Coming soon, any UCE via MOD
July 25, 2007

In an industry built on acronyms--VHS, DVD, HD DVD, BD, PSP, UMD, DEG, NAVD, VPD,  AAFES,VSDA, EMA, IDEA, LIVE, BVHE, SPHE, WHV, USHV, PHE, VOD  and even VB, to hit a few--it's not often that we're stymied by one. 

But recently, I've been given pause by two  three.

It started a couple of weeks ago, with a PR (press release) from WHV headlined: 

TROY DIRECTOR’S CUT DEBUTS
ON A TWO-DISC DVD, UCE, HD AND BLU-RAY 

UCE? Is that a new format we missed? 

Alas, it stands for nothing more than "Ultimate Collector's Edition." Now maybe this is an abbreviation  tossed around on  HTF, but I hadn't seen it in a trade press release before.

Then, last week at the EMA (or HME, formerly VSDA) convention, there was a panel entitled "The MOD Squad--Should they be part of your future?" To which my answer would be, I don't know, what are they? 

Of course I was familiar with MOD Systems, but didn't realize MOD is now being used for the whole of manufacturing-on-demand solutions. So, MOD it is, one way to achieve ETS. 

You know, electronic sell-through, one that's confused me for a while, because it's used to cover a gamut of digital possibilities.  In fact, some people use ETS to mean the sale of permanent downloads over the Internet. Others, however, used it to refer to MOD in stores. One merchandising VP of a major chain, who I spoke to at EMA/HME/VSDA, told me his company was testing MOD, or maybe it was that other thing, he couldn't remember the initials. ETS? Yes, he said, where you order a title at a kiosk and pick it up an hour or so later. I thought ETS involved direct-to-home delivery of downloads, I said. Well, maybe, he said, but he wasn't sure.

Me neither.

Posted by Marcy Magiera on July 25, 2007 | Comments (0)