Digital Videodiscs

Don't mess with "Star Trek." That was my first reaction when word came down that the new HD-DVD release of the classic 1960s series would not merely be remastered from the original camera negative. In addition to sleek new high-definition video, the discs would also feature -- ye gods! -- "updated" and "enhanced" special effects. Didn't Hollywood learn its lesson when George Lucas "improved" the visual effects of his sainted "Star Wars" movie for rerelease?

DreamWorks' animated feature "Shrek" sold more than 7 million VHS and DVD units in just three days of release over the weekend. More than 2.5 million DVDs were sold, making "Shrek" the fastest-selling feature in the digital format's history. In the three days, "Shrek" generated a total $110 million in retail revenue.

Redbox continued its battle with Hollywood studios, suing 20th Century Fox over its attempts to keep the vending machine operator from offering newly released DVDs for $1 a night. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Delaware, accuses Fox of using its power to "unlawfully coerce" distributors of its DVDs to withhold the release of new titles for 30 days from the initial release date. The suit alleges that such actions constitute an abuse of Fox's copyright and "naked restraint of trade."

The beloved puppet show "Kukla, Fran and Ollie," the creation of puppeteer Burr Tillstrom, had millions of ardent fans, among them Orson Welles, John Steinbeck and James Thurber. The show was also a major influence on future generations of puppeteers, such as Jim Henson. In fact, the Muppets' creator publicly said, "We owe everything to Burr Tillstrom and 'Kukla, Fran and Ollie.' " The classic series is celebrating its 60th anniversary with the release today on DVD of 39 episodes of the show that aired on PBS and in syndication from 1969-71 and the unveiling of a new stamp commemorating the series, which was among the first to appeal to both children and adults.

Opening the next round in the battle against pre-Oscar piracy, Walt Disney Co. today plans to become the first Hollywood studio to commit to using custom-encrypted DVDs for its Academy Award "screeners." The Burbank studio will announce its partnership with Cinea Inc., a Reston, Va.-based Dolby Laboratories Inc. subsidiary that has a system it says will protect the DVDs if they fall into the wrong hands.

As the opposing camps pushing the next generation of DVDs try to win audiences, they are furtively pursuing the affections of the multibillion-dollar porn industry. Since the advent of home video, adult entertainment has played a key role in the adoption of new consumer technology. Porn companies, for instance, helped VHS trump Betamax in the '70s. More recently, they began streaming online video long before television networks.

No, Chubby Checker didn't write "The Twist." Nor was he the first person to record the tune -- both honors are held by Hank Ballard, who had a minor hit with the song in 1959. But Checker did turn the song into an international dance phenomenon. As he likes to describe the dance -- "It's like putting out a cigarette with both feet, and wiping your bottom with a towel, to the beat of the music." Checker's version of the infectious song hit No.

People wanting to automatically mute the foul language in "Seabiscuit" or skip the violence in "The Patriot" have a new option: a DVD player from RCA that filters content deemed objectionable. Thomson, which owns the RCA brand, will sell the players in some Wal-Mart and Kmart stores as well as on Wal-Mart's website starting this month even as the filtering software they employ faces a legal challenge from Hollywood.

The film industry won what it called a major courtroom victory Thursday in its effort to combat online piracy when a federal judge ordered a group of Web sites to stop distributing a program that can be used to make illegal copies of DVD movies. The judge brushed aside arguments by civil liberties groups that the program was a form of speech protected by the First Amendment, and ruled that the distribution of a program called De-CSS was a violation of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Japanese manufacturers are delaying the launch of a new DVD audio machine touted as the next generation of home music entertainment after a European hacker cracked codes that are supposed to prevent DVDs from being copied.