Dvd

Critic Terrence Rafferty, in a piece on the downside of DVDs in last week's New York Times Magazine, compiled a marvelous list of their "more insidious features," including: "making-of documentaries" that cause directors to "sound like blowhards and hucksters"; "deleted scenes and alternate endings" that "subtly impinge on the formal unity of the work"; "revisions and digital tweaks" that "undermine the historical integrity of the picture"; and "voice-over commentaries"...

When you're feeling attention-span-challenged and humor-hungry, sketch comedy DVDs are the perfect remedy. The disc format makes it easy to pick the short parody you seek and click to the exact spot to watch -- then learn what's behind the humor through interviews and commentary. Recent DVD releases showcase not only Comedy Central's current hit Chappelle's Show, but also such enduring perennials as Saturday Night Live, The Kids in the Hall and The Ben Stiller Show. Chappelle's Show (Comedy Central, 12 episodes on 2 discs, $27 list price)

During the 1920s, silent screen star Lon Chaney was known as "The Man of a Thousand Faces" because of his uncanny ability to transform himself through makeup, appliances and brilliant acting skills into a series of often tortured, grotesque and even demonic characters. Perhaps the best-known was the title role in the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera. Nearly eight decades after the film's initial release, Chaney's performance in the extravagant adaptation of Gaston Leroux's best-selling twist to the old Beauty and the Beast tale still terrifies audiences.

Family values of all kinds are suddenly blossoming big on TV DVD. The format that initially mushroomed with sci-fi and cult items is now busy offering us more mainstream series focused on parents and kids, foster parents and kids, kids taking care of younger siblings, even aging parents and their adult kids. That doesn't mean these shows are kid stuff. From the contemporary best-pals single mom and teen daughter of Gilmore Girls to the sprawling, homespun Depression clan of The Waltons, these sets depict all kinds of family units with different approaches to life in all its permutations.

It took 14 months and 9,500 hours to restore and preserve all 110,000 frames of Walt Disney's classic 1942 animated film Bambi, the company says, and the end result is the just-released two-disc DVD ($30). "This is the first of a major corporate initiative to do film restoration at the studio," says Disney animation director Dave Bossert, who served as artistic supervisor for the Bambi restoration. The studio initiative, Bossert adds, "is about commerce to some degree, but it is about preserving artwork.

My best efforts with DVD burners have usually been rewarded with blank disks that wouldn't play in a DVD player connected to my television. But the folks at Sony finally have figured out how to make DVD creation a much more rewarding experience with their DRX-500UL external burner ($400). While an internal version is available, I didn't test that. DVD burning is a good way to back up materials on your computer as well as share video that won't deteriorate over the years. So, a DVD burner that offers few hassles is welcome in the tech world.

FORGET the false starts, the overly optimistic promises and the wrangling among the movie, consumer electronics and computer industries. The long-awaited DVD has finally arrived, at least in some major cities, where a marketing push has begun.Physically dead ringers for music CDs, a DVD -- digital versatile disk -- can store far more information and play it back faster. Disks now on the market typically cost about $20 and include an entire feature film, often with audio tracks in three languages, several sets of subtitles and menus that let you skip to your favorite scenes.

Most film companies stick trailers for their coming releases at the beginning of their DVDs. Is it fair that people anxious to watch The Da Vinci Code on their home TV are asked first to wade through coming attractions for three other DVD releases, including All The King's Men? At least that DVD allows viewers to skip over the trailers if they want. Others are not so considerate, effectively disabling the skip function so that one has to watch the trailers to get to the feature. But when you've shelled out $25 to own a movie, should you have to sit through ads as well?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets could be worse. It could be Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Actually, there's a lot that's solid about the second Potter movie, which, as only parental fools don't know, comes out tomorrow on DVD and video. The special effects are much improved from the first film (the Quidditch game looks and feels like a bona-fide match; the scary spiders are really pretty scary), the acting is better (especially sidekick Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley) and Secrets really moves, whereas the first flick just sort of started, sputtered and sank like a stone.

Stewie Griffin is back, and he has DVD sales to thank for it. With his oblong cartoon head, sinister voice and taste for "total world domination," the infant Stewie set the tone for the irreverent animated series Family Guy, which Fox canceled nearly three years ago because of lagging ratings. After they went off the air, however, Stewie and his bizarre family refused to die. Right away, fans complained. Gary Newman, president of 20th Century Fox Television, remembers getting a first inkling that his company should not have pulled the plug while speaking at Yale University.