Chris Brown, CEO of Metabeam, met with me at Digital Hollywood and told me about his company Metabeam. Metabeam makes menus, and not just any menus, but dynamic menus that help us navigate our DVDs and empower fans in new ways. Properties such as Terminator 2, Crash, Stargate and a host of others use Metabeam’s interactive menu technology to add extra features and interactivity to the DVDs. This is an important technology that helps engage and enrich the experience for true media fans.

 

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Chris also told me about SimpleRom, an exciting new service for integrating DVD and web experiences. The services intent is to create a shift in the way that DVD producers migrate fans from existing content to new features, content and related fan fair on the Web. When a user puts a CD or DVD with SimpleRom in a Windows computer, the disc’s main feature (usually a video or music track) will begin playing in the user’s default media player software. Behind the media player, the user’s default Web Browser will display the Web page or url of designated by the DVD producer. SimpleRom is available on a pay-as-you go or subscription basis. The pay as you go plan costs $69 per disc image, monthly subscriptions run $99 per month.

Metabeam is also launching an interesting new service called ChatterFlix that allows users to chat while watching a synchronized playback of DVDs. ChatterFlix is definitely worth watching to see how it develops.

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