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The Digital Bits: We Know DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, SACD & High-Definition

FEATURED COLUMNS
Hunt: My Two Cents Daily Rowe: MusicTAP 11/23 Maxwell: Classic Coming Attractions 10/28
Doogan: Doogan's Views 9/21 DVD/BD: Release Dates & Artwork 11/24 Maxwell: High-Definition Matters 9/2
Harris: Yellow Layer Failure 3/20 Jahnke: Bottom Shelf / E-Theatre 11/17 Siegel: Golden Hollywood 6/9
WHAT'S NEW
11/24 DAILY COLUMN: Paranormal Activity & more, plus MAJOR Amazon deals all week! 11:45 AM PDT
11/24 RELEASE DATES & ART: The weekly cover art update - pre-order DVD/BDs & support The Bits!
11/23 DAILY COLUMN: Okay... I am REALLY not a big fan of NVIDIA...
11/23 MUSICTAP: Matt's thrice-weekly music news - CD, DVD, LP & Blu-ray
11/23 DVD REVIEW: A&E's long-awaited Farscape: The Complete Series in glorious... er.. 480p!
11/20 DAILY COLUMN: An import option for Let the Right One In on BD (w/correct subs)
11/20 BLU-RAY REVIEWS: Disney & Pixar's UP, plus Sony's Angels & Demons on Blu-ray!
11/19 DAILY COLUMN: Capitalism, Let the Right One In & rescue dog gets a new home!
11/18 DAILY COLUMN: Wal-Mart's $78 Black Friday BD player, plus Wolf Man, Criterion & more
11/17 DAILY COLUMN: Virtuality DVD, Target GWTW BD, Fight Club fun & WHV's DVD2Blu
11/17 ADAM JAHNKE: Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2012 & more in the E-Theatre (plus visit him on Facebook)!
11/16 DAILY COLUMN: Leonids tonight, Star Trek tomorrow & anyone need a great dog?
11/12 DAILY COLUMN: Southland, new Uni & Fox catalog BDs, and more BD movie price drops
11/12 BLU-RAY REVIEW: A classic gets spiffed up in HD - Paramount's It's a Wonderful Life!
11/11 DAILY COLUMN: Hats off to all you Vets, plus BD software sales & price drops!
11/11 BLU-RAY REVIEWS: A little sci-fi in HD - Star Wars: Clone Wars - S1 & Galaxy Quest BDs!
11/10 DAILY COLUMN: New Uni BD-Live/iPhone aps & Scorsese on BD film grain
11/10 BLU-RAY REVIEWS: Criterion's exceptional Howards End & Wings of Desire BDs!
11/10 ADAM JAHNKE: The Men Who Stare at Goats & Synecdoche, NY in the E-Theatre!
11/9 DAILY COLUMN: Moon, Cloudy w/Meatballs, Halo Legends & Sheldon Dorf RIP
11/6 DAILY COLUMN: To boldly go where one has gone before...
11/6 BLU-RAY REVIEW: Paramount's thrilling new STAR TREK on Blu-ray!
11/5 DAILY COLUMN: Research, findings & factoids on the State of Blu-ray from Blu-Con!
11/4 DAILY COLUMN: The Green Mile, Gremlins, Whip It, new music BDs & more
11/4 BLU-RAY REVIEWS: Warner's North by Northwest & Paramount's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra!
11/4 RUMOR MILL: Rocky Horror Picture Show & more 2010 Blu-rays from Fox (etc)
11/3 DAILY COLUMN: Be sure to read My Two Cents (includes Ponyo update)...
11/3 BLU-RAY REVIEW: Warner updates Robert Zemeckis' Contact to 1080p on Blu-ray
11/3 GIVEAWAYS: Win the BBC's Red Dwarf & Fox's Aliens in the Attic on DVD!
11/2 DAILY COLUMN: Criterion's The Third Man OOP, plus Ponyo, TVD Awards & more
11/2 BLU-RAY REVIEWS: Rocky: Undisputed Collection & Monty Python: Almost the Truth
10/30 DAILY COLUMN: Time Traveler's Wife, sub $150 BD 2.0 players, Uni/TCM Archive & more
10/30

HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: Adam concludes the Fest with Warner's Trick 'r Treat Blu-ray!

10/29 DAILY COLUMN: This Is It, Chuck: S2 & Perfect Getaway, plus Basterds art & more!
10/29 BLU-RAY REVIEWS: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen & Ken Burns' The National Parks
10/29 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: John Carpenter, Wes Craven & TCM Classics: Horror DVDs
10/28 DAILY COLUMN: Be sure to read My Two Cents (Wee Early Morning Edition)...
10/28 BARRIE MAXWELL: Classic Coming Attractions with release news & 11 DVD/BD reviews!
10/28 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: Adam checks in with Chucky via Child's Play on Blu-ray!
10/27 DAILY COLUMN: Goodfellas BD, 9, Smokin' Aces 2 & Simpsons: S20 DVD/BD!
10/27 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: Jahnke's Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (on Blu-ray)!
10/26 DAILY COLUMN: Moon, Surrogates, Gamer, Sony/Netflix PS3 deal & more
10/26 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: Adam shares the misery with... er, Misery on Blu-ray!
10/23 DAILY COLUMN: Crazies & Open Road, new Apples, Windows 7 & a Nook (oh my!)
10/23 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: Jahnke creeps out with Sony's Night of the Creeps Blu-ray!
10/22 DAILY COLUMN: Public Enemies, Glee: S1, Green Mile BD exclusive, artwork & more!
10/22 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: Dr. Jahnke spins Warner's The Hills Run Red on DVD!
10/21 DAILY COLUMN: Criterion's 8 1/2 BD, new Rock 'n' Roll HOF Live DVDs & more
10/21 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: Lionsgate's Fear Itself: Season One anthology on DVD
10/20 DAILY COLUMN: Inglorious Basterds, Battlestar: S1 BD, new Criterion & WHV BD-Live
10/20 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: Universal's long-awaited Phantasm II on DVD!
10/19 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: The mecha-terror of Severin's Hardware on Blu-ray!
10/16 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: Sony's The William Castle Film Collection on DVD!
10/16 BLU-RAY REVIEW: Universal's Battlestar Galactica: The Plan anyone?!
10/15 DAILY COLUMN: THANK YOU (plus Spaceballs toon, Sesame St., BSG & more)
10/15 HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III: MPI's Wild Man of the Navidad: Unrated D.C. on DVD
10/14 DAILY COLUMN: Taking Woodstock, Food, Inc & more, plus farewell to a friend
10/12 DAILY COLUMN: District 9, It Might Get Loud, new Bond BD box (sort of) & more
10/6 DAILY COLUMN: (500) Days of Summer, Music Man, Mystic River BDs & more
9/23 BLU-RAY REVIEWS: Disney's new Zatoichi & Palm's Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense!
9/17 DAILY COLUMN: Criterion's AK 100 Kurosawa DVD box, plus BIG Potter news & more!
9/8 DAILY COLUMN: We've got a Lord of the Rings Blu-ray update for you...
5/18 EDITORIAL: A Few Words (of Common Sense) About Grain Reduction on Blu-ray

Looking for stories that used to be listed above? Use the button bar or these links to access the following sections: Reviews (DVD, laserdisc and hardware reviews), FAQ & Archives (old feature stories and interviews, and Jim Taylor's Official DVD FAQ) and Upcoming DVD Art (at look at upcoming cover artwork). Finally, My Two Cents - Archives contains all past daily editorial posts dating back to 12/97.
GIVEAWAYS

THE GIVEAWAYS ARE ON!

We've kicked off a new Giveaway, offering each of you the chance to take home copies of Warner and the BBC's Red Dwarf: Return to Earth and Fox's Aliens in the Attic on DVD. Entries will be accepted until Noon (Pacific) on Sunday, November 15th. Click on the links and follow the instructions to enter. Good luck!

Don't forget, you can always find a list of the winners for our previous contests and giveaways in The Winner's Circle. Congratulations to all!

DVD & HD FORMAT STATS
TOTAL U.S. PLAYER SALES (last data reported 8/24/07 - CEA): 133,443,356
Editor's Note: The Consumer Electronics Association has discontinued its reporting of DVD player sales data, and they have not begun reporting on Blu-ray player sales. However, our original CEA DVD Player Sales chart will remain available here for future reference.
TOTAL DVD TITLES (10/22/09 - DVD Release Report): 105,954*
*Net total of R1 DVD-Video discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included.
TOP 10 SELLING DISCS (10/11/09 - Nielsen/VideoScan):
1) Snow White... Seven Dwarfs
2) Monsters vs. Aliens
3) Year One
4) X-Men Origins: Wolverine
5) Bones: Season Four
6) The Wizard of Oz
7) My Life in Ruins
8) Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
9) Edward Scissorhands
10) Trick 'r Treat
TOP 10 RENTAL DISCS (10/11/09 - Home Media Research):
1) Year One
2) Monsters vs. Aliens
3) Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
4) My Life in Ruins
5) Management
6) X-Men Origins: Wolverine
7) Observe and Report
8) State of Play
9) The Brothers Bloom
10) Lies and Illusions
TOTAL BLU-RAY DISC TITLES (10/23/09 - DVD Release Report): 1,872/131*
*Net total of Region A discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included.
TOTAL HD-DVD TITLES (FINAL FORMAT TALLY as of 7/4/08 - DVD Release Report): 429/0*
*Net total of R1 discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included.
SOFTWARE MARKET SHARE - BD VS DVD (YTD through 9/27/09 - Nielsen/VideoScan):
Week End. 10/11
Blu-ray Disc: 17 DVD: 83
NUMBER OF AFI TOP 100 FILMS ON DVD - 2007 LIST (11/17/08): 99/1 (1)
Released/Announced or In Development - ( ) Not yet available on DVD.


MY TWO CENTS - 11/24/09 - by Digital Bits editor Bill Hunt
Click here for Adam Jahnke's HELL PLAZA OKTOBERFEST III!

Morning, everyone! So, there's not a lot of news to report on this Thanksgiving week, but there are a couple things worth noting...

First though, our very own Russell Hammond has once again updated the Release Dates & Artwork section to include all of the latest DVD and Blu-ray cover artwork, and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, a portion of anything you order from Amazon through our links goes to help support our work here at The Bits, and we really appreciate it.

Speaking of Amazon, the retailer is running some amazing Black Friday deals ALL THIS WEEK on DVD and Blu-ray hardware and software, as well as gaming gear and lots more! Be sure to check them out each week via this link to see what specials are available and to take advantage of them while you can. And again, thanks for supporting us by using our links to them.

Okay... let's get to those announcements. First of all, Disney has officially announced the DVD and Blu-ray release of Surrogates on 1/26/10 (SRP $29.99 and $39.99). Extras on the Blu-ray will include audio commentary with director Jonathan Mostow, 4 deleted scenes, 2 featurettes (A More Perfect You: The Science of Surrogates and Breaking the Frame: A Graphic Novel Comes to Life) and Breaking Benjamin's I Will Not Bow music video. The DVD includes just the commentary and music video.

Meanwhile, Sony has set Black Dynamite for DVD and Blu-ray release on 2/2/10 (SRP $24.96 and $34.95). Extras will include filmmaker and case audio commentary, deleted and alternate scenes and 2 featurettes (Lighting the Fuse and The Comic-Con Experience). The Blu-ray will add an exclusive featurette (The '70s: Back in Action) and movieIQ.

Also coming from Sony on 2/2/10 is the DVD and Blu-ray release of Universal Soldier: Regeneration (SRP $24.96 and $34.95), featuring commentary with Dolph Lundgren and the director and the Behind the Lines featurette. The BD will also add movieIQ.

On 2/9, Sony will release the 2010 remake film Ice Castles on DVD only (SLP $24.96).

This one's interesting: Icarus Films is releasing Patricio Guzmán's The Battle of Chile on DVD on 12/8 (SRP $44.98). The 4-disc DVD set includes Part I: The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie (96 min.), Part II; The Coup d'Etat (88 min.) and Part III: The Power of the People (79 min.), along with Guzmán's Chile, Obstinate Memory (57 min.), a video interview (22 min.) with Guzmán and a 16-page booklet.

Blue Underground has set Vampyres for Blu-ray release on 3/30/10 (SRP $29.95). Extras will include audio commentary with director José Ramón Larraz and producer Brian Smedley-Aston, the Return of the Vampyres featurette, and the film's international and U.S. trailers. The title is already available on DVD.

Fox has announced a number of new titles including Kendra: Season One for DVD on 1/5/10, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 for Blu-ray on 1/5 and The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Season Six for DVD on 2/2.

Warner has set the direct-to-video animated film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths for release on DVD, DVD special edition and Blu-ray Disc on 2/23.

And finally, Paramount has set Paranormal Activity for DVD and Blu-ray release on 12/29 (SRP $29.99 and $40.99). Each will include the theatrical cut, plus an unrated version with an alternate ending not seen in theatres. The Blu-ray will also include a Digital Copy version.

Here's both versions of Paramount's Paranormal Activity, Criterion's Make Way for Tomorrow DVD (2/23/10) and Revanche Blu-ray (2/16/10), Blue Underground's Vampyres Blu-ray and Disney's Surrogates on Blu-ray...

Paranormal Activity (Blu-ray Disc)Paranormal ActivityMake Way for Tomorrow

Revanche (Blu-ray Disc)Vampyres (Blu-ray Disc)Surrogates (Blu-ray Disc)

We'll be back tomorrow with Barrie's latest Classic Coming Attractions column, so be sure to check back for it. Stay tuned until then!

11/23/09

Well... good evening, folks! Man, have I ever had a day...

So there I am last night, working on a couple of disc reviews... watching discs on my PC to check various quality issues... when suddenly my Windows Vista desktop completely freezes on me. Just totally locks up, nothing to do for it but reboot. And then, when I reboot... every time it gets to the desktop, same result. Crash! Again and again, with me getting more and more pissed off. So after a night (and most of today) of troubleshooting, turns out the culprit is my NVIDIA graphics driver. I'd recently (about two weeks ago) updated my video card drivers, and apparently Vista didn't like it one bit, but took a couple weeks to let me know about it. HELL'S BELLS! Once I suspected what the problem was, I went and picked up a new video card - with an ATI chipset, cause NVIDIA can BLOW ME - ripped out the old card, swapped the new one in, and bam - problem solved. Then I went online just to see if anyone else had been having such problems, and it turns out something like 30% of the Vista crashes are because of corrupt or buggy NVIDIA drivers. Go figure. Tell you what: I will NEVER buy an NVIDIA graphics card again. Not for a very long time anyway.

And yeah... I know you Mac guys are all smirking your asses off right now, thinking how superior your hardware is versus anything running Windows, and I don't even want to hear it. Bastards. ;)

All right... the long and the short of it is, here's a review: The promised Farscape: The Complete Series, newly re-issued on standard DVD from the good folks at A&E Home Entertainment. The Cliff's Notes version is that the set is pretty good, especially if you've never owned the show on DVD before. For the SRP and sale price, it's a great value. But if you already have the previous Starburst Edition discs from ADV, you'll definitely want to stick with those instead. Anyway, you'll find all the details in the review. Enjoy.

Back tomorrow with more news, etc... hopefully with less aggravation involved. Stay tuned...!

11/20/09

Afternoon, everyone! Today's post is going to be a quickie, but we've finally got a couple of those reviews for you...

Our own Barrie Maxwell has checked in with a look at Sony's new Angels & Demons: Two-Disc Theatrical & Extended Edition Blu-ray, which hits stores next Tuesday (11/24). Also, Jeff Kleist has turned in his thoughts on Disney and Pixar's excellent UP Blu-ray, which is now available. Both are well worth your time and attention, so enjoy!

Meanwhile, I'm working on a review of A&E Home Video's new Farscape: The Complete Series DVD box set, among other titles. There's a LOT to cover in the box, but I hope to have that review for you on Monday.

Before we sign off for the week, however, I do have one quick update for you on Let the Right One In. As we posted yesterday, Magnolia has finally re-released the Region 1 DVD version in the States with corrected theatrical subtitles, but a corrected Blu-ray version is still MIA here. HOWEVER, the good news is that if you love the film and you just can't wait for Magnolia to get its BD fix in stores... we're told that Momentum Pictures' U.K. Blu-ray release (available here at Amazon.co.uk for about $22 USD shipped to the States) DOES have the correct theatrical English subtitles AND it's an all-region disc, compatible with U.S./Region A players. Thanks to all you crafty/import-savvy Bits readers who sent us e-mails to let us know about this edition. Where there's a will, there's a way... [EDITOR'S NOTE: We're now getting reports that the DTS-HD MA track on this import BD is defective, and that Momentum will have fixed copies available soon. Wait to order your copy until we've confirmed that fixed copies are in stock at Amazon.co.uk. Guess this film just had bad luck all around on Blu...]

All right, it's back to Farscape for me. Have a great weekend and we'll see you back here on Monday!

Bill Hunt, Editor
The Digital Bits
billhunt@thedigitalbits.com



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