DIGITAL L.A. : `RONIN' DISC TAPS REAL POWER OF DVD-ROM.

Byline: David Bloom 

OK, let's do the math: There are something like 1.3 million DVD players sitting atop televisions and stereo systems in America, swelling to perhaps 2.3 million by year's end.

But 5 million computers already have been sold with DVD-ROM drives, with as many as 30 million expected by year's end. The DVD-ROM drives allow owners to not only use any CD, CD-ROM or DVD movie, but to also run prodigiously sized computer games, multimedia and other material on their computers.

Now let's say you're a movie company with a stunt- and chase-filled little action film that did decent but not amazing box office last fall, like, say ``Ronin.''

Do you just drop your nice little movie on the DVD market, to compete against the 2,500 or so other titles already there? Or do you figure out a way to differentiate it, adding features that will appeal to all those computer owners with DVD-ROM drives who don't just want to watch a movie on their PC?

Well, MGM Home Entertainment figured that decision was a no-brainer, even if few others have followed suit (a notable exception being last fall's feature-laden ``Lost in Space'' disc).

``There's almost nothing out there for DVD-ROM,'' said MGM Home Entertainment marketing manager Dave Miller. ``You've got guys out there with 300-MHz, 400-MHz machines and nothing to watch on them.''

MGM hopes to remedy that, at least slightly. So you can buy the ``Ronin'' disc (it hits the market Tuesday), pop it into your DVD player and watch storied director John Frankenheimer put pros like Robert De Niro through their paces in a brisk action thriller set in Europe.

Or, you can drop it into your computer's DVD-ROM drive and on March 14 watch something really cool: novel hybrid programming using the Internet, film outtakes cached on the disc and Frankenheimer's just-created running commentary on the creation of the film and its much-lauded stunts and chases.

``We're sending out what we think is the first truly convergent product,'' Miller said.

Though ``Ronin'' wasn't a hugely successful picture, Miller said it was chosen as a test case because ``it's definitely a guy's movie, and with Frankenheimer, you have a film director who's passionate about talking about his craft.''

Frankenheimer's discussion will be partly based on questions submitted by fans as they register their discs in the weeks before the show, said Miller.

Those suggestions will be edited down to a 25-minute audio program with software ``hooks'' embedded in it. When the program starts playing over the Internet, those hooks will trigger movie scenes and outtakes on the disc to illustrate Frankenheimer's points, Miller said.

That trick will largely eliminate lag time in the program's transmission, despite its data-dense nature. Afterward, Frankenheimer (whose credits include the brilliant Cold War artifact ``The Manchurian Candidate'') will take part in an hourlong online chat session.

It's a great idea, intriguing enough to draw participation by Microsoft, which is providing the computer power needed to handle the expected online audience. And with 8,000 films in MGM's library, it could be the start of a lot of intriguing new productions.

``Everything is flexible, as long as we get (the outtakes and software triggers) into the machine ahead of time,'' Miller said. ``If we think ahead and have all the material put on the disc to play with, then we can come back to have a talk later. If there's enough interest in this, we see it as a model for the future.''

The music of Wired

One of the fun things about reading Wired magazine over the years has been the ``Colophon'' section tucked in the back of the book. Most of the fine print there is devoted to geek-speak about the hardware, software and other production details behind the magazine's creation.

But at the bottom is a paragraph highlighting what really made the magazine possible - the creative fuel for the month, as it were.

This month's list included such things as cranberry-date oat cakes, Squaw Valley, jackhammers and lukewarm Perrier. The list also usually includes a few interesting albums. Tracking down those musical references has sometimes led to a great new find, or the reclamation of a neglected old favorite.

In something of the same way, Wired and Rhino Records have issued a CD called ``Musical Futurists,'' an offbeat collection that brings together such out-there artists as lounge god Esquivel, free jazz freak/prophet Sun Ra, pop iconoclast Todd Rundgren, hip-hop folkie Beck, ambient wizard Brian Eno and turntable titan DJ Spooky.

Several well-annotated pages of liner notes explain why each artist is included in an album that aims to spotlight those who used technology to create new genres and widely influence other musicians.

``Without the contributions of the artists on this disc, the music you listen to ... would be very, very different,'' writes Colin Berry, Wired's music editor.

He's right. Though it's a somewhat unlikely compilation - further leavened with such creative forces as Devo, Tangerine Dream, Sonic Youth, Laurie Anderson, Steve Reich and Thomas Dolby - it generally does a good job achieving its goals.

I might quibble with the Rundgren song choice - ``International Feel/Never Never Land'' is hardly the most representative or interesting song in his vast catalog. But including Anderson's ``O Superman (For Massenet)'' and Godley & Creme's transcendent ``Cry'' overcomes any sins.

Otherwise, though, the album spotlights an array of musicians, virtually all of whom deserve further investigation, who broke ground in both music and technology in wildly different genres.

Best of all, despite the wide variety, the album indeed somehow hangs together ``like a great mixed tape, a disc you'd be happy to pop in for a reprieve from what's spewing from the music-video channel or commercial-radio frequencies.''

No spew here. Just the real stuff.

Look ma, no wires!

PlayStation gamers chafing at the short leash of their controllers will welcome Doc's new wireless pair of dual-analog controllers, which it's selling for a little less than $60 in most major toy and gaming outlets.

The controllers communicate by infrared beams with a port that plugs into one of the PlayStation's two controller slots. A ``sleep'' mode conserves the two AAA batteries needed for each controller.

Just as with a TV remote control, you don't have to point the device directly at the port to make it work, which is good for those of us who believe body English will actually help you avoid that oncoming monster. It has a range of about 30 feet.

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Photo: Owners of computers with DVD-ROM drives can use the ``Ronin'' DVD disc to access special hybrid Internet programming March 14.