples of our "usually incorrect" Divx information. Most of our Divx stories (like the one we broke regarding Circuit City's deliberate short-stocking of open DVD players during the Divx test marketing phase to skew higher Divx sales) was provided to us by verified active Circuit City employees themselves!
Here's a bit more interjection: We find it highly suspect that several pro-Divx sites have popped up seemingly en masse, out of nowhere, in just the last couple of weeks. Our guess? These sites are mosty (if not all) organized and operated by paid Divx and/or Circuit City sources who, as a desperate grab at the Internet consumer market, have finally begun to fight fire with fire. We visited about five or six of these sites (one spells it "cites") and they run the gamut from well-produced to downright embarrassing. We suspect that the former are possibly financed by Divx itself and the latter are either genuine "fans" operating them or further attempts by Divx corporate to inject credibility into these sham sites by "dumbing them down" to appear authentic. Admittedly, we consider the latter to be an unlikely scenario. One pro-Divx site suggests that TITANIC is currently available on Divx... another lists over 700 Divx titles as being currently available - over twice the number that is actually available at this time. Before a Divx site tries to say that our information is incorrect, they'd be well advised to clean up their own backyard.
As different as they are in terms of style and presentation, all of these sites share a common trait: Their attempts at rationalizing the Divx rental model and defensive posturing are totally transparent to the educated consumer and The BIG Picture will therefore provide no links (and badly needed promotion) to these occasionally slick, well-produced -- and often misleading Divx sites.
The point they all seem to miss (and we mean no disrespect) is that Divx is just the tip of the iceburg. Divx founder Paul Brindze was quoted as saying that future Divx players might include game ports (that's right folks, pay-per-play video games). You see, once you strip away all the other hyperbole, the very legitimate fear is that if Divx succeeds, it could forever change the way we listen, view and play copyrighted material. No longer would we have an unlimited license to enjoy these media in the privacy of our homes as we do now. Instead, we'd no longer "own" the games, CD's and videos we acquire, but rather, we'd have to "rent" them over and over again. That's the BIG Picture (pun intended) that these pro-Divx sites all fail to acknowledge and address. The very real concern from a consumer standpoint, is that if a rental model like Divx becomes successful, what incentive would Divx-supporting studios have to continue supporting open DVD? Very little, we'd expect.
This is why The BIG Picture, without hysterics or conjecture, refuses to support Divx and urges all our readers to reject it as well. We not only dislike Divx for what it is now, but the future that it represents. Let's not forget another quote from Paul Brindze (who has wisely kept his mouth shut for most of the year), who has previously stated that Divx has the capability of selectively shutting down individual movie titles, by region or even on individual players. That means for instance, that a studio like Disney could release their animated classics on Divx, but render them unplayable for a specific period of time -- say, every seven years when the title in question is released theatrically. Does that sound like a "feature" you're prepared to embrace? Thanks, but no thanks.
9:25am PST - Thought you saw all of A BUG'S LIFE at the theater? Not so fast. Beginning Friday, Disney and Pixar will be changing the end-credit outtakes with an alternate set of comical outtakes because the Director couldn't decide which ones to cut -- they were all so funny... This is the first time in history that a theatrical release has been altered just weeks after its' debut. Sounds like a marketing gimmick designed to get you back in the theaters, paying twice to see what you "missed". For a lot of people, it will probably work. For us? No thanks. We'll wait for the 16x9 enhanced DVD that will almost certainly contain BOTH versions as an extra feature -- right Disney?
9:17am PST - Pioneer music has just announced that they'll be releasing "The Best of MusikLaden" a popular German live music show of the 60's and 70's, reviving classic performances from:
Badfinger - Rock of All Ages
Alice Cooper - Under My Wheels
Deep Purple - Highway Star
Free - All Right Now
Humble Pie - For Your Love
Joe Walsh & The James Gang - Walk Away
Jethro Tull - With You There To Help Me
Nazareth - Morning Dew
Procol Harem - Simple Sister
Santana - Black Magic Woman
Johnny Winter - Mean Town Blues
This disc is available now...
9:02am PST - As we continue to make improvements on the site, there are a couple of issues you should be aware of. First, the good news... Using our search utility will provide more accurate results when seeking movie reviews than ever before. Simply enter the name of the title you're seeking and all references to that title will appear as links, without a bunch of other superfluous stuff. The bad news is that in our attempts to upgrade our forum software, we've hit a couple of minor snags in the program updates. We're working hard with our software developer to remedy the problems as quickly as possible. In the meantime, your messages will be safe. Please continue to post as usual.
8:58am PST - 12:17am PST - Come see the softer side of DVD...Up until now, hardware decoding of DVD on PC's has been touted as the only way to fly (trying to see how many ad slogans we can work into this story). Now, Zoran has introduced a software-only DVD decoder that supposedly provides great performance and smooth DVD movie rendition on your desktop.
Here's Warner's list of holiday and January titles with some pretty good details in case you're interested... But don't look for any surprises that haven't already been announced here and elsewhere.
12:10am PST - Spokane.net zeroes in on lots of high tech gizmos for holiday shopping including DVD and a cursory mention of Divx.
12:07am PST - Fox becomes another in a long list of studios to ink a deal with Macrovision.
12:04am PST - Nipper goes rabid... Thompson Consumer Electronics (RCA/Proscan) President declares in this e-town article that "Divx isn't going away" and vowed that all RCA-made DVD players will be equipped with the "feature" in '99.
Tuesday, December 15, 1998
Bob has another review for us -- this time, Brian DePalma's BODY DOUBLE gets a double-take. Check it out.
We watched part of MISTER ROBERTS tonight and all of THE NEGOTIATOR. The former has some video problems of relatively minor importance which we'll elaborate on in our forthcoming review. The latter had outstanding video. Watch for our full reviews, coming soon.
During the hustle and bustle of the holidays, plus trying to run this website, my other audio production/voiceover business and everything else in between... I'm just now getting our Christmas cards ready to mail out this year. As I was scanning in some original artwork from my children this evening, I thought: "Why not give out a cyber-card to the thousands of our new friends that have helped The BIG Picture become such a BIG success this year!" And so it shall be done. To receive one of our Christmas cards, click here. To see another, click here. If you don't mind waiting for a longer load time, you can see both by clicking here. I know it's not nearly as exciting as tearing open an envelope you receive in the mail, but let's face it, we don't have your address! By the way, with the exception of the signature info (I took the liberty to include Mr. Banka's name since I consider his contributions to this site highly significant), these are exact replicas of the cards that the McNeal family is sending out to our close friends and loved ones this year. So to all our readers, friends, contributors, sponsors, studio contacts and fellow DVD webmasters, please consider yourself part of the family.
Only hardcore fans need apply... Pearl Jam's SINGLE VIDEO THEORY puts the theory into practice with a plain vanilla DVD devoid of any special features, including a menu and chapter breaks! No insert other than a small piece of paper that tells you to use your remote to switch the aduio from Prologic stereo to DD 5.1. There are no production notes, subtitles or anything else, but if you love Pearl Jam, what more do you really need? We still think that chapter breaks and song titles would have been a nice touch... The audio sounds great though. The DVD is a documentary-style piece that features about 7 or 8 songs, performed in a single location, interspersed with interviews.
In case you missed it yesterday, Laserviews has updated their DVD news page with lots of new title announcements and street date confirmations, delays, etc. We're excited to see Trimark's announcement of "ALL OF ME" with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin. Can "DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID" be too far behind? Any takers (studios) out there that love Carl Reiner's hilarious film-noir spoof as much as we do?
One by one they came, until there was room for no more... Today, reel.com has announced the launch of their on-line DVD store to compete in the increasingly crowded field of on-line DVD sales. Meanwhile, DVD Express has announced multi-million dollar deals with Infoseek and MSN to broaden their already huge on-line presence.
Our review cup runneth over... We received and screened a copy of Warner's new INCOGNITO last night and a full review is coming. The movie was good, the menus were great, the extra features were nice -- but this was not an anamorphic transfer, which really surprised us. It's letterbox, but not widescreen enhanced as most of Warner's excellent titles are. Today, we received several, including LETHAL WEAPON 4, MY FAIR LADY, MICHAEL CRAWFORD IN CONCERT, THE NEGOTIATOR and the one we're screening tonight: MISTER ROBERTS, which appears to be a feature-rich disc.
Here's a huge, undated article about DVD in the Cemacity Gazzette that offers a balanced perspective on the format, calling DVD early adopters "the keystone" in DVD's early and solid success. The article also mentions Divx, but some of their information is innacurate or dated.
CNN Interactive has a nice article about 4th generation DVD-ROM drives. Are you ready for one? Here at The BIG Picture, we're getting ready to take the plunge any day now... The last time we checked, CNN's quick poll suggested that 58% have already, or are planning to upgrade their CD-ROM drives to DVD-ROM drives, while 42% say they're sticking with CD-ROM for now.
Fort Worth's Star-Telegram points to falling DVD hardware and software prices as the big draw this holiday shopping season. It seems like DVD is the hot item on many shopping lists...
Congratulations to Susan Burke-Huston -- our latest Twelve DVDs' of Christmas winner! Her e-mail was chosen at random from the 1,100+ entries we received in the past week. Way to go Susan!
Our apologies for being a little light on the news yesterday... We've been busy behind the scenes doing some major remodeling to The BIG Picture and these things take some time. We're in the process of conducting an overhaul of our massive ratings and review index page. When we're finished, we hope to have reduced the overall file size significantly and make browsing a whole lot faster for you. Already, we've updated our main page, this one, our forum, advertising page and a few others. The metamorphisis should be complete in the next day or two. Thank you for your patience.
Monday, December 14, 1998
1:55pm PST - So... you like the new carpet and drapes? The BIG Picture DVD News Daily has just undergone a facelift and we hope you like the improvements. If not, I'm sure you'll let us know... Please give us a few hours to work out all the bugs. Everything should be working for the most part and hopefully the page will load quicker for you now. We held our random drawing for "THE TWELVE DVDs' of CHRISTMAS just after noon today, and we'll post the winner's name as soon as we hear back from them. Good luck to all our "Carol Contest" entries on our forum page.
7:54am PST - Over the weekend, we've been busy enjoying new DVD's and writing our reviews of them. Be sure to check out Bob's take on Woody Allen's MANHATTEN MURDER MYSTERY, as well as Jeff's impressions of THE ROLLING STONES: BRIDGES TO BABYLON TOUR - '97-'98 and VH1's MUSIC FIRST: DIVAS LIVE.
7:45am PST - Well, today's the BIG day where we choose a Phase Two winner of "The TWELVE DVD's OF CHRISTMAS" at random from all the e-mail entries. We'll e-mail the winner at 12noon PST. Good luck! And remember, Phase Three of our contest is NOW CLOSED and no new entries will be considered. Jeff and Bob will announce the winner of our carol-writing contest -- and the "Twelve DVD's of Christmas" by this Friday, December 18, 1998. At that time, we will also announce the fifth and final phase of our promotion - your last chance to score the twelve DVD's from The BIG Picture.
WEEKEND UPDATE
CNNfn takes note of the "onslaught of criticism" that Divx has been facing in their article Divx: On the defensive."
The Detroit News heralds DVD as being a top-seller this holiday season in their article "Go hi-tech for the holidays". Divx is also mentioned as having re-rental fees of $4.50 after the initial 48-hour viewing window. Oops.
MSNBC comes to the aid of gift givers and new toy seekers with the year and a half-old question: "Which DVD player is right for me?"
ZDNet offers a positive view for the prospects of DVD in this article that we could have sworn we've already seen. But here it is again in case you missed it the first time around...
Here's another ZDNet article that attempts to seperate the (DVD) wheat from the (Divx) chaff for novice enthusiasts perched on the edge of the digital diving board...
Techweb provides insight into the emerging Asian DVD piracy market. Seems that low-quality knock-offs are being created from laserdiscs. No thanks. Besides the legal and moral issues, we'd sooner buy the laserdisc (and we're not partial to buying any) than a copy of a laserdisc.