Sony Pictures Home Entertainment/Summary

Background
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the DVD and Blu-ray Disc distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, 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 releases 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 the CBS Films theatrical releases co-distributed by CBS Home Entertainment. Since June 20, 2007, SPHE now handles the former Sony BMG kids label, Sony Wonder.

(November 1979-November 1982)
Nickname : "The Sunburst"

Logo : The same as the 1975-1981 Columbia Pictures "Sunburst" theatrical logo, but there is a video freeze at the end, with "Columbia Pictures " blacked out.

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.

FX/SFX : Same as the "Sunburst" logo.

Cheesy Factor : The freeze-frame effect looks cheesy, and the font (which looks out of place) is obviously tacked/chryoned on top of the original Sunburst logo, plastering the "Columbia Pictures " company name (which can be briefly seen if one plays the logo in slow-motion and watches carefully).

Music/Sounds : Same as the theatrical version.

Availability : Has rare written all over it. Amazingly, Columbia TriStar Home Video kept this logo on the 1990's VHS issues of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 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-Eighties video release of Holy Grail. You can also find this logo on the original Seventies clamshell releases of Born Free, Breakout, The New Centurions, The Deep, You Light Up My Life, and Fun with Dick and Jane (1977). Surprisingly, this logo also appeared on early-to-mid-Eighties video prints of Gerald McBoing Boing and Mr. Magoo cartoons. The black & white version appears on Gilda. 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), Love and Anarchy, To Forget Venice, and the aforementioned Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

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

RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video
===1st Logo (June 1983-October 1987)===

Nicknames : "The Cube", "The Spinning Cube", "RCA/Columbia Box II", "CGI RCA/Columbia Box", "The RCA/Columbia Cube"

Logo : On a black background, we see a rotating cube, featuring the same logo as stated above on each side (either 1, 3, or 4 sides). The main difference to the logo, however, is that the border is now silvery, with "HOME VIDEO " etched in silver. A white sparkle appears on the side as it rotates.

Variant : On some of the last releases to use this logo, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and early prints of City Slickers, it fades out earlier than usual.

FX/SFX : The CGI rotating cube, the white sparkle. Nice effects, but pales in comparison to its international counterpart.

Music/Sounds : None.

Music/Sounds Variant : On No Holds Barred, the New Line Cinema logo is plastered by this logo, keeping the film's opening title music and sound effects (of a ring announcer and a cheering crowd) while this logo is playing. Strangely, this plaster was retained on a Showtime airing from December 1990 (presumably Showtime used a transfer of a video master in this case).

Availability : This logo is slightly easier to come across, seeing that it is more recent. However, this logo was only used in the United States and Canada.
 * Again, Columbia releases went straight to the movie until 1989 (the last release to do so was Ghostbusters II). Also, from 1986-87, this logo was restricted to the trailer portion of the tapes.
 * Releases that had this logo include True Believer, Casualties of War, Postcards from the Edge, Glory, Pump Up the Volume, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, Far Out Man, The Blob (1988), the uncut version of 976-EVIL, The Phantom of the Opera (1989), Xtro II: The Second Encounter, Critters 2, Night of the Living Dead (1990), Relentless, Hit List, Out of the Dark, Clownhouse, Hairspray (1988), Fast Getaway, Who's Harry Crumb?, Look Who's Talking 1 & 2,The Gods Must Be Crazy II, Troop Beverly Hills, Awakenings, Willow (a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release produced by Lucasfilm Ltd.), and many, many more.
 * The logo appears twice on the 1990 letterbox VHS of Picnic, before and after the "Columbia Classics" promo.
 * Early prints of Another You have the RCA/Columbia print logo, but neither this nor the first CTHV logo are on the tape.

RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video
===1st Logo (1982-1991?)===

Nicknames : "The International Spinning Cube", "RCA/Columbia Box II", "The RCA/Columbia Cube", "The CGI Cube"

Logo:  On a black background, a 3D cube comes up from the screen. It has the RCA logo in red at the top and "INTERNATIONAL VIDEO" at the bottom. Then the Columbia Pictures print logo in blue and white swoops up from the bottom. The cube spins once and settles down, facing the viewers.

Variations :


 * On some PAL tapes, the animation takes place on a pale marble background. When the logo has finished animating, it "ripples" out and the warning scrolls up, when the ripples ended.
 * On releases from Contacto Video in Colombia, the RCA/Columbia logo shrinks down to the lower right of the screen. Then the Contacto Video logo animates, then it shrinks and moves to the upper-left of the screen.
 * On the 1990 VHS release of Radio Days, at the end, there is a flash and the logo turns into the silvery print logo, which shines.

FX/SFX : The 3D cube rising, the Columbia Pictures print logo rising from the bottom.

Music/Sounds : A dramatic 1980s-sounding synthesized fanfare, complete with a couple whooshes, or a generic theme. Sometimes it is silent.

Availability : Rare. Like the previous logo, it was only used outside of North America, but you'll spot it if you have a NTSC tape from Mexico or Japan, or a SECAM tape. The normal variant appears on UK releases of Flatliners and Ghostbusters II, while the marble background variant appears on Hope and Glory.

Editor's Note : The music hasn't really aged well, but the pretty neat CGI gives this logo an edge over its American counterpart.

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment
===1st Logo (December 1991-September 9, 1992, 1993, 1995)===

Nicknames : "Ultra Majestic Torch Lady-Pegasus Combo", "The Lack of Boxes", "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 using the "Columbia TriStar" brand since Columbia TriStar (Domestic/International) Television's rebranding in 2002.
 * 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: Seasons 1 & 2 originally had the CTHE logo on its packaging, but 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.
 * The rest of the top parts of the logo's aspect scaling is not seen on the VHS version of the logo making the rendered footage appear a little bit tall with part of the top cropped off. It was re-adjusted for the 2nd music variant for DVDs especially for the widescreen version.
 * Another difference with these have different color adjustments.
 * The VHS version of the logo 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 FBI Warning), even on VCDs and DVDs where this variant is used. The cut-to-black version of the first music variant occasionally pops up before the shortened widescreen trailer version of the logo on 2004-05 tapes such as The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss video 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.
 * 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 2002-05, 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 was never used on general releases. This can also be found on certain promos of TV series by Sony Pictures Television.
 * On VHS releases from 2004-05, it has a shortened version of this logo with a trailer bump, but with the DVD music. Seen on Spider-Man 2, 13 Going on 30 (first printing only), White Chicks, Christmas with the Kranks, The Forgotten, Left Behind: The Movie, and Fahrenheit 9/11.
 * 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, a 16:9 version is used, with the VHS music.
 * On a home video trailer for Following found on the 2001 DVD release of Memento, the logo fades in already formed, with the light emanating from the Torch Lady's torch as the only animation.

Trailer Variants : Rarely, letters would appear on top of the screen, and it, in regular font, with an announcer (Eric Gordon), would state the following (on VHS promos, half of the logo is playing in widescreen and the words are on the wide boxes): Afterwards, a trailer with one of the following features would be played.
 * Now Playing In Theaters
 * Coming Soon To Theaters
 * Now Available on VHS and DVD
 * Coming Soon To VHS and DVD
 * Now Available
 * Coming Soon to Home Video
 * Now Available on Home Video
 * Coming Soon to DVD
 * Now Available on DVD

International Trailer Variants : On early Australian releases the logo plays normally and in the top right of the screen letters appear spelling "COMING SOON". So far this has only been spotted on a 2001 Aussie VHS release of Charlie's Angels.

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 early VCDs/DVDs) : Composed by Machine Head of Venice, California, 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 later international VHS) : An acoustic guitar tune combined with bells, strings, and a small chorus.

Music/Sounds Variants :
 * On the VHS trailer version of this logo, the clicking noise heard at the beginning of the regular VHS version of the logo 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.

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 VHS to contain the logo was 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, 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 and Jay Jay the Jet Plane: New Friends, New Discoveries, along with some prints of The Animal, Not Another Teen Movie, Black Hawk Down, and Daddy Day Care.
 * 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) and a 2004 printing of S.W.A.T (2003). A widescreen version has also been spotted on the R4 DVD release of Born Free & Living Free.
 * Conversely, the DVD theme has made an appearance at the end of the VHS of Jay Jay the Jet Plane: Soaring Sky High (among other titles); the complete second music variant with the jingles synced only appears at the start of Kermit's Swamp Years.
 * On DVDs released prior to 2002, the 8th logo was used.
 * Strangely, this logo was not seen on the 2001 VHS releases (containing trailers) of The Animal and A Knight's Tale; it just goes straight to their widescreen "Coming Soon to Home Video" bumper.
 * Some of the last titles to use this include Leon: The Professional: Deluxe Edition and Seinfeld: Season 4, and it may have last appeared on NewsRadio: Seasons 1 & 2 (see "Trivia" for more).

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.

(March 22, 2005- )
Nicknames : "The Shining Bars", "Ultra Majestic Sony Pictures Bars", "SPE Bars", "Sony Bars", "The Sony Parallelogram", "Lightbeam in Parallelogram", "Lightbeam in Striped Parallelogram"

Logo : Over a set of purple clouds, we see a bright light with rays shooting outward which start to create some lens flares. A set of white lines of light appear and zoom out to solidify into the Shining Bars, Sony Pictures Entertainment's logo, which give off rays of light. As this happens, the background turns black. The rays die down and we see "SONY PICTURES " in the Sony font appear below the Bars, a line is drawn underneath that, and "HOME ENTERTAINMENT " appears underneath.

Trailer Variants : On 2005-06 VHS releases by SPHE, one of the following clip-ons would appear early in the animation: Afterwards, a trailer with one of the following features would be played.
 * Coming Soon to Theaters
 * Now Playing in Theaters
 * Coming Soon to DVD and Video
 * Now Available on DVD and Video

Variants :
 * On Blu-ray Discs since June 20, 2006, as well as a few DVDs since December 26, 2005, the logo is much more contrasted.
 * On the Classic Comedy TV (Urban)/Classic Urban TV preview found on Sanford and Son: The Sixth Season and Soap: The Complete Fourth Season, a still of the logo blinks several times in tune with the trailer's rap beat.
 * On a trailer for Ringers: Lord of the Fans found on disc 2 of An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder, after the complete logo plays, it quickly fades into footage from the film.

FX/SFX : Just great CGI; much better animation than its TV counterpart.

Music/Sounds : Two timpani drumbeats, followed by an uplifting-sounding horn/string arrangement.

Music/Sounds Variants :
 * Sometimes, the theme plays in either low or high tone.
 * Sometimes, the theme is off-sync with the logo.
 * On the double feature set of Annie/Annie: A Royal Adventure, disc 1 (Annie) has the music from the 3rd CTHV logo. That disc is likely a modified reprint of the original 1997 flipper DVD that has both widescreen and fullscreen versions, which may explain this plaster oddity.
 * On the trailer for Ringers: Lord of the Fans, instead of the music, we hear people talking over the logo.
 * On the VHS trailer variant, a male voiceover says the clip-on.

Availability : Common. Can be found on all videos released by the company from 2005 onward.
 * The print SPHE logo goes back to November 2004, and those early SPHE releases (including reprints) still have either the 1993 CTHV logo, or the 2001 CTHE logo. The animated SPHE logo made its debut on the PSP UMD of Spider-Man 2 in the spring of 2005. The first DVD to have this logo was Are We There Yet?, released on May 24, 2005.
 * The trailer variants can be considered very rare, as this logo debuted shortly before VHS was discontinued, but they can be seen on SPHE tapes such as Guess Who, Zathura, Into the Blue, Bewitched, Layer Cake, The Amityville Horror (2005), Stealth, The Marksman, Are We There Yet?, Hitch, Lords of Dogtown, The Fog (Widescreen Unrated version), Boogeyman, The Gospel, Man of the House, xXx: State of the Union, The Legend of Zorro, Madison, Subemerged, Man of the House and The Berenstain Bears VHS releases from 2005-2006, and made their final appearance on Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild.
 * Strangely, this logo appeared on TV airings of Open Season 2 and Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild, among other direct-to-DVD films.
 * Don't expect this on the 2017 DVD releases of Morgan Creek films, strangely.