DATE: Wednesday, August 6, 1997             TAG: 9708060051

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL KELLEY III 

                                            LENGTH:   70 lines

DVDS HIT LOCAL VIDEO STORES SALES OF TITLES IN NEW FORMAT EXPECTED TO SOAR

AFLOOD OF DIGITAL video discs - DVDs - are finally coming to video stores in Hampton Roads.

DVD players, which represent a technological leap beyond VCRs and laser-disc players, have been available here, but movie studios have been hesitant to release titles in the new format.

Now Time Warner and its four studios - HBO, MGM, New Line and Warner - have announced plans to release more than 90 DVD titles nationwide during the last week of August. This after a three-month test run, during which the studios released DVDs only in the nation's largest cities.

Time Warner's announcement has prompted Universal Studios to join the DVD format in late fall.

The other major holdout studios, Disney, Fox and Paramount, still haven't embraced the new format. They're concerned with digital piracy; perfect copies can theoretically be made from DVDs using digital taping. Time Warner says it's confident that copy protection technology will prevent such copying.

The 5-inch DVD has more than two times the sharpness of video tape and better color than the best laser disc. And, as with audio compact discs, users can skip directly to any part of DVDs instantly.

Prices for DVDs range from $19.99 to $29.99.

Hampton Roads and much of the rest of the country were largely shut out of the DVD market when Time Warner released DVDs only in seven cities.

In that time, nearly 500,000 discs were sold in the test cities, convincing the studios to go national.

``Clearly, DVDs' superb digital picture and audio quality have captivated consumers. We want everyone to have access to the DVD experience,'' Warren Lieberfarb, president of Warner Home Video, said in a statement.

Strong DVD sales are expected this fall when the Time Warner titles arrive in Hampton Roads, says Gwen Watson, of Suncoast Motion Picture Co. in Virginia Beach.

Early users of the new format have been videophiles who own laser disc players. ``A lot of my laser disc customers have expressed an interest in us carrying DVDs,'' says Geoff Wolfe, manager of Camelot Music at Lynnhaven Mall.

Both Suncoast and Camelot started selling a limited number of DVD titles a few weeks ago.

To help ensure the success of the new format, Lieberfarb tried to put pressure on Disney, the king of home video, by showing the media a segment of the ``Siskel and Ebert Show,'' sponsored by Disney. The two movie critics gave ``two thumbs up,'' for DVDs' quality and benefits over video tape and laser discs.

By the Christmas shopping season, Time Warner will have more than 200 DVD titles out, including new releases ``Rosewood'' and ``Murder at 1600,'' and classics ``The Bishop's Wife'' and ``Fiddler on the Roof.''

Columbia TriStar, Live, and Polygram have already released about a dozen DVD titles nationwide, including ``Jerry Maguire,'' ``Total Recall'' and ``Fargo.''

More than 120,000 DVD players have been sold nationwide. Bill Rippel, president of Audio Connection in Virginia Beach, says his store has sold more than 100 DVD players since March.

DVDs seem to be influencing the video equipment market. The format's advantages are most obvious on large-screen TVs, and projection-screen models have seen a double-digit growth from a year ago, says the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Assoc. MEMO: Videophile Bill Kelley III is a photo editor for The

Virginian-Pilot. His e-mail address is bkelly(AT)pilotonline.com ILLUSTRATION: Photo

CHAD KELLEY

More than 90 DVD titles will be released this month. The 5-inch DVD

has two times the sharpness of video tape and better color than a

laser disc.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu