DIVX IS A BONUS FOR ENHANCED DVD PLAYERS

MPEG-4 technology from Cirrus enables one box to do more.

By Daniel Frankel

Video Business 3/28/2003

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.--Chip maker Cirrus Logic will incorporate MPEG-4-compatible DivX video technology into its new line of processors for DVD players, the latest boost for so-called "enhanced" DVD players--boxes that play interactive DVD-ROM-based bonus material and access other bonus material off the Internet.

Cirrus said it expects to enable the first sub-$149 DVD players with this DivX-enabling technology by the end of the year. With such boxes, consumers can view bonus content stored in MPEG-4-compressed DivX video, either stored on the DVD itself or accessed online with a key provided by the disc.

Enhanced DVD players eliminate the need to remove a DVD from the player and place it in a PC to view such DVD-ROM features as script-to-screen content, with which viewers follow the script as they watch the movie.

Also, bonus material that isn't on the disc could by accessed by this kind of DVD player online, much as buyers of Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment's Spider-Man were able to view Tobey Maguire's commentary with their PC (VB, 12-9).

"The next generation of hardware is Internet-connected DVD players, and we want to make sure we're going to see such a device pushed into the Christmas 2004 time line," said Todd Collart, president and CEO of interactive DVD software development firm Interactual Technologies.

Collart and Cirrus Logic video marketing president Terry Ritchie were among those who participated in a panel discussion about enhanced DVD at the Digital Media Summit conference.

Interactual supplies all the major studios with a software utility that allows their DVD-ROM bonus material to be played on PCs. It is also leading the push to move all of this content viewing onto the same DVD players that consumers watch the movies.

According to Collart, 22 of the 25 top-selling DVD titles last year used Interactual's software, and more than 20 million unique users have installed it on their PCs.

Making all of this content accessible with one device will add greater value to DVDs for consumers, Collart said. And having some bonus material accessed via the Internet rather than authored onto a disc will result in cost savings for suppliers.

"The whole purpose is to make [the DVD] a little more valuable than the pirated version," said Collart. "You can also offer features that may be too expensive to author onto a disc."

There would also be something in enhanced DVD for consumer electronics brands. "There's no margin in your basic DVD player at all anymore," said Ritchie. "That's why there's a drive into higher-margin products."

Also speaking on the panel, Michael Mulvihill, VP of content at New Line Home Entertainment, said that as access to broadband Internet connectivity widens, being able to leverage online content through DVD will be important for the format's longevity amid the growing specter of video-on-demand.

"From our standpoint, it's important to see packaged media drive broadband," he said.