MOVIE AFFICIONADOS DECRY NEW DVD FORMAT
LOS ANGELES, CA (UT) - Moviephiles are up in arms over a new DVD
format
which they claim will threaten the very existence of the budding
medium.
"It's horrendous", said Cecil Griffith of the online DVD Maximus
magazine,
"It's an assault on our rights as film-goers." The attack he is
referring
to is the rumored plan by various studios to scrap the current DVD and
Blu-Ray
format as they exist and enact what is commonly referred to as DVD-
HOMR.
"We're only listening to what the public wants," said Calhoun Cleary,
spokesperson for
Syn-Yqe, a multimedia company that introduced the format last winter.
"And that is
a DVD format more suitable to public tastes. They want the convenience
that
video tape has provided for thirty years."
The DVD-HOMR format calls for a drastically reduced picture
resolution, far
lower than current VHS tapes. "We're looking at a picture as clear as
what viewers
in Archie Bunker's day saw on their three quarter inch tapes," said
the company
spokesperson. "No more will people be forced to squint at the
crispness of the
current DVD formats or VHS. We anticipate a resolution of no more than
5P."
Another feature is the ability to "rewind" the DVD. "We found that the
public
missed the ability to rewind their videos," said Cleary. "By simply
pressing the
left arrow on their remotes, the DVD will slowly rewind until it has
reached
its beginning." He admitted that the new DVD does not actually rewind,
but
added, "We are looking at comfort, not practicality." The simulated
rewind feature,
replete with video snow and noise, takes about five minutes. At least
one rental
chain is rumored to be planning to fine customers who do not rewind
their
DVDs.
Syn-Que re****tedly has also placed random patches of video
interference in the
programming, allowing viewers to use the step buttons on their remotes
to "adjust
the tracking" of the HOMR images.
The DVD-HOMR will be in full frame, the feature that has most enraged
critics.
"We had this battle with laserdisc companies, and now these guys want
to ruin
the DVD format," said Griffith, "They want to home video backwards by
three decades."
Syn-Yqe dismisses these claims, saying that a majority of people in a
recent focus
preferred the traditional pan-and-scan method over wide-screen.
"Besides," added
Cleary, "You gain more picture information on the top and bottom with
full-frame."
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