Syme Home Video

Background

Syme Home Video was the video arm of David Syme and Company, publishers of a newspaper called The Age. The video company, as with the newspaper, was headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. It began releasing titles in the fall of 1982, and released special interest, comedy, drama, music, and cartoon videos, as well as the catalogue of Walt Disney Home Video. The company ceased operations in the summer of 1986, a year after its corporate parent was acquired by Fairfax Media.

Logo (1982-1986)

Visuals: The screen is divided into 2 halves: the top half is black with stars dotting the top of the screen, while the bottom half is covered in a shaded, blinds-like purple floor, and a white hazy line divides the 2 halves of the screen. A white grid unfolds across the bottom half of the screen, and after that, "SYME" zooms in with a black drop shadow, as 3 starry lights fly out from the right side and over to the left. A ping appears on the "S" in "SYME", and the grid pulls out from below, revealing "HOME VIDEO" stacked below it unfolding. The end result shows "SYME HOME VIDEO".

Technique: Early computer effects.

Audio: An eerie synth that rises in pitch, which ends with a loud Charter Entertainment-like synth.

Availability: Seen on old PAL tapes released in Australia and New Zealand.

According to the archives of its co-owned newspaper (The Age), titles released by Syme included the Australian Opera production of Die Fleidermaus, Fatty Finn, Doctors and Nurses. An Audience with Mel Brooks, and such Cannon Films items as The Last American Virgin and 10 to Midnight.
The archives of the same newspaper's future sister publication (The Sydney Morning Herald) note that other titles Syme released included The Devil's Advocate (an Australian film that bears no relation to the 1997 Warner Bros. drama), the Sutherland-Pavarotti Concert, Dark Eyes, episodes of The Prisoner, and Forty Thousand Horsemen, which appears to be the most recent of these titles, as it was reviewed in the issue of the paper dated 12 May 1986.
Don't expect this to appear on any of the Disney tapes that were released by Syme; depending on the tape, those only use either the first or second Walt Disney Home Video logos.