Spielberg says no to DVD

Though about 1,000 films are now on DVD, Steven Spielberg’s won’t be joining them just yet. ”They’re on hold,” admits DreamWorks exec Marvin Levy, his longtime spokesman, ”Steven feels there aren’t enough DVD players out there.”

The ban goes for movies that his production company, Amblin Entertainment, controls — like Men in Black — and pictures from his studio, DreamWorks. But there is a leak about to spring in Spielberg’s DVD dike: Contractually, any DreamWorks title that comes to tape, like Amistad, can also appear on Divx, the new DVD rental format debuting later this year. That catch has led to speculation that Spielberg is really concerned about another abstruse set of initials — DTS, the blue-ribbon sound standard he partly owns. Divx players conform to DTS specifications; first-generation DVD players don’t.