By Peter M. Bracke

'Survivor's greatest hits

Well, you knew it was coming, now all you Survivor fans can finally get your fix on DVD. Coming from Paramount on 1/9 is Survivor: Season 1 - The Greatest And Most Outrageous Moments, in full frame and 2.0 stereo. Also included on the disc is an interview with series creator and producer, Mark Burnett and host Jeff Probst, and Island Map and "voting and polling histories." Retail is just $19.95 for the 150 minute program.

New Warner Music titles

Serving up some potential stocking stuffers, Warner Music has announced a quintet of new music titles for 11/7. Watch for Brandy: The Videos, The Corrs: Live At Royal Albert Hall, Sugar Ray: No Cerveza, No Trabaja, Hootie And The Blowfish: Summer Camp With Trucks and Tori Amos: The Complete Videos 1992-1998. All are full frame and 2.0 stereo, and retail for $24.95 each. No major extra features on any of these, aside from discographies, and in the case of the Hootie and Corrs discs, some backstage footage.

'The Kid' announced

Finally, Buena Vista has issued a very slim announcement for a 1/30 arrival of the Bruce Willis hit The Kid. No details on the specs, other than a $29.95 price tag. Stay tuned...

October 12 : The Road To El Dorado announced; DTS Jurassic Park lacking bass?

Can you feel the love tonight?

Oops, wrong movie. In a somewhat rare occurrence in the world of video today, DreamWorks will be releasing their animated box office underachiever The Road To El Dorado on 12/12, several months after its original theatrical debut. This is somewhat unusual, what with all the ever-shorter theatrical-to-video release windows these days. Anyway, the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen disc also sports Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 mixes, as well as "The making Of El Dorado" featurette, the Elton John music video for the title cut (bleech, remind me to turn the sound down during that part), a look at the character development with commentary by the directing team of Bibo Bergeron, Will Finn, David Silverman and Don Paul, cast and crew bios, production notes and the trailer. There is also a host of DVD-ROM features, including 2 interactive games, a color book, a "pattern matching" activity game, read-along and a screensaver. All this for just $26.95...

Jurassic DTS lacking some bass?

With both Jurassic Park and The Lost World stomping onto DVD yesterday, inevitably controversy has already arisen regarding the differences between the DTS and Dolby Digital versions. We've received one email and a thread has started in our forum regarding a lack of bass on the DTS version of Jurassic Park. Some info floating has gone so far as to say there is going to be a recall, or that the "president of DTS" is going to make a formal announcement on the issue.

However, we checked our copies again, and could find no audible decrease in bass between the DTS versus the Dolby Digital. Of course, this doesn't mean there couldn't be a problem with some of the DTS discs, but as of yesterday neither Universal or DTS was even aware of any problem (if there is one), let alone some big formal announcement. Of course, stay tuned, we post as soon as any concrete info arrives either way on any possible problems with the disc...

October 11 : 'Dinosaur' comes to DVD; Columbia delivers a "Loser"; Mary Kate & Ashley's first DVD adventure

Jurassic Park, meet your competition...

Hello all, after a one-day break I'm back with some updates. Yesterday Buena Vista announced what is probably the first big title of 2001, the summer box office hit Dinosaur. In a bit of a departure for Disney, there are no human characters in this one, though the dinos do talk! Due on 1/30, there will be separate movie-only and special edition versions released simultaneously, and the 2-disc set looks especially impressive.

Both sets feature 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfers (the movie-only also includes a pan & scan version), Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 tracks, a Making Of "Dinopedia," two interactive games : "Aladar's Adventure" and "DinoSearch," and the theatrical trailer. But the special edition is where it really gets good, with an audio commentary with directors Ralph Zondag and Eric Leighton, the special effects supervisor and digital effects supervisor, a second audio commentary with producer Pam Marsden and the production team, a making-of featurette, deleted scenes, the original story treatment, a "3-D" workbook with film comparisons, featurettes on the dinosaur design, locations and the voice cast, a look at the history and visual development of the film, and finally some computer animation tests. Retail is $26.95 for the movie-only, and $39.95 for the 2-disc set.

Big phat loser

With a title like Loser, I suppose this film was just asking for trouble at the box office. The Amy Heckerling comedy comes to DVD on 12/1. IN addition to the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and English 5.1 and 2.0 surround mixes, the disc includes a making-of featurette, the Wheatus "Teenage Dirtbag" music video, production notes, talent files and the trailer. Retail is $24.95.

The number of the beast

I suppose it had to happen, so let's prepare ourselves for the inevitable. On 11/21, Warner will release the first direct-to-video Mary Kate and Ashley adventure, Our Lips Our Sealed. Our two heroes star in "an all-new Down Under adventure filled with non-stop Aussie intrigue, laughs, and romance!" Presented in full frame and 2.0 surround, all this can be yours for only $24.95!

October 9 and 10 : New Top Pick contest; Warner gets 'In'; 'Se7en' gets a street date; more news on Fox DTS titles

New Top Pick contest

If it is a Monday, then it must be time for our latest Top Pick contest. This week we have an extra-special giveaway, a double dino-mite prize, Universal's Jurassic Park Collection. I'm sure I don't need to tell you what this one is about, or what is in it, but the set includes both the Dolby Digital Jurassic Park and The Lost World discs. Just check out the box to your right to read our review and enter for your chance to win.

What would you do to get 'In'?

Though it made about $12 at the box office, Warner is pulling out all the stops for the 11/28 bow of Mary Lambert's The In Crowd. Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and with English and French 5.1 surround tracks, the disc also includes an audio commentary with Lambert, deleted scenes with commentary, making-of featurette, cast interview gallery, isolated score in 2.0, a still gallery, cast and crew biographies, the theatrical trailer, and "cool downloads" including the original theatrical web site, screensavers and wallpaper. All this can be had for $19.95, the first Warner disc to be so priced in over a year. Looks like a great, trashy disc.

'Se7en' gets a date

After months of waiting, the much-anticipated New Line double-disc set of David Fincher's Se7en has finally been given a date, 12/19. With just this minimal info sent out to retailers last week, we're told to expect the full press info in a couple of weeks or so. Tick tock...tick tock...tick tock...

Die Hard squared

Oops, correction alert. Last Friday we posted some info on the upcoming Fox special edition of William Friedkin's Oscar-winning special edition The French Connection. Unfortunately, we cross our wires and got its arrival date mixed up with the upcoming batch of Fox DTS titles due on 12/26. Sorry for the confusion..the French Connection disc will be out in early 2001, with the brief features mentioned (commentary, deleted scenes, DTS, etc.).We apologize for the error, and expect (finally) the full details for those Fox December DTS titles soon. There's been so many discussions on just what titles will be in that Fox batch due on 12/26, that it will be good to finally get the full specs on them. Watch for that soon!

Also, we've received a bit of information on the upcoming Die Hard special edition due early next year as well. look for a very cool 2-disc set, with a anamorphic transfer, DTS and Dolby Digital mixes, audio commentary with Director McTiernan and other participants, a still gallery, a full-length production info subtitle track (think the Ghostbusters or Frequency discs) and more to be announced. Looks to be a great set, though there will not be a Die Hard 2 or 3 released concurrently...just the first movie. Watch for more details in the coming months.