What was the 1st movie released on DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Larry Sutliff]

Philly wasn't a test market city, but the Tower Records on South Street stocked quite a few of the titles that weren't supposed to be sold everywhere. I picked up BATMAN RETURNS, BATMAN FOREVER and MARS ATTACKS! about a month after purchasing my player, and at least three months before the nationwide rollout took place. Even Ken Crane wouldn't ship those discs to Philly, but it was cool to get at least a few of them at Tower.

 

[Holadem]

He he, we probably crossed paths because I was in that same store every single weekend listening to music and drooling over the incredible picture on those 20inch monitors... except I didn't have $1K to plunk down for anything .

Finally got my 1st player in '99 (Tosh SD2189, $200, died last year). First movie I saw on it (rented) was Mask of Zorro, because it even in the theater it looked better than anything I had ever seen...

--
H -

 

[Patrick H.]

'Mask of Zorro'...that was my first disc, too! Panasonic A-110 was the player. Second disc was the SE of 'Tomorrow Never Dies,' which I vividly remember as being just about the coolest thing I had ever seen.

 

[Jean-Michel]

At the risk of being pedantic, nobody's really answered the original question, since DVD was available in Japan a number of months before the North American rollout. The DVD Demystified FAQ claims that the first movie DVDs were The Assassin, Blade Runner, Eraser and The Fugitive, which were released in Japan on December 20, 1996.

 

[Jamie Goff]

I bought my first DVD player, a Sony (DVP-550 I think), in 98'at Sears. I got it because I wanted to buy Starship Troopers, and it wasn't available on vhs yet due to the rental window. I also bought Terminator 2. I remember going to Blockbuster and asking two women that worked there if they sold DVD's, and they had no clue what a DVD was.

 

[EnricoE]

same here: mars attacks i paid 57,- deutsche mark, approx $30 at that time.

the very first dvd with dolby digital that was released in germany was twelve monkeys.

 

[John*A]

My venture into the world of DVD was a lot cheaper than you other guys.

My friend showed me his US imported dvd player (with HUGE UK to US power converter) and his first dvds, Army of Darkness, Jackie Chans Mr Nice Guy, Lost In Space & Criterion Robocop IIRC.

I couldn't afford the £300+ at that time to get a US DVD player, especially as the US market at that time was so much better than the UK. (More choice, more extras).

Then another friend showed me an alternative that I quickly took upon myself. A Creative Labs DXR2 DVD Drive & MPEG2 Decoder card for only £150. And with a simple firmware upload, I could make it region free. And I could pass this through to the tv in my room for more comfortablr viewing.

I borrowed my friends copy of Robocop and Lost in Space (watched ALL the extras and all the commentaries - very impressive New Line Cinema for an early dvd) and fell in love with this new format.

I ordered my first two DVDs from DVD Express, Tremors and the recently released Blade.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I bought a combi-player from Pioneer in Fall 1997. The big discs were Twister, The Mask, and Goldeneye. Twister is the first one I saw previewed. I was more into LDs than DVD at first (DVD had marginal support, and NONE Bof the greats were available). I had lusted after LDs for a long time. 1998 and 1999 began the long march towards full studio support. Remember Disney, Fox, and Paramount? Reading weekly reports about the progress towards their support. Hell, it was only last year Star Wars finally was released (sort of).

Glad it worked out (way beyond what we could have dreamed),
Chuck

 

[Rolando]

Ha!

So true, I remember being excited about DVD then finding out Fox and Paramount were not in yet. I remember clearly thinking wait, no Star Wars and no Star Trek? The heck is this?

 

[PatrickDA]

My first player was bought in December of 1997, and the
first two films I got were 'JFK' and 'Goldeneye' Also, I
think 'Hoosiers' may have been one of the first DVD's.

 

[DanFe]

Bought my first dvd in January-April 1998 and it was a promotional of US Marshalls at CompUSA I didn't have a dvd player at the time but I soon got a Sony DVP 500 which didn't have DTS capability, but I was under the delusion that DTS really didn't matter. What did I know?

Of course, those were the days of coupons and promotionals where you could get $10 and more off (I still remember getting the 3 for $1 each special at 800.com)

 

[Kevin M]

I bought my Pioneer DVL-700 in late 96 or early 97 & the shop that sold it to me (The Sound Room) had three sample discs, Eraser - Space Jam & a concert disc (I don't remember who it was), this was sometime around Nov or Dec 96 & they didn't have anything to sell. My very first DVD that I bought was at a Best Buy, it was a horrible version of Night Of The Living Dead from UAV & the receipt in the case is dated 2/18/97....I don't know if that is even possible but that is what the receipt I kept in the snapper case says, and it doesn't even say "DVD", it says "Music department = $20.99" as that is where I found it packed among the CD's, I guess BB didn't even know how to classify it yet.


Edit: The more I think about it the more I am sure that that receipt can't be right, I put the Pioneer into layaway around Nov 96 but I didn't get it out until around Mar 97 and I didn't have a DVD to play on it for at least a month, so I had to have bought that DVD around April 97....I remember that receipt though because the fact that it said "Music department" cracked me up at the time. (Scratches head)

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

To add another post that doesn't answer any questions:

I didn't really care about the first titles on DVD.

Although I didn't "get in" until 2000, I was well aware of DVD probably right from the start. At that time I was "hanging around", usually at least a couple of times a week, at a store that I considered "my laserdisc place" - one of few and probably the best one here in Norway.

There were more guys who'd hang around there and that made us sort of an exclusive club.

However, in early 97 or so some new guys started showing up and would seemingly buy anything as long as it was on DVD. I rolled my eyes.

I didn't bother to "get in" until I could get Disney animation on DVD and classics from the 40s.

There were hard times in between, though, 1999 and early 2000. I must confess that I actually bought a few VHS tapes during that time. :b

 

[Doug Bull]

From memory I think "In Line of Fire", "Tony Bennett Unplugged" "Sesame Street" and "Waterworld" were among some of the earliest releases.

They were included with my first (US) NTSC Sony DVD Player, which I imported at least a year before DVDs were released here in Australia.

They came in jewel cases.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

That would be Star Wars: Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith.

I still remember when "Star Wars: Episode I" was released to home video in April 2000. LucasFilm announced at that time that "there would be no DVD version of the movie available for the foreseeable future!" Instead, Episode I was released to VHS and VHS Widescreen (in a deluxe collector's edition, no less!) domestically; and overseas to VHS, VHS Widescreen, LD (Japan only), and VCD. This prompted many of us here to moan that "Episode I had been released to every format known to man except DVD!" It was finally released to DVD in November 2001 ... about 18 months after the VHS release!

(It's interesting to note that since that first DVD release, LucasFilm has had at least one major release to DVD every November:
2001 - Star Wars: Episode I
2002 - Star Wars: Episode II
2003 - Indiana Jones Trilogy
2004 - Star Wars Trilogy
2005 - Star Wars Episode III

You don't suppose that this was all planned out in 1997 when the DVD format debuted or something, do ya'? )

 

[Mike Wadkins]

still better than the dvd

the matrix was warners last laserdisc in i think 1999

 

[Jeff(R)]

 

[Richard Splinte]

For us, the people in Europe, it was even more difficult to get early into dvd. I bought a modified (US model) Pioneer 606D (one of the first models who did DTS) in november 1998, with an 220V -> 110V converter. European DVD players were announched for 1999 but I couldn't wait that long and the discs were released with a long delay after the US release.

My first discs were Contact and Star Trek Generations and First contact. Generations was the first release with the non-anamorphic transfer. I sold that one when the 2 disc CE came out. I still own the Contact dvd and play it once in a while. I was amazed with the quality, I bought the widescreen VHS a few months earlier and did comparisons with them.

the costs were like crazy, I bought the player and the discs from a special import shop here in The Netherlands, region1 discs were going with a $40 price tag. The 606D I paid around the $1k for (inc regionhack).

 

[Steve Armbrust]

I had a hunch this would surface in this thread sooner or later. It wasn't 3 for $1 each, it was 3 for $1 total. What insanity!

 

[DavidBC]

I got my first player in May of 1999. I'd wanted to get into laserdiscs for years, but that format was WAY too expensive for a high school student! I put off getting my player until the Alien series was announced for release. I got my player (and I got A Bug's Life free with it), before you could get DVDs in my small Alberta city! One store in town rented them, and they once told me I was their only DVD customer! Remember how much fun it was to tell people you got a DVD player and they asked "What's that?"