DIGITAL L.A. : CONTENT WAR; DVD MAGS USES NEW DISCS TO GO UP AGAINST LAUNCH.

Byline: David Bloom 

The idea of multimedia-based magazines has been around for a few years now, ever since CD-ROMs came along.

But the huge space demands of video mean CD-ROMs are quickly filled. Despite the best efforts of Launch and other CD-based magazines, the medium has proved just a little too cramped to be truly satisfying.

Now comes DVD, which can pack as much as 17 gigabytes of information on a single disk (about 26 times what can be put on a CD-ROM). And along comes DVD Mags, a Venice-based company that is trying to be first on the shelves with DVD publications.

The company's first product, now on its third issue, is the year-old Short Cinema Journal, which spotlights top-flight short films, animation and documentaries from the past several decades, along with interviews of directors and performers.

What they've created is a treasure for anyone who enjoys film, especially shorter works.

The company's marketing director Scott Epstein defines short as less than half an hour, and said the form is perfect for people using DVD-ROM drives on their computer, where they're less likely to want to watch an entire two-hour film but will watch shorter pieces when they can.

The first three ``Short'' issues, all still available, include wonderful stuff such as ``Some Folks Call It a Slingblade,'' the sort of prequel that led Billy Bob Thornton to ``Slingblade''; ``La Jetee,'' the acclaimed piece that inspired ``12 Monkeys''; and Alain Resnais' ``Night and Fog.''

The animation includes award-winning pieces by Will Vinton and others; the interviews and documentary work look at people such as Jane Campion, Michael Apted and Henry Rollins.

Just as importantly, the DVD format's extra elbow room allows the company to present the films with much higher quality than the choppy, tiny formats that have plagued CD-ROMs.

``I think when people see our stuff, it's vastly different'' from CD-ROM, Epstein said. ``It's not the little QuickTime pictures; it's full-screen video.''

And the video is smooth, not choppy, with great stereo sound. It's actually much better than even VHS videotape. And as long as the company keeps finding great films, it'll have a keeper.

The company also has put out ``The Young Cinematographer,'' a collection of award-winning pieces by children and young artists. And it plans to begin selling a DVD-based music magazine, called Circuit, in December, Epstein said.

The company (www.dvdmags.com) is betting that DVDs will be the next big thing - a safe bet, given projections of 40 million DVD players by 2000 (compared to half a billion CD players worldwide).

Launch still a go

Despite the looming threat of DVD, the folks over at Santa Monica-based Launch don't sound too worried about the future of their 3-year-old bimonthly CD-ROM, which focuses on music, movies and other entertainment.

Company CEO Dave Goldberg even objects to calling what his company creates a ``magazine.''

``We view what we're doing as much more engaging than television, and the term `magazine' implies something text-based on paper,'' Goldberg said. ``It's rich media content and advertising delivered to your computer. We deliver this content over a whole bunch of different platforms.''

The company has 300,000 regular subscribers for its CD-ROM-based publication, which can be purchased at newsstands and bookstores all over. At the same time, the company is busily testing its future in a variety of other media, said Goldberg.

This week in Fremont, for instance, a few hundred subscribers of the broadband cable service Home will be the first guinea pigs for Launch's interactive television offerings, Goldberg said. By early next year, 500,000 subscribers on about 1,000 cable systems around the country will be getting Launch's interactive interviews, games, reviews and other material directly in their homes, Goldberg said.

Because the new service is just starting up and has virtually no predecessors as models, Goldberg is vague about how it will look and what it will offer by the time it goes public.

``There's a lot of stuff (on the CD-ROM version of Launch), but we want to do a lot more,'' Goldberg said. ``We don't know how it's going to go.''

For instance, with the most recent CD-ROM issue's cover girl, singer Sheryl Crow, ``She did three live acoustic songs and two hours of interviews, but we only used five minutes of the interview and one song,'' Goldberg said. ``We'd like to use more of that. So some of (what we'll be doing) is not additional production costs, just being more in-depth with the stuff we do have.''

The company also is doing what Goldberg called a ``soft relaunch'' this week of its music-oriented Web site myLaunch (at www.mylaunch.com) with a substantial redesign to make it easier to navigate.

Sometime early next year, a DVD-based Launch will be available, with more information than CD-ROM allows, Goldberg said. But eventually, Goldberg said, his company's future doesn't lie on a silvery platter.

``CD-ROM was the first delivery platform we could use to deliver our content,'' Goldberg said. ``But eventually we will have no CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, we'll be just delivering over broadband access. My guess is within two years.'' By then, there should be enough homes with broadband connections that Launch can make a go of it financially without the headaches of pressing and delivering hundreds of thousands of discs every few weeks.

``We're a little busy right now,'' Goldberg said. ``And you're gonna hear about some more stuff in the next few weeks.''

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Photo: (1--2) no caption (Short Cinema Journal)