E-ntertainment

E-ntertainment - giving audiovisual delight a new meaning called e-cinema. The digital revolution has swept across to the cinema as well. And no, it is not for the urban cinema buffs only. Film aficionados in Amravati to Asansol and Jalandhar to Jamnagar can now enjoy the latest film releases on the same day as their metro counterparts. The e-cinema encompasses all aspects - digital projection, digital distribution and exhibition of cinema. Digital technology is still an evolving media and there are issues relating to quality of digital prints being used in India. However, since the economics of digital exhibition systems works favorably for producers, distributors and exhibitors, this is already on its way to popularity. Compare this: Digital prints are available at Rs 2,000 against the Rs 70,000 plus cost earlier. The digital prints can be encrypted to give producers full control over the number of screenings along with safeguards to prevent piracy.

Home entertainment will no longer be the same what with the coming of the plasma and flat TVs and state-of-art digital home viewing systems. As more and more people upgrade to HDTV to enjoy the benefits of digital television (DTV), the need for recording high definition content will rise. Time to throw out those dumb VCRs also; TiVo and Replay, two US companies, have started selling personal video recorders (PVRs) - the same sort of thing as video cassette recorders (VCRs), only these are digital and with a memory. People in the industry expect that it will change viewing patterns far more dramatically than the VCR did, by allowing viewers more control over what they watch and when they watch, thus loosening the network schedulers' grip on the audience.

For the shutterbug too, there is a lot in store. Cameras have developed from the 'aim and shoot' to a lot more sophisticated versions. The Nikon CoolPix 3700 digital camera gives the ability to create your own movies. It has 8 movie modes, voice recording function and a 256 MB SD memory card.