DIGITAL L.A. : DIVX MOVIE FORMAT FALLS BY WAYSIDE.

Byline: David Bloom 

The death of DIVX this week wasn't a surprise, even though the movie-rental disc format wasn't a bad idea at its heart. So what happened? Did consumers make a mistake, a la choosing VHS over the technologically superior Betamax video format in the 1980s?

In a word, no.

DIVX, for those who missed it, was the controversial alternative DVD format designed to make it easy to rent high-quality digital movies. This week, its owners finished off what indifferent movie studios and electronics retailers started, closing down the operation.

DIVX's creators had a clever enough concept: Plunk down $4.50 and you'd get a DIVX-encoded version of a DVD movie. Put the disc in your specially outfitted DVD player and you'd have 48 hours to watch the movie, as many times as you wanted in that period.

Then, after the two-day watching period ended, the DIVX encryption software would lock up the disc until you called up and bought another 48-hour viewing period (or bought the disc outright).

The concept - developed by a Los Angeles entertainment law firm that partnered with the Circuit City electronics chain to bankroll the idea - had one great quality: You could rent DVD movies and never have to return the disc.

That meant the discs could be sold in a wide array of new venues, such as grocery stores and pharmacies, that otherwise don't want the hassles of running a movie rental business.

The discs themselves were far cheaper at $4.50 for an initial rental than the cost of buying a full DVD, which usually costs between $20 and $35.

Yes, the DIVX discs were stripped-down, pan-and-scan products, with none of the cinephilic goodies piled onto normal DVDs. But really, who needs to hear the director's commentary on ``Caddyshack''? Or watch it in widescreen?

But what looks good in a vacuum looks less appealing wrapped in the context of reality.

First of all, DIVX-compatible DVD players cost an extra $50 to $100 because of the extra circuitry and built-in modem needed for the system. With DVD prices still a tad high for many consumers, that front-end premium meant most chose cheaper regular players.

Second, the cost difference between DIVX and DVD discs wasn't that big, particularly when the extra hardware is considered.

And the format wasn't around long enough for DIVX discs to be available in grocery stores and the rest, so another possible advantage of the format never materialized.

The big problem, however, was that DIVX wasn't developed in a vacuum. After almost 20 years, consumers are used to going to the video store for a couple of movies. When the format changed, many video retailers did, too, and customers just starting picking up a couple of DVDs instead.

And renting those regular DVDs meant they had access to all the goodies on those discs, at a cheaper rental price and with a far broader selection of titles. Given that, the minimal advantage DIVX still had wasn't enough to change consumer habits.

The good news out of all this: If you bought a DIVX machine (despite what I recommended last winter), you still have a fine DVD player that can run all the thousands of movies and other interesting digital odds and ends that are coming out now.

And you'll be able to get a $100 rebate from Digital Video Express, the venture that ran DIVX. That's just about enough to buy four DVDs or rent about 30 of them.

Phantoms in the Machine

The digital screenings of ``Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace'' - going on for the next month at specially outfitted theaters in Chatsworth and Burbank and two theaters in New Jersey - look great.

But the ``Star Wars'' wizards are already at work on the next one, said Rick McCallum, who produced ``Episode I'' and will have the same job with ``Episode II.'' In town on Thursday to tout the digital screenings, McCallum said he was leaving the presentation in Burbank to come to Panavision's Woodland Hills operation, where the camera company is creating the special lenses that will go on Sony-built high-definition digital video cameras that will be used in ``Episode II.''

Those digital cameras should arrive at Skywalker Ranch by late September or early October, when the Lucasfilm people expect to begin test shooting, McCallum said.

While it's too soon to know exactly what to expect from the cameras, McCallum said the film's production team hopes to dramatically increase the number of scenes it can shoot in a day.

``It will be the same shooting schedule as `Episode I,' but we're going to go from 32 setups a day to 40 or 45. That's unheard of,'' McCallum said.

The much faster set-up time is attributable to the much smaller and easier-to-handle digital cameras.

``They only weigh 21 pounds,'' McCallum said. ``It's a camcorder.''

Well, a really, really expensive and high-resolution camcorder, but you get the idea. And the digital revolution rolls on.

Full effect

If you somehow didn't get enough in the way of special effects during the recent Festival of Visual Effects, the upcoming ShowBiz Expo should slake any leftover thirst for the whiz-bang.

The folks who sponsored the festival, the Visual Effects Society, are joining with expo sponsor Variety to create an 80-person theater in the center of the show floor, where attendees can get themselves digitally inserted into a scene from films such as ``Godzilla'' and ``The Fifth Element'' (you, too, can be blue and have a six-octave singing range).

The fine folks from Jim Henson's Creature Shop will give a presentation on its amazing animatronic animals and puppets; so, too, will Mannex, which did the ground-breaking effects in ``The Matrix.'' Other seminars and demo areas will show such effects tricks as matte painting, as well as preview several upcoming effects-heavy films and television shows.

One highlight, however, will come on Friday afternoon, with a panel discussion on what technology changes will do to efforts to keep entertainment jobs in the United States.

Panel speakers include such luminaries as former Screen Actors Guild president Barry Gordon; U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Panorama City; state Assemblyman Scott Wildman, D-Glendale; and Cody Cluff, president of the Los Angeles County Entertainment Industry Development Corp.

About 600 exhibitors will show off virtually every gizmo you can imagine that's used in the making of movies. The show will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Tickets for the exhibition hall are $35; conference sessions are another $45.

Only Connect

A little program I liked recently is OneStep Connect from OneStep LLC (at www.onestep.com). It's a personal organizer program that also links up nicely with your Palm Pilot (no support yet for Windows CE handhelds, though).

The $49 program has a clean, effective interface; works well with everyone else's e-mail and browser programs; does a great job producing a wide variety of electronic and print documents; and nicely handles the organizational basics such as contacts, to-do lists and the like. Well done, especially for a startup putting out version 1.0.

Having a ball

These may not count as technology, but I like 'em anyway. Patch Products, a Wisconsin company that also makes several computer games and other kinds of toys, has embedded flashing lights and sensors in a variety of foam balls and flying discs.

The series of toys go by the name Zoam Light Tracker balls, and they have footballs (some with the little fins on one end that make perfect spirals easy to throw), basketballs, soccer balls, super bouncy balls and a flying disc.

On a summer evening, they're pretty cool to play catch with. And thus does technology march ever onward. For more information, go to Patch's Web site at www.patchproducts.com.