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Incidentally, for those who are interested, you can find a pretty good list of problematic early DVD's here.

The Superbit DVD of The Fifth Element is often used as a reference DVD due to it's quality. I compared it with a HD showing of the film(HBO or Showtime, don't recall which) and the difference was very noticable. Not all HD sets are created equally, perhaps your set isn't up to par?

Besides, Burt Renolds is a professional at this sort of thing.

Does that mean they have an artist redo the object locations, action, and camera moves? Or maybe they just give different camera parameters?

It sounds like they do all of the above to some extent.

How DVD's Get THX Certified

No no, the best part of PM was the hidden outtake sequence. (see the 3rd paragraph on that page) Some of them are hilarious. Sadly it only lasts for about 2 minutes.

Check out products incorporating the NUON processor (formerly from VM Labs, recently bought out by Genesis Microchip), such as the Toshiba SD-2300 and Samsung N-2000, N-501, and N-504. NUON-enhanced DVDs contain additional info in the form of (tada!) HTML and Bob scripts - the DVDs play normally on regular players, the enhanced features are available on products like those above.

There are some NUON-enhanced DVDs available. You can also play games on these units, although it is by no means intended as a PS2/XBox/etc competitor. You can even download the NUON SDK and hack your own NUON programs! Check out the NUON dome for more info.

Disclaimer: I used to work for VM Labs. I don't anymore (left in September 2001), and have no business or financial connection with either VM Labs or Genesis Microchip. I still think the technology is pretty cool, though.

Check out products incorporating the NUON processor (formerly from VM Labs, recently bought out by Genesis Microchip), such as the Toshiba SD-2300 and Samsung N-2000, N-501, and N-504. NUON-enhanced DVDs contain additional info in the form of (tada!) HTML and Bob scripts - the DVDs play normally on regular players, the enhanced features are available on products like those above.

There are some NUON-enhanced DVDs available. You can also play games on these units, although it is by no means intended as a PS2/XBox/etc competitor. You can even download the NUON SDK and hack your own NUON programs! Check out the NUON dome for more info.

Disclaimer: I used to work for VM Labs. I don't anymore (left in September 2001), and have no business or financial connection with either VM Labs or Genesis Microchip. I still think the technology is pretty cool, though.

You're not always giving up resolution. Some DVD's contain what I believe is called anamorphic-widescreen, it basically involves using all vertical scan lines to store the image, and then "shrinking" the vertical down to the desired aspect ratio.

Anamorphic Slideshow

More info

an (old) list of dvds using anamorphic widescreen

OT to go into here, I suppose, but briefly it was a "novelization" of a low-budget sci-fi/horror film, Brain Damage. Of course the word "novelization" brings in preconceived notions of what this book was, but I worked closely with the writer-director on this, precisely because we both thought there were dimensions to his screenplay that could be better expressed in fiction.

Imagine the MPAA having to have an office on every base for exchanging DVD's. This would quickly become a major problem for the MPAA, who would be forced to either start taking DVD exchanges (from everybody, ultimately), or come out with a new region for "those who move," or scrap the system entirely. They would likely choose the first option, but it would quickly grow to be a significant problem for them.

It's even better (worse?) than that: usually, different region version also have different features (for example, the region 2 versions of Gladiator, Fight Club and Charlie's Angels lack the easter eggs present in the region 1 versions). So an exchange would not be good enough - you'd be getting an inferior product.
As for that "region for those who move", they could make region 8 (for "special international venues", such as airplanes and cruiseships) players available for the military, I suppose.

You're right. It's still the best. Fun fact: Tora, Tora, Tora! not only told both sides, it actually had two full production teams. An American unit did the American scenes, and a Japanese unit did all of the Japanese scenes. Check out a review here. Also, they've released a collector's edition of this great film on DVD to capitalize on the new movie.

Penguins love a good fish documentary on DVD. The Linux Pimp

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Some Blockbusters already rent DVDs and will have DVDs available in most/all of its US stores by the end of this year. Click here for more info.