A handful of manufacturers working together on enhanced DVD technology are demonstrating their wares at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show this week.

Enhanced DVDs bridge the features of DVD-based content to dynamic Internet content. With these technologies, movie studios and other DVD content publishers can build on existing enhanced content development efforts with InterActual.

"New Line is very interested in expanding our DVD-ROM creative efforts, presently targeted for the nearly 20 million U.S. households with a DVD-ROM computer, to these types of enhanced DVD players in the living room," said Michael Mulvihill, v.p. of Content Development for New Line Home Entertainment. "We see a tremendous opportunity in combining today’s movie viewing experience with the Web to offer consumers additional content and ongoing value."

Consumers will only embrace the 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, is easy to use and that has longevity -- all at a palatable price.

In support of DVD Forum efforts, this week’s "proof of concept" demonstrates the practicality of performance, time to market and cost targets required for near-term success of enhanced DVD technology, says a joint announcement from ANT Limited, IBM, InterActual Technologies, OpenGlobe and Wind River Systems, which have combined technologies to support standardization efforts at the DVD-Forum.

"By using InterActual’s Media Services middleware for integrating DVD-Video within ANT’s browser on top of OpenGlobe’s DVD navigator, recognition and core integration technologies, this team is successfully demonstrating that existing DVD-ROM and Internet-connected bonus features can cost-effectively run on this type of enhanced DVD player," said Todd Collart, president and c.e.o. of InterActual.

The demonstration technology incorporates ANT’s Fresco iTV browser, IBM’s controllers, Wind River’s VxWorks real-time operating system, Tornado integrated development environment (IDE) and key networking protocols with OpenGlobe’s system integration.

"Enhanced DVD is a perfect complement to OpenGlobe’s Entertainment Services, as our DVD recognition technologies and databases provide an opportunity for studios to readily bring the world of Internet-based enhancements to catalog DVD titles," says Bernie Sepaniak, president and c.e.o. of OpenGlobe.