I have a DVD player on my new iBrooke. I work at a video store with over 600 DVDs. The combination means that I’ll never do any thing productive ever again.
That being said, what DVDs have you watched, where the DVD experiance was wildly better than VHS? Any really great director’s commentary, etc?
Off to watch 12 Monkeys.
The Matrix and the newest James Bond (Tomorrow Never Dies, I think) both allow you to watch certain parts of the movie from different camera angles, and the James Bond DVD even explains how the stunts were done, during the movie.
In terms of the quality of video, I thought Terminator 2: Ultimate Edition and Braveheart were much better than the VHS editions.
Well, to tell you the truth, having a DVD player is nice, but you’re not going to experience much difference unless its attached to a fairly large screen with some decent sound. A computer screen with tinny speakers just ain’t gonna cut it.
I imagine, though, for about $3.99 you could get a connection at Radio Shack to connect your computer to your TV.
If there’s one thing I enjoy, it’s hearing directors talk about their work, so this is a good topic for me!
12 Monkeys is an excellent first choice. Terry Gilliam is always interesting to listen to, and adds a lot to his vision of the movie and his experiences making it.
Ridley Scott’s commentary on the Alien special edition is terrific. He addresses the actors, the set design, the evolution of the script, just about everything. Even the deleted scenes have commentary on them.
Flesh for Frankenstein (or Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein) has a very interesting commentary with director Paul Morrissey, actor Udo Kier, and a film historian whose name escapes me at the moment. It gets very deep into film theory, semiotics, themes, etc.
Fight Club has several commentaries, including one with David Fincher alone, one with Fincher, Ed Norton, Helena Bonham-Carter and Brad Pitt, and one with the Dust Brothers. Tons of extra footage, outtakes, deleted scenes . . . simply one of the best DVD presentations around.
Similarly, Contact has separate commentaries with Jodie Foster, Robert Zemeckis and the effects supervisors.
Very rarely do I find a commentary that doesn’t add something–even Tobe Hooper’s commentary on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was interesting!
One of the first DVD’s I bought was Mystery Men. A lot of nice DVD features including director’s commentary, deleted scenes, a “making of” feature, and a music video.
I also have Kevin Smith’s first three movies on DVD. All three have commentary from Smith and his posse and numerous deleted scenes. These include the original surprise ending to Clerks and the original coherent beginning to Mallrats.
While I’m not as enthused by the movies, I will admit that the two Austin Powers DVD’s did a nice job in adding DVD features. I noticed however that Myers was noticably less enthusiastic in the commentary of the second one than he was in the first.
And if you’re a Gilliam fan, look for the Criterion edition of Brazil. It’s a three disc set with Gilliam’s edit, the studio edit, and an entire disc of additional features.
Wow! You have an iBooke?! In what shoppe did you find it?
If you are looking for DVDs with extras like directors commentary and deleted scenes I would recommend Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and The Abyss.
I would also second pldennison and recommend Fight Club. It was truly and excellent DVD.
Contact–already mentioned
Silence of the Lambs–yep, I’m a Jodie Foster fan. On the DVD the sounds of the movie really creep me out.
The Abyss–has a lot of extra features on the DVD about the making of it.
Nope…they actually said an iBrooke…with an r.
Jman
I’ve never watched a DVD on a proper system, all I’ve seen so far is on my computer, which for me, is fine. I get DVDs for two reasons:
The extras (commentaries, spfx descriptions, documentary supplements)
And the longevity. DVD movies will last for a million uses with no quality degradation.
Also, the image clarity is a zillion times better than VHS, and of course so is the sound, but I don’t care much about that.
My favourite DVD commentaries are on:
The Mummy
Ghostbusters
Muppets From Space
Mask of Zorro (the US version doesn’t have one)
Tarzan Collector’s Edition
Stuart Little (comes with 2 commentaries)
and probably lots more.
My biggest complaint about DVD is that it has made me realize how crappy the rest of my home entertainment stuff is. Now I need a High Definition TV, a digital receiver, better speakers, and a new house. 
That said, my favorites are:
Fight Club - Great movie, lots of commentaries, features, alternate angles, etc.
Blade Runner, The Director’s Cut - DVD was made for sci-fi, IMHO. Sci-fi is usually heavy on the audio/visual effects, which can be better appreciated on DVD.
The Matrix - Same reasons as above. There are also lots of extra features, as someone has already mentioned.
Das Boot, The Director’s Cut - The DVD version lets you choose multiple languages and multiple subtitles, and the soundtrack has been digitally remastered, etc. This is a movie that I had on VHS and “upgraded” when I bought a DVD player; the difference in quality is astounding.
In addition to the above:
Dead Alive, but only if you’re into buckets and buckets and buckets and tanker trucks of gore. Still, DVD is the only place to get the unrated version here in the U.S.
Run Lola Run is just a great film all-around, and Tom Tykwer and Franka Potente (director and star) are mighty entertaining on the commentary. Plus, you can watch in the original German with subtitles, or in English (but, really, be true to the filmmakers’ vision and watch in German, K?).
Speaking of German films, Das Boot is a great flick, and the bass will rattle your kidneys.
If you like Jim Henson, the DVD of The Dark Crystal has lots of nifties besides being able to see it in widescreen (yay!). There are workprints of the “original language” Skeksis scenes, an extended version of the Skeksis emperor’s funeral, an hour-long documentary, character sketches…the only thing missing is a Henson commentary. Jim, you left us much too soon…
John Carpenter’s The Thing looks superb, plus has a commentary with Carpenter and Kurt Russell, plus lotsa cool extras, including the original stop-action footage of the beastie at the end (rejected cuz it didn’t really inspire much fear).
Speaking of extras, check out Blade. To quote Mike Nelson of MST3K fame, the DVD “contains more information on the making of Blade than there actually is information on the making of Blade. I thought the four-hour documentary on the catering crew was particularly unnecessary.” Well, maybe not THAT much info, but there’s a ton.
Robocop - the DVD is the ultra-violence edition (at least, the Criterion DVD is, dunno about the regular release). Lots more blood and assorted yuckiness.
You might wanna pop in The House On Haunted Hill to check out the menus and maybe some extras. They’re among the coolest menus I’ve seen.
pldennison is right, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has a great commentary and lots of cool extras. The commentary isn’t just Hooper, but also director of photography David Pearl and Leatherface himself, Gunnar Hansen. Their stories about making the film are absolutely fascinating, as are the outtakes, alternate takes, trailers for all four TCM movies, and advertising materials.
Stir of Echoes is an interesting little film. I liked it better than The Sixth Sense, personally. Both discs have cool stuff on them.
You might wanna take a peek at Leon, the film with Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, and Natalie Portman. It was first released in the U.S. as The Professional, with almost a half-hour of film trimmed that, apparently, we 'mericans just wouldn’t be able to handle (mostly scenes of 12-year-old Portman’s, er, growing relationship with the much-older Reno). Leon, the proper version, was released just recently on DVD. Not a lot of extras, but a damn good movie.
The Evil Dead Special Edition DVD is also very cool.
It has at least 2 commentaries, possibly 3 but I can’t remember. One has Sam Rami and a producer(I think) and one with just Bruce Campbell. Both commentaries are good but Bruce Campbell’s in particular is very entertaining. He points out and makes fun of all the cheesiness in the movie.
Almost forgot. I recently saw the Spinal Tap Special Edition. The commentary is done by Spinal Tap. It’s very funny…It goes to 11!
I love the commentaries on DVD’s and I was VERY disappointed that The Holy Grail and Life of Brian don’t have any at all. 
I have watched only one DVD on my computer, just to see if it would work. Boy howdy, did it! “Time Bandits” has commentary and loads of stuff I didn’t have time to watch.
I saw part of “Terminator 2” at a trade show. The full system was about a quarter mill American, then there was the portable home theatre for about another quarter. It looked and sounded REAL GOOD! I need to see how close I can get to that experience without spending any money.
Let’s see…JVC has a big HDTV projection monitor for a third less than the competition that is much better than the one in this system. Let’s say the monitor is about thirty net, sixty gross, forty-eight street. The speakers were about eighty. The amps and stuff I’m not sure about. And what do you get for all that money? Like I said, it looked and sounded real good. Enough better than stuff normals can buy? Are you kidding? How could it possibly be worth it? But my customers eat it up and why should I complain about rich folk recycling their money in my direction?
One stupid-cool product at the show was a subwoofer built into the floor so your feet buzzed with the base. I’ll never understand white people.
Thought I’d pop back in and mention that Rocky Horror Picture Show, which just came out on DVD, supposedly has a “running audience participation script” feature, so the virgins can pick up on the lingo and gags as the movie plays. Haven’t got mine yet, but I’ll tell you how it is when it shows up.
Personal favs: (For commentary tracks & extras)
Fight Club
Ghostbusters
Clerks
Evil Dead II
12 Monkeys
And if you can find it, the Canadian version of Trainspotting has a bunch of super cool outakes included which weren’t found on the American DVD. But then again, I’m a bit of a Trainspotting nut, so maybe I’m biased.
For a cool site which posts tons of DVD reviews go to http://dvd.ign.com/reviews.html
Nobody has mentioned it, but if you aren’t completely opposed to such things I would recommend finding some porn with commentary tracks. It is interesting to hear the people talking about what is going on.
The “super genious” version of A Bug’s Life has tons of stuff you won’t find on VHS (plus it doesn’t have the 5 minutes of required commercials you find on Disney label DVDs).