Columbia TriStar-Home Video/Columbia TriStar-Home Entertainment/Summary

## Background

**Sony Pictures Home Entertainment** is the home entertainment distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, part of the Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was first established in November 1979 by Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. as "Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment", to distribute films from Columbia Pictures on VHS, Beta, Laserdisc, and Super 8mm, with Warner Bros. titles being released by them in the latter format. It was later renamed as "RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video" (or "RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video" for international distribution, "RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts Video" (in conjunction with Hoyts) in Australia and "Gaumont Columbia RCA Video" (in conjunction with Gaumont) in France) in 1981 as a joint venture with RCA, "Columbia TriStar Home Video" on August 23, 1991 after acquiring RCA's shares from General Electric, "Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment" in 1999 before the name was made official in 2001, and to its current name in 2004. It is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures library for home entertainment, mainly releases from Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures, but also product from ***Sony Pictures Classics***, ***Screen Gems***, Triumph Films, Destination Films, Stage 6 Films, Affirm Films, Revolution Studios, its television library, selected miscellaneous output from independent companies, and CBS Films theatrical releases from the first half of the 2010s (all of which are slowly being reissued by Paramount). Since June 20, 2007, SPHE now handles the former Sony BMG kids label, Sony Wonder.

### **Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment** (November 1979-November 1982)

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**Nickname**: "The Sunburst"

**Logo**: The 1976-1981 Columbia Pictures "Sunburst" theatrical logo plays as normal, but there is a video freeze at the end, with "**Columbia Pictures**" blacked out by the words.

**COLUMBIA PICTURES**
**HOME ENTERTAINMENT**
**PRESENTS**

written in white, in Cooper Black font, is chyroned in below.
**Variants**:

* There is a black and white version of this logo seen on classic Columbia movies and shorts in B&W.
* The closing transition will vary from video to video, with it fading to black in one version while another cuts to black.
* On the original 1981 releases of *Easy Rider* and *The Bridge on the River Kwai*, the logo is shortened to the formation of the sunburst, and the text is in a chyroned Arial font.
* *The Bridge on the River Kwai* and *Easy Rider* have a shortened version that starts with the sunburst, similar to the Columbia Pictures Pay Television logo, and has the text more obviously chyroned in, in a white Helvetica font with a gray drop shadow.

**FX/SFX**: Same as the "Sunburst" logo.
**Music/Sounds**: Same as the theatrical version (although some releases have it distorted).
**Availability**: Extremely rare.

* Columbia TriStar Home Video kept this logo on the '90s VHS releases of *Monty Python and the Holy Grail* (in print as late as 2000), *It's My Turn*, *Cat Ballou*, and *The Three Stooges Vol. 3: An Ache in Every Stake* (making its appearances on all four after a Columbia TriStar Home Video logo), and it also made an appearance on the mid-'80s reprint video releases of those and many others originally released before 1983, including *Midnight Express*, *Bye Bye Birdie*, *The Taming of the Shrew*, *And Justice for All*, *The China Syndrome*, *The Three Stooges Vol. 1: A Bird in the Head*, and *The Three Stooges Vol. 2: Micro-Phonies*, due to them using older tape masters.
* You can also find this logo on the company's original '70s clamshell releases, including *Midnight Express*, *Gilda*, *Born Free*, *The Taming of the Shrew*, *A Man for All Seasons*, *Breakout*, *The New Centurions*, *The Deep*, *Bye Bye Birdie*, *You Light Up My Life*, and the original *Fun with Dick and Jane*. Surprisingly, this logo also appeared on early to mid '80s video prints of UPA's *Gerald McBoing Boing* and *Mr. Magoo* cartoons.
* The black-and-white version appears on classic Columbia titles in black-and-white, including *Knock on Any Door* and *Gilda* among others. Starting in late 1981, videocassettes of Columbia Pictures films go straight to the logo used at the time (a practice that lasted until 1989).
* There are also some sports specials and non-Columbia Pictures material that contain this logo, such as the 1982 VHS of *The Batty World of Baseball*.
* The last videocassettes to use this logo include *Hanover Street* (itself a Columbia film), *To Forget Venice*, and the aforementioned *Monty Python and the Holy Grail*.
* With few known exceptions (namely, *Cat Ballou*, *The Three Stooges Vol. 2: Micro-Phonies*, *The Three Stooges Vol. 3: An Ache in Every Stake*, and *Easy Rider*, the latter which ironically plastered its own Columbia logo with the RCA/Columbia logo later on), this always plastered the Columbia Pictures logo on tapes of Columbia films.

**Editor's Note**: The "**Columbia Pictures**" company name can be briefly seen if one plays the logo in slow-motion and watches carefully.

## **Columbia TriStar Home Video/Entertainment**

### 3rd Logo (May 19, 1993-March 27, 2001)

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Nicknames: "CT Boxes III", "Part III: Will This Logo Ever Die?!", "Sliding Boxes", "Blue BG Boxes", "Day of the Boxes", "Cloudy Boxes", "Columbia Tristar III"

**Logo**: We see a screen full of clouds forming, tossing about in a time-lapse. Then, "COLUMBIA TRISTAR", in yellow zooms out from above, and "HOME VIDEO", in yellow shrinks out from below as we see the clouds zoom out, as part of a golden-bordered box on a blue-black gradient background. The box then duplicates itself and the two boxes slide to the left and the right whilst the Torch Lady on the left and the Pegasus on the right (in their the same styles as before) appear in the boxes, as the wording takes its position. The text shines for a few seconds after the logo is formed.

**Trivia:** This logo was used as the basis for the first ***Columbia TriStar International Television*** logo, and the first ***Columbia TriStar Television*** logo was patterned on it to an extent as well.

**Variants**:

* A still logo was found on early Columbia TriStar Home Video releases on DVD, as well as Mexican videotapes from 1997-99.
* There is also an abridged version for some New Line Home Video releases.
* On a home video TV spot for *Amos and Andrew*, it's placed on a black background alongside the 1991 New Line Home Video logo.
* On some later tapes, such as *Universal Soldier: The Return*, the 1999 Collector's Edition VHS of *Taxi Driver*, *The 6th Day*, and the first 6 VHS releases of *Dragon Tales,* the logo fades in.
* On some (mainly earlier) DVDs, such as *The Adventures of Milo and Otis*, the logo is darker and there's a visible dot crawl on the right side of the screen.
* An extremely rare variant exists where there are blue bars featuring small CTHV print logos on the sides of the logo. This version is seen on early DVDs and widescreen edition Laserdiscs.

Trailer Variants:

* From 1993-96, following the logo's formation, the boxes would then slide away, the CTHV text would fade out, the blue background fades out to the moving clouds and one of the following clip-ons would zoom in from the center of the screen:
	+ COMING SOON TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU
	+ COMING SOON TO HOME VIDEO

Afterwards, a trailer pertaining to one of these two clip-ons plays. On even rarer occasions, the logo starts already formed, then the trailer variant animation plays as normal, and the other clip-on appears.

* On Australian tapes, the logos and the text fades out and one of these:
	+ COMING SOON
	+ NOW AVAILABLE

would slide in from the top and bottom respectively.

**FX/SFX**: The zooming out effects; nice CGI for the time.

**Music/Sounds**: A rather dramatic synth theme with beating drums and cues of piano. The last note of the theme is held out for the rest of the logo.

**Music/Sounds Variants**:

* On the trailer variants, the theme (which appears to have been arranged differently, being performed in a sharper key than on the normal logo) would be followed by a male announcer announcing the text at the clip-on, whilst the music goes on longer than usual.
	+ On the during-trailers version, the theme starts over, and fades out earlier than usual.
* A silent version is used on later prints of the original VHS of *As Good as It Gets*.
* Depending on the specific tape, the music would end differently, either fading out to completion or having its ending cut off at any length.
* A low toned variant exists.
* On the 2000 DVD of *Thrill Ride: The Science of Fun*, the theme is slightly slower and warps at one point.

**Availability**: Very common, even today.

* Seen on the majority of VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD releases from Columbia TriStar Home Video, starting with the May 1993 home video release of *A River Runs Through It*.
* The abridged version can be found most New Line Home Video releases such as *National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1*, *Time Runner*, *Surf Ninjas*, *Three of Hearts*, *Needful Things*, *Malice*, *Man's Best Friend*, *Who's the Man?*, *Excessive Force*, *Chained Heat 2*, *Relentless 3*, *Relentless 4: Ashes to Ashes*, *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III*, and the unrated version of *Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday*.
* This also appears on later DVD reprints of titles such as *The Deep*, *Jason and the Argonauts*, *Oliver!*, *Muppets from Space*, *Air Force One*, *8MM*, and *The Mirror Has Two Faces*, as well as the 2005 VHS of *Matilda*, which likely used a tape master made for the original 1996 release.
* Tapes with the trailer variants include *Sleepless in Seattle*, *Bad Boys*, *The Net*, *Jury Duty*, and *Mary Shelley's Frankenstein*.
* The version with the cut-off ending to the music was heard on VHS prints of *Used Cars*, *Guarding Tess*, *Stand by Me*, *Willow*, *In the Line of Fire* (EP mode), *Sniper*, *Flatliners*, *The Craft*, *The Fan*, *Maximum Risk*, *St. Elmo's Fire*, *Revenge*, *Sleepwalkers*, *Howards End*, *Absence of Malice*, *Leon: The Professional*, *First Knight*, *The Big Hit*, *Cromwell*, *The Ambushers*, *Sidekicks*, *The Mouse That Roared*, and *Girl, Interrupted* (all without previews), as well as a Spanish-subtitled print of *The Patriot*.
* In Canada, this appears on tapes released by Astral Video after the Astral logo during the mid-1990s, including *Demon Possessed*, as well as some Motion International and TVA International titles such as *Out of Control (1988)*, *Someone is Watching*, *Little Men*, and *Stranger in the House*, and the Republic Pictures release *The Wrong Woman*.
* Surprisingly, on the 1997 VHS of *Double Team*, as well as a 1998 demo VHS of *Midnight Express* (after the previews) and 1999 reprints of *Immortal Beloved* and *Fools Rush In*, both this logo and the 1997 logo appeared. Also surprisingly, prints of the 1994 VHS releases of *Red Rock West* and *My Life* that don't carry previews omit this logo and go straight to the warning screen.
* Previewless prints of tapes with the 1996 and 1997 logos, such as *Money Train*, *The Devil's Own*, *The Cable Guy*, and *Jerry Maguire*, instead use this logo. Bizarrely, a previewless printing of *The Craft* replaces this logo with the one for TriStar Pictures!
* This also makes an appearance on an earlier pressing of the 2002 VHS of *Stuart Little* (released to coincide with *Stuart Little 2*), which is certainly a reprint of the earlier 2000 release.
* Its first appearances on DVD were limited to the fullscreen sides of the releases, as the widescreen sides instead used a different logo (see the 6th logo description for more). The first DVDs to use it on both sides of the disc were *Fools Rush In*, *Annie (1982)*, *In the Company of Men*, *Look Who's Talking*, and *Single White Female*, and the last discs to have it include *Solo*, *Bats*, the second edition of *Jumanji*, *Love Stinks*, *Blue Streak*, *To Sir, with Love*, *Random Hearts*, *Bear in the Big Blue House: Party Time with Bear*, and *The Man from Laramie*.
* This logo even makes an appearance at the beginning of the earliest *Dragon Tales* VHS releases from 2000 to 2001, which also feature the 1997 ***Children's Television Workshop*** semicircle logo after the closing credits, with *Keep on Trying* and *Let's Play Together* being the last tapes to use both.
* The last films that used this logo on VHS were *Charlie's Angels (2000)* and *The 6th Day*.
* On the 1996 VHS of *Striptease*, it appears at both the beginning and end.
* Only some international DVDs contain this logo, such as the 2000 release of *Total Recall*, as most use the 7th logo.

Editor's Note: This is a very popular logo among many, and was used longer than any other Columbia TriStar logo. It has drawn some criticism for its longevity.

### 4th Logo (1995-1996)

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Nicknames: "CT Boxes IV", "Part IV: Take Hollywood Home!", "Sliding Boxes II", "Land of the Boxes", "The Bedsheets", "The Boxes of Boredom Prototype", "Columbia Tristar IV"

**Logo**: We start out against a gp;d fabric background. Then a square with the footage of Columbia Torch Lady from the 1993 Columbia Pictures logo in it fades in, and slides to the left, revealing a box with the footage of the TriStar Pegasus from the 1993 TriStar Pictures logo (but the background is changed into a similar cloud background from the Columbia logo, but a bit shorter and darker), which slides to the right. The words "**COLUMBIA TRISTAR**" appear above the boxes and "**HOME VIDEO**" on the bottom with "a SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT company" below everything else.

**Trivia**: This logo (cloud variant) was later used for the second Columbia TriStar Television logo.

**Variation**: On releases outside of the Columbia TriStar Family Collection, the logo is on a sky background from the 3rd logo similar to the 1995 CTT logo, and the text is blue.

**FX/SFX**: The boxes fading in and sliding, the animations of the Columbia/TriStar logos in the boxes.

**Music/Sounds**: Either a nice synth theme with choir singing "TAKE HOLLYWOOD HOOOOOOOOOME!!!!!", or the opening theme of the trailer.

**Availability**: Very rare.

* It was used only on some tapes released by the short-lived Columbia TriStar Family Collection, such as *Real Genius*, *Willow*, *Ghostbusters* (only some printings, others use the 3rd logo), *The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.*, and *The Adventures of Milo and Otis*.
* The sky background variant is more common, but still hard to find, and can be found before trailers on VHS releases from 1995-97, such as *Persuasion* (which has it before a trailer for *Little Women (1994)*) and *Money Train* (which has it before a trailer for *The American President*).

### 5th Logo (1996-1998, 2004)

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Nicknames: "CT Boxes V", "Part V: Take Hollywood Home Again!", "Rising Boxes", "Survival of the Boxes", "Columbia Tristar V", "CT Boxes Wallpaper"

**Logo**: On a taupe brown background, we see a row of gold print logos of the Torch Lady and Pegasus in boxes at an angle. The Columbia and TriStar boxes (in their similar styles from the 4th and 5th logos, which this time, they are still and not animated), then rise out of two of the boxes in the center as the row of boxes tilts to face the screen. The 3-D words "COLUMBIA TRISTAR" and "HOME VIDEO" in gold, both fade in above and below the boxes, respectively with a shining wipe effect.

Trailer Variants: Many times, the boxes would then slide away, the CTHV text would fade out, and one of the following phrases, in script, would zoom in from the center of the logo:

* Coming Soon to a Theater Near You
* Coming Soon to Home Video
* Now Available on Home Video

Afterwards, a trailer with one of the following features would be played.

**Variants**:

* There is a shorter version that stops before revealing a clip-on.
* An extremely rare variant exists where there are blue bars featuring small CTHV print logos on both sides of the logo. This version is seen on early DVDs and widescreen Laserdiscs and videotapes.
* A still version is used on a home video trailer for *Dracula: Dead and Loving It*.

**FX/SFX**: Simple but nice animation.

**Music/Sounds**: Same as the previous logo, but the choir is less jolly and the music is orchestrated.

Music/Sounds Variants:

* On some trailers like both versions of the Family Collection trailer, the exact same music from the last logos are used.
* On the trailer variants of this logo, a 6-note piano jingle is added at the beginning.
* The 2nd version of the Family Collection trailer has a version similar to the one mentioned above, except the piano jingle is shortened to the last 4 notes.
* A silent version of the trailer variants appears on the 1997 demo VHS of *The Devil's Own*.

**Availability**: Rare. It was used for only 2 years. Sometimes it was alternated with the 1993 blue background logo, so as always, keep your eye out.

* The logo was used on the VHS releases of *Money Train*, *The Juror*, *Screamers*, *Bottle Rocket*, *Race the Sun*, *The Craft*, *Multiplicity*, *Mrs. Winterbourne*, *The Cable Guy*, *Matilda*, *Welcome to the Dollhouse*, *The Fan*, *Fly Away Home*, *High School High*, *The Mirror Has Two Faces*, *The People vs. Larry Flynt*, *Fools Rush In*, *Buddy*, and later printings of *Bad Boys*, *The Net*, and *Magic in the Water*. A 1997 reissue of *Who's Harry Crumb?* also contains the logo.
* The shorter version appeared on *Jumanji (1995)* (the clip-on does appear, but both are broken up by a Sony Maximum Television commercial), preview prints of *Jerry Maguire*, and the demo tapes of *The Celluloid Closet* and *High School High* (seen twice, bookending the demo tape previews).
* The widescreen version appears on the letterbox Laserdisc editions of *The Indian in the Cupboard*, *Lost in Yonkers*, and *The Cable Guy*, as well as Sony's earliest DVDs (circa spring and summer 1997), such as the original releases of *Jumanji*, *In the Line of Fire*, *Philadelphia*, *Little Women (1994)*, *Fly Away Home*, *A League of Their Own*, and *Immortal Beloved*.
* Strangely, no logo appears on the 1997 DVD releases of *Jerry Maguire*, *Last Action Hero*, *Bram Stoker's Dracula*, *Awakenings*, and *First Knight*.

### 6th Logo (November 18, 1997-January 20, 1998)

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Nicknames: "CT Boxes VI", "Part IV: They Seriously Used This?!: CTHV Edition", "Blue Print Boxes", "Diary of the Boxes", "Another 'Boxes of Boredom'", "Columbia Tristar VI"

**Logo**: Up against a royal blue background with many print logos of CTHV on it, we see the standard C-T boxes outlined in white with the white text "COLUMBIA TRISTAR" above and "HOME VIDEO" below the logo respectively.

**FX/SFX**: None.

**Music/Sounds**: Same as the 3rd logo.

**Availability**: Extremely rare.

* This was seen on the widescreen sides (the fullscreen sides use the 3rd logo) of the original DVD releases of *The Net*, *The Fifth Element*, and *Johnny Mnemonic*, as well as the original flipper versions of *Wolf*, *Happy Birthday to Me*, *Flatliners*, and *The Fan*. Bargain reprints of these titles should retain this logo (although since the 2004 reprint of *The Fan* is sourced from the disc's fullscreen side, it instead uses the 3rd logo).
* Shortly after this, Columbia TriStar began using the 3rd logo on both sides of their DVDs, starting with the early 1998 releases of *Fools Rush In*, *Annie (1982)*, *In the Company of Men*, *Look Who's Talking*, and *Single White Female*.

Editor's Note: This logo gained notoriety for its lack of creativity compared to the other logos. In addition, it also seems pointless to have made it considering there already existed a fully animated logo used on the fullscreen sides. But things get better with the next few...

### 7th Logo (July 22, 1997-April 3, 2001)

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Nicknames: "CT Boxes VII", "Part VII: Back To Normal? Not!", "The Filmstrip", "The C-T Filmstrip", "Revenge of the Boxes", "Columbia Tristar VII"

**Logo**: On an ethereal blue background, we see filmstrips crisscrossing the screen, with each frame in each filmstrip featuring the C-T box logo. We see a filmstrip in the center of the screen and then pan towards it, seeing the boxes in each frame and the endings of their respective movie animations playing out within them. As the final frame reaches the screen, the background turns white with several blue or light blue areas in each corner as the boxes (with the footage of the Torch Lady from the 1993 Columbia Pictures logo on the left and the footage of the Pegasus from the 1993 TriStar Pictures logo on the right) go into position. Then the words "COLUMBIA TRISTAR" and HOME VIDEO" fade in above and below the boxes, respectively.

**Variants**:

* A widescreen variant exists.
* On 2000s reprints of late 1990s-2000 VHS releases, "HOME ENTERTAINMENT" replaces "HOME VIDEO".
* On demo tapes featuring this logo, such as *Midnight Express* and *In God's Hands*, the logo fades in partway through and fades out about a second after the logo finishes forming. This appears twice on the tape, bookending the opening previews.
* On a promo for the 1999 Collector's Edition VHS of *Silverado* (which can be seen on fellow 1999 CE tape, *Taxi Driver*), the already-formed logo zooms in.

Trailer Variants: Many times, the boxes would then slide away, the CTHV text would fade out, and one of the following phrases, in script, would zoom in from the center of the logo:

* Coming Soon to a Theater Near You
* Now Playing in Theaters... Coming Soon to Home Video
* Coming Soon to Home Video
* Now Available on Home Video
* Now Available (this clip-on used for soundtrack album promos)

Afterwards, a trailer with one of the following features would be played.

**FX/SFX**: Great CGI. And if you thought this one was good, the next one is even more mind-blowing.
**Music/Sounds**: None, but on international releases, a generic hip hop-like jingle was used.
**Music/Sounds Variant**: On *The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo* and a home video trailer for *Annie (1982)*, the choir from the 5th logo is used.
**Availability**: During the beginning of its existence, it was pretty easy to spot. However, around 1998, this logo was no longer used as their standard logo, only being used for clip-ons and trailers, with the 1993 logo serving as their primary logo.

* Tapes with this logo include *The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo*, *Booty Call*, *The Devil's Own*, the Broadway Tribute Edition VHS release of *Annie*, *To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday*, *Anaconda*, *Double Team*, *The Fifth Element*, *Men in Black*, *My Best Friend's Wedding*, *Buddy*, *Excess Baggage*, *Air Force One*, *The Assignment*, *I Know What You Did Last Summer*, *Slappy and the Stinkers*, *Seven Years in Tibet*, *Gattaca*, the infamous *3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain*, and *Baby Geniuses*. The trailer variants were last seen on *Charlie's Angels*, *The 6th Day*, and *Circus*.
* It has also been seen on early UK DVD releases such as *Das Boot*, *Muppets from Space*, *Taxi Driver*, *Midnight Express*, *Total Recall,* and *The China Syndrome*.
* It also surprisingly appeared on a mid-2000s UK DVD of *Ghostbusters*, which must have been a reprint of an earlier DVD.
* The "HOME ENTERTAINMENT" version is rare and seen on post-2001 reprints of VHS tapes originally released in the late 90s-2000 such as *Grey Owl*.
* Also spotted on the 2000 region 4 DVD release of *Blue Streak* (with the jingle).

Editor's Note: An impressive turnaround from the previous logo, and a worthy direct successor to the 5th. Things only get better from here...

### 9th Logo (April 3, 2001-June 14, 2005)

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Nicknames: "Ultra Majestic Torch Lady-Pegasus Combo", "Part IX: End of an Era", "Last of Columbia TriStar", "Columbia Tristar IX"
**Logo**: Over the usual cloud background, we pan past an extreme close up of the Torch Lady's legs and feet (covered in the robe of course), then dissolve into a pan of the TriStar Pegasus (in the print artwork style except for the body and the legs, which are in the 1993 movie logo style, but in the same color as the Pegasus' face and wings) unfolding his wings. The pan then quickly dissolves into a shot from the center of the Pegasus unfolding his wings, albeit in a close-up fashion, and then a dissolve to the Torch Lady zooming out from her face. The logo then dissolves to reveal the Torch Lady and Pegasus side-by-side on a cloud background in their print artwork styles, with "COLUMBIA TRISTAR" slightly sliding in with "HOME ENTERTAINMENT", in a smaller font, fading in letter-by-letter.

Trivia:

* This is notable for being the last logo to use the "Columbia TriStar" brand prior to the foundation of Sony Pictures Television in 2002.
* Normally, the print logo of the original studio that released the film would be printed on the spine of a DVD/VHS, while TV releases and most non-Columbia/TriStar/Sony Pictures Classics films (such as *Sasquatch*, *The Mothman Prophecies*, *In the Cut*, *All I Want*, and *Drunken Master*) would have the CTHE print logo. However, the 2003 DVD of *Family Business* and a reprint of *My Stepmother is an Alien*, both respectively released by TriStar and Columbia, strangely have the CTHE print logo on its spine instead of the one for the original studio of release!
* On the demo VHS of *Kermit's Swamp Years*, the logo was shown, but it and the Jim Henson Home Entertainment logo are broken up by a second appearance of the FBI warning (video here), perhaps due to an editing mistake. However, this was corrected on the retail version.
* The 2005 release of *NewsRadio: The Complete First and Second Seasons* originally had the CTHE logo on its packaging as it was slated to come out as a CTHE title, but the set was delayed into the SPHE era, and as such the logo was changed on the packaging.

**Variants**:

* On the trailer for *Little Secrets*, "HOME ENTERTAINMENT" is removed. This is because the 4:3 fullscreen variant has been cropped into a 16:9 widescreen form.
* The rest of the top parts of the logo's aspect scaling is not seen on the VHS version, making the rendered footage appear a little bit tall with part of the top cropped off. It was re-adjusted for the DVD version, particularly the widescreen variant.
* On both versions, the color timing differs.
* The VHS version usually cuts to black at the end on U.S. titles without trailers (and on demo VHS tapes between the Hi-Fi Stereo logo and second appearance of the FBI warning), as well as on VCDs and DVDs with the theme. This variant would pop up before the later trailer variant on the very last tapes to use it, such as *Secret Window* and *The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: The Cat's Musical Tales*. In the United Kingdom, almost every VHS title has the logo fading out at the end but a few of them, such as *Bear in the Big Blue House: The Summer of Love*, have it cutting to black. It also appears on the retail VHS of *Soul Assassin* (containing previews), but it cuts directly to the Winchester Films logo before the film.
* After the trailers on demo videotapes, a shortened version of the logo is played between the trailers and FBI warning. Depending on the era of the tape, either the 2001 or 2004 variant is used.
* On the first trailer of *Kermit's Swamp Years*, the logo is identical to the DVD variant except that the saturation matches the VHS variant and with bobbing effect from the bob de-interlacing filter.
* On most Columbia TriStar DVDs from 2001-05, the logo is in warp-speed.
* The print logo has the typical boxes, with "COLUMBIA TRISTAR" above and "HOME ENTERTAINMENT" below; it's all on a white background. This logo appeared on a pair of TV-DVD promos from TV releases of the era, and also at the end of the documentary *People Like Us: Making Philadelphia* on the 2004 Anniversary Edition DVD of *Philadelphia*.
* VHS releases from 2004-05 have a shortened version of this logo with a trailer bump, but with the DVD music. This premiered on *Secret Window* after the full VHS variant; other titles with it include *Spider-Man 2*, *13 Going on 30* (first printing only), *White Chicks*, *Christmas with the Kranks*, *The Forgotten*, the Sony re-release of *Left Behind: The Movie*, *Fahrenheit 9/11*, and *Deadbirds*. The very last titles with this, such as *Submerged*, *D.E.B.S.*, and *Hitch*, have its first occurrence follow the SPHE logo.
* On the demo VHS of *Love and a Bullet*, due to a processing error after the HiFi Stereo logo, the beginning of the logo where the first notes and the clicking sound heard are edited out.
* There is a 2.35:1 scope version. This appears on the 2001 UK DVD release of *Dirty Dancing*, with the VHS music, and on a red band home video trailer for *The Crimson Rivers*, with the trailer's own audio.
* On some VCDs, such as *Metropolis*, *Riding in Cars with Boys*, and *Ghosts of Mars*, a cropped 16:9 version is used, with the VHS music.
* On a home video trailer for *Following*, which appears on the 2001 VHS and DVD releases of *Memento*, the logo fades in already formed, with the light emanating from the Torch Lady's torch as the only animation. This variant marks the logo's very first appearance on DVD.
	+ A "squeezed" version of this (the widescreen variant squished into a 1.33:1 frame) appears at the start of the trailer for *When Strangers Appear*, which can be found on the 2002 demo VHS of *True Blue*.
* On the VHS release of *Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Tesca Campaign*, an even shorter version is used, starting right before the "Coming Soon to Home Video" clip-on fades in.
* On the DVD release of *Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within* (one of the first DVDs to contain the fully animated logo), the logo irises out until only the Torch Lady's face is shown, which then fades to the start of the main menu.
* On the trailer for *Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation*, the logo starts with the fourth and third shots playing in the opposite order (albeit sloppily edited, as you can briefly see the fade from the second to third shot once it cuts there), before cutting to the final shot.

Trailer Variants: On VHS tapes with previews from this era, letters would appear on top of the screen, in the form of one of the following:

* Coming Soon to Theaters
* Now Playing In Theaters
* Coming Soon to Home Video
* Now Available on Home Video
* Coming Soon to VHS & DVD
* Now Available on VHS & DVD
* Coming Soon to DVD
* Now Available on DVD

A male announcer (Greg O'Neil) reads the clip-on, and a trailer follows. However, during the previews, the logo is shortened to both shots of the Pegasus and the second shot of the Torch Lady, presented in letterbox and with the text on the black bars.
International Trailer Variant: On early Australian releases, the logo plays normally and in the top right of the screen letters appear spelling "COMING SOON." Tapes with this include *Charlie's Angels*, *Wicked*, and *Vertical Limit*.
**FX/SFX**: Of course, what's mentioned in the description doesn't cover the entire logo. Throughout the animation, the logos are artistically stylized, with mosaic and pixelization effects being used through the logo and a scrolling Matrix-like wall of typography appearing throughout. Also, the designers of the logo, Montgomery/Cobb, retouched the face of the Torch Lady and the wings of the Pegasus to make them look more realistic. The dissolves are done gradually, almost like wipes, and the logo seems to be divided up into five sections during the animation, before coming together as an actual logo at the end. The logo looks quite nice and artistic as a result.
**Music/Sounds**: There were two different jingles:

* VHS (and most VCDs/some DVDs): Composed by Machine Head of Venice, California, the clicking noise comes first, it begins with a wonderful synthesized fanfare that is very majestic, fitting the majestic feel of the logo. Also, it would be interesting to note that the logo was considered one of the longest, clocking in at nearly 20 seconds, until others such as Hendring Limited, Photo-Video, The ABM Group, and Hammer Video Home were discovered.
* DVD (and most Thai VCDs/later VHS tapes): Begins with a shorter acoustic guitar tune that rises into a triumphant theme with bells, strings, a piano and a small chorus.

**Music/Sounds Variants**:

* At the start of the trailer reels on VHS tapes, the clicking noise normally heard at the beginning of the VHS version is absent.
* On *Kermit's Swamp Years*, the audio is synced within the 2001 ***Jim Henson Home Entertainment*** logo which extends the audio with the sped up track of the ***Jim Henson Interactive*** logo to perform the complete jingle. In order for this to occur, this logo goes right into the Henson logo. *Bear in the Big Blue House Live* has the jingles separated, which allows the Jim Henson logo to start its jingle after the logo dissolves.
* On trailers featuring this logo, the trailer music plays over the logo.
* On the *Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within* variant, wind is heard in place of the music.
* A silent version appears on the DVD of *Punch Drunk Love* (where it follows the MPAA rating screen, which usually appears just after hitting "Play Movie" on the main menu of most DVDs).
* On the 2002 DVS VHS of *Spider-Man*, Miles Neff says the following over the logo: "In a painting, a woman stands on a tiered pedestal. A winged white horse gallops under a dawning blue sky. The woman wears a Roman toga and holds a torch aloft. The winged horse and the woman stand side-by-side over the words, 'Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.'"

Music/Sounds Trivia: The Maroon 5 track "Must Get Out" features a similar ending to the VHS theme, but played with different instruments.
**Availability**: Common on VHS, VCD, and DVD releases from the era. Some of them are still in print.

* The first releases to contain the logo were *Circus* and *Agent Red*, while the trailer variants first appeared three weeks later on *Finding Forrester*. Other titles that have it include numerous *Berenstain Bears* and *Dragon Tales* releases from the time, *Underworld*, *Hellboy*, *Mr. Deeds*, the first two *Spider-Man* movies, *Radio*, *Lone Star State of Mind*, and pre-SPHE season sets of *The King of Queens*, *Sanford and Son*, *The Jeffersons*, *All in the Family*, *Good Times*, and *Seinfeld*, among others.
* Tapes featuring this logo without the clip-on at the top include *Jay Jay the Jet Plane: Fun to Learn, Jay Jay the Jet Plane: Nature’s Treasures and* *Jay Jay the Jet Plane: New Friends, New Discoveries*, reissues of *Places in the Heart* and *Under Suspicion*, previewless prints of titles such as *The Animal*, *Not Another Teen Movie*, *Black Hawk Down*, *Daddy Day Care*, *Panic Room*, *Spider-Man* and *Half Past Dead*, and *Sunshine State*, which features it after the opening previews, in-between the Surround Sound logo and modified screen. It was also used on demo tapes, which had the main feature's original trailer directly following the logo.
* The VHS theme was for the most part exclusive to its format, but has been spotted on the R1 DVD of the Jeffrey Blitz documentary *Spellbound*. It is also seen on the Region 2 DVDs of *Charlie's Angels (2000)*, *The Order*, *China Moon*, *The Princess Bride*, *Cromwell*, and a 2004 printing of *S.W.A.T (2003)*. It also appears (in widescreen) on the R4 DVD release of *Born Free & Living Free*. VCDs with it include *Snatch* and *Bad Boys II*. Thai VCDs mostly used the DVD music, but the VHS theme can be heard on *In the Line of Fire*, *Vertical Limit*, and *Legends of the Fall*.
* Conversely, the DVD theme has made appearances at the end of the VHS of *Jay Jay the Jet Plane: Soaring Sky High* (among other titles; not counting the first three), and at the beginning of some 2002-04 Australian tapes, such as *America's Sweethearts* and *Secret Window* (others, such as *Spider-Man 2*, still use the VHS version); the complete second music variant with the jingles synced only appears at the start of *Kermit's Swamp Years*. On U.S. tapes, this variant also appears (in widescreen form) on demo tapes from 2004-05 such as *Lightning in a Bottle*.
* On DVDs released prior to the last quarter of 2001, the 8th logo was used. The DVD music was first heard on the first wave of Superbit releases (*Air Force One*, *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*, *Desperado*, *The Fifth Element*, and *Johnny Mnemonic*), while the first regular DVDs to use it were *Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Special Edition*, *Jabberwocky*, *On the Waterfront*, *Funny Girl*, and *Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies*.
* Strangely, this logo was not seen on the 2001 VHS releases (containing trailers) of *The Animal*, *A Knight's Tale*, and *Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within*; it just goes straight to their widescreen "Coming Soon to Home Video" bumper. Likewise, some tapes, such as *Auto Focus* and *Big Girls Don't Cry*, only use one clip-on.
* In regards to the trailer variants, the "HOME VIDEO" clip-ons were last seen on *National Security* and the demo VHS of *Punch-Drunk Love*, while the "VHS & DVD" clip-ons premiered on *Tears of the Sun*.
* In the U.S., some of the last titles to use the DVD variant include *Leon: The Professional: Deluxe Edition* and *Seinfeld: Season 4*, and it may have last appeared on *NewsRadio: The Complete First and Second Seasons* (see "Trivia" for more).
* On UK videotapes, titles with previews have the VHS version appear before the warning screen, while some 2002-2005 re-releases without previews under the manufacturing of *Universal Pictures Home Entertainment|Universal Pictures UK* have it afterwards.
* Surprisingly, the VHS version still appeared on French Canadian tapes even during the SPHE era, such as *Hellboy* and *Stealth*, as well as on the U.S. VHS reissues of *Revelation* and *Judgment*, neither of which contain any previews.

Editor's Note: It's a popular logo now that the widely hated "Split Boxes" have been put to rest. A nice fanfare and great logo concept makes this logo a winner.