John Cleese fans should be happy, you can buy the entire series of Fawlty Towers. for $44.98, sounds nice.

Want Star Wars EP1 in PAL? Lucas has a same-day release in the U.K.

In other U.K. releases, The Godfather parts 1, 2 and 3 are to be released on October 1st.

According to The Digital Bits, Willow:SE has been announced.

It looks like it's set for a November 27th release (possibly to cash in on the Lord of the Rings theatrical release).

Also to be released is the Terminator (the first one) Special Edition. While already out in Europe (and Australia) for a few month, the Region 1 release should be sometime in october.

In other release news, The Princess Bride has been announced for a Region 2 release (on July 23rd).

Been working hard on the next version of Zoom Player, for a pre-release peek, click here.

OK, here is the link I promised earlier:
Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace. Ships October 16th.

Announcing the release of DVD Genie v4.01.

Ok, besides a few small tweaks and minor features, this version attempts to restore WinDVD 3.0 region support by allowing you to set it to use it's old region-scheme.

I have no idea why InterVideo decided to switch the region-scheme to use the windows code, but now you can switch that back, and save yourself the headache of setting the windows internal region code (which is especially annoying under Windows 2000).

For the complete history list go here.
To download DVD Genie v4.01, click here.
To download additional language files, click here.

I received a few eMails about this, I'll mention Ant in particular since he was the first.

It looks like it finally happened, Lucas has finally announced Star Wars: The Phantom Menace on DVD. The discs includes audio commentary from practically everyone involved in the creative process (sans actors, probably saving their commentary for a future release). Also on the disc is a new documentary, multi-angle storyboards, behind the scenes featurettes and some other goodies.

The retailers haven't jumped on the announcement quite yet, so expect a link later.

Please, no more eMails about DVD Genie and WinDVD 3.0. Yes, it seems that newer version of WinDVD are using the internal windows region code. I got reports that switching the Windows region to Region 0 may help make switching easier (perhaps with no reboots?), give it a try. And to switch to Region 0, read the Win2k region code help in the article above.

Also, if you're a Zoom Player user, check this link.

It looks like the first season of The Simpsons will be out for pre-order pretty soon, pricing may be as low as $29.99. I'll try to have a URL later on.

Announcing Zoom Player v1.51.

Some fixes, some requested features, some unrequested feature, etc...

For the full details, read the What's new file.

To download Zoom Player, click here.

After the announcement a couple of days back, the retail stores didn't wait long, and already you can pre-order the Godfather Trilogy on DVD.

Currently priced at $79.43, it includes 5 DVDs, tons of additional material and ships on October 9th.

Ok, I've received a few eMails claiming that DVD Genie does not work with WinDVD 3.0.

I have just tested this to be false. The Reset Region function works just fine. However! There is some sort of cracked beta version floating around, which I don't think is even version 3 (rather some hacked older version made to appear as if it's 3.0).

To reiterate I have tested DVD Genie 4.0 against WinDVD 3.0.38.0 and it works great. So no more eMails on the subject (unless you get a newer "Real" version that doesn't seem to work).

Here's an interesting submission by stark247:
According to this report "EU to probe DVD Pricing" at the BBC, the European Union is to probe both pricing and the regional coding system of DVD's . The move follows complaints form consumers and a similar investigation into CD pricing earlier in the year. The EU ha written to Hollywood studios about it's DVD pricing structure to find out why prices are so much higher here than in the States. The EU also want to know why the film companies have split the world into 7 regions believing that "there is a fine line between protecting intellectual property and abusing a dominant position."

Bogus! It looks like Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey are being released in next two months. In fact the dates are 25th of June for "Excellent Adventure" (currently priced at £13.13) and July 9th for "Bogus Journey" (no price available at this time).

As the pricing shows, they are only available in the UK and Europe at this time, although there are rumors floating that they might be release in Region-1 by the end of the year, or sometime in 2002.

It looks as if a Special Edition version of The Princess Bride is going to be released on September 4th. One of the better movies out there, if you haven't bought the movie-only version, now's your time to go for the special edition.

Some other recently announced special editions include Silence Of The Lambs and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Well, we knew it would happen one of these days, and it seems to be getting closer. It seems that the major studios are in talks about adding a rental-pricing window to DVDs, which would mean that all newly released DVDs (or at least the bigger hits) will be priced about 50-100% higher than current release price for up to 3-4 months.

This of course won't make the retailers happy, since they will lose a lot of their sale-through revenue. Big mess, but according this article it's only a matter of time.

On a personal note, I believe that such a move will SERIOUSLY impact on the piracy industry. Do you really think people would buy the original disc at $50 while they can get a 100% digital pirated copy at $10? Not only that, but the internet piracy scene will have a field day with movies released in MPEG-4 derivative formats while people who are willing to buy the movies simply can't.

And 180 degrees in the other direction, it looks like both movies in the Bill & Ted dualogy may get released this year or early 2001, station!

Announcing Zoom Player v1.50.

Lots of tweaks and new features, make sure you read the what's new file.

For the full details, read the What's new file.

To download Zoom Player, click here.

The Danish DVD Genie language file has been updated to version 4.00.

The Digital Bits has a huge release information list, of most importance (to me) is that Paramount will release Star Trek: The Next Generation as boxed sets (entire season per set).

The list also mentions The Godfather trilogy, and other great movies coming out toward Christmas this year.

The sad thing is, it seems that the Back to the Future trilogy is still on hold, I wonder if Eric Stoltz still has a hand in this.

Updated the Windows 2000 information page with data on how to set windows to Region 0.

Is the region system starting to show cracks? It seems that a branch of the Australian government is up at arms at the abuse OZs get from movie studios (basically lack of region 4 titles and expensive discs).

Read more about it on Slashdot.org.

Also ... rumors are starting to pop that the Indiana Jones trilogy and Willow are finally on their way to our favorite format, no other info at this stage.

Several interesting things...

First it appears that work on lord of the rings DVD has started, very good news indeed, according to everything that has been released from this production (including unauthorized spy photos), it looks to be one of the best movies to have been released in the last decade. Anticipation for it has so far outshone everything else (including EP2).

Secondly, Forrest Gump has finally been announced for an August 28th release date, currently priced at $22.49.

And lastly, TheDigitalBits, according to their sources, is predicting that the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace will be released on October 16th.

The french, german and hungarian DVD Genie language files have been updated for v4.00.

Announcing the release of DVD Genie v4.00.

Ok, finally here is v4.00, a bit delayed cause I was hearing reports it may not work with PowerDVD VR-X, so I had to wait a bit to confirm this. And yes, it does work fine (as do older versions).

This version has some interface changes that try to unclout some of the mess while adding some functions. For the complete lowdown, check the history list.

For the complete history list go here.
To download DVD Genie v4.00, click here.
To download additional language files, click here.

Kelly has finished his review for the ATI Player 4.10, did ATI clean up their GUI? Is it worth the upgrade? read here.

If everything goes according to play, expect DVD Genie 4.0 this weekend.

Announcing Zoom Player v1.41.

This is a bug-fix version, fixes issues with international version of windows and play lists not working correctly. It also adds the requested auto-repeat feature.

For the full details, read the What's new file.

To download Zoom Player, click here.

As mysteriously as they appeared, the Back to the Future DVDs are now gone from all the various retailers, no idea what was the cause.

Ok, this is awefully weird. It seems that both Back to the Future 2 and Back to the Future 3 are up for preorder at Amazon for $14.98 a piece. What's even stranger is that they are up for preorder with a release date of May 15th! that's less than two weeks!?!?

Continuing this strangeness is the fact that neither the first movie, nor the boxed set have been announced!

Why such a short notice? where's the first movie? where's the boxed set! I'll let you know when I find out.

One of the best Anime movies of all times has been announced on DVD (finally!), If you want to introduce yourself to the world of Anime (and trust me, it can be a strange world), Akira is a good way to start.

Amazon has it for preorder with a July 24th release date, currently priced at $22.48.

Announcing Zoom Player v1.40.

Ok, the change list on this version is HUGE! Made so many tweaks, and extra features that I strongly suggest reading the What's new file.

To download Zoom Player, click here.

Ok, I posted a beta version of Zoom Player v1.40 beta 8, this version has the following changes:

 * Entire back-end switched from the Media Player component to
   DirectShow.  This took hours upon hours of digging through obscure
   microsoft documentation, samples and delphi reference.  Hopefully it
   didn't introduce too many bugs.

 * Due to the new DirectShow interface, there is a spanking new
   right-click menu.

 * Due to the new DirectShow interface, you can now access the
   property dialog of any DirectShow filter used in rendering the
   file (basically useful for accessing the DivX control panel).
   This is accessible through the right-click menu.

 * Due to the new DirectShow interface, you can now set the
   playback aspect ratio.  You can cycle through the four
   aspect ratio modes by pressing the "R" key, or through
   the right-click interface.  The four modes are:
   1. Fit to Window (basically manual aspect ratio).
   2. Source Video
   3. Fullscreen 4:3
   4. Widescreen 16:9

   With these settings you should be able to play anamorphic
   AVI/MPEG files! (not to mention fixing the aspect ratio
   on MPEG-1 files once and for all).

 * On Screen Display support for probably more features than
   I care to list, including all the logical ones and others
   such as visible window size when resizing the window using
   then Alt-Arrow keys.

 * You can now toggle the space key functionability to be either
   the default toggle for the Control Bar, or to the more traditional
   Play/Pause setting.

 * You can now use Alt+[Space] to toggle the control bar.

 * Volume support using the Home/End keys.

 * Slightly restructured the interface buttons.

 * Added a Play and Stop buttons to the main interface.

 * Added an option to use the "," char in the fast forward and
   slow motion fields.  This should help people with non-english
   versions of windows to enter fractional numbers (maybe).

 * If Play is clicked and you are in fast-forward or slow-motion modes
   playback will continue and the play rate will be returned to a
   normal rate.  If play rate is normal, playback will pause.
   This seems far more logical.

 * Pressing Ctrl-S when playing off a play list will stop the video
   to the first track in the play list.

 * You can now use Ctrl+(0..9) to store the current zoom settings in
   any of the 10 presets.

 * Pressing the "D" key with a DivX movie loaded will pop the DivX
   property dialog.

 * Pressing on the Control Bar preset button when not in a Zoom mode
   will now open the normal preset dialog and not the one used in
   Zoom mode.

 * Fixed the slowness in MPEG-1 seeking.  This was in fact some
   sort of bad-design on microsoft's part, it was caused when
   seeking in frame mode (vs. time mode) in DirectX-8, something
   that worked just fine in DirectX-7.  Go figure...  In any case
   I've used some translation code to get over this issue.

 * Removed the support for the non-floating control bar, frankly,
   it was something that should have never went in.