Click HERE to goto the Columbia DVD page
Click HERE to goto the Universal DVD page

DVDs your FRIENDS will go nuts for
From 29th May, the smash hit TV series FRIENDS will be their for you on DVD, starting with Series 1 Episodes.
You'll find 3 Episodes per DVD and there are 4 DVDs to be initally released.  Each will carry a RRP of warners standard $34.95.  (Oh and the Theme song is one every DVD!!)

Press Releases
No less than 3 press releases today, granted a few came out the other day

Sharp's new Portable DVD player
Deep Blue See on DVD
The Faculty on DVD

PS Scream 3 is out Thursday..woo hoo!!
Oh and the main page has had a bit of face life again....it can't be helped :)
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New LOWER Price of Brackley Cases
The Clear Brackley Case as used by Columbia Tristar Home Video for their DVDs (the version with the lip along all sides) is now available HERE at a price lower than the normal $2.55 each.  Thanks to our new supplier we're now able to sell this case for the same price as the Clear Amaray Case, being $2.10.

Lastest Review
Cass has taken a look at Ron Howards Irish Epic, shot in 70mm no less, Far and Away.  Being shot in the far superior film format to that of today's films (which is more often 35mm), has this bought out the best in DVD??
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The FOX/MGM DVDS that were accidentally (stupidly) Left off Yesterday's List in a Moment of Excitement after seeing X-Files Season 1 Box Set, Braveheart SE , Lotsa Bond Films, The Abyss, Planet of the Apes and The Alien Legacy as Upcoming FOX/MGM DVDs
Okay so a few titles were missed yesterday, my bad...SO here's the TENTATIVE FOX/MGM List til the end of the year...for the really hot titles, see yesterdays News Below (granted there are some awesome titles here also)

April 2000
FOX - Rising Sun, The Siege
MGM -  For a Few Dollars More, The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

May 2000
MGM - Moonstruck, Rollerball, Last Tango In Paris

June 2000
FOX - Never Been Kissed, The Thin Red Line, The Big Blue (Extended vers), The Full Monty,
MGM - Lord Of Illusions, Red River, The Alamo, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Cyborg

July 2000
MGM - Annie Hall, Manhattan, Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afriad to Ask

August 2000
FOX - Entrapment
MGM - Stigmata, War Games, The Package,

September 2000
MGM -  Red Dawn, Missing In Action, Navy Seals

October 2000
FOX -  Edward Scissorhands, Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile,
MGM - Mod Squad, Some Like It Hot, Child's Play, Life Force, Deta Force, Delta Force 2

November 2000
FOX -  Home Alone, Home ALone 2, Home Alone Trilogy Pack, Jingle All the Way, Anastasia, Miracle on 34th Street,
MGM - A Bridge too Far, Manchurian Candidate, Run Silent, Run Deep, The Three Amigos, Overboard, Supernova, Carrie 2 : The Rage

December 2000
FOX - Commando, Predator , Predator 2, Marked for Death, Rapid Fire
MGM - Fled
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FOX DVDs Go Rental First
Unlike Most Studios releasing DVD In Australia where they are bringing out First Release Movies as Sellthrus on the Same Day as, or very Close to the VHS Rental releases, 20th Century Fox have plans to initiate their First Release Movies on DVD as Rental only, with Sell Thru for Consumers to buy them coming later on (exactly how much further on is unknown, but from the looks of the Schedule that lists the Tentative releases  up until the end of the Year) it's looking to be a few months. 
At this stage, the plan is to release Fight Club on DVD as rental only on 7th June 2000, Followed in July with Anna and the King, and The  Beach in August.
Though these DVD Schedules tend to change a lot and ideas are thrown about with pricing and such constantly, Word has been going around for quite a few months now regarding Fox going rental first with their DVDs.
With Magna Pacific have set there Rental Window for only 2 weeks starting with the up coming Blair Witch Project, and now FOX starting it with Fight Club, I wonder if any of the Other Studios will get in on the Act and go Rental First. 
Looking at the way things operate around the world with DVD, I haven't seen any other signs of late that DVD Rental is happening anywhere else, though It can be assumed that FOX international will do the same with the likes of the UK and others (the USA...I don't know)
With Fox doing Rental First, the biggest concern will be how big this window will be til we can buy these DVDS on Sellthru.  If it's too long of a wait for Aussie Interneting DVD'ers to Get their FOX DVDs, quite a few will no doubt go outside (to the USA) to buy them. 
I guess as the market in Australia gets bigger though, the percentage of DVDer's that are Internet inclined will get smaller and the general public who don't buy DVDs over the Net will get bigger, so maybe to Fox this won't be such a drama that a few DVD'ers can't be bothered waiting 3 months 6 months whatever for a Region 4 DVD to go sellthru......We'll see 

Upcoming FOX/MGM DVDs
As with all DVD Release Schedules until the Discs are on the Shelves they are Tentative at best, however, that still doesn't mean you shouldn't know what the Studios have planned on releasing, so here goes.  Details on all these DVDs are presently limited...bummer

ALIEN LEGACY
With a very likely May release will be ALL 4 Alien movies PLUS the "5th" doco disc making up the Legacy 5 Disc Box Set. 
If you're planning on buying these DVDs separately, you may be disappointed to know that only Alien and Aliens are being sold separately,.  if you're After Alien 3, or resurrection, you must buy the 5 Disc Box Set.

BRAVEHEART
Set for a release in 7th June 2000 is the Oscar winning, Mel Gibson Epic, Braveheart.  With the inclusion of a 2nd DVD, being a Documentary Bonus Disc, it's looking a lot like a Special Edition DVD (and it's not priced any more than the standard Fox Titles)

X-Files Season 1
And On the same day (in a 7 disc set no less) will be season 1 of TV's The X-Files.   No price is yet set, but it should be under the $200 mark for the entire 7 discs.

And then there Was Bond
Starting in July will be some of the Bond films.  Now Seeing as there are what, 19 of these in the series, there's over half planned for release in the later half of the year, and we've already got Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies in Region 4   (even if they have been CENSORED!!!!).  It's interesting to Note that only some of the Bond Films appear to be the Feature Packed Special Editions that were released in the very snazzy box sets in the USA recently .  I guess well know more as we get closer to the release dates. So here's What's planned anyway

In July The World is Not Enough : SE, DR No : SE, Goldfinger & To Russia With Love
In August Thunderball
September On Her Majesty's Secret Service & You Only Live Twice
October Diamonds Are Forever & Live and Let Die
November The Man With The Golden Gun & he Spy Who Loved Me

OTHER TOP MENTIONS
More importantly to many is the following other notable mentions of planned DVDs thru FOX for this year

September 2000 Planet of the Apes, ID4 : SE, The Abyss :  Extended Cut
October Rocky Horror Picture Show 25th Anniversary!!
November Mash 30th Anniversary!!, Jingle All the way (just testing :-)
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Blair Witch coming to DVD
With the announcement a few months back that Queensland based Magna Pacific Bought out Becker Entertainment they picked up the rights to the indie box office smash hit The Blair Witch Project.  Now the Blair witch is making it's way to DVD in a very special edition. 
In an interesting move (a clever move actually) MP are releasing the Blair Witch on DVD at the end of March as a rental only.  BUT on the 18th April Blair Witch goes sellthru for $34.95. 
The idea of this is to give the Video rental market a slight window to get some rentals out of this DVD before everyone goes and buys it.  Quite often I've found that the local video shops in my area who stock DVDs say they don't move too well, and my assumption on this was due these DVDs being available for sellthru at the same time, and at the moment a lot of people are just buying DVDs for their collections.... 
While it's great that the Matrix, the Mummy and the upcoming Random Hearts all come Date and Day with the VHS rental, this 2 week window seems like a happy medium to me.  And personally I can wait 2 weeks for a DVD to come out after rental.  A 3 to 6 months later ...hmmmmm I'd be a bit frustrated.  So anyhoo.

The really good news on the Blair Witch DVD front is that it's pretty much going to Match the Region 1 Artisan release with the full motion menus, extras like the Curse of the Blair Witch doco and more.  It seems MP have gone all out with this Dual Layered DVD, which has been mastered in PAL from Digital Betacam sources.  It seems the only missing extra will be the DVD ROM content.

Magna Pacific DVDs 
Though nothing has been set in stone just yet, Magna Pacific are looking to release some great flicks on DVD "using the best possible sources available".  A few Titles mentioned for upcoming releases (please not these are tentative at best and no work has actually begun on them) are Scream, Reservoir Dogs (there's talk of a New Director's Cut), Man on the Moon, Virus, Dirty Dancing  (calm down now Cass!), and one that shocked me a little as it's been in big demand in the USA, The Princess Bride!! Oh and there was mention of releasing the ABC kids show, Around the Twist on DVD (apparently it's been a big hit on VHS)

With access to some truly great titles, it'll be interesting to see what Magna Pacific come up with to compete against the big boys (look at what Anchor Bay have done for DVD in the USA.....you knever know :-))

PS Anyone going to see the new Aussie slasher flick CUT this weekend?   ANY film where a Minogue sister gets butchered has gotta be worth the price of admission :-)
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The NEW Price is Hiked!!!
To what is sure to be a disappointment to many consumers in OZ, Columbia Tri-Star Home Video are set to bump up the price on ALL their DVDs to carry a RRP of $39.95, starting in April 2000.  Now in some instances this price is not so bad, for a DVD loaded to the hilt with extras, Like CTHV's DELUXE Collector's Editions, but for others that are bare bones, hmmmmmmm..i find it difficult to justify and Extra 5 bucks, when there is far less of that bang.
It surprises me to some extent that this has happened seeing as so many people are sourcing DVDs outside of Australian (spell Canada and USA), and Australia's division of CTHV are such strong supporters of keeping DVDs "inhouse", as increasing the price on a DVD is a sure way to loose customers.  I'm sure many of you have read this and thought, "Screw it, I'll be buying more Columbia DVDs from the USA now. 'cause they 'll be cheaper", and it some cases it's true that it will be cheaper by a buck or two (at the end of the day), due largely in part to the cut throat on-line DVD USA market that give a 30-40% discount on Region 1 retail priced DVDs.  
This extreme discounts simply can not be done in Australia without resulting in sellings DVDs below cost, the markup factor and the number of DVD'ers themselves isn't here (just yet) to allow it.  So with most of Our On-line Stores, you'll be looking at around $36 for the upcoming Columbia/Universal DVDs, instead of the current $31 - $32.

Also when GST kicks in this July 2000, you'll be hit with a 10% import tax, REGARDLESS of the number of DVDs you buy!!!  So in that little extra tax alone, you are paying at LEAST another $AU3 per DVD to bring it into OZ, which brings region 1 dvds up a fair price...

Hmmmm all food for thought.

CTHV April DVD releases
In addtion to the DVDs listed the other day from CTHV, there are a few more Collector's Editions and what not that have been added to the April 200 lineup.
For complete details, please goto the Columbia Release Page and the Universal Release Page

Click HERE for the Press Release

April 18th 2000
- Dragon : The Bruce Lee Story : DELUXE Collector's Edition
- Hard Target (R-Rated Version..our cinema/VHS version was only an MA...more info to come on this )
- Death Becomes Her
- Carmen (French Musical)
- Groundhog Day
- A League of Their Own : Collector's Edition
- Quidam : Cirque Du Soliel
- October Sky
- Hook : Collector's Edition
- Jakob The Liar : Collector's Edition
- Random Hearts : Collector's Edition

Sony Music's  Upcoming DVDs
Though we've concentrated mainly on the movie side of the DVD business for over two years now (yikes), we figured it was about time to include the music side as well. 
So to get the ball rolling here's the release schedule for sony music DVDs for the next few months.

 
PS Reservoir Dogs is coming to Region 4 DVD soon
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