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July 24, 2000

DVDTalk.com reported a number of rumored release dates from their attendance of the VSDA (Video Software Dealers Association) Conference in Las Vegas on July 8-10.  We have included these titles and their rumored street dates (read: very much subject to change) on our Upcoming Releases page.  Among the titles mentioned are: Virgin Suicides (9/19), The Patriot (10/24), Battlefield Earth (10/24), Frequency (10/31), Road To El Dorado (10/31), Dr. Doolittle (10/31), Titan AE (11/7), Gladiator (11/14), Mission Impossible 2 (11/14), Shanghai Noon (11/14), Fantasia 2000 (11/14), Chicken Run (11/21), X-Men (11/21), A Perfect Storm (11/21), Big Mama's House (11/21), and Me Myself & Irene (12/5).  Even if only half of these rumors hold true, it will still be a great holiday season this Fall.  As we hear confirmation of these rumors, we will update their status.

 

Using more reliable retailer sources, we also added the following titles to our Upcoming Releases page: A Bug's Life: Gold Collection (8/1), Dragonheart: A New Beginning (8/8), Premonition (8/15), Jet Li Collection DVD box set (8/15), Beyond The Mat (8/22), The Big Kahuna (8/29), and the Scream Trilogy box set (9/26).

 

DVDTalk.com also reported that their petition for Disney to add the original Japanese language track on the Princess Mononoke DVD release, originally slated for August 29 release, is successful.  Disney recently put forth a bulletin stating that the VHS release is a go, but the DVD version is postponed for the inclusion of the Japanese language track and possibly additional bonus materials.  Good going DVDTalk.com and its readers!  And thanks to Buena Vista Home Entertainment for listening to its DVD audience.  It's a win-win situation for everyone involved.

 

Finally, we added our review of The Ninth Gate DVD.

July 21, 2000

We completed a couple of DVD movie reviews today: What Planet Are You From?, and The Whole Nine Yards.  Read these and our other DVD movie reviews.

 

July 16, 2000

We just added a few Disney DVD titles to our Upcoming Releases page: Mission to Mars (9/12), East Is East (9/12), Stiff Upper Lips (9/12), High Fidelity (9/19), and Alien Visitor (9/19).

 

July 13, 2000

On the hardware side, we posted a full review of the new Panasonic DVD-LV75 portable DVD player with a 7-inch LCD screen.  It's a pretty awesome unit.  We also placed this model on our list of recommended DVD players.  Read the full review.

 

July 8, 2000

We just added a review of The Talented Mr. Ripley DVD.  Read our review.

 

July 7, 2000

A DreamWorks press release today announced the release date for American Beauty: October 24.

 

July 4, 2000

Happy Independence Day fellow Americans!

 

We just updated our Upcoming Releases page with the following DVD titles: The Naked Gun: SE (8/15), The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear: SE (8/15), The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult: SE (8/15), The Next Best Thing (8/29), Stand By Me: SE (8/29), The Sound of Music (8/29), Little Mermaid 2: Return To The Sea (9/5), Dr. Doolittle (10/31), Miracle on 34th Street (10/31), Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas (10/31), The X-Files: Season Two Gift Set (11/7), and Pete's Dragon (12/5).

 

June 24, 2000

We added a review of the Fight Club (Special Edition) DVD today.  The review includes a section on the new THX Optimode feature.  (Also see the June 4, 2000 entry for more information.)

 

June 21, 2000

The much-anticipated DVD release of Disney and Pixar's Toy Story and Toy Story 2 is on October 17.

June 19, 2000

We added the following DVD titles to our Upcoming Releases page: My Dog Skip (7/11), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (7/11), Reindeer Games (8/8), Erin Brockovich (8/15), Cider House Rules (8/15), The Tigger Movie (8/22), Braveheart (8/29), James and the Giant Peach (10/3), The Nightmare Before Christmas (10/3), Jurassic Park (10/10), and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (10/10).

 

June 4, 2000

This Tuesday's release of the Fight Club Special Edition DVD is the first DVD to include the new THX Optimode feature.  Consisting of a series of tests, THX Optimode allows the consumer to "fine-tune" certain audio and video aspects of their home theater system to maximize their viewing experience.  The THX Optimode feature essentially provides a means in which the consumer can ensure that they are watching the DVD title the way the director has intended by performing a few simple calibrations of their home theater system (e.g., video system's color and tone balance, contrast, and brightness; and the audio system's speaker levels) to the reference signals as provided during the DVD's THX mastering process.  Read the full press release.

 

Editor's Note: To read more about the THX Optimode feature on the Fight Club Special Edition DVD, click here.

 

May 22, 2000

On the hardware side, we added DVD player comparison charts today.  They are organized into three (3) pages: basic features, video features, and audio features.  Be sure to check them out if you're in the market for a new DVD player, or share it with someone who is.  Explanations of the key features and specifications are at the bottom of each page.  If you're still confused, try our DVD Buying Guide.

 

May 19, 2000

Today, we added a number of new titles to our Upcoming Releases page.  These titles include: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (5/23), Drowning Mona (7/25), Steel Magnolias (7/25), The Secret of Roan Inish (7/25), Whatever It Takes (8/1), Misery (8/1), Fargo (8/15), Kalifornia (8/15), Platoon (8/15), Six Degrees of Separation (8/15), and Boogie Nights (8/29) as a 2-disc Double Platinum Edition.  Perhaps the best news of all is that Terminator 2: Judgment Day is coming out on August 29 as an Ultimate Edition, according to The Digital Bits.  It will be THX certified and has 3 versions: the original theatrical version, a director's cut with an additional 15 minutes of footage, and a new special cut with "never before seen" footage.  To hold all this material, it is pressed as a single DVD-18 disc, a double-sided, dual-layered DVD, capable of holding nearly 8 hours of video.

 

For the younger audience, we're happy to announce that Beethovan's 3rd is coming out on July 25, Bear in the Big Blue House: Shapes, Sounds & Colors with Bear is scheduled for release on August 1, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins is available directly on DVD on August 8.

 

May 16, 2000

We are starting to write DVD movie reviews, in the hopes that you'll find them useful and a quick read.  We're pretty sure you would rather spend time enjoying DVDs.  In that light, we'll focus on writing reviews on movies that we would recommend.  There's no use wasting both of our time writing and reading reviews about movies that we don't recommend.  Over the weekend, we wrote a review for the Stuart Little Collector's Series DVD.  Today, we completed our review on the newly released (today, in fact) The World Is Not Enough Special Edition DVD.

 

May 12, 2000

May 10, 2000

Great news for video game lovers: Sony announced that it will begin selling its new game console, PlayStation 2, in North America on October 26, 2000 for about $299.  Introduced several months ago in Japan, this new game console will include DVD-Video playback and broadband internet access (i.e., cable modem) capabilities.  Read the full article.

 

Also announced today, Toshiba will introduce its first NUON-enhanced DVD players to the U.S. market in the third quarter.  Read Toshiba's press release.  A collection of DVD, digital TV, and home theater news articles can be found on our News page.

 

May 6, 2000

We changed our name from the DVD Reference Standard to TimeForDVD.com and went "live" with our new web site at a new dedicated domain, http://TimeForDVD.com/ !  Our web pages load significantly faster than those on the old site.  Let us know what you think--we'd love to hear from you.  Sign up for our free e-Newsletter to stay current with changes to our web site.  And tell your family members, friends, and colleagues who may be shopping for a DVD player or DVD movies about this web site.

 

May 3, 2000

Well, this article officially confirms the success of the Star Wars on DVD petition.  That's a precedent--and that's great!

 

April 30, 2000

April 25, 2000

Director Steven Spielberg has announced plans to begin releasing his movies on the DVD format, starting with his 1975-classic Jaws on July 11, and E.T., the Extra- Terrestrial later this year (read the full article).  To date Mr. Spielberg has only a handful of DVD movie releases (Saving Private Ryan, 1941, and Always), due to his concerns of copyright protection, consumer adoption rate of DVD, and availability of the dts surround sound format on DVD.  (The dts format was available on DVD, DVD players, and decoding equipment in late 1998/early 1999--some 18 months after the initial introduction of DVD.)  By the way, dts is Mr. Spielberg's surround sound format of choice, as Jurassic Park was the first film to use the dts format.

 

With Mr. Spielberg's and Mr. Lucas' support of the DVD format, DVD movie and DVD player sales are bound to take off even more in the second half of this year.  In fact, the DVD Entertainment Group is forecasting that 12 million homes will have DVD players by the end of this year--that is up from the current number of 6.5 million homes!  Wow, considering DVD was introduced in March 1997 (just over three years ago).

 

April 19, 2000

A follow-up from The Digital Bits: Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace is currently being produced on DVD and rumors have that it will be a 1st quarter 2001 release, followed by a 4th quarter release of the original Star Wars Trilogy (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi).  That's a long time to wait.

 

April 14, 2000

According to The Digital Bits today, Mr. George Lucas stated on a radio station in Los Angeles that his Lucasfilm team is working on the DVD for Star Wars: Episode 1.  (Coincidently, we just finished watching the video this evening.)  Funny, how this bit of news gets out after the release of the video.  The expectation was that Mr. Lucas had no plans to produce the DVD version of Star Wars: Episode I anytime soon (actually at least before 2005).  There was an uproar in the DVD fan community, as exemplified by the Star Wars on DVD petition, organized by the DVDfile.com site.  Hmmm.... maybe the petition is working... Anyways, we'll let you know as soon as we hear of the release date.

 

April 9, 2000

We got some good news for Disney and Pixar Studios fans, the obligatory "commercials" at the beginning of Disney's An Extremely Goofy Movie DVD states that Toy Story 2 will be coming soon to DVD (and video).  We interpret "coming soon" to be this summer.  We'll keep you posted...

 

March 29, 2000

We have re-designed and updated our home page for faster downloading.  A few days ago, we added many DVD upcoming releases.  Most titles are announced 2-3 months in advance, though release dates are subject to change by the studios.  To save you time, we comb through the long lists (up to several hundred titles are released per month!) and pick out the blockbuster, mainstream, and family-oriented titles to save you time.  Be sure to check out our list every week for new updates.  Newly added titles are designated with "New" for about two weeks for our regular readers.  For the best value, consider pre-ordering (before the release date) as the price usually increases 17-25% once the title is released.  For the best deals possible, check out our Special Offers and Discounts for DVD movies.

 

March 26, 2000 

Congratulations to the Academy Awards winners (and nominees)!  Check out the official Oscar web site.  Remember, many Oscar nominated movies and winners are available on DVD (or soon-to-be-available).

 

February 29, 2000

The debut of our web site (originally as the "DVD Reference Standard")!  Please read about this site.

 

 

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Your comments and suggestions are always welcomed.  Please e-mail us at:

          Editor@TimeForDVD.com
 

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Return to: Current Commentaries & Tidbits, 
                    August - September 2000 archives