Last week, Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. specified an existing high-speed serial protocol called IEEE 1394 (also known as FireWire) as the link between OpenCable digital set-top boxes and devices such as television sets and DVD players. OpenCable is a CableLabs-sponsored initiative aimed at developing key interface specifications in order to foster interoperability among digital set-top boxes built by multiple vendors and used in broadband, two-way cable networks.

Albert Brooks, Debbie Reynolds, Rob Morrow. Directed by Albert Brooks. Aspect ratio: 1:85:1. Dolby Surround. Two Sides. 104 minutes. 1996. Pioneer Entertainment LV 332473-W. Rated PG-13. $39.95.

On March 9, Pioneer New Media Technologies announced the availability of its first DVD-Recordable (DVD-R) drive, the DVR-S101, bundled with DVD mastering software from Prassi Software USA and five blank DVD-R discs. Aimed at the professional desktop DVD market, Pioneer's SCSI-2 DVD-R drive lists for $16,995 and provides a data-transfer rate of 1.428 megabits per second, a data-buffer capacity of 4 MB, and a tray-loading system. Together with the mastering software, this products constitutes the first fully functional DVD-R drive to be offered for sale that allows users to create a disc image file and record on the desktop. "The Pioneer/Prassi bundle provides the DVD-mastering market with the only DVD-R solution available," says Paul Dempsey, senior vice president of marketing and sales at Pioneer New Media Technologies. "This is a powerful product offering that is incredibly easy to use."

In early March, The Sync, an Internet audio/video broadcasting company, announced that history has been made with the first modern feature film to be offered for viewing on the World Wide Web: American director Erica Jordan's acclaimed 1994 independent film, Walls of Sand. This important debut ushers in a new era in entertainment: video on demand from your PC, with feature films available at any hour of the day. Net surfers can watch Walls of Sand for free in the RealVideo format on The Sync's "ondemand" page.

On March 2, nCUBE, a developer of scalable video servers, announced a reseller agreement with Vela Research LP, a developer of video-compression products for the cable and broadcast industries. nCUBE will integrate Vela's MPEG2 video-encoding technology as part of an approach that enables cable operators to offer video-on-demand (VOD) and near video-on-demand (NVOD) services over analog networks and real-time feeds for digital networks.

Home theaters are becoming ever more affordable according to new data just released by the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association (CEMA). In 1997, dollar sales of home-theater products reached $8.2 billion---a slight drop from the $8.3 billion generated in the previous year---but many of the essential components of home-theater systems sold more units than ever before. Overall unit sales of home-theater products rose 5%.

Last week, Philips Semiconductors announced the first single-chip MPEG2 video encoder for home PCs. Dubbed the SAA6750H, this chip provides a low-cost way to store analog (VCR) video in a digital form on various media, such as CD or proposed recordable forms of DVD. Previously, consumers had to rely on expensive professional equipment that could easily run into thousands of dollars.