D-VHS Expands At CEDIA Expo

[Gregg Lengling]

By Greg Tarr
TWICE
10/11/2002 7:55:00 AM
 
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Minneapolis – JVC brought good news for HDTV fans to CEDIA Expo when it announced a new lineup of prerecorded HDTV movies in its HD D-VHS D-Theater format, and announced that Best Buy, Circuit City and Sears had agreed to carry JVC'S HM-DH30000U deck.

To help support the format, JVC said it would provide 'an expansive national marketing campaign' to coincide with the retail launches.

The four studios currently supporting D-Theater include: Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Artisan Entertainment and DreamWorks SKG.

By early October, all Best Buy and Circuit City stores and approximately 600 Sears retail locations will stock JVC D-VHS units, JVC said. Suggested retail price for the system is $1299.95, but actual street prices have recently appeared at $999.95.

Circuit City, which has carried the unit in select stores for more than a year, will also sell D-VHS movie titles on its web site.

JVC will soon launch a D-Theater national print advertising campaign, which will be underscored through regional promotions, including direct mailing to HDTV owners, the company said.

Meanwhile, the library of HD movies in the D-Theater D-VHS format will expand on November 5, when Fox Home Entertainment adds three titles to its lineup. The Fox D-Theater library now totals 11 HD titles.

New releases include High Crimes, Kiss of the Dragon and the 2001 version of Planet of the Apes. All three titles will be carry $34.98 suggested retail prices.

Other films in the Fox collection include: Behind Enemy Lines, Big Momma's House, Don't Say A Word, Entrapment, Fight Club, Independence Day, Men Of Honor and X-Men.

In other recent D-Theater D-VHS releases, Artisan said it is offering 'Van Wilder' and 'Basic Instinct.' DreamWorks just started shipping 'The Haunting,' and Universal is now offering 'Backdraft'.

Meanwhile, JVC's home electronics unit used CEDIA to announce it will add a plasma display panel and a new 34W-inch 16:9 flat-screen CRT direct view monitor to its I'Art TV series next summer.

The PD-42W84 PDP will offer 1024x768 resolution and DVI with HDCP input.

The AV-34WP84 34W-inch direct view HDTV monitor will be positioned as 'the flagship in the I'art Pro CRT line. Features include a new Digital Image Scaling Technology (DIST) circuit that converts all images to a 1500 interlaced format. Additionally, a new HD Digital Super Detail (DSD) processor will be added, along with a 16M 10 bit 3D Y/C digital comb filter and a DVI input with HDCP. Pricing will be announced later.

JVC said it expects to market its combination high definition DISH network satellite receiver and personal video recorder (TU-PVR9000) in the first quarter of 2003. Currently, the hard drive capacity is listed at 120GB. It will include both a IEEE-1394 with DTCP output (for connection to a D-VHS deck) and DVI with HDCP digital output for connection to similarly equipped TV displays.

Meanwhile, JVC's Professional Products group also appeared at CEDIA to announce new D-ILA front projectors and plasma display panels for the custom install market.

New models included the DLA-SX21 D-ILA front projector with 1400 by 788 resolution and an 'under $10,000 suggested retail price.

The PDP (model GM-P420UG), offers a 42W-inch screen size with a 1500:1 contrast ratio.