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[Dan]

Okay, when I'm looking for reviews of a DVD set, is it unfair of me to actually want at least a quick blurb about whether the extras are good or not?

Here's a bit from IGN's review of Carnivale:

And it also delivers three audio commentaries with Knauf and executive producer Howard Klein on select episodes. (That's a mere three audio commentaries across 12 different episodes.) There's not much else to speak of, which is a sad truth given that every other aspect of these DVDs meets or exceeds our expectations.

Super, I could find that out from the press release or back of the box. The question is, are the commentaries interesting? Enlightening? What do they discuss? Throw me a frickin' bone here!

And it seems like this is how all non-big releases are handled. A lot of time is spent on the story, which is usually the last thing I care about when checking out DVDs. If I'm interested in it, I already know about that. Then the standard analysis of audio and video aspects, which is usually great information. Finally, except for the big releases like LOTR or Spider-Man there's just a fucking rundown of features. Do these people actually watch the stuff? Why are actual critiques of that content so rare?

I can't seem to find any sites that cover more than just the 2-3 big releases a week and actually have informative reviews about included extras. Anyone know of any sites like that?

 

[Dead]

IGN is usually rubbish for DVD reviews as of late I should add, as they were usually pretty ggood before. I mostly check these out:

www.dvdtalk.com
www.thedigitalbits.com
www.dvdanswers.com <-- great site for news.
www.dvdtown.com

www.dvdtimes.co.uk <--- also worth a look for some nice R2 reviews and occasionally nice R1 review. They just sold me on the upcoming UK Zatoichi SE DVD

 

[IAmtheFMan]

www.dvdfile.com : great, great, site. Lengthy reviews, very professional.
www.dvdmg.com : really good, but doesn't do a big volume of reviews.
www.thedigitalbits.com : Used to be MUCH better about reviewing, now not as good, but very good for news; upcoming DVD's and stuff, rumors, etc.

I liked IGN's DVD channel better with the last bunch of editors; this new guy's not that great IMO.

 

[Dan]

Yeah, I use The Digital Bits for news and stuff, but they generally aren't reviewing what I'm looking for.

I had Googled a few and found nothing of worth, but DVD Talk looks pretty extensive for reviews and DVD File looks good if they have covered the set.

Anyway, thanks.

 

[Dead]

DVDFile is good but often they wont update for a long period of time, DVDTalk is almost daily and consistent, my DVD site of choice personally

 

[Lucky Forward]

IGN's DVD reviews also tend to reveal too much of the movie, if not outright spoilers.

 

[commish]

IGN's reviews suck ass.

Some of the ones above are better, and there's DVD Journal of course.

 

[Willco]

IGN has a horrible DVD site, even ManaByte must admit this.

 

[tmdorsey]

DVDFile is good but often they wont update for a long period of time, DVDTalk is almost daily and consistent, my DVD site of choice personally

Yeah DVDFile is good when they actually get around to updating. I'm actually looking for an alternative myself. IGN's reviews really don't do it for me.