The DVD Owner's Holiday Gift Guide

In the spirit of the holiday season, I thought I'd spend this week offering a few suggestions for the types of gifts people might want to get for their DVD owning loved ones.

As we all know, there are definitely high and low quality gifts you can give people in the DVD arena, so I thought I'd divide it up into good gifts and bad gifts.

Good Gift - A Great Special Edition DVD

Basically, any of the special edition DVDs released by companies like Warner Brothers, Columbia TriStar, Universal, Criterion or Anchor Bay. These companies have made a commitment to quality DVD products which truly push the limits of what DVD is capable of.

Bad Gift - A Not So Great Special Edition DVD

Some other companies, notably Disney and 20th Century Fox, are notorious for releasing high priced "limited edition" DVDs with a complete lack of features. The Disney animated titles are especially bad in this way, featuring little or nothing in the way of extras, a non-anamorphic transfer of the films and an extraordinarily high price tag. Maybe if none of us buy this overpriced garbage, these companies will get the hint. Exception to this rule would've been 20th Century Fox's Alien Legacy collection, if only they had included the notorious "fifth disc" with the box set.

Good Gift - A Good Set of Headphones

While we all love to sit in a darkened room with the volume turned way, way up, it's not always possible. With a good set of headphones (and if you go wireless, avoid infrared headphones, opting instead for radio frequency, i.e. 900MHz, headphones), even the pickiest night owl can listen to the Matrix with glorious sound.

Bad Gift - Cheap Speakers

We all know about the incredible sound quality DVD offers. Why spoil that with a cheap set of speakers? Avoid them like the plague.

Good Gift - A Universal Remote

A good universal remote can make a home theater owners' life a lot easier. Instead of having to dig around for that "other" remote, they can just push the "Auxiliary Function 17" button to get to their flux capacitor controls. The best ones are expensive, but offer super cool features like a LCD display that changes the look of the remote depending on what function is being used. Even some of the cheap ones work pretty well, though. I picked up my universal remote for $20 from Costco, and it works great with all my equipment (it even handles picture-in-picture on my TV).

Bad Gift - A Long, Pointy Stick

While a long, pointy stick might seem like a good idea for setting up all those functions on a home theater, it can do an extraordinary amount of damage to the face plates on the various components. While a stick may seem like a low-cost alternative to a good remote control, it's not. Avoid.

Good Gift - Decent Speaker Stands

One thing which very few of us actually get around to buying is a good set of speaker stands or mounts. These make a great, not terribly expensive gift. Just make sure the speaker stands fit with the décor of the room, and the type of speaker.

Bad Gift - Shelves and Cats

An alternative to speaker stands is a small, wall-mounted shelf. If the person you're buying for has cats, though, don't do it. I made this mistake once, and paid dearly when the shelves (and everything on them) came crashing down with my cats (while I was away at work). Trust me, if you have cats, they'll be up there when you're not at home.

Good Gift - DVD Storage Solutions

Since DVD is new, most people don't have a really good place to put their DVDs yet. Some sort of small shelf or storage unit designed specifically for DVDs is a great gift idea.

Bad Gift - Combination Storage Solutions

The "combo" storage solutions you'll see around which handle DVDs, CDs and VHS tapes are typically not very good. Instead of actually being designed for DVDs, they suggest shoving two DVDs into the space for one VHS tapes. The problem is that squeezing the two DVDs into an inappropriate space can damage the keepcase. Combo units with adjustable sliders should be OK, though.

Hopefully this brief gift guide has given you a few ideas to chew on for the DVD owners on your Christmas shopping list. With the days until Christmas dwindling, I know I've been spending a lot of time thinking about gifts (oh boy, what will I get.oops.I mean, what should I get that great friend of mine).

Last week's quote of the week was answered correctly by none other than Ben Menix (who I quoted in last week's column). He was the first person to correctly identify the quote as coming from the inimitable Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead II. In the scene he's talking into the mirror, so Campbell speaks both parts. A lot of people guessed the quote was from Very Bad Things (in fact, more people guessed that than Evil Dead II), so I guess it was a good one because it threw people off the track.

This week's quote is from a great comedy. I imagine a lot of people will get it right. The first person to guess correctly this week takes home a copy of the great Warner Brothers special edition DVD for The Matrix.

"Say my name, bitch!"

As usual, if you know the source of the quote, email me at

ken@dvdfuture.com