Booming DVD Market Shows Up Others’ Debuts

The raunchy comedy “Detroit Rock City,” which features four pot-smoking teens who will do anything to get into a 1978 KISS concert in Detroit, is a DVD first.

The DVD version, scheduled for release by New Line Home Video this month, will debut three weeks before the VHS version, marking the first time a DVD has appeared before a VHS release. Until now, new releases on both DVD--also known as digital videodisc or digital versatile disc--and VHS have shown up in stores on the same day.

Changes are afoot at Amazon.com’s music channel as well. The e-commerce powerhouse, one of the leading online sellers of DVDs, modified the title of its video section from Video to DVD/Video last month to better represent its strong slate of DVD titles.

Although they’re subtle, these changes reflect DVD’s expanding influence among consumers. The virtually indestructible discs, which look like CDs, are proving to be the messengers of the fastest-growing video format ever.

Driving the DVD market’s record-breaking surge are decreasing prices for DVD players and a push by movie studios to put not only new releases but also old favorites on DVD. DVD player prices today are half what they were when the format was introduced almost three years ago.

Decreasing player prices have helped hardware sales grow tenfold in two years--making the DVD player the most popular consumer electronics device since the Sony Walkman. DVD-ROM drives, which will be in 12 million U.S. homes next year, are also helping the market to grow, although it remains to be seen whether consumers really want to watch DVD movies on their computers.

“Three years into the introduction of the VCR, you were hard pressed to find one under $1,000 in dollars of the day,” said Ted Pine, president of InfoTech, a Norwich, Vt.-based research firm. “Now we’re starting to see no-name DVD players assembled in China under $200.”

But even with its fast start out of the gate, the DVD format has a long way to go before it’s in a majority of American homes. Analysts expect about 5% of U.S. households to have a DVD player by the end of this year.

Even so, DVD player sales are projected to hit $1 billion next year, a figure unprecedented in the consumer electronics industry, where it usually takes at least several years for consumers to warm to a new audio or video format.

“This is the shortest the window has ever been from the time a product went from the hobbyist or the videophile to the mass market,” said Steve Nickerson, vice president of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products. “Historically if you look at stuff like the VCR, the CD and [digital satellite service], it’s been a four-year--or some would say even longer--window.”

The number of DVD titles available today--about 5,000--is cited by experts as a key to DVD’s early success. DVD software sales have outstripped analysts’ expectations, with 110 million DVDs shipped since the format was launched, according to the DVD Video Group.

DVDs Offer Greater Storage Capacity

What has made DVD so popular? The amount of data saved digitally on DVDs allows for more information to be packed onto each disc. Music and computer CDs can store 650 megabytes of data. DVDs can store seven times that amount.

Consequently, DVDs offer better audio and video quality than VHS movies. The extra space on DVDs is also being used to accommodate trailers, documentaries about how the film was made, cast biographies, deleted scenes, Internet links and even alternative endings.

New Line’s “Detroit Rock City” takes advantage of this extra space by offering viewers the option of watching KISS’ performance of the movie’s title song from alternative camera angles. The DVD also features electric guitar lessons on how to play the KISS song “Rock ‘N’ Roll All Nite.”

In fact, all the hype generated by these extra features has recently prompted some film critics to review DVD movie releases--sometimes giving them more favorable ratings than the movie received when it premiered in theaters.

The DVD rental market is also blossoming. Last month, Blockbuster Inc. rolled out DVD in 2,500 of its 4,000 company-owned stores. (About 3,500 Blockbuster stores now carry the format.) Since October, DVD rentals have more than doubled in stores that carry the discs, said Dean Wilson, executive vice president of merchandising for Blockbuster.

Industry watchers expect booming sales of DVD hardware and software this Christmas, helping to further broaden the market.

“We’ll probably start to hit mass market potential this fall,” said Mike Fidler, vice president of the DVD marketing department at Sony Electronics. “Disney is running DVD spots, and almost every studio along with the announcement of VHS is pushing DVD. We’re also seeing DVD-exclusive spots that DreamWorks is doing for “Saving Private Ryan.’ ”

DVD’s early popularity has prompted consumer electronics manufacturers to release combination products that include DVD functionality. Videophiles can now buy five-disc or even 200-disc DVD players.

These systems are considered combination products because CDs can also be played in DVD players. Portable DVD systems are also available, as are DVD players that can be installed in cars or trucks.

Look for combined DVD/TV machines to arrive soon. Someday a DVD player may even come packaged with an interactive TV service, manufacturers say. But it will still be at least a year before recordable DVD players are available, as manufacturers and movie studios try to work through both technical and copyright issues.

So don’t count out VCRs, which many consumers use to tape TV shows for later viewing and to watch VHS movies, just yet. With VCRs in about 90% of U.S. homes, the 23-year-old movie format isn’t likely to go the way of the record player any time soon.

“By no means are we giving up on VHS,” said Blockbuster’s Wilson. “We see that as a long-term business.”

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Times staff writer Jennifer Oldham can be reached at jennifer.oldham@latimes.com.

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Blockbuster Sales

DVD players are the hottest new consumer electronics product since the Sony Walkman. The systems, introduced just three years ago, are expected to be a popular item this holiday season as an increasing number of DVD movie titles becomes available and hardware prices go down.The average price of a DVD player keeps dropping . . .

Average unit price:

. . . boosting unit sales and broadening the market

Unit sales, in millions:

Source: Consumer Electronics Assn.

*Estimated

“Detroit Rock City,” with James DeBello, above, will be released on DVD three weeks before its VHS release.