My Two Cents
All right, thanks for your patience everyone. As you’ve probably noticed, news updates here at the site have been sparing over the past week or two, and there’s been a couple of reasons for that.
First, we’ve had to do a round of software updating and patching on The Bits website software—routine maintenance type of stuff, required to keep the site going—but every time we do that it inevitably breaks a couple of things that have to be hunted down and fixed. So that process has been ongoing.
Also, we’ve switched to a great new advertising network partner that we hope is going to bring in more revenue, which in turn will helps us to keep the site going indefinitely. We’re tweaking the layout on some of that, and trying to figure out the right amount and placement of ads that do what we need them to without being obtrusive. But obviously times are tight and we need to survive, so we appreciate your understanding. [Read on here...]
Afternoon, folks. We’ve got another new disc review for you today, and some more interesting release news as well.
First up, that review: Tim has taken a look at Henry Levin and Mario Bava’s The Wonders of Aladdin (1961), now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
In terms of announcement news, Visual Entertainment is releasing Stargate Universe: The Complete Series on Blu-ray Disc on 1/15. This includes all 40 episodes, plus over 2 hours of extras. This, by the way, follows in the wake of the company’s recent release of Stargate SG-1: The Complete Series on Blu-ray. The latter features the early seasons upscaled, while the later seasons were native HD. We believe Stargate Universe was produced in HD, so it should be of fairly good quality. [Read on here...]
Afternoon, folks. And welcome to 2021!
The news in the home video industry is pretty slow this week, as we’d expect given the recent holiday and the still unfolding (and industry-slowing) pandemic.
But we do have a couple new 4K Ultra HD reviews for you all to enjoy this afternoon.
First, Tim has taken a look at Don Coscarelli’s The Beastmaster (1982), as newly-remastered in 4K by our friends over at Vinegar Syndrome. The limited release appears now to be back in stock at the Vinegar Syndrome website, and we expect it to eventually be released in more traditional Amaray packaging on Amazon at some point in the coming months. [Read on here...]
All right, this is our final Bits post of 2020. And it’ll be a quick one.
This has certainly been a difficult year for all of us here and no doubt it has been for all of you, our readers, as well. But a new year at least brings the hope that things can and will get better on Planet Earth going forward.
On a personal note, I’m pleased to say that—though it’s been a struggle—The Digital Bits is still here. We’ve made it through some difficult times, we’re still alive and ticking. And we intend to keep cracking on in 2021 and beyond.
I’ve also been working on a second science fiction novel, and hope to see my first actually published sometime in 2021—something I’ve had to put on the back-burner this past year in order to keep the site going. But the writing process has certainly been personally satisfying, and it’s kept me going in dark moments. That, plus having a telescope to look at the stars a few times a month, and of course great family and friends—even though we’ve only been able to see them from afar.
In any case, I know I speak for all of us here at the site when I say that we’re grateful to have each and every one of you as readers of The Digital Bits.
So with that, we’d like to wish you all a very happy and safe New Year! And together we’ll make 2021 a better time for all of us.
See you back here on Monday. Peace out!
(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)
Well... we now have just two and a half days left in the damnable misery that has been Planet Earth in the year 2020. But we hope these last few days and weeks at least have found you all safe, well, and enjoying the holiday season as best you can. And to those of you who have lost friends, family members, and other loved ones to COVID this year (and we here at The Bits are among you), we send out our love and support. We certainly wish each and every one of you better times ahead in 2021.
Around this time, of course, seemingly every website and media outlet on the planet starts to roll out their annual “Best of” lists for the previous year. At one time, many years ago, The Digital Bits even held its own Bitsy Awards to honor the best DVD and Blu-ray titles of the previous year. But the home video industry became so inconsistent with its product—and streaming delivery so dominant—that we finally stopped doing it. It was just too frustrating to try to organize and coordinate.
Still, if this pandemic has had any silver lining at all, it’s that the industry as a whole has been reminded that there is yet some profit to be made in the minting of 5-inch silver discs with movies and TV shows on them. The 4K Ultra HD format in particular has benefitted from this trend. And as a number of Bits readers have asked us for our thoughts on the best titles of our collective pandemic year, we decided to put our heads together to compile a list of those we found most notable.
In fact, we’ve decided to revive our old friend Bitsy! So today we’re happy to present The Bitsy List for 2020, honoring the best Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD titles of the year. [Read on here...]