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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. |
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| GIVEAWAYS |
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| DVD & HD FORMAT STATS |
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 TOTAL U.S. DVD PLAYER SALES (last data reported 8/24/07 - CEA): 133,443,356 |
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| 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 (3/10/11 - DVD Release Report): 123,768/234* |
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| *Net total of R1 DVD-Video discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included. |
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| TOP 10 SELLING DISCS (3/6/11 - Nielsen/VideoScan): |
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| TOP 10 RENTAL DISCS (3/6/11 - Home Media Research): |
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| TOTAL BLU-RAY DISC TITLES (3/11/11 - DVD Release Report): 3,814/198* |
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| *Net total of Region A discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included. |
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| TOTAL HD-DVD TITLES (FINAL FORMAT TALLY as of 7/4/08 - DVD Release Report): 429/0* |
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| *Net total of R1 discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included. |
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| SOFTWARE MARKET SHARE - BD VS DVD (YTD through 3/5/11 - Nielsen/VideoScan): |
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| NUMBER OF AFI TOP 100 FILMS ON DVD - 2007 LIST (4/20/10): 100/0 (0) |
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| Released/Announced or In Development - ( ) Not yet available on DVD. |
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| MY TWO CENTS - 4/1/11 - by Digital Bits editor Bill Hunt |
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All right... yes, folks... we did indeed indulge in a bit of April TomFoolery here at The Bits today. I'm sure by now you've all seen our trip back to the early 1990s in Mr. Peabody's "wayback machine" with The Analog Bits Newsletter. What can we say? April Fools isn't usually our thing, but inspiration struck this year. The key, I think, is that if you're going to do an April Fool's joke, you really need go all out on the gag... and go all-out we certainly did, complete with over-pixelated graphics, WAY too many animated gifs, a somewhat "brasher" attitude and a font fit to make your eyeballs bleed! Oh, and a Star Wars on Something-or-other campaign. Every 1990s home video site needs one of those. Ah... the early Internet. Anyway, I'm sure there were a few newer reader who didn't get the gag, but judging my the e-mails we've been getting today, you long-timers were all in with us and got a good laugh. So we hope you all enjoyed it!
Now then... two quick bits of release news and then we're outta here for this week. First, the folks over at Universal have set Brazil for release on Blu-ray Disc on 7/12. It looks to be essentially the movie-only theatrical cut release you'd expect, but it'll have 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio. For those of you wondering about the possibility of a future Criterion BD upgrade of their version, I wouldn't discount it. My guess is after Universal takes their movie-only dip on Blu-ray, Criterion will eventually get their shot too. Anyway, here's a look at the cover artwork...   
As you can see, we also posted the final U.S. cover art (and an open packaging shot) of Warner's new Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1978-2006 (due 6/7 - SRP $129.95) which we covered pretty extensively yesterday. It looks pretty awesome, except damn we wish those Flesicher shorts were HD. Oh well... maybe some other studio will step up and deliver them on Blu-ray, since they're public domain. As you can also plainly see, Disney and Touchstone have officially announced Gnomeo & Juliet for Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD release on 5/24 (SRP $49.99, $39.99 and $29.99). The DVD will include 2 featurettes (Elton Builds a Garden and Frog Talk with Ashley Jensen) and Nelly Furtado and Elton John's Crocodile Rock music video. The Blu-ray versions will add to that a pair of alternate endings, 6 deleted scenes, 2 alternate scenes and The Fawn of Darkness voice/outtake featurette featuring Ozzy Osbourne. The Blu-ray 3D version will include BD, DVD and a Digital Copy. Finally today, Disney and Touchstone have also announced the Blu-ray, Blu-ray/DVD Combo and DVD release of I Am Number Four on 5/24 (SRP $39.99, $44.99 and $29.99). The DVD will include the Becoming Number 6 featurette and bloopers. The Blu-ray will add deleted scenes. The Combo will include both versions plus a Digital Copy. All right, that's all she wrote. Have a great weekend (especially at you guys going to WonderCon up in San Francisco), enjoy the Final Four or what have you, and we'll see ya'll on Monday. Peace out! (LATE UPDATE - 3/31/11 - 3 PM PDT) Okay... so: WHV's Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology (1978-2006) will now officially street on Blu-ray Disc on 6/7 (SRP $129.95). The 8-disc set will include both the original theatrical and expended editions of Superman: The Movie, both the original theatrical and Donner Cut of Superman II, the original theatrical versions of Superman III and Superman IV, and the theatrical cut of Superman Returns. The theatrical cuts of Superman: The Movie, Superman II, Superman III and Superman IV are included on Blu-ray for the first time. Of the other few new special features on the set, the most interesting by far is the never-before-seen original "Krypton" opening for Superman Returns (it's not known if this will be HD or SD - one would hope the former). The audio for all the films will be English DTS-HD MA which the press says "Fan-boys and technophiles will especially appreciate". The press release also seems to indicate that the films will be presented "with new digital/hi-def film masters" which would be a nice touch. As far as other extras, it appears that essentially everything from the 2007 Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD tin will carry over. A pair of the documentary featurettes from the DVD set will be upgraded to HD (Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman and The Science of Superman). Unfortunately, while the Superman II and Superman II: Donner Cut Blu-rays in the set do include the Fleischer Studio's animated Superman shots from 1941-42, it APPEARS that they're in SD only. That means Warner has missed one of the coolest upgrade opportunities they had with this set, and it's terribly disappointing. Oh, the set will also have $8 of Movie Cash good for a ticket to the forthcoming Green Lantern live-action movie that hits theatres on 6/17. [Editor's Note: I've clarified with WHV that new HD masters have been done for the theatrical cuts of Superman: The Movie, Superman II, Superman III and Superman IV in the BD set. The expanded version of Superman: The Movie is a newer 1080p master than was used for the previous BD release, with extensive MTI dirt clean-up. Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut and Superman Returns are the same BD compressions as before. The Fleischer Superman animated shorts are SD only. On the audio side: All films have 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtracks except Superman IV: The Quest for Peace which is 2.0 DTS-HD MA. Superman III's 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix is new - the DVD only had 2.0.] To be more specific about the bonus content, here's a disc-by-disc breakdown: Disc One - Superman: The Movie (theatrical edition), audio commentary (by Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler), the 1978 TV special The Making of Superman: The Movie, the 1951 Superman and the Mole-Men feature, 3 WB cartoons (Super-Rabbit, Snafuperman and Stupor Duck), theatrical trailers Disc Two - Superman: The Movie (expanded edition), audio commentary (by Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz), music only track, 3 documentaries/featurettes (Taking Flight: The Development of Superman, Making Superman: Filming the Legend and The Magic Behind the Cape), original screen test footage, a selection of restored scenes, additional music cues. Disc Three - Superman II (theatrical edition), audio commentary (by Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler), the 1980 TV special The Making of Superman II, deleted scene, the First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series featurette, 9 Fleischer Studios' animated Superman shorts (Superman, The Mechanical Monsters, Billion Dollar Limited, The Arctic Giant, The Bulleteers, The Magnetic Telescope, Electric Earthquake, Volcano and Terror on the Midway), theatrical trailer Disc Four - Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, audio commentary (by Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz) introduction by Richard Donner, deleted scenes, 2 featurettes (Superman II: Restoring the Vision and Famous Studios' Superman), the remaining 8 Fleischer Studios' animated Superman shorts (Japoteurs, Showdown, Eleventh Hour, Destruction, Inc, The Mummy Strikes, Jungle Drums, The Underground World and Secret Agent) Disc Five - Superman III (theatrical edition), audio commentary (by Iilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler), the 1983 TV special The Making of Superman III, deleted scenes, theatrical trailer Disc Six - Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (theatrical edition), audio commentary (by Mark Rosenthal), the 1988 TV special Superman 50th Anniversary Special, deleted scenes, theatrical trailer Disc Seven - Superman Returns (theatrical edition), the 7-part Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns documentary, Bryan Singer's Video Production Journals, the Resurrecting Jor-El featurette, deleted scenes (including the never-before-seen original opening), theatrical trailers Disc Eight - the Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman documentary (in HD), the 5-part You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman documentary, The Science of Superman (in HD), 2 featurettes (The Mythology of Superman and The Heart of a Hero: A Tribute to Christopher Reeve), the 1958 TV pilot The Adventures of Superpup So there you go. Back tomorrow. Stay tuned... Bill Hunt, Editor The Digital Bits billhunt@thedigitalbits.com |
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