Friday, August 7, 1998
Laserviews has updated their news page again -- in a big way. This is the one we've been waiting for. Includes announcements and details for LOST IN SPACE, DANGEROUS BEAUTY, BLACK DOG, ANIMAL HOUSE: COLL ED (16:9 and widescreen - YES), TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 1: COLL ED, RIVERDANCE and more. Ahhhh, good to have you guys back!
Our four day DVD givaway has concluded with our final winner today - all winners's names have been posted on our contest page. Thanks to all who participated! As we continue to grow, you can expect to see even more FREE DVD giveaway's from The BIG Picture!
Straight from the (winged) horse's mouth: Columbia Tri-Star confirmed to The BIG Picture that Godilla will be released on DVD on November 3, 1998, featuring widescreen format, a running commentary with th special effects supervisor, a photo gallery, theatrical teasers and trailer, plus trailers for the early classic Gozilla films "Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth", and "Godzilla versus King Ghidora". The disc will also include biographical material on the director and producer, cast filmographies, a "Making of Godzilla" featurette and a "Godzilla Takes New York" photo feature. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this appears to be the most extras ever offered on a Columbia Tri-Star disc. The only disconcerting note in the press release is that this movie will be in Dolby Surround. I've put a call into my source at studio to confirm that they do mean Dolby Surround and NOT Dolby Digital 5.1. I hope it was just a typo...
One of our forum participants, TomT has provided a link to an excellent source of DVD reading over at ZDNET. Beautiful layout, nice graphics, a plethora of articles. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and take your time. There's a lot to linger over, with this one...
Keep those cards and letters coming , folks! Never underestimate the passion (or wrath) of the early DVD adopter. iDot's article in heavy promotion of Divx (as referenced below) has been unceremoniously yanked, replaced with the message to "check back on August 11th for a new article!" Who wants to lay odds that the next article will not be another pro-Divx propaganda piece?
While you've been searching through Bob Banka's reviews trying to win a free DVD this week, Bob's been writing another review! This time Bob provides his review of, and comments on, MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN. This review sponsored by our friends at Digital Eyes.
Want to know when we predict Paramount will announce their titles and dates? I could be way off-base, but we're betting that there won't be any announcement, and that the studio will simply ship product to their distributors when they're good and ready, with no or minimal fanfare. This could be Paramount's way of silently protesting all the harsh rhetoric directed at them on the Internet for the last year and a half. Besides, I can think of no other reason why the studio is staying mum at this juncture. Steve Tannehill, Bill Hunt or Ron Epstein have to buy me lunch if I'm right about this.
Thursday, August 6, 1998
An eleventh hour (23rd hour if you're on military time) congratulations to our latest DVD winner: Tracy Bennett of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Tracy must've tuned into our hint below to find the contest icon so fast in Bob's review of Awakenings. Another DVD to search and win sometime tomorrow! Good luck! We're also having a simultaneous DVD givaway of DARK CITY and WAG THE DOG on the new Big Picture Forum page. Look for our posted questions -- be the first to correctly answer them and you'll be qualified to win one of the two DVD's!
If you're still awake, now might be a good time to find today's hidden contest icon for a FREE DVD of your choice... Check our contest page for details if you haven't already...
This Hollywood On-Line page features a review of "The Sweet Hereafter", among other things.
Laserviews is back! We're glad to see it. For a minute there, we were beginning to worry that their webmaster got sucked out to sea in a rip current (they moved their offices from the East Coast to the West Coast, and who among us an resist the allure of a California beach during a heat wave? Don't answer that.
Straight from the (winged) horse's mouth: Columbia Tri-Star is releasing three new DVD titles day and date with their VHS counterparts on October 13, 1998: FRIGHT NIGHT (Prologic), IN GOD'S HANDS (DD 5.1) and DANCER, TEXAS (Prologic) in both full-frame and wide screen formats.
We received an excited form E-mail from Ron and Parker over at The Home Theater Forum gushing over the mention of their website, along with The Digital Bits and DVD Resource, in Garrett Lee's monthly column for Image Preview magazine, "a beautifully illustrated glossy catalog that is available FREE in just about every major video retail store." Agreeing that the folks at HTF should be proud, we fired off a congratulatory note to the editors. As we were calling up the article to post here with our congratulations, we were pleasantly surprised to see Garrett Lee's mention of The BIG Picture in the same column for Image Preview as well! We are of course, humbled and delighted to be included among the list of what we consider to be some of the finest DVD-related sites on the Internet.
C/Net reports that Startup PC manufacturer iDot announced it has started including third-generation DVD-ROM drives from Toshiba on select systems. "We've had quite a few requests for a DVD option," said Mark Marlow, vice president of product marketing for iDot. The drives are expected to cost around $165 as an add-on option."An alert reader (thanks David Jahnke!) also pointed out that on another page, iDot is heavily pushing Divx. Huh? Is that any way to make friends and influence people from a comapny that does their entire business on the Internet? Don't they read E-Town? If you'll forgive me for saying so, I believe that they may have inadvertently left an extra letter "i" out of their company name when it comes to the article written by Phillip Lamb. Gee, by publishing the link to his story "Buying DVD? Wait For Divx", do you suppose that we could be accused of "leading (the) Lamb to the slaughter"?
The Philadelphia Inquirer mentions a few new video releases (in good conscious, I can't call them reviews), among them, two DVD's: The Wedding Singer and Blues Bros. 2000. With the obvious quality attained by Columbia Tri-Star with their region 2 release of The Swan Princess (see below), we fail to understand why Disney's "The Black Cauldron" isn't streeting with the VHS version announced in the article.
Several weeks ago, we mentioned that the popular game Myst would be coming to DVD-ROM. Now, Next Generation Online reports that the sequel Riven will be among the first crop of DVD-ROM games as well, featuring higher graphics resolution than was previously available because of DVD's immense storage capacity. But don't get too excited -- according to the article, no release date has been announced yet. We call that vaporware. Speaking of which, we've been getting so much vaporware from all directions regarding Paramount's title list -- someone should notify the EPA. We're beginning to choke on the fumes.
Riven
While we don't want to be too specific, let's just say that today's FREE DVD contest will be commencing in an unusual daypart. Search Bob's reviews and win a free DVD of your choice if you're the first to find our secret contest icon. Complete rules and details are on our contest page. Good luck!
Wednesday, August 5, 1998
Attention DVD content providers: The Official BIG Picture DVD Studio Wishlist has 375 excellent movie title selections for you to peruse (and hopefully choose from) as you plan your future DVD releases! A special thanks to all who have entered their selections on the list!
Our friend across the pond -- Mark Yates has posted some impressive screen shots of Columbia Tri-Star's THE SWAN PRINCESS in an effort to prove once and for all that animation can be transferred to DVD with stunning results. It would have been nice if Disney had shown us this months ago. Hey Columbia! Where's the region 1 version of this disc, anyway? Did you owe the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, a favor, or something?
Hold your horses. We've got today's winner and will post his name on the contest page later today. Get ready to search and win again tomorrow!
Congratulations to Hien Ha of Santa Barbara, CA. Yesterday, he found our special contest icon hidden in Bob's review of BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY. There's a new contest icon in a different review page now. Check our review index page for our complete listing and good luck winning today's DVD of your choice, courtesy of The BIG Picture and sponsored by our friends at Digital Eyes. If you're just joining us, see the contest rules and details.
To kick off our new and improved forum, we're also running an additional, separate DVD giveaway contest! To be eligible to win a copy of DARK CITY this Friday, simply be the first to correctly answer the questions we're posting on the forum throughout the day. Whoever has the most correct answers wins! The first runner up will receive a copy of WAG THE DOG.
Thanks to Jon at the DVD Digital Bayou, we've seen a copy of the Video Business News headline proclaiming Paramount titles and release dates, but we're still skeptical, even seeing the story in print. Here's why: The two key phrases that raised our suspicions and reduce the story to mere rumor or speculation are: "according to sources" (without naming them) and "Executives at Paramount declined to comment on their DVD plans. " This is beginning to look a lot like the Stereophile Guide to Home Theater article on the Internet awhile back that used "sources" to report that Sears had pulled out of talks with Divx when in fact, they hadn't. While time may prove that Paramount's first slate of titles will be released on October 6th, the only ones that know aren't saying anything. But the real question is: why not?
Tuesday, August 4, 1998
We're pleased to announce some significant improvements to The BIG Picture DVD & Home Theater Forum. Please note the new URL address and bookmark accordingly. We've moved from a third-party forum hosting service to our own, in-house effort. While the "look and feel" of our forum remains familiar -- you'll notice several improvements. First, there's more options: The ability to preview your message has been added. So has email notification if your message is responded to. You may also "subscribe" to the forum, receiving new messages in your e-mail! Unsubscribing is equally easy. Our new profanity filter is strictly a precautionary measure. 99% of our guests conduct themselves in a very intelligent and responsible manner. But a few weeks ago we were spammed by a Malaysian business concern selling pirated VCD's. Their posts were riddled with obcenity, presumably to draw attention to their messages. The new filter will take care of 99% of that problem in a fun and unusual way... and while we hope this will never become necessary, we also gain the ability to ban abusers from the forum outright, making The BIG Picture a safe and comfortable place to discuss your favorite topics. Please stop by for a look at the new carpet and drapes and tell us what you think!
Guess we should have checked a week ago... We don't check the DVD Watcher site on a regular basis -- we typically gather our news and information from other sources independent of DVD-related web-sites (with the occasional exception -- see below), so we were surprised to learn that DVD Watcher punched off the time clock and ceased operations a week ago yesterday. Kudo's to the editor & webmaster over there for providing a fine service to thousands of DVD enthusiasts since last March.
This is beginning to look silly: We're reporting that DVD Resource is reporting that the Digital Bits is reporting that Video Business News is reporting that Paramount titles are forthcoming in October. Meanwhile, Paramount isn't saying anything. And the beat goes on. A word to Paramount: If you want to fax us your official press release, our fax number is 619.673.9487. We look forward to hearing from you.
Time Magazine gives a thumbs up to Sony's new DVD Discman, but a lukewarm reception to Sony's Glasstron headset that simulates a BIG Picture experience right before your eyes!
The DVD giveaway has begun... Check Bob's reviews throughout the week and check our contest page for full details. Good luck!
Monday, August 3, 1998
Reminder: Our latest DVD giveaway starts tomorrow -- be sure to check our contest page for details!
We've not heard boo from any sources regarding Fox or Paramount. No news is no news. I did go see SAVING PRIVATE RYAN last night and noted that it was in Dolby Digital, not DTS, even though it's a Spielberg film. I wonder if Paramount (when they finally get around to releasing titles on DVD) will bow in deference to Mr. Spielberg as Universal has done and not release this one on DVD either. It would be a shame. This movie is going to win the Oscar for best picture of 1998.
Our DVD sPy checks in with some encouraging news from the newsstand: "Just read the September issue of Stereo Review, where they test the Zenith Divx player and give it (and the Divx system) a thorough bashing. This mainstream magazine usually gives good reviews to everything it tests, so I was cautiously holding my breath as I was reading the review. Among other things, they complain about their troubles with Divx billing and the relatively poor quality of Divx discs compared with DVD. Bravo SR!!!" Bravo, indeed. Another chip at the stone.
Panasonic is ramping up their production of DVD -- big time. Demand from the U.S. and Southeast Asia is driving the move.
WEEKEND UPDATE:
The BIG Picture is giving away a few DVD's in honor of Bob's 100th DVD review! To win the DVD title of your choice, check our contest page for full details! And good luck!
Thank you for helping to make The BIG Picture one of the preeminent DVD web-sites in the world. We were thrilled to discover just under 100,000 page impressions in our launch-month of April. In May, we were blown away by nearly 320,000 page views. In June, we were left speechless with 590,997 visits -- and July's tally of 792,585 individual page impressions leaves us... humbled and grateful. Could August bring a million page views for The BIG Picture? We'll do our best to earn your repeated visits with timely news you can count on, reviews you can learn from, free-DVD contests you can enjoy and DVD image & sound ratings you can trust.
On occasion, yours truly will actually write and post a review. Miracle of miracles! It's happened again. Here's my DVD review of the 1972 film, THE GETAWAY, starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw. Even though my prose and observations aren't as astute as your friend and mine, Bob Banka's, I hope that you can determine whether or not a purchase or rental of this title is worth your time and dinero.