BEVERLY HILLS, CA, Sept. 25, 2002 —Buena Vista Home Entertainment, New Line Home Entertainment, and Warner Home Video announced today their support for enhancing DVD movie releases with content that takes advantage of new features offered by next-generation consumer electronic DVD players. These Enhanced DVD Players will expand the consumer entertainment experience by blending the rich-media features of DVD with dynamic Internet content. This marriage of technologies will enable consumers to access advanced and online features in the living room, thus complementing today’s experience on the substantial installed base of DVD-ROM enabled PC’s.
“The possibilities of this format are endless once DVD-Video can be blended with related, dynamic Internet content and enhanced ROM data for playback on a consumer DVD player,” says Jim Wuthrich, Vice President, Worldwide Interactive Marketing, Warner Home Video. “This demonstration, developed in partnership with InterActual Technologies, shows just a few examples of how DVD can be enhanced with features traditionally only available on PC’s, including enhanced menus, searchable video, and online features such as group events, consumer polling, voting for your favorite scenes, updated commentaries and biographies, online challenges, and links back to other online web sites,” says Wuthrich.
“The DVD Forum has been actively working with studios and InterActual over the last year and a half to define a specification that offers consumers a compelling, enhanced entertainment experience while offering system manufacturers a cost-effective implementation,” says Hisashi Yamada of Toshiba and senior representative of the DVD Forum. “The tight link between Internet connectivity and video content will be unique to this type of platform, as the content owners will be in direct control of embedding dynamic content and Internet-enhanced components, either directly on the DVD disc or on a web site that is accessible from the disc,” says Yamada.
According to Benn Carr, Vice President, Technology, Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a key aspect of this format is ensuring that both on-disc and online assets are seamlessly displayed to the consumer. “Consumers will only embrace this new technology if it offers a robust solution that is fast and responsive, has rich graphics capabilities, provides flawless presentation of audio and video content, and is easy to use,” says Carr.
“These next-generation DVD players offer New Line an opportunity to expand on our current DVD-ROM creative efforts, currently targeted at the 22 million U.S. DVD-ROM enabled PC households,” said Michael Mulvihill, Vice President of Content Development for New Line Home Entertainment. “By leveraging our existing development process with InterActual, we are excited about offering compelling, enhanced features such as Script-to-Screen where consumers can view the screenplay while watching the movie. We can also offer access to an exclusive online community accessible only with our unique infinifilm DVD releases,” says Mulvihill.
ABOUT WARNER HOME VIDEO
With operations in 78 international territories – more than the video division of any other studio - Warner Home Video (WHV) commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. WHV’s film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment Company, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.
ABOUT THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
Walt Disney Home Entertainment is distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., a recognized industry leader. A subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, Buena Vista Home Entertainment Inc. is the marketing, sales and distribution company for all Walt Disney, Touchstone, Miramax, Dimension and Buena Vista DVDs and videocassettes.
ABOUT NEW LINE HOME ENTERTAINMENT
New Line Home Entertainment distributes all of New Line Cinema and Fine Line Features theatrical films on VHS and DVD, including the new premium DVD brand infinifilm. The company also distributes feature films and non-theatrical programs acquired or produced by New Line Home Entertainment and New Line Television. New Line Cinema is the leading independent producer and distributor of theatrical films. New Line also licenses its films to ancillary markets including cable and broadcast television as well as in all international markets.
ABOUT INTERACTUAL
InterActual Technologies, Inc. is the leading provider of software and services that enhance DVD movie viewing on computers, including exclusive features that integrate rich-media DVD content with the Internet. InterActual Player, and it's predecessor PCFriendly®, have allowed millions of DVD viewers to enjoy a new dimension of entertainment and information. 80% of the top 20 US major studio box office movies for 2001 utilized InterActual’s software to provide for an enriched DVD experience on today’s significant worldwide installed base of DVD-ROM enabled PC’s. Through its membership in the DVD Forum, InterActual is providing industry guidance on the migration of enhanced DVD features to next-generation consumer electronic and other convergent set-top platforms. InterActual also maintains an online community (http://inventor.interactual.com) for professional developers interested in integrating the features of the InterActual platform for entertainment and marketing content.
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