What was the 1st movie released on DVD? (2 Viewers)

[Jefferson]

I had a small dvd collection 2 years before I actually had a player. THE WIZARD OF OZ (two incarnations ago) was my first DVD.

 

[Carlo_M]

Ah memory lane. I bought my Tosh 2006 DVD player back in May of 1997, Los Angeles was one of the seven test cities (I believe the nationwide rollout of DVD was September 1997). I can still see that slate of WB titles on the shelf, as that's pretty much all that had been released at that point, along with a smattering of Columbia titles. I picked up Batman and Batman Returns, In the Line of Fire (an early CHV release) and two other discs that I'm having trouble remembering. I'm pretty sure Unforgiven was one of them.

I remember picking up my first RSDL disc: Contact.

That was also the disc that I first discovered on my Tosh what would later be called "anamorphic downconversion" artifacts.

 

[Steven Thomas]

I purchased Unforgiven the very first day DVDs were released in the USA in 1997. Made the purchase the first hour the store was open.

 

[Steven Thomas]

There was actually eight test cities. I actually made my purchase in Spokane. The store owner got Seattle to slip him some of the DVDs for the big day.

 

[Ivan Lindenfeld]

Toshiba SD 1006 or 1007 in October/November 1997. Still playing daily in my house. The 1xxx were warehouse club exclusive models and I got mine at Sam's Club. It was missing a feature: Component out. However, it had a secret, unmarked feature: DTS! I don't even think the DTS spec was ratified then, but it plays DTS perfectly.

I think I bought Contact that day.

 

[MarkHastings]

I saw a demonstration of the Sonic DVD system in early '97. They were showing off an Eric Clapton DVD.

I just looked it up and saw that Eric Clapton Unplugged (a W.B. release) was released 5/20/97

 

[Frank@N]

I remember Widescreen Review publishing article after article about the evils of Dolby Digital compression.

Then the DTS crusade began...

That kind of talk and 4:3 encoded discs led me to hold off on DVD for several years.

Of course, now I own about 10x more DVDs that LDs.

 

[Matt Gordon]

I saw my first DVD in a small music store in Macomb, Illinois, in July 1997.

I purchased a $1K Pioneer combo DVD/LD unit that November, I think.
Along with the player, I purchased the Clint Eastwood film, "In The Line of Fire."
It was the only one in the rack at BB that I wanted. I remember looking up at the ceiling from bed one night around that time praying the format would survive...

Now I rent DVD's for $1 a night at McDonald's.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I guess I was persuaded by lots of articles in the press about how MPEG artifacts would make DVD look crummy. I didn't buy a DVD player right out of the chute as it were.

Then I began writing patent applications for Sony's digital audio and video group here locally. I was talking with one of their inventors early in 1998 and related some of my concerns from press releases. He laughed and took me into the lab (hint: Sony's lab is like a HT fantasy land). It only took me a dozen minutes scanning through some of the then-available disks to see this was manna from heaven....

I stopped by Costco on my way home and purchased my first player and two disks that they stocked: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and also the Madacy Why We Fight - War Comes to America....

I played the Madacy disk first. Boy was I upset...the video stunk and the audio was very distorted. I almost put that DVD player right back in the box. But I decided to give it another chance. I played the GB&U disk. My jaw dropped again. This was the real thing. I determined that the Madacy disk had severe shortcomings....as I later found all Madacy titles to have shortcomings.

 

[Ben::H]

Looking back I can't believe I didn't get into DVD until December of '99. Like Steve I jumped from VHS to DVD. I remember cuing up Star Trek First Contact on DVD and VHS so they were at the exact same spot and flipping back and forth for comparison. Couldn't believe films could look that good at home. Even in 1999 I don't think the format was terribly prolific. I got my Sony DVD player with a promo for 5 free discs from the manufacturer (Coincidentally one was the Stargate flipper) so they must have still been keen on getting more market penetration for DVD.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Actually, GWTW came out in 1998, a year after The Searchers.

I remember going to the new DVD display at Best Buy, where they had The Birdcage playing. The picture quality was amazing. At first, I bought the combination Pioneer DVD/LD player (I forget the number--it's archived somewhere on my old site). But that player had a subtitle glitch where subtitles were enabled on disc insertion. And the very first item on my Glitch List was born. I traded that player in on a Toshiba 2006 plus a few more movies on top of the ones I had initially purchased.

If I recall correctly there were around 45 titles released to DVD those first few months between March/June 1997, and I pretty much got them all--Twister, Batman, Batman Returns, Unforgiven, Singin the Rain (this was the first movie I showed my friends, and it turned them into instant DVD freaks), Goldeneye, Sleepers, Eraser, Right Stuff, Color Purple, In the Line of Fire, Wizard of Oz, and so on.

It was great to live in one of the DVD test markets.

- Steve

 

[Steve Tannehill]

How about some more trivia questions?

1) What was the first movie released in RSDL (dual-layered) format?
2) What was Warner's first RSDL movie?
3) What was Warner's last "flipper" title (where "flipper" means movie split artifically across two sides because dual layering was not available.)
4) What was the first DVD recall that we were aware of?
5) Name at least four types of cases that were used for DVD in 1997 alone, and the companies that used them. Bonus: what company released discs in two different case types at the same time?
6) What format got the first Disney animated feature? DIVX or DVD? What was the movie?
7) How long did it take Titanic to appear on DVD after the VHS release?
8) What was Criterion's first anamorphic title?
9) What DVD title sold more DVD players than any title up to that date? (I believe it was the first million seller...)

 

[Zack Gibbs]

1) I think it was Terminator 2

Don't know


9) I think you may be talking about "The Matrix", although I'm not sure how anyone could ever prove how many DVD players were bought as the result of wanting to watch one particular movie.

 

[Ravi K]

Insomnia

 

[nolesrule]

Steve, your old site was great. Even before I got a DVD player in Feb 1998, everyday I would visit your site and Bill's for my daily DVD news fix. I think the first DVD-related site I stumbled upon was Robert's DVD Info page sometime back in 1996.

I wasn't the earliest adopter purchase-wise, but I'm proud to be one of those who bought a DVD player (Panasonic DVD-A100) with the first 11 months of discs being released. And thanks to the sites above, I followed it even before the first players and discs were released. I would have bought a player sooner, but I was a college student without a job. Still, I was the first person in my circle of family and friends to own a DVD player, and they all come to me for HT advice because of it.

I don't remember the exact date, but I bought Air Force One a few days before buying the player. And I picked up Batman and Addicted to Love (well, my wife picked up that one) the day we bought the player.

The A100 is still ticking. It's connected to the 19" TV in my office (via composite). I bought that TV the day I bought the DVD player because the POS TV in our apartment was RF-only.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

1) Termie 2, yes!
8) Insomnia, yes! (The Swedish/Norwegian version, not the Christopher Nolan remake.)
9) I am indeed thinking of The Matrix, and I agree entirely with your sentiments. But that title was huge. According to this site I used to read the title was estimated to have shipped 1.3 million units and had sold 600,000 of them by October 1, 1999. Not bad, considering it was only released to the public on September 21. By August of 2000, it had sold 3 million copies, which was nearly half the installed base of DVD players

- Steve

 

[Jesse Skeen]

DIVX got Alice In Wonderland, followed shortly by Dumbo (I picked both up as souvenirs when DIVX died.) "Basic" DVD did get the direct-to-video "Beauty and the Beast Enchanted Christmas" before then, though.

Don't know what the last single-layer flipper was; Schindler's List is the only movie I have that has an interruption, and that's a DVD-18.

Now it's my turn:

Which studio was the first to STOP producing laserdiscs?

What was the first major title to NOT be issued on laserdisc?

Also name each studio's final US laserdisc title. (There were a few more in Japan after the last US title, and Sears kept using LDs made by Imation for its instore program through 2001- before Imation's laserdisc division was shut down, one of the very last discs was a revised version of the "Dragon's Lair" arcade game funded by fans).

Name at least one major title on DVD that has NOT been released at all on VHS (hint: one came out this week, another comes out November first.)

Name the last movie to be released on CED Videodisc.

Name the last movie to be released on Beta tape. (Not sure if I know the answer to this one.)

 

[TravisR]

One day short of a year. The VHS was released on September 31, 1998 and the DVD was released on August 31, 1999. I knew that knowledge would come in handy someday.

 

[Hank]

I remember driving down to NYC during the test phase market in 97', I owned a Toshiba 2006 and my first DVD's were Batman, The Road Warrior, Se7en, The Mask, The Exorcist, I can't remember a few more, the only original I have left is The Road Warrior.

 

[PatWahlquist]

I bought my first player, a Pioneer DVL-700, since it was a LD and DVD combo player, just in case DVD died. I went into an Ultimate Electronics here in April of 97 just to look around and asked them if they had the players in yet. Being in Vegas, we got nothing title wise. I had to order three titles, Unforgiven, Seven, and Goodfellas out of California. I remember the guy I spoke to at a Suncoast being very shocked someone was actually buying DVD's.

A guy I worked with was also buying any titles he could find and he soon got Species. I borrowed it and had some friends over to watch it and they were amazed at the picture quality. It was the first of many "Wow" moments I shared with friends as this hobby (or obsession) took off.