DATE: Wednesday, May 28, 1997               TAG: 9705280037

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL KELLEY III 

                                            LENGTH:   75 lines

HE FINDS NEW VIDEO FORMAT IS EXCELLENT BUT NOT HASSLE-FREE. A VIDEOPHILE TRIES DVDS

FOR NEARLY TWO years, I'd been waiting for the arrival of digital video discs, the home video format that was supposed to blow away my prized collection of laser discs and video tapes.

The 5-inch discs promised to have more than two times the sharpness of video tapes and to have better color retention than the best THX laser disc. They would be able to play up to 133 minutes per side, eight different sound tracks, 32 subtitles. . .

The wait ended in early March when the first DVD players arrived in Hampton Roads. Or so I thought. I could get a player - prices range upward from about $500 - but I couldn't buy anything to play. DVD movie titles from Warner, MGM and New Line were released only in the largest market areas, such as New York and Washington D.C.

Hampton Roads and other markets got shut out because the big studios, leery of past electronic flops - remember digital audio tape? - want to see how the DVD market develops before mass marketing their wares in the new format.

The delay of movie titles to Hampton Roads didn't stop at least one audio and video store. Working through a Washington, D.C., distributor, Audio Connection in Virginia Beach got a shipment of titles in April.

``We've probably sold 75 movie titles so far,'' says general manager Jeff McAlhaney. Audio Connection has also sold about 50 players.

According to VideoScan, a software sales tracking firm, nearly 55,000 DVD titles had been sold nationwide by the end of April.

I finally got my first glimpse of a DVD movie about a month ago: ``Singin' In the Rain,'' one of my all-time favorites.

Actually, it wasn't really ``a glimpse.'' I caught the show on a 60-inch rear-projection TV at a local retailer. While DVDs will play on any TV, you get the best results on TVs that are 27 inches or larger.

In about 30 seconds, I was blown away by the great color, depth and sharpness of the image. I didn't see any digital artifacts or pixels that plagued demos at consumer electronic shows.

But was it better than my copy of ``Singin' In the Rain'' on laser disc? There was only one way to tell. I drove home, brought it back and hit the ``play'' button.

It was no contest.

The next day I bought the Toshiba 2006 for $499 and plunked down $29.99 (about 10 bucks over what you'd pay in the ``big markets'') for ``Singin' In the Rain.''

A week later, I drove to Fredericksburg, on the southern fringe of the D.C. market area, and added ``The Fugitive'' and ``The Wizard of Oz'' to my collection. The color, depth and sharpness of both are excellent.

So far, DVDs are playing to rave reviews. Of the first 1,000 responses in an Internet survey rating the image quality, they received 598 ratings of ``excellent'' and 296 for ``good'' quality.

``The general public wants the best picture quality available and doesn't want a rack full of movies the size of LPs,'' said Dennis Thomason, video specialist, at Domes in Chesapeake.

The DVD format eliminates many of the problems of VHS tape, such as tape hiss and decreased quality over time. DVDs also have Dolby Digital surround sound, the six-channel system that recreates the ``theater atmosphere'' at home. And as with CDs, you can skip directly to any part of a DVD instantly.

Soon, DVDs will have even more features, such as a Parental Lock that will enable parents to restrict movie content. And in about two years, recordable DVDs will hit the market.

Recently, Columbia TriStar released four new titles nationwide, including ``Fly Away Home.'' In June, PolyGram is expected to release ``Fargo'' and half a dozen other titles. By July, there should be about 80 DVD movies available, but only about a dozen nationwide.

I'm sold on DVDs. But the average person won't consider buying one until more titles are available, you can rent them at your local video store, and the price drops on the players to the $300 range.

If it does, DVDs could be the greatest new electronic format since the CD. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by BILL KELLEY III/The Virginian-Pilot

This DVD of the classic film ``Singin' In The Rain'' is ready to

play in a Toshiba player. KEYWORDS: DVD DIGITAL VIDEO DISCS

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