A few years ago, when I bought my first DVD player, I was surprised to learn how much I'm interested in movies and filmmaking. I really enjoy the "behind-the-scenes" and "making of" features on some DVDs. It's important enough that I now look for certain editions of a DVD. For example, "Antz", one of my favorite movies, is available as a Signature Selection DVD which one would expect, as a Signature Selection, to be a full-blown feature saturated item. Well, it has features, but it lacks DTS. Apparently there wasn't enough room on the disc to have both DTS and "Easter Eggs" (The DTS version is probably the better investment).
I have Antz with special features, but I would prefer the DTS version. I've learned of this alternate version only today, and this long after Antz prime, it could prove hard to find...
First priority is Wide Screen presentation, if available. Bambi has never been widescreen. I've occasionally found myself in possession of Full Screen versions of Wide Screen flicks by mistake or carelessness (I'm often shopping from Used bins where items tend to be 'as is').
Second priority is Audio presentation. DTS is preferred, if available, but, I also enjoy movies in their original presentation format. Bambi DVD is remixed for 5.1 but I'm not certain audio technology had found its way to Stereo by that time. Another example is Fantasia (I'm not picking on Disney, I love this old stuff, hence my attention to detail). Fantasia may have been the first-ever multi-channel audio feature presentation in theaters, however, 50th Anniversary edition laser disk (before home theater and multi-channel audio became widespread) flubbed the mix in an attempt to recreate the original theater experience and actually sounds awful at times.
Finally, special packaging comes into play. Any self-respecting "Evil Dead" fan MUST own the Book of the Dead edition, period. And my limited edition "Repo Man" tin included the soundtrack which I only had as an ancient and fragile audio cassette. Buying the tin killed two birds with one stone AND gave me a really cool item to show off to friends.
So, here begins the list of DVDs with which I hope to upgrade my collection:
Antz (DTS), Big Trouble in Little China (2-disc Special Edition), Blue Velvet (Special Edition), Die Another Day (Widescreen), Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended Versions), The Matrix Revisited, The Princess Bride (Special Edition), Repo Man (non-Tin version), and [Honorable Mention] the original Star Wars trilogy (NOT the Special Edition) is available on Laser Disk but is very expensive, if you can find one at all, and it's AWESOME!!!
That's all for this go-round. Ciao!
