Hollywood

By Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles

If you've just bought a DVD player and can't wait to watch favorite flicks like E.T. and Gremlins, better not disconnect your dusty old VCR. Although there are nearly half a million DVD machines in U.S. homes, STEVEN SPIELBERG is keeping his entire film library--including pictures produced by his company Amblin--off the format. Some DVD boosters think Spielberg is resisting because he favors a sonics alternative made by Digital Theater Systems, a company he partly owns, which has not been embraced by major hardware manufacturers. The director's spokesman says he's merely waiting for millions more consumers to buy the players: "It's a question of the marketplace maturing, and Steven feels very strongly about it." One Amblin title, Twister, slipped out "under the radar" through Warner Home Video, but other films made for various studios are being held back. "Why would we want to upset Spielberg?" asks an exec from Universal, which owns rights to Jaws but won't release it for fear of alienating the man responsible for many of the studio's greatest hits. Spielberg isn't the only holdout. Paramount and Fox have also steered clear of DVD, while Disney has yet to commit any animated classics to the format. It isn't the first time major content providers have resisted new technology: Capitol-EMI refused to put out any Beatles titles during the early years of the compact-disc revolution.

--By Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles