Warner Reprise Video announces the release of four classic R.E.M. home video titles on DVD. Set for release on August 22nd are the DVD titles Pop Screen, Parallel, This Film Is On and Tourfilm.

Originally released in 1990, Pop Screen and Tourfilm each received gold sales certification and include some of R.E.M.'s most popular hits. Tracks from the band's first Warner Bros. album, 1988's Green, such as ``Stand'' and ``Pop Song 89'' are joined by classic R.E.M. tracks including ``The One I Love'' and ``It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).'' Following Green, R.E.M. went on tour in 1989 and to document the occasion Tourfilm was released the next year. Tourfilm brings together highlights from several cities, including live performances of ``Stand,'' ``The One I Love,'' ``Finest Worksong'' and ``Get Up.''

R.E.M.'s first quadruple-platinum album, 1991's Out Of Time sparked the gold-certified This Film Is On home video released that same year. ``Losing My Religion,'' which won the Best Music Video Grammy, and ``Shiny Happy People'' became instant classics. This Film Is On also features the ``MTV Unplugged'' versions of ``Losing My Religion'' and ``Love Is All Around.''

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Macrovision UK Ltd., a subsidiary of Macrovision Corporation of Sunnyvale, California and Warner Music Manufacturing Europe (WMME), a pan-European DVD-Video manufacturer fully licensed to incorporate Macrovision's proprietary copy protection technology, announced today that WMME have manufactured over 25 million Copy-Protected DVD-Video discs to date.

Macrovision's DVD copy protection is designed to prevent unauthorized copying of DVD programming to VCRs without impacting the original picture. It is now used on most DVD titles being released and is the only technology of its kind that is currently available to protect against unauthorized copying from DVD players to VCRs. The majority of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) studios copy protect all of their DVDs. Macrovision's DVD copy protection has been utilized on over 75 percent of all DVD discs manufactured worldwide since 1997 (i.e., over 180 million DVDs to-date).

Cappi Frenger, Director of Sales & Customer Service at WMME said: ``Most of our customers require their property to be copy protected and use Macrovision as a suitable means for their content protection. We are pleased to be a Macrovision-licensed company, as the respect for and protection of all our customers' intellectual property rights is a very significant and central part of our corporate values and ethics.''

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Our thank-you of the week goes out to Susan and Daniel for This Week's Picks.

Do you have a favorite DVD Movie you would like to see posted here? Drop me an e-mail and we will get it posted.

The Princess Bride

A fantastical escape into a world of swashbuckling swordsmen and gallant heroes, The Princess Bride is extraordinary entertainment for the whole family. Filled with “romanticism, adventure and a liberal shot of humor” (People), this innovative film from producer/director Rob Reiner and Academy Award–winning screenwriter William Goldman stars Cary Elwes, Robin Wright and Mandy Patinkin. Featuring brilliant cameo appearance by Peter Falk, Billy Crystal and more, and boasting “wonderful scenes and character vignettes” (Leonard Maltin), this lovable film is a fantasy everyone will adore!

When Westley (Elwes) leaves to seek his fortune, his true love, Buttercup (Wright), is captured by an evil prince. Will Westley return in time to save her? Can he battle the wizards, warriors and pirates set in his way? You’ll find out in this “wonderfully inventive” (Los Angeles Times) film for all ages!

Special Features: Theatrical Trailer, Scene Access, Interactive Menus, Included Trivia Booklet

"The Princess Bride" is rated "PG" and has a running time of 98 minutes.

Sleepy Hollow

Master storyteller Tim Burton (Batman, Edward Scissorhands) weaves an eerie, enchanting version of the classic tale of horror. Johnny Depp is Ichabod Crane, an eccentric investigator determined to stop the Headless Horseman. Christina Ricci is Katrina Van Tassel, the beautiful and mysterious girl with secret ties to the supernatural terror.

Special Features: Scene Access, Cast/Crew Bios, Photo Gallery, Theatrical Trailer, Audio Commentary, Interviews, Interactive Menus, Featurette

"Sleepy Hollow" is rated "R" and has a running time of 105 minutes.

The Hurricane: Collector's Edition

Academy Award winner Denzel Washington plays Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a man who, in the prime of his boxing career, finds himself wrongfully convicted of murder. Sentenced to life in prison, Carter’s published memoir, The Sixteenth Round, inspired a teenager (Vicellous Reon Shannon) from Brooklyn and three Canadian activists (Deborah Kara Unger, John Hannah, Liev Schreiber) who believed in the truth, to join forces with Carter to prove his innocence.

Their extraordinary efforts ultimately secure his release, leaving Hurricane to sum up his 20 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit by simply stating, "Hate got me into this place, love got me out." Don't miss the movie Rolling Stone called "a stirring fight for freedom! Denzel Washington at his powerful, poignant best!"

Special Features: Deleted Scenes, Scene Access, Audio Commentary, Cast/Crew Bios, DVD-ROM Features, Theatrical Trailer, Production Notes, Interactive Menus

"The Hurricane: Collector's Edition" is rated "R" and has a running time of 146 minutes.

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Dantz Development Corporation and QPS, Inc. (www.qps-inc.com ) announced today that QPS will bundle Dantz's award-winning Retrospect® Express Backup software with all of their Que! CD-RW and DVD-RAM drives. The bundle gives customers using either Mac OS or Microsoft Windows an ideal storage solution, complete with flexible backup and restore capabilities, without being required to purchase additional software.

``With Retrospect Express Backup, we're giving our customers an alternative backup method that will take their CD recording to the next level,'' said Pierre Abboud, QPS vice president. ``This valuable tool provides the ability to do unattended incremental backups with flexible media rotation. Retrospect Express, used with our colored Que! Savers CDs, will provide our customers with a complete, professional color-coded digital filing system.''

``Que! Savers come in five colors and allow the use of a different colored CD for each day of the week,'' continued Abboud. ``Using Retrospect Express, users simply select the volumes they want to back up and schedule the backup days and times. Then, they insert the colored CD assigned for that day. The entire backup process is now automated.''

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I/OMagic Corp., a leading developer and marketer of peripheral PC products, Wednesday announced that it recently released the industry's first 16X DVD-ROM drive into the retail marketplace.

The MagicDVD 16X reads all popular DVD and CD formats and features transfer rates of up to 21.6MB/sec for DVD-ROM data and up to 6MB/s for CD data.

``DVD offers consumers the highest quality digital sound and video for their computers,'' said Mike Dendo, vice president of Sales & Marketing for I/OMagic. ``We expect our market share to increase exponentially as I/OMagic already enjoys a strong brand presence in this category.''

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EchoStar Communications Corporation demonstrated today at the annual Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association industry trade show in Las Vegas the world's first combination satellite television receiver with a built-in Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) player -- DISH DVD Model 5422.

The DISH DVD satellite TV receiver with a DISH 500 system will be available to consumers for only $399 during late summer 2000.

DISH DVD offers consumers two home theater components in one, providing a convenient, affordable way to watch their favorite DVD movies as well as hundreds of channels of popular DISH Network programming, such as Discovery, ESPN, Disney and more, all with crisp pictures and crystal-clear, CD-quality sound.

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Sparks flew in New York District Court Tuesday as judge and counsel traded barbs over software that lets users decrypt and potentially copy the digital content of a DVD.

With opening arguments out of the way on Monday, Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday continued to hear witness testimony in a lawsuit brought by some of the industry's biggest studios against Eric Corley (aka Emmanuel Goldstein). His hacker news site, www.2600.org, offers hundreds of links to the decryption program, called DeCSS.

But the proceedings were punctuated by demands from a frustrated Kaplan to both attorneys that they refrain from getting bogged down in either technological minutiae or the deep-seated passions underlying the issues of piracy and free speech.

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To the delight of many of our viewers we be starting our ActiveDVD Mailing List.

You may sign up here for the HTML mailing list and starting next week you can all look forward to daily e-mails keeping you up to date with everything that is happening in the world of DVD.

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At DVD Pro 2000 this week, ASACA Corporation unveiled its new TeraCart® Digital Virtual Storage Library that incorporates Panasonic second-generation 9.4GB DVD-RAM drives and media. Demonstrated in Panasonic's Booth 313, the new TeraCart Libraries can be configured with 1 to 192 DVD-RAM drives and up to 11,600 double-sided 9.4GB DVD-RAM discs to provide capacities ranging from 2.3TB to more than 109TB.

Available for about the same total system cost as a tape system, the ASACA DVD-RAM Storage Systems bring interactive, broadcast-quality video and audio storage within the reach of businesses and government agencies for training, sales and marketing presentations, education, entertainment and archiving applications. Unlike tape, DVD-RAM provides random access -- there's no waiting while the tape rewinds, and the quality of the videos stored on DVD-RAM doesn't deteriorate over time as it does with tape. The libraries are also excellent high-performance, economical storage/retrieval solutions for business data and knowledge management applications.

Library configurations range from 230 hours to over 10,800 hours of MPEG-2 video. A standalone ASACA 750-disc (9.4GB per disc) DVD-RAM library at a rate of 22.16Mb/sec will provide a total play time of more than 700 hours of video -- enough for 29 days of nonstop playback. With a transfer rate of 2.78MB/sec and up to 12 rewritable drives online, the ASACA library enables TV stations to program and edit in advance and to queue-up digital data files to be played in sequence.

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A university professor testified on Monday in New York Federal Court that DeCSS, a program that decrypts the protections on digital video disks will quickly lead to rampant copying of movies -- just as music is being copied and traded over Napster .

"It is clear what is going on in the music industry is that music files are being compressed and traded," said Michael I. Shamos, a professor of computer science and the director of the Universal Library project at Carnegie Mellon University. "It is completely clear to me that the same is being done with video that is happening to music."

Shamos' testimony is the first step toward proving that DeCSS is a tool with the primary purpose, according to eight major movie studios that are the plaintiffs in the case, of allowing people to pirate their movies.

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Hollywood's top film studios see the future. And they're hoping, praying (and suing) to make sure it doesn't look anything like the music industry's current battle with Napster .

In what studios hope will stem the spread of DVD piracy on the Internet, testimony got underway today in the Motion Picture Association of America's case against alleged hacker Eric Corley, who's accused of spreading information about how to crack the encryption code on DVDs.

Corley, who also goes by the name Emmanuel Goldstein (the hero from the George Orwell novel 1984), is the publisher of 2600.com , a magazine and Website dedicated to hacker news and information. But the studios--which include Universal, Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros.--targeted Corley after he began publicizing the source code for DeCSS (Decode Content Scrambling System), a free software utility that allows users to bypass encryption codes and copy DVDs onto their computers.

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For most people the answer is "no." DVD drive sales have failed to take off as quickly as expected, with few consumers excited about watching movies on PCs, according to analysts.

But DVD has become the drive of choice on notebooks, with more and more bored business travelers preferring to watch last year's Oscar winners on long flights over losing at solitaire.

"People are not watching movies on their PCs--it's a relative few," Dataquest analyst Mary Craig said. "But on the other hand, demand is quite a bit higher on notebooks."

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Twenty-five years after breaking box-office records as the first film to gross more than $100 million, Steven Spielberg's blockbuster, ``Jaws,'' is once again making a huge splash -- this time on the DVD front. Overwhelming consumer demand for the ``Jaws'' Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD release has resulted in an industry first for Universal Studios Home Video and an impressive feat for a title that has never stopped thrilling audiences for over two decades.

``In 1975, 'Jaws' captivated audiences like no other film that came before it,'' said Craig Kornblau, president, Universal Studios Home Video. ``Twenty-five years later, the film still fascinates people as evidenced by the incredible demand for the Collector's Edition DVD and video. With the success of this release, Universal now has six DVD titles that have shipped in excess of a million units, more than any other studio has enjoyed.''

The five other DVD titles distributed by Universal Studios Home Video that have shipped over a million units include ``The Mummy,'' ``American Pie,'' ``End of Days,'' and the DreamWorks releases ``Galaxy Quest'' and ``Saving Private Ryan.''

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InterActual® Technologies today debuts at the DVD Pro 2000 conference its next generation software, InterActual Player 2.0, for multi-platform support of DVD and the web. The successor to the popular PCFriendly(TM) software, InterActual Player 2.0 includes support for both the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems, and also provides a common platform for the design of Internet-enhanced DVDs and CDs for use on upcoming web-connected DVD consumer electronics players and appliances. InterActual Player 2.0 is the first software application to bridge the worlds of DVD and the Internet in a single, cross-platform environment.

Having shipped on over 30 million DVDs worldwide, InterActual PCFriendly software is the industry standard solution for providing ROM features and web connectivity to DVD titles. Some of the best-selling DVDs of all time include InterActual PCFriendly software, including The Abyss Collector's Edition, American Pie, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, The Blair Witch Project, The Matrix, The Mummy, Stuart Little, Walt Disney's Tarzan and over 200 other titles. InterActual Player 2.0 software is fully backwards compatible with all PCFriendly titles.

``It's the best of all worlds,'' remarked Todd Collart, President and CEO of InterActual. ``By combining the immediacy and personalization of the Internet with the unsurpassed video quality of DVD, we're enabling content developers from all industries to create an experience that simply wasn't possible before.''

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Spruce Technologies today introduced DVDTransfer(TM), the world's first standalone system for automatically transferring video directly to DVD. The turnkey package is making its debut at the DVDPro 2000 Conference and Expo, Booth 201, Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, Burlingame, CA.

``Clients are increasingly specifying that post houses deliver dubs of spots and programs on DVD,'' said John Shike, Director of Marketing. ``Many of our customers also have a growing need to transfer their massive video libraries to DVD for permanent archiving. Previously this meant tying up a valuable DVD authoring workstation and a skilled compressionist for countless hours to facilitate this otherwise routine operation. With DVDTransfer, a very simple GUI enables anyone to click on a few options and press `Start.' The system was specifically designed to be run by non-technical staff and requires almost no training. Using DVDTransfer, making the `DVD dub' is as easy as using a VTR.''

DVDTransfer was designed to meet the broad range of applications that require an efficient and simple process of transferring video to DVD including film and video dailies, client copies of commercials, conversion of home movies and videos, and video archiving. DVDTransfer allows output directly to DVD-R for immediate results, to DLT for replication and to hard drive as a disk image.

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SpectraDisc Corporation, a subsidiary of Spectra Science Corporation, continues to improve the technology for manufacturing and tamper prevention of its recently developed, limited- play DVD prototype.

``We are impressed with SpectraDisc's limited-play technologies and, particularly with the recently demonstrated approach to tamper proofing that prevents the information on the disk from being recovered for continued use. This is critical to the commercial viability of any limited-play product,'' said Robert Pfannkuch, President of Panasonic Disc Services Corporation. ``We are aggressively evaluating all of the SpectraDisc's coatings for a limited- play disc and may adopt one of them in the near future for the development of a manufacturing protocol.''

SpectraDisc announced in January that a working DVD prototype had been developed and is working with key replicators to refine the design and manufacturability of the technology. ``One of the key issues we solved was the concern that tampering and removal of this coating could compromise the integrity of any limited-play mechanism. We are pleased to be working with Panasonic towards a commercial relationship,'' said Nabil Lawandy, President and CEO of Spectra Science Corporation.

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Sonic Solutions today announced at the DVD Pro 2000 conference that its eDVD technology, which seamlessly connects DVD and the Web, will use InterActual Technologies Inc.'s new 2.0 player and engine technologies. The new eDVD player application will be included as an output option in all Sonic DVD authoring applications. InterActual's player is the only multi-platform solution that seamlessly combines the high-bandwidth video of DVD with the immediacy of the Internet in a single browser.

``InterActual's cross-platform technology will give our users tremendous flexibility in delivering fully-compatible eDVD content,'' said Giles Baker, product manager for DVD Creator at Sonic Solutions. ``This is the only solution that ensures that DVD developers can create web-enabled titles that will play in any environment: Mac, PC or Internet-connected set-top.''

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Tracer Technologies, Inc., a division of BakBone Software (TSE:BKB, OTCBB:BKBOF), and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. announced at DVD Pro 2000 today that Tracer's Magna software for DVD-RAM stand-alone drives and MagnaVault(TM) software for DVD jukeboxes will support the forthcoming release of Panasonic's second-generation rewritable DVD drives. MagnaVault optimizes the performance of the industry standard DVD-RAM drive while providing UNIX and Linux users with transparent access to 4.7GB (single-sided) and 9.4GB (double-sided) DVD-RAM media.

An integral part of BakBone Software's Storage Management Initiative, Tracer Technologies offers a full range of data management solutions for corporate file, database and video server applications. The latest addition to Tracer's XFS file system suite, the Universal Disk Format (UDF) file system, provides a standardized means for interchanging a DVD-RAM file between heterogeneous operating systems.

Tracer's MagnaVault, which includes a high-performance UNIX device driver and enhanced file system software for stand-alone DVD-RAM drives, is targeted for CAD/CAM/CAE applications, as well as graphics and video production where designers collaborate on projects.

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The motion picture industry hopes to stem a potential flood of digital video piracy in a civil case set to open on Monday in which Hollywood studios have accused a computer journalist with violating a still untested 1998 federal law that aims to protect digital media.

Eric Corley, publisher of 2600 (), a top magazine and Web site of the computer hacker underground, is set to stand trial for spreading a utility that allows digital video disks (DVDs) to be copied and transmitted over the Web.

The plaintiffs in the case, which include Hollywood's eight biggest movie studios -- Universal, MGM, Time-Warner and their rivals -- are seeking to stop Corley from republishing the software code that unlocks the media scrambling within DVDs. The trial will take place in federal court in Manhattan before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

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The Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) announced the first eight titles to qualify under its new DVD Certification Program to recognize outstanding sales performance of DVD titles. These titles were announced during the Association's 19th Annual Convention last week in Las Vegas by VSDA President Bo Andersen.

The VSDA announced the launch of its DVD Certification Program on March 17, 2000. Similar to the record industry's long-standing sales awards, DVD sales certifications are awarded at three levels that are defined as the number of DVD product units sold in the United States (shipped units minus returns).

``We are extremely proud to be able to recognize titles which have attained these outstanding sales figures. These impressive sales numbers reinforce the incredible acceptance of this format by consumers and the renewed vigor and excitement that DVD has brought to the home video industry,'' said Andersen.

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The first annual DVD Festival culminated on Monday with the announcement of the winners of the DVD Festival 2000 Awards. The awards presentation was hosted by famed comedian Pauly Shore.

Warner Home Video walked away with the most awards, four, while Dreamworks secured three and Columbia-TriStar two. Anchor Bay Entertainment, MGM and Pioneer Entertainment each took home one. Warner Home Video's ``Contact'' tied for ``Best Use of Audio/Language Tracks'' with Columbia-TriStar Home Video's ``Run Lola Run.''

Over 100 entries were received to vie for just eleven categories. A 16 member blue-ribbon panel made up of home entertainment journalists from across the nation were selected to judge the entries. They included Marc Bernardin, Entertainment Weekly; Kevin Brass, Video Store; Al Brumley, Dallas Morning News; Eileen Fitzpatrick, Billboard; Chris Gore, host of ``The New Movie Show'' on FX; Guido Henkel, dvdreview.com; Scott Hettrick, Video Business and Daily Variety; Jeffrey Howard, ``The Movie Guys''; Bill Hunt, digitalbits.com; Laurence Lerman, Video Business; Donald Liebenson, The Chicago Tribune; Leonard Maltin, ``Entertainment Tonight''; Mike Mayo, Author of VideoHound's Guide to DVD; Scott McKim, The Hollywood Reporter; Gary Reber, Widescreen Review; and Ralph Tribbey, The DVD Release Report.

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Walt Disney Home Video, Walt Disney Television Animation, Pixar Animation Studios, and Disney.com blast visitors into cyberspace for a brand-new video voyage with Buzz Lightyear, one of America's most lovable heroes, at www.buzzlightyear.com . The ``Toy Story'' space ranger stars in a new action-adventure ``BUZZ LIGHTYEAR OF STAR COMMAND: The Adventure Begins,'' a feature-length traditional, hand-drawn animated film showcasing the intergalactic adventures of Buzz Lightyear, defender of the universe.

Disney and Pixar present the movie's official site at www.buzzlightyear.com, where fans will get an unprecedented sneak peek at Buzz Lightyear's upcoming saga that premieres on video and DVD August 8, 2000. This hilarious preview marks the first time ever that fans are able to check out a movie trailer exclusively online for a Walt Disney Home Entertainment straight-to-video release.

Fans can view the movie trailer exclusively by Apple's QuickTime and get a glimpse of Buzz Lightyear's intergalactic struggle with the Evil Emperor Zurg. QuickTime is Apple's standards-based technology for streaming audio and video over the Internet.

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``Jaws'' movie posters displayed on beach trash cans and lifeguard stations have critics snapping that the toothy posters frighten children.

Youngsters and beachgoers who don't speak English might mistake the advertisements for a warning, they argue, even though shark attacks are virtually unheard of here.

``This is offensive. Certainly, it's inappropriate,'' said beach activist Howard Bennett. He said his 3-year-old granddaughter refused to swim after seeing an ad on a trash barrel.

The posters are part of a national ad campaign promoting this week's release of ``Jaws'' on digital video disc, or DVD, 25 years after the debut of the horror movie about a giant shark that terrorizes a New England resort.

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To the delight of many of our viewers we be starting our ActiveDVD Mailing List.

You may sign up here for the HTML mailing list and starting next week you can all look forward to daily e-mails keeping you up to date with everything that is happening in the world of DVD.

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Our thank-you of the week goes out to Wayne and Noreen for This Week's Picks.

Do you have a favorite DVD Movie you would like to see posted here? Drop me an e-mail and we will get it posted.

Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

It is the 23rd century. The Federation starship U.S.S. Enterprise is on routine training maneuvers, and Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) seems resigned to the fact that this inspection may well be the last space mission of his career. But Khan is back.

Aided by his exiled band of genetic supermen, Khan (Ricardo Montalban) – brilliant renegade of 20th century Earth – has raided Space Station Regula One, stolen a top-secret device called Project Genesis, wrested control of another Federation starship, and now schemes to set a most deadly trap for his old enemy Kirk…with the threat of a universal Armageddon! Co-starring Kirstie Alley (Cheers) in her stunning motion picture debut.

Special Features: Scene Access, Interactive Menus, Theatrical Trailer

"Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan" is rated "PG" and has a running time of 112 minutes.

Far And Away

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman star in the critically-acclaimed romantic adventure from director Ron Howard. This breathtaking epic opens on the west coast of Ireland, 1892. Joseph Donelly (Cruise), a poor tenant farmer, is determined to bring an oppressive landlord to justice. Instead, he finds himself accompanying the landlord's daughter, Shannon (Kidman), to America in a quest for land. Arriving in Boston, Joseph finds a place for them to live while proving a natural at bare-fisted boxing.

But his triumph is short-lived as he and Shannon are thrown out into the bitter cold. Joseph sets off for work on the railroad, until a passing wagon train reminds him of his original goal to possess his own land. Preparing to stake his claim in the new territory, he runs into Shannon, who is unhappily reunited with her former fiance. In the excitement of the Oklahoma land rush, they realize their dreams of land and life together in this grand-scale adventure.

Special Features: Production Notes, Film Highlights, Scene Access, Interactive Menus, Cast/Crew Bios, Theatrical Trailer

"Far And Away" is rated "PG-13" and has a running time of 134 minutes.

The River Wild

Hang on tight for a suspense-filled action-thriller starring Oscar-winner Meryl Streep in a stunning performance that will take your breath away! Streep portrays a former river guide who arranges a white-water rafting trip to celebrate her son's birthday and salvage her shaky marriage.

Her skills and courage are soon put to the test when three mysterious strangers threaten to turn their vacation into a living hell. Also starring Kevin Bacon and David Strathairn, this "pulse-pounding thrill ride" (Rolling Stone Magazine) explodes with action, suspense and unforgettable storytelling from the director of L.A. Confidential.

Special Features: Cast/Crew Bios, Interactive Menus, Scene Access, Film Highlights, Production Notes

"The River Wild" is rated "PG-13" and has a running time of 113 minutes.

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On October 3, get ready for the side-splitting sleuthing of Scooby and the gang as Warner Home Video (WHV) presents the all-new, feature-length, direct-to-video movie ``Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders'' on VHS and DVD. Just in time for Halloween, the DVD includes a variety of special features including the making-of-the movie, the making-of-a Scooby-Doo video game, sample interactive games and Scooby's steps to solving a mystery.

A cosmic case of UFOs, intergalactic intrigue and out-of-this-world romance launches Scooby, Shaggy and the Mystery, Inc. kids into their most unearthly adventure ever! Stranded in a remote desert town, the gang soon discovers the place is crawling with flying saucer buffs, secret scientists ... and less-than-friendly extra-terrestrials! Then, after being chased by ornery aliens and beamed aboard a UFO, something even weirder happens to Shaggy and Scooby - they fall head-over-heels for a beautiful photographer and her captivating canine companion! Now, as clues to the mystery of the alien invaders lead from a top-secret government research base to a huge network of caves hidden under the town, our love-struck heroes join the rest of the gang in a race to crack a case that re-defines the term ``far out!''

Available for $24.98 on DVD and for $19.96 on VHS, ``Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders'' stars the voice talents of Mark Hamill (``Star Wars'') and Scott Innes (``Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost,'' ``Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island'') and features one of today's hottest artists, Jennifer Love Hewitt (``Party of Five,'' ``I Know What You Did Last Summer''), singing the legendary Scooby-Doo theme song.

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The DVD Cyber Center announces the launch of its new website located at <http://www.dvdcc.com> as part of its continued effort to bringing top-notch online content and information about DVD technology to the general public.

The all new domain and look was created by the in-house staff to allow easier updating, a more appealing look and to expand it's coverage and content. The new site has even more reviews of DVD discs, an online forum, and reviews of movies now in the theatre and more.

``This is great day for the DVD community on the Internet,'' says John Randall, Editor of DVDCC.COM. ``We have been around for years now watching DVD popularity grow, and we are still committed to bringing free online content about DVD for many years to come.''

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NewWave Technologies announced that Sonic Solutions, the leader in DVD authoring tools, has certified their MultiDVD system.

NewWave's MultiDVD system provides Sonic customers a time saving and cost effective option for in house, short run DVD duplicating.

NewWave's MultiDVD system combines the Ultera MultiMaster patented array controller technology and the latest generation of DVD-R drives from Pioneer New Media Technologies. Ultera's DVD-R controller synchronizes the duplication process across multiple drives. Their controller appears as a single SCSI device to a Sonic DVD Authoring station or software application.

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We have added a small list of some of the upcoming DVD Titles and there release dates.

This will be updated frequently so keep an eye out for more new titles.

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The Millennium Group (Digimarc, Macrovision, and Philips) announced today that they would be offering the motion picture industry a combined digital watermarking and play-control system for new DVD recorders and other consumer electronics or PC-based devices that have the capability of recording or playing digital video.

Watermarking adds an imperceptible copy protection fingerprint to digital video that will trigger complementary watermark detectors integrated in the next generation of digital video recording devices. The watermark serves as a copy-control mechanism. To further bolster system security, the new Millennium proposal also provides a play-control mechanism that complements the copy-control mechanism. This is accomplished with Wobbletrack(TM), a new proprietary method of manufacturing authentic DVD discs. When the Wobbletrack(TM) feature is combined with the copy-control watermark, the two will allow playback devices to discriminate between authentic and illegally copied discs and prevent playback of the illegal copies. The new Millennium proposal will also provide a copy-once watermark re-marking technology for applications in which one copy of a video program is allowed.

``To facilitate and accelerate the introduction of next generation digital recording devices, we have decided to offer the new Millennium solution to the industry with patent indemnification guarantees that we believe will be acceptable to all users,'' said John Ryan, Macrovision's Chairman and CEO. ``The Millennium Group is offering a complete copy protection solution to the motion picture, CE, and PC industry that will allow consumers and the industry to benefit from the latest advances in digital video.''

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Japanese electronics firms Sharp Corp and Pioneer Corp set their sights on a bigger share of the growing DVD recorder market on Tuesday with an agreement to cooperate on digital products.

"We are aiming at integrating our technologies and efficiently developing digital products whose growth potential is substantial," said Magohiro Aramoto, vice president of Sharp.

Sharp, one of Japan's leading consumer electronics makers, will integrate its semiconductor laser and video signal processing technologies with the DVD recording and playback technology of Pioneer, a top audio equipment maker.

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Released This Week: The Hurricane: Collector's Edition

Academy Award winner Denzel Washington plays Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a man who, in the prime of his boxing career, finds himself wrongfully convicted of murder. Sentenced to life in prison, Carter’s published memoir, The Sixteenth Round, inspired a teenager (Vicellous Reon Shannon) from Brooklyn and three Canadian activists (Deborah Kara Unger, John Hannah, Liev Schreiber) who believed in the truth, to join forces with Carter to prove his innocence.

Their extraordinary efforts ultimately secure his release, leaving Hurricane to sum up his 20 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit by simply stating, "Hate got me into this place, love got me out." Don't miss the movie Rolling Stone called "a stirring fight for freedom! Denzel Washington at his powerful, poignant best!"

Special Features: Deleted Scenes, Scene Access, Audio Commentary, Cast/Crew Bios, DVD-ROM Features, Theatrical Trailer, Production Notes, Interactive Menus

"The Hurricane: Collector's Edition" is rated "R" and has a running time of 146 minutes.

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