The Available DVD Titles¶

What do titles mean? Titles mean the release of movies or other productions in the video distribution industry, such as Star Wars and Snow White, or a box version of the TV series, such as Babylon 5 First Season. Titles refer to as software, while not to be confused with computer software.

At first, DVD began slowly. For the Christmas in 1996, there were hundreds of movie titles predicted, but were failed for materialize. Only a few DVD titles, most of which were music videos, were available only in Japan, as the launch of DVD in Nov. 1996. The first DVD films emerged on Dec.20 in Japan (The Assassin, Blade Runner, Eraser, and The Fugitive from Warner Home Video). There were totally more than 150 titles in Japan by Apr.1997.

In the United States, the first titles released by Lumivision, authored by AIX Entertainment, on Mar. 19, 1997. they were IMAX adaptations: Africa: The Serengeti, Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature, Tropical Rainforest, and Animation Greats. Other movies such as Batman and Space Jam had been demonstrated earlier, but were not full versions available for sale. And then The Warner Bros. U.S. launched on Mar. 24, but was limited only in seven cities. Nearly 19,000 discs were soled in the first two weeks of launch in the United States, more than expected.

There would be more than 600 titles by the end of 1997 and more than 8000titles by 2000, forecasted by InfoTech. By December 1997, more than 1 million individual DVD transported, approximately 530 title. By the end of 1999, more than 100 million disc were shipped, representing about 5,000 title. By the end of 2000, more than 10,000 titles can be in the United States, more than 15,000 global. By the end of 2001 approximately 14,000 titles can be in the United States. By the end of 2002 the amount is about 23,000 titles in the United States.

By March 2003, six years after launch, over 1.5 billion copies of DVD titles had been shipped. Compared to other launches (CD, LD, etc.) these are a huge numbers of titles released in a very short time. Just over 10,000 new DVD titles were released in 2003, and almost 11,000 came out in 2004, for a total of 42,500 titles (with about 40,300 still available). It would cost you about $800,000 to buy one copy of each.

Lots of DVD release in Europe were announced with little follow-through, but DVD becomes established in Europe in the end of 1998. In Europe, DVD was initially almost 18 months to a year later, but has been shorten the delay in only a few years of thoughtful for a few months.

DVD Audio started even slower than the DVD Video. The first commercially available DVD Audio title - Phat big band, was launched in October 2000, the Silverline label of 5.1 Entertainment. Music labels BMG Entertainment, EMI Music, Universal Music, and Warner Music have promised to DVD Audio titles, although in autumn 2001 generally announced the SACD title release. As of the end of 2001, there were the only less than 200 DVD Audio title is available. The first SACD titles in Japan released in May 1999.

DVD-ROM software slowly emerged on the stage. Many initial DVD-ROM titles can only as a part of hardware or software. More than 13% of all IDC prediction software will be DVD-ROM format by the end of 1998, but not intended. In a sense, DVD-ROMs just bigger and faster CD-ROMs contain the same materials. In many cases, CD-ROM is enough big, don't need to move to DVD-ROMs. But DVD-ROM also supports audio and video in high quality when it been added to the many DVD-ROM-equipped computers.

Here are a few best databases on the Internet to search for DVD titles:

Most Internet DVD stores also have searchable lists.
Doug MacLean's Home Theater Info list (region 1, downloadable list)
Internet Movie Database DVD Browser (all regions)
Widescreen Review (widescreen-specific DVD titles)
DVD Entertainment Group (region 1, searchable and downloadable database)

Contents

The Available DVD Titles¶