29th September 1998
| I had a chat to Seleen at my Local
Albany Creek Video Ezy store last night (thanks for putting up with my incessant
questions). Of course I asked are you getting DVD on 2nd October??? And is it true
about these $7000 HT systems you're' suppose to be demo-ing it on???? The answer to both
of these was a dissapointing NO. What I did find out was that Video Ezy has 2 types
of Stores, Corporate and Franchise. The impression I got was that the Corpprate
stores are more likely to be the ones involved in the main rollout, with the francishise
stores to follow after (if they already haven't, just to see how things go). The
reason seems to be that seeing as Corporate stores are owned by Video Ezy and not
independent locals, the risk factor isn't as great, whereas the locally owned Video Ezy's
have to fork out their own money for DVD, thus it comes across as being a little
riskier. However, she did mention to me that they have a whole stack of cases out
back just for DVDs......hmmmm |
29th September 1998(ii)
| I recieved a call from a Samsung Tech (great guy always
willing to be pestered by me :-) and he informs me that Samsung USA are working on the pausing problems associated with the Samsung DVD905.
The expect to have a EPROM based solution by the end of October (1998) |
23rd
September 1998
| I'm hoping it was simply lost in the
translation but it would appear that the language barrier has caused the confusion over
whether some of the Warner DVDs are P&S or 16:9 versions only as reported around
the traps. Check out the article from DVD UK. which
may help clear things up (if it applies to region 4 as well).....Thanks
to those who emailed with this info |
18th
September 1998
| (As Appeared in Financial review 18/9/98) DVD Launch gets industry vote.
In a rare, and long-awaited, show of unity, representatives from the consumer electronics
and entertainment industries yesterday joined to officially launch the DVD format in
Australia.
Warner Home Video announced it would release 20 movies on DVD on 2/10/98 at $29.95
including Mel Gibson's Conspiracy Theory and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. Music firm
Warner Vision said it would release 17 music video
titles.
Sony pledged to add 13 dvd movie titles to its existing 15 titles by Christmas. Columbia
Tristar said it planned to release 50 movie titles during next year.
A representative from Video Ezy said his rental chain would begin hiring our DVDs from
November. And Roadshow entertainmebt which broke industry ranaks last December by
introducing just four titles before Christmas, said it had
now sold 25,000 units in Australia across 12 titles.
Hardware vendors, Creative Labs, Grundig, Pioneer, Rcs,Onkyo,Sony and Yamaha also
announced their support and new players.
===///===
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION check out DVD NET
===///===
|
17th
Sepember 1998
Columbia will no longer be using MPEG sound on future
releases. Apparently CTS felt there was not enough interest and
support in have 2 5.1 digital tracks on the discs. So AC3 it is, and as to which
other regions will take this approach, I'm not sure at this stage, but am awaiting further
details on the matter |
13th September 1998
| Being curious about Samsung's new dvd player i did some
searching and found the following specs..while i'm disappointed that they didn't change
the case design, it has some really cool features and seems very flexible..this is the
info for the DVD907, but there is also another model the DVD927 (a slightly enhanced
version of the DVD907)....check out the e-town article for more info 
- 10 bit Video DA Converter
- Component Video Out
- RGB Video Out (Scart Jack) - Optional Function for Europe
- Any Disc Any TV - Optional Function for PAL Area
- Built-in Advanced Dolby Digital Decoder with Speaker Level Control
- MPEG-2 Digital Audio Out - Optional Function for Europe
- 96 kHz / 24 bit Audio DA Converter
Any Disc Any TV is a unique
state-of-the-art digital technology developed by Samsung for the DVD-907 using similar
technology derived from the now famous SV-300W Worldwide VCR. Digital transcoding
is used to fully convert NTSC signals to PAL or SECAM. With the DVD-907, you can
enjoy NTSC discs on either PAL, SECAM or NTSC TV at full resolution and color. You can
also view PAL discs on both PAL and SECAM TVs at full resolution and color. |
10th September 1998
Received a surprising email today about the next DVD to be
released from Roadshow....It will be Austin
Powers: International Man of Mystery. The best news is that it's next
week...Monday 14th September to be extact.
AUSTIN POWERS FEATURES
- 16:9 Enhanced
- DD5.1 & MPEG5.1 soundtrack,
- extra goodies
.....click on the above link for a squiz at the cover.... |
I received this juicy info today from an insider who
wishes to remain anonymous (due to some of it apparently being
leaked:-))))
The new Australian Sony Rear Projection sets have arrived sporting a varity of
new features. Built in Spain( Dont ask me why) the new 41" KP-EF41
has a RRP of $4999 48" KP-EF48 has a RRP of $5999 53" KP-EF53
has a RRP of $8999 and the vey large 61" KP-EF61 has a RRP of $10999 and are the
first Australian Rear projection sets to feature Component inputs like its little cousin
the Sony Wega Television for use with such compatible players like the Toshiba models. For
more info I suggest you contact Sony Australia or audition a model yourself. Buy the way
the picture was great and the set itself is one of the slimmest Rear projection sets I
have ever seen.(You will know what i mean when you see it.) No more big boxes intruding
into your room. Personally I dont think the picture of any rear projecion sets rivals the
picture I saw when I visited JB HiFi in Melbourne and saw the new Hitachi rear projection
model. With its HD lenses it had a sharpness to the picture I had not seen elsewhere. The
only RP sets coming close are the Toshibas.====//===
Denon are also going to release a killer machine titled Denon
DVD-5000. By looking at the spec sheet for the 5000 Highlights:
1. $3999 Australian
2. THX Ultra (new THX standard)
3. HDCD decoding for CDs
4. Lots of fancy DACs
5. Copper plated
6.DTS/MPEG compatible
7. component,S, and composite
8. Graphical on-screen display
September US Delivery end of the year Australian delivery. More details
though again they are very tight lipped (Even the sales ladydidn't know what I was talking
about until she spoke to hear manager andconfirmed it) through AWA on 008 252 391.
====//===
Also GE will release 2 new rear projection sets
early next year with both models featuring 100 hertz scanning and component
inputs (The same features that are availble on there European sets) so look out for
those.
Also there will be a new RCA DVD player joining the release of those sets
====//===
Pioneer will release 2 models the DV-717 and the DV-515 in
November/December.
The DV-717 will feature:
THX Approval
DTS Compatible with DVD's
DD Compatibity with DVD's
96kHz/24bit D/A Converter
Possibly Component Outputs(This feature is pending until Japan sends us more info in
October)
The DV-515 will feature:
DTS Compatible
96kHz/24bit D/A Converter
More information availble through Pioneer Australia (Though again they are very tight
lipped) |
9th
September 1998
I received some additional information today about the
Warner Releases. If all goes well Warner intend to release U.S.
Marshalls by Christmas day-to-day with the VHS rental. If this doesn't
happen, then they'll be holding off on the day-to-day releases until Easter '99 when
Lethal Weapon 4 becomes a rental.
Also something i forgot to mention from the DVD Update is that the Warner DVDs ARE
NOT encoded as both region 2 & 4 as originally thought.....discs sold in
australia (and NZ) will be encoded as region 4 only. |
8th
September 1998
Last night was Toombul Music's DVD Update. Back in
May this year, DVD Station founder Paul James and I made a trip to their first DVD launch, which was a pretty big success,
with guest speakers from Pioneer and Warner (Europe). (This time around we once again had
the pleasure of Pioneer's GM of AV Darren Johannson.) The Update started off with
Columbia's DVD of Celine Dion In concert which came across very nicely on the four 16:9
Pioneer RPTV's and the JBL speaker setup (still a bit too loud for my liking, but no way
near the level of the previous effort). Barry did his usual warm up to DVD, which he
always sounds very excited about, then passed the mic over the Darren who bought along his
Pioneer demo disc AGAIN, this time some grot had put finger marks all over the disc and it
went nuts (much to the dismay of the audience who had a few groans), but after a quick
wipe on ye 'ol faithful Shirt, the disc played fine. Being a DVD update they didn't
go too much into the basics of DVD (thank god i say), but some old schmuck thought to
voice his opinion on the quality of DVD and its inferiority to TV broadcasts(????).....and
then he piped up with the region code business (to make matters worse and even MORE
confusing for the lai-person)..Pioneers stance on region codes is that they strongly
support it...(all i could think was how simply they have designed the players to be
hacked...hmm)....After Darren answered a few question during his presentation, Barry again
took over and started demo-ing some REGION 4 DVDs this time (after the previous demo using
the region 1 MGM DVD of Tomorrow Never Dies, he decided to stick with region 4:-)....
Out of the kindness of their hearts, Warner Vision sent Toombul Music some pre release
copies of Fleetwood Mac's - The Dance, The Three Tenors concert '94, Madonna
-Girlie Show Down Under, and Eric Claptons unplugged. The two discs they
demoed scenes from were Fleetwood Mac and The Three Tenors. The picture Quality of
Fleetwood was amazing, and all you could do was drool. Incidently these DVDs are to
retail for $39.95 and are double sided, where 1 side is the concert with a DD5.1
track, with the other side's concert in 2 channel PCM . They are cased in
Oversized jewel cases and look pretty snazzy.
And out of the kindness of their hearts Columbia gave Toombul Music some early sellable
copies of Their early September catalogue (The Net/Money Train/People V's
Larry Flynt/First Knight), the latter I purchased (with DD5.1 tracks in English,
and French(??), and NO MPEG5.1!!) for $31.45 (thanks to their 10% deal for the night, ).
They showed the closing sequence of Money Train which looked and sounded awesome, I
was tempted to buy it, but thought better of it as didn't find the movie that appealing
(ummm but i bought First Knight...hmmmm...well I HAD to buy something!!!!) To finish the
night, Barry popped on the Three Tenors, not a big fan of these 3 jolly fat fellows I
didn't pay too much attention to it, until they started to play the disc...my god it
sounded great, I would swear these guys were standing right on stage, the unbelieveable
clarity that was projected from up front was down right frightening...
During all the presentations some interesting facts came out (as did some release
schedules :-)))))
After the Setpember Launch from Warner, the next bunch of titles to hit the streets
(listed for November/December) are:-Assassins,
Blown Away, Contact, Colour Purple, Devils Advocate, Fallen, Golden Eye, Interview With A
Vampire, Mad City, Postman, Space Jam, Species, Sphere, US Marshalls, Witches of Eastwick.
(there may be more but i had enough trouble remebering all of these)
The Warner DVDs will be RRP $29.95
And coming from Roadshow without release dates are:-
Austin Powers, Boogie Nights, Donnie Brasco,
I Know What You Did Last Summer, Jackie Brown, Lost in Space, Pulp Fiction, Spawn, Long
Kiss Goodnight, True Romance, Turbulence, and the Wedding Singer.
Overall I thought this DVD preso was much better than the
first, it's just a shame there wasn't a few more representatives from ther Companies (both
hardware and software). But I'm glad i went, and it only makes me want to buy that
50" Pioneer RPTV even more!!!! |
7th
September 1998
While I, and many others, desparately wait for Roadshow
release of Long Kiss Goodnight, I received something today that will ease the pain (for a
very short while), I received the covers of a few upcoming dvds, those being Long Kiss,
Turbulence, and last but not least Austin Powers. I've scanned in the covers so you
can take a look at the DVD Covers..enjoy..
PS. If you have any problems with these scans please email
me |
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