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I was looking at amazon.com and I saw that one of the awsomest sitcoms of the last few years is actually out on DVD, Spin City, what was more interesting is that instead of doing a full season release they just did a top 10 disc. Why don't more TV shows do this instead of releasing a whole season for like $60 I'd rather just get a best of instead of buying a whole season, most shows only have 3 or 4 really great episodes a season, why don't more studios do best of... instead of full seasons?

-- Robert

Good question. I've been begging Paramount for a best-of Q and Borg episodes from Star Trek for ages. What I've found with best-of collections is that's a sign the series has had previous full season set releases and didn't sell well. Mad About You is another case. They put out one or two seasons and just didn't sell, probably because the show is in syndication and was popular but not necessarily a monster hit, and the DVDs sold poorly. So a best-of gets the most popular episodes out there in one package more likely to sell.

-- Andy

You said on the DVD portion of your site that the 1997 version of Titanic is coming out. I read on another site that Titanic will be getting an HD transfer, but they probably won't release it on HD/Blu-Ray for some time. Because most likely it will be released late 2005. Dou you know different? I wondered if you had heard any thing about this? Paramount held off so long on a Special Edition if it does release 4th Quarter,why not just release an HD/Blu Ray version. Do you know of a few. As for the DVD, DTS, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!

-- Robert

What you probably read was news it would be a high definition master. They do that for all DVDs these days. Star Wars was mastered in 1080 high def, although DVD it still 480p. What that means is it can be transferred to a high definition source in the future, like high definition satellite, D-VHS, Blu-ray or HD DVD, relatively quickly. It's ready for high definition sources. Fact is, Titanic is one of the last titles we'll see on either format due to dual ownership. Paramount owns domestic rights and they are with HD DVD. Fox owns international right and they are tilting to Blu-ray. So does this mean they need to make two masters? What a headache. So I think a title like that will wait until there is a single format.

-- Andy

Congratulations on your new TV and DVD player but there's one big problem. Well, two, as I would not get that tiny box you got. I am saving up for a DLP projector (and gasp, it's going to be a Toshiba, but not for why you think) and I'm going 100 inches or bust, baby! More importantly (and the reason I emailed you) is that it may not be in the readership's best interest to review movies on that DVD player. Yes I ridiculed your POS JVC TV and DVD player for a long time, but you need to understand that your DVD player has the most lauded deinterlacer to ever hit the market. The Faroudja 2200 is motion adaptive and will display movies with incorrect flags (such as many animated TV shows) at a much higher quality than 90% of the readership's machines can. It is error correcting. This will lead to unnaturally high video scores on certain (especially video based sources) movies.

-- Tom

This is rich. Now my gear is too good. Should I ditch it in favor of a 27-inch set and a PlayStation 2 so I can be more like viewers? This misadventure has taught me the one thing you should look at when buying a deck, and it isn't the name or outputs, it's the deinterlacer. Heck, I would advise everyone to get a deck with the 2200 chip in it. My Yamaha S2300 was a floor model on clearance because the 2500 is coming out. You can get it for $400 if you're lucky when it used to be $1,000. Get one of those. I love this deck. And the Toshiba 52HM84 is off the charts. I have high-def cable (which technically isn't true high def) and I've never been so hooked on PBS, since KCET transmits in HD. Bottom line is, everyone should ascribe to do better, the reviewer should not step down.

-- Andy

Hey there, I was wondering, why there isn't a review for the Indiana Jones DVD collection? I have heard it's nice but I always like to hear your opinion about the movies...

-- Eduardo

Look under A on the reviews list, since the DVD set is called The Adventures of Indiana Jones.

-- Andy

Just to let you know, the blu-ray.com faq states that Blu-ray has a data transfer rate of 54.0Mbps, not the 36.5Mbps that HD-DVD has. I guess they updated the technology.

And couldn't they take care of that layer transition problem by pre-loading the movie into a temporary buffer (like RAM)? Just put a special marker letting the machine know when to start the preload soon before the transition. Even if that doesn't work, blu-ray can use its full 25GB for the movie & the second layer for extras.

-- Kristan

Thanks for the correction. As for the design, who knows how it goes with these guys. There's one site full of DVD player reviews, and they show a wide disparity of time differences on the layer change from one manufacturer to the next. It all really depends on how much thought they put into their player.

-- Andy

Is it me or are people not reading the information being put out. Aren't both formats backwards-compatible with the current DVDs?

-- Keesh

How many times do I have to answer this? I'm going to put it in the ad banners on the site. Yes, for what undoubtedly will not be the last time, they will play old DVDs.

-- Andy