Not happy with the commentary on your DVD? Record your own. A website called DVD Tracks now allows users to post MP3 files of commentaries on movies. To listen to the posted commentaries, users synch up the movie on their DVD-ROM or set-top player as the computer commentary starts.
DVD Tracks founder Patrick Stein got the idea from a column in Yahoo! Internet Life in which movie critic Roger Ebert suggested do-it-yourself commentaries. "I'd love to hear a commentary track by someone who hates a movie, ripping it to shreds. Or a track by an expert who disagrees with the facts in a film," Ebert wrote. Stein agreed and launched the site in March. "My original hope was that it would take off and someone would buy the site from me, but for the most part, I thought Roger Ebert's idea was great and wanted to get the ball rolling," Stein said.
A computer programmer, Stein runs the site as a side project from his home in Minneapolis. As of early November, the site contained 54 commentaries for such films as Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace and Mulholland Drive. Posting and listening to the commentaries is free.
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