[paulfoley]

Just found a 1997 DVD (LA confidential, Region One) in my collection, it was my very first purchase after abandoning Laserdisc in the late nineties, I'm sure its not the earliest here but who can beat it?

[BamBamMickey]

Twister was my first dvd.
DVD Release Date: March 26, 1997

[Todd Tomorrow]

I bought my first two DVDs in 1997 and they are the R1 releases of Contact and Mimic. I lived in the US at the time.

[IAN P]

Has to be a Warner snapper case film, probably Twister or Contact. They re released Twister with DTS a good few years later. And now the triple dip for bluray.


The first commercial discs were in Japan, some IMAX stuff, followed by the US in 97'.


The flying coo which moos(sorry) whilst whizzing past the ears, still is a great piece of sound design.

[paulfoley]

Twister it seems was one of the first, but not the first:

Info from DVDlist..

Feb 1st 1997 saw "Return of Boogeyman" from Simitar. That was pressed in 1996 since it was used as a demo during a 1996 Christmas trade show. Also an Imax disc was demonstrated in 1996. Also "Interview with the Vampire" was seen in November 1996 according to a newspaper article.

March 2nd Artisan released "Red Heat."

March 10th MGM released "Poltergeist."

March 19th Lumivision released 4 discs"Tropical Rainforest, Imax."
"Africa; the Serengeti," (Imax) "Animaton Greats, NFB of Canada" (a
disc which I have) and "Antarctica, an adventure of a different
Nature." (Imax)

March 25th saw the release by Warner of "Twister," "The Exorcist,"
"Bonnie and Clyde," "Fugitive," and "Interview with the Vampire"
(which I've often seen referred to as "The First DVD release" (note
above) along with "Twister," both are wrong obviously if talking about
commercial releases.)

Also March 25th MGM released "Goldeneye." and "Wizard of Oz."

"Color Purple" came on March 27th, Spielberg had asked for a late-week release according to my "laserviews" review.

So who's got "Return of Boogeyman" ???

[Todd Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by paulfoley

March 10th MGM released "Poltergeist."

I've still got that one.

[IAN P]

Originally Posted by paulfoley

So who's got "Return of Boogeyman" ???

Nobody willl admit to owning such a film, no matter how rare.

Red Heat, that's somewhere on my shelf.

[Greg]

I've got Contact which was one of the first to come out I think. In that horrible cheap cardboardy snapper case. Excellent film though and shortly to be replaced with the BD version.

[paulfoley]

So here's what some of the first ever "cardboard packaged" DVD's from 1997 look like:

[IAN P]

Glad to see you keep yours in good nick. Has to be the worst packaging for getting dented.

Or, you never lend them out, just like the rest of us.

[paulfoley]

I keep everything in good nick to be honest, happy to lend them out but dont really have any friends or family that have Region 1 players?

[mikegambit]

I first bought dvd late '97 but I have the Japanese dvd of Gremlins still which was not out on R1 or in the UK at the time.
I paid £25 for it just to test R2 on my multiregion player .
Not sure how old it is - I'll have to dig it out
The first disc I ever bought was the awful 2 sided version of Dawn of the Dead - that was when the longest cut was still pretending to be the directors cut which it wasn't

[BULL3T_OR_BLADE]

Still got Contact, Exorcist & L.A Conf.. Got my first DVD player in Kong Kong mid 97 I think. Lol, the good old cardboard sleeves, if you were lucky you would get the widescreen & standard version on the flip of the disc...

[LanceR]

Originally Posted by paulfoley

So here's what some of the first ever "cardboard packaged" DVD's from 1997 look like:

I've got both of these just watched LA Confidential again the other night

[nwgarratt]

Originally Posted by paulfoley

So here's what some of the first ever "cardboard packaged" DVD's from 1997 look like:

I replaced mine all long ago with amaray cases. The snapper cases are in the loft.

My oldest one is the original Fifth Element R1 which came out December 1997. I got it at the same time as R2 Mars Attacks which was 11th May 1998. They came from Disc Emporium.

I also have the original R2 Contact which was 25th September 1998 as well as the original R2 L.A. Confidential.

[brian s]

Here's one of the "snapper cases"

Bri

[mikegambit]

As everyone seems to be judging snapper cases as old dvd's I picked a few snappers out.
There's the Image 1998 release of Shivers but there was also Clash of the Titans from 2002.

Warner continued using snappers in the US long after the UK switched to Amaray

[Kevo]

Queen's Greatest Flix 1 and 2 and Wallace And Grommit (not sure which title) were the first ever DVDs pressed in Europe (1997). They were promo DVDs and given away free with a Panasonic DVD player.
I'm pretty sure the Queen DVD is quite collectable these days, which incidentally was my first ever ebay purchase.

[mattrixdesign2]

Originally Posted by paulfoley

So here's what some of the first ever "cardboard packaged" DVD's from 1997 look like:

I hated those cases, I have Goodfellas in a card case and its a flipper disc! So it must be old, but I did'nt get into DVD until I had my PS2 which was about 2000/01, I recall the other DVD I bought was Crouching Tiger.

[paulfoley]

Anyone else remember going into Blockbusters in the late 90's when they had 8 titles for rent?

[lostinspace]

My first was Stargate on R1, from Artisan if memory serves. Good quality case, booklet (remember them?), and a nice bunch of extras.
I can still remember the rush when it arrived through the letterbox. Pity I had to wait 6 months for a machine to play it on!

[nwgarratt]

Originally Posted by paulfoley

Anyone else remember going into Blockbusters in the late 90's when they had 8 titles for rent?

My local one had 4 at the start !!

[Hugh]

Originally Posted by Kevo

Queen's Greatest Flix 1 and 2 and Wallace And Grommit (not sure which title) were the first ever DVDs pressed in Europe (1997). They were promo DVDs and given away free with a Panasonic DVD player.
I'm pretty sure the Queen DVD is quite collectable these days, which incidentally was my first ever ebay purchase.

Still got those.

Queen's Greatest Flix 1 & 2.
Wallace and Gromit - A Close Shave.
Super Sense - BBC wildlife series.

Got them with Panny A100 (or was is A110?)

Not sure about the pressed in Europe, though. Wallace and Gromit & Super Sense have "Made in Japan" on the packaging. Of course, that could be just the packaging, not the disc.

The Queen disc states that the disc was made in Holland.

[Harj]

Originally Posted by paulfoley

Anyone else remember going into Blockbusters in the late 90's when they had 8 titles for rent?

yeah, and it still took me an hour or so to choose one!

[HummerUK]

My oldest ten discs are...

Midnight Cowboy - 19/04/97
Sleepers - 19/04/97
Species - 19/04/97
The Road Warrior - 19/04/97
Space Jam - 22/04/97
The Wizard Of Oz - 22/04/97
Eraser - 26/04/97
Michael Collins - 26/04/97
JFK - 03/05/97
Bettlejuice - 01/06/97

HummerUK

[Graham43]

The first DVD's I can remember buying - not all together - were The Exterminator (whatever happened to Robert Ginty?) Halloween 2, Small Soldiers, Armageddon and Night of the Living Dead. All were R1 from The Disc Emporium. I've still got my first DVD player which is a (champagne coloured) Pioneer DV-717 which cost me a small fortune after I asked "can you chip it for me?" Ah, the joys of multi region. Still works as well.

[HummerUK]

Originally Posted by Graham43

The first DVD's I can remember buying - not all together - were The Exterminator (whatever happened to Robert Ginty?) Halloween 2, Small Soldiers, Armageddon and Night of the Living Dead. All were R1 from The Disc Emporium. I've still got my first DVD player which is a (champagne coloured) Pioneer DV-717 which cost me a small fortune after I asked "can you chip it for me?" Ah, the joys of multi region. Still works as well.

Yes I think I had that Pioneer player...

If I recall it needed a 240/110v converter and had a dot matrix display which could display the DVD title.

The snag with it was that when I got my first dual layer DVD (Terminator II), it would freeze on the layer change (the spot where Sarah stuck her knife in the table) and the player had to go back to the USA to be fixed!

HummerUK

[Graham43]

Oh, non of that for me. Got mine from SevenOaks and was given a piece of paper with instructions on how to change the region coding using the remote control.

[Pincho Paxton]

I have The Exorcist. My Blade Runner was cardboard too, not sure how old that is.