Best Place to get DVD Information (1 Viewer)

[Scott-C]

Where do you all go for the following types of DVD information?

1. DVD reviews - not only new DVD releases, but older DVDs as well, such as "Easy Money". I just looked around for a review of this DVD and couldn't find any information. Often I find this to be the case with lower-profile DVDs. What site(s) has a comprehensive list of reviews?

2. Existing DVD Specs - I want to know if an existing DVD is anamorphic, or has DTS, etc. Where's the best place to go?

3. Upcoming DVD release dates/specs/reviews - Is there a site or sites that will allow me to search for info on a DVD that has not yet been released, and the search will return ALL information it has on this DVD? What I really want to do is know if a site has reported anything at all on upcoming DVDs, but I don't want to spend hours sifting through the site's web pages to find it. I want to enter a word or words into a search box and have the search engine do this for me. What sites allow this? Most of the search engines I see only allow me to search the reviews, not the other parts of the site (such as "heard on the street" type of info).

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Walter Kittel]

Regarding review sites, this site does a pretty good job of indexing reviews from many web sites.
For DVD specs, try reviews of the disc from the above site, or sales sites such as DVD Empire
- Walter.

 

[Alex Spindler]

I highly recommend DVD Review. Under the Coming Releases section, you'll find a very accurate DVD database of existing titles as well as a by month release schedule for new DVDs.
Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

 

[Scott-C]

Thanks for your comments guys. I checked out all the sites you recommended. As a test, I searched for information on "Hudson Hawk".

Both the Image site and DVD Review had information on this disc, but neither site had a review of the quality of the disc.

The DVD Basen site did have a review of the picture and audio quality of the DVD, so between all of the sites you recommended, I was able to find what I needed.

Thanks for all the great suggestions.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

I can't believe no one has mentioned The Digital Bits, or DVDFile

 

[Chris Tinglin]

ahem.. since you asked ...
[warning: a this-would-be-embarrassing-if-i-had-a-sense-of-shame, cheezy plug to follow]
in response to Scott's question re DVD info (type #2), you can give our site, told you so productions, a go.
we're completely (and will be forever) without our own forum, no interviews, and no rumours, but if you want hard searchable details...well, we don't (completely) suck...

ct

 

[Jeff Brooks]

http://www.dvd-basen.dk/uk/home.php3

 

[Gord Lacey]

Scott:
If you're looking for information on TV shows that have been released on DVD (series, mini-series and some TV specials) I've been putting together a site at http://www.TVShowsOnDVD.com . It's set up so users can review discs they own, although very few actually have :frowning:
Gord

 

[MichaelG]

Hmmm, I checked the following sites for specs on Easy Money.
Link Removed
www.dvdempire.com
www.dvdplanet.com
Only DVDEmpire listed this as Anamorphic. So what is the deal? I am assuming that it is not, because I thought I heard before that it's not.

 

[Chris Tinglin]

Hope this isn't sliding into off-topic territory, mike, but it says here that it EM is indeed anamorphic. Unfortunately, there aren't any extras at all on the DVD, but that's par for the course with Rodney...
ct

 

[MichaelG]

Chris, I asked because from the several suggested sites listed only one indicated that it was anamorphic. Now, I consider the "Best Place to get DVD Information" to be one that at least has correct information, so I don't think it's off topic.

I was talking to a guy in Best Buy yesterday and trying to tell him the best place to go for information just like this, but I couldn't think of any one site (he was buying Pearl Harbor and I told him about the Director's cut coming out next year, he asked where I he could get information like that).

So I guess that of the three that I checked, only DVDEmpire had the corerct information, I will be more inclined to use that site when verifying information now.

 

[Chris Tinglin]

Whoops. Sorry, Mike, I guess I misinterpreted where you were coming from (or where you were going?) with that question. That was an excellent test (how'd you decide on that particular one anyway? just a fluke?), and it just goes to show that nobody has the perfect mix of info for everything/everyone. Naturally, some sites are better at certain things than others (including all the abovementioned), but you can only inform some of the people some of the time i suppose...

 

[MichaelG]

Actually, I decided on looking up Easy Money just because it was mentioned in the first post. Glad I did too. Since I own a widescreen (older Toshiba TW56F80, non-HDTV, no line doubler), I only buy anamorphic DVD's. So, I always look at that part of any DVD spec first if I am considering buying it.

 

[Scott-C]

Great info, guys.

MichaelG, brilliant! You hit on one of my "issues" when trying to find complete, comprehensive DVD information. In fact, I had the idea for this thread because I also couldn't find good-enough info on "Easy Money." I always like to see if DVDs are anamorphic before I buy them as that is also my preference.

I really wish there were just one or two sites that had a comprehensive list of DVD specs as well as some subjective reviews of the DVD transfer and audio quality (I could care less about reviews of the movie itself as I can get that many places, including HTF). Some of the more "known" sites do a good job, IMO, in selective areas, but in other areas they don't seem to have enough information on older DVDs, and no easy way to search for possible upcoming releases of DVDs. By example, if I had wanted to search for a possible re-release of Easy Money, I would have had no idea what site would have provided that kind of a search engine.

I really like DVDBasen; I've used it at least twice since Walter Kittel brought it to my attention. I'll try some of the other sites that were mentioned later in this thread.

Chris Tinglin, I just checked out your site and it passed my "Easy Money" test - looks like a good site!

Gord, I'm a registered member of your site and it never occurred to me to look there for DVD information, probably because in this case I wasn't looking for into on a TV series. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

 

[Geo Gabor]

Alex - I don't share your enthusiasm for DVD Review. I used to enjoy checking their upcoming releases, which seemed to be updated at least weekly. For the past three or four months, though, it's only been updated once every three or four weeks.
My 2 cents.

 

[Chris Tinglin]

Michael - o, suure, bury me with the bloody obvious, eh? duhhh
btw, if you guys are pretty sure you're not oddball freaks about the anamorphic bit (i.e. a lotta other collectors find this spec of primo importance), then we can surely and relatively easily add a quick link in our 'dvdheads' section to list all anamorphic dvds in the db. but man, thass gotta be a long list tho...
any other suggestions are welcome (except a "power" search feature - i'm workin' on it )
ct

 

[Alex Spindler]

Geo, I had been getting that impression as well, but I wasn't sure if it was due to a lack of releases or not.

I still stand by their database, which is the most accessible and accurate one I've found.

 

[John Henry]

Whenever searching for DVD or movie reviews, the first place to go is the Movie Review Query Engine:
www.mrqe.com

 

[Martin Jeeves]

I like this site here:
http://www.thecinemalaser.com/news-tidbits.htm