DVDown Under - March 1999 Archived News

26th March 1999

15% OFF at The Video Shift During the DiVAs
During the last week of Voting for the DiVAs and the first week after the announcement of the DiVAs (27th March to 9th April), The Video Shift are offering 15% off ALL DVDs when you order 2 or more at a time..This is an EXCLUSIVE Discount to DVDown Under visitors so please click HERE for Details.

New Look for DVD Station
It's been a long time coming, but the DVD Station received it's long overdue facelift (which is still in progress), check it out for some great thingy-mabobs to buy

23rd March 1999

Video Ezy On-line DVD shop
The newsletters are happening and so are the DVD specials.....For the opening of Video-Ezy Online, they have on offer selected titles at disgustingly cheap prices of Under $26.95 (this is NOT for all available titles though)...So you had better be quick to catch these hard-to-refuse deals.....(and make sure you join up for the newsletter)

Roadshow's latest DVD "improvement"
After 18 months of us pestering them :-), Roadshow have decided to include a button on the INTERVIEWS menu to "Play Thru Entire set of interviews in One Go!!!" so there's no more excessive button pushing to watch the interview snippets.....yay!!!!!! This feature will make its First appearance with the release of BLADE..

PS if you haven't already sussed out Music Boulevard for their DVD special ($10 off you very first order)...you may want to check it out.....They are selling Blade and Austin Powers (region 1 ) for $US12.49 each, Antz for $US17.49, and the Truman show for $US14.99, plus a HEAP of other at cheap prices....

If you buy ONLY ONE of these titles for your very first order, where shipping to OZ would cost $US9 for ONE title, you'd only be paying (overall) $11.49 for Blade or Austin Powers, $16.49 for Antz or $13.99 for The Truman Show.....how can you resist that.....of course this $10 voucher is valid only once and comes off your TOTAL order (which is why buying only 1 title is the cheapest way to go....buy 2 DVDs and you've only paid 75 cents for postage...grab this deal while you can...i did notice that most of thier other titles are a touch pricey though (for discount shops that is)

PPS Isn't it great about Beuna Vista...................Fox and Paramount, where are you?????

21th March 1999

~~SONY DECODER FOR SALE - SOLD~~
Well I'm please to say that I've sold my Sony Decoder...yay....sorry to those who missed out...but i guess it was such a damn good deal, that a few too many people were tempted....

HOWEVER - If anyone is after either of the TWO Hometheatre Items that a friend of mine is wanting to sell please drop me a line if you are interested in either of these

B&W CDM1-SE - These are only 4 months in and are nicely worn in...the internal wiring has been upgraded with the excellent QED Qudos cable and has made these speakers sound even better than they normally do....much tighter bass and all that stuff (I'm about to do it to my little 'ol 602s)...These Retail for $2000, and are going for $1600 (which includes postage in OZ)....oh and they are that sexy cherrywood colour too.
ELECTROCOMPANIET ECI-1 (integrated Amp)..This also also only 4 months old..don't know too much about it, but it does look quite sexy..Retails for $3500 and is going for $3000 (also includes postage in OZ)

18th March 1999

Have made some LONG overdue updates to the studio releases and the glitches pages

Texas comes to the UK
Banned for 25 years, Texas Chainsaw massacre is about to make its Theatrical screen debut in the United Kingdom. With 1999 being the 25th Anniversary for TCM the film was re-submitted to the UK Censors for the Worldwide 25th anniversay special....The film was passed with the 18 rating (same as our R18+) and will make it's first screening on the 9th April.

In a statement, the BBFC said, "There is, so far as the Board is aware, no evidence that harm has ever arisen as a consequence of viewing the film. For modern young adults accustomed to the macabre shocks of horror films through the 1980s and 1990s, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is unlikely to be particularly challenging. ... Any possible harm that might arise in terms of the effect upon a modern audience would be more than sufficiently countered by the unrealistic, even absurd nature of the action itself."

PS. Amaray case price will increase (by a whopping 15 cents per case to $1.85) with the new order coming soon.....if you want the cheaper price, please send in your order by Thursday 25th March (postage stamp based) as there are a few left at the old price ..thanks

PPS. Good news on the DVD Case Covers.
Called the 'new' manufacturer today and was told that the size wouldn't be a problem and that they'll be ready by Easter.

17th March 1999

HAVE YOU VOTED FOR THE DiVAs yet???...remember you could WIN a FREE DVD from The Video Shift

There's a New Sheriff in Town (well two actually and they're both at Roadshow)
For the past few weeks Roadshow has gone through a few changes with a new DVD Marketing Manager, and the addition of a new Technical Support Person for DVD. (notice how this coincides with the announcement that Roadshow are to drop MPEG Audio??)....thanks goto the Tech Support DVD fellow/Guru :-) for that one.....(who also happens to be something of a movie buff and is giving Roadshow DVDs a little overhaul to spruce things up)....

Firstly there is the dropping of MPEG Audio, (yippy!!!)..this will take effect after the 4th April release of Don Quixote.....Future titles will have Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround Audio tracks only...(I just prey that Dolby Surround isn't the default audio track like on Columbia DVDs......(please default to DD5.1 guys)

Cover designs are to also change with a new and improved features box on the back cover along with a new WIDESCREEN logo that fronted on most of Roadshow's latest DVDs.....plus a few other "cosmetic' changes

Something else mentioned to me, regarded the content/extras on Roadshow DVDs. Roadshow can not get legal copyright use with some material being licensed for domestic American/British use....real bummer this as several of the DVDs that Roadshow have released come with fantastic extras like running commentaries on the USA Region 1 counterparts.....and seeing as some of these features are of great interest to a lot of people, they will continue to source their DVDs from the USA instead.....I know I'm guilty of this, but I simply can't pass up on a good running commentary (one of my favourite DVD/LD features)....Hopefully as the market grows this will change and Roadshow will be able to include some of these great extras on their own DVDs.....

10th March 1999

Roadshow DVD Delays
Scream 2 has been delayed a few days and has missed it's 8th March Release ......it's coming really soon though

Halloween: H20 Has been delayed from its Date and Day release with VHS (which was yesterday) due to technical difficulties....it is expected soon, but no set date has been given....It'll be interesting to see when this DVD is released as the USA DVD release has been changed several times..not only will we get it before them, but it will also be 16:9 Enhanced (granted it's interpoated from a matted widescreen version, but hey you can't win them all), and i'd say it'll included a few more extras than the region 1 version PLUS for those of you who really HATE this movie you'll be pleased to know that the torturous viewing period will be lessened by a good 4 minutes thanks to the PAL speed increase :-))

Spizz informed me of a great offer for Region 1 DVD buying...check out DVD Price Search for all the Best Region 1 DVD deals

Good News on the DVD Case Cover Front
It seems we may have found someone who can make them really close to the right size...I have sent them a sample cover and hope to get the go ahead in the next few days....If this is the case, then it'll take 2 weeks to complete them....yay!!!!!................(phew :-)...fingers crossed for an end of the month arrival...

6th March 1999

VOTE FOR THE DIVAS NOW!!!!
Click HERE to goto the Region 4 Digital Video Disc Awards page

Buena Vista DVDs coming in August??? (rumour??)
With all the excitment over the DiVAs i forgot about an email i was sent the other day...Whoever sent this to me obviously wishes to remain anonymous, as the reply address is bogus...Anyway, onto the juicy stuff....the email says that WARNER will be the distributors and will start to release for Buena Vista starting this August...with all the rumours flying around it's hard to say if this is true, but hey, it's news and i thought i should mention it.

Do you NEED to Replace your Broken Snapper Cases??
After a fair bit of digging around I found a place that will sell me Snapper Cases for the Warner DVDs....the only catch is that stock will be quite limited, as for us to buy them..they have to be run thru with a real run of Snapper cases (we just missed the one for the Lethal Weapon 4 cases)..the reason for this, is that the plastic part of the snapper case can not be sold without the cardboard part, so the kind fellow was going to run some blank ones thru for us....These little suckers will sell for $2.50 each, but the best part is, they weight half as much as the Amaray cases...so you can fit 4 Snapper cases in the $2.30 postage (this DOES NOT include the blank card board as they double the wieght)....
If anyone is interested in buying some replacement Snapper cases, please EMAIL ME and let mw know how many you are after, so at the end of the month, i can order them again...pleaes DO NOT send any money for the Snapper Cases until further notice...the actual postage prices for MRE than 4 cases will be put up tomorrow.

CLEAR DVD CASES NOW AVAILABLE (the ones used by Region 4 CTS for their DVDs)
Similar to the excellent Amaray cases, but totally CLEAR..theses are In Stock and available NOW....they sell for the same price as the Amarays, which is $1.70 per case...no need to email me...PLUS you can mix and match with the Amarays (if you need some of both)..So you can order say 3 Amarays and 2 Clear DVD Cases at $1.70 each and the postage total is only $3.20 (for ALL 5 cases)..please EMAIL me if you are unsure what i mean