I frequently see discussions all over the web about what the first and last laserdiscs were...but I'm curious to see what people consider the first special feature.

I think the generally accepted answer are the special features on the Criterion releases of "Citizen Kane" and "King Kong" which were both released on the same day. King Kong features the first commentary and Citizen Kane contains various special features including a trailer.

Recently while researching Discovision I came across "Touch of Love... Massage" released in 1980. Not only is this one of the earliest "adult" laserdiscs it is also the earliest example I've found so far of different audio channels. The left channel contains a voice over explaining the massage techniques (I assume) while the right contains just music. By default both of these are turned on but either can be turned off.

Although not a commentary this could most certainly be considered a special feature.

You could go even further and say that chapter selection is a special feature in which case the earliest I've found so far is "Jesus Christ Superstar (Stereo Reissue)" released some time in 1979.

So what do people think? Even though we laugh at DVDs which list chapter and audio selection as special features, do they qualify for the earliest laserdisc special features? Have you found earlier examples or other, more interesting contenders for the title of first special feature?

I think the answer will be different for everyone, I personally think "Touch of Love" might have the title in my books, I just think it might be interesting to hear other people's opinions.

Hi hippiedalek,

I have just read your special feature observation and must agree that the left and right track commentary and sound are special special features that most of us never really look at.

Apart from that are basic features of which are the opening Dolby Digital, DTS or THX sound demo's that I enjoy, but I am not sure if you can include these as special features.

The one thing that I detest on the dvd and blu-ray titles is the addition of TV adverts, of which quite frankly do not belong on a movie disc of any kind.

Enjoyed reading your post

Sincere Regards

So far I've not come across TV adverts on any format, unless you mean TV trailers for the film.

Hello hippiedalek,

unless you mean TV trailers for the film.

No it has nothing to do with movie trailers at all but simply a TV advert for Cadburys Chocolate, of which I viewed in disbelief


I no like at all

With laserdisc you have the movie experience and no added rubbish like this.
It's just a pet hate of mine.

Yikes! That is awful. Which DVD/BluRay/Studio was that so I can avoid it. I hope it was a selectable special feature and not something that plays before the menus.

awful oh yes it is and yes it plays before the movie starts.

I think like ''what's it doing there!''

It's almost as bad as the notice about, not buying stolen items or downloading movies of which we have to endure watching on a legal purchase.

I don't know what next eh!

Hah, that reminds me of early in the life of DVD, some comanies would put trailers on the disc before you even got to the menu. And then they disabled the MENU and SEARCH buttons on your remote. So you HAD to watch their stinking trailers if you wanted to watch the movies. Most often a movie that you had paid for!

The irony is that the pirates never see the anti piracy adverts, straight to the film for them.

Oh they, see them (because they are forced to watch them.) They just ignore them!

Oh no, they make sure to remove any useless material to optimize the file size they put on bittorrent networks later. No FBI warning on movies, no force-fed trailers, no mandatory previews, and the best of all: no TV ads on TV shows (a major reason I never turn a TV on in the US).

Julien

The first volume of GunBuster has a commercial break in the middle of each side, with ads for actual Bandai products, & the second volume has an ad for the video you are actually watching. This may have been intended, in part, to make it feel more like a TV series, but it's a rather dumb move in my opinion. I believe there are a couple of anime titles with fake interstitial adverts, for joke products.

I think we've gone slightly off topic but it's an interesting conversation anyway. If you watch DVDs on your PC then you can load straight to the menu and skip any trailers, notices and logos using options in VLC player.

I was able to bypass the upfront ads and crap on my first DVD player, Pioneer DVL-919, by going to the setup menu of the player itself then picking "TITLE MENU." Which would take you straight to the main menu.

Still, it's kinda despicable to force people to watch an ad--especially if they paid for the damn thing!

It kind of matters what you regard as special features. During the Discovision days, stereo was a -special feature on a few discs and CAV was the norm. Just a few years later, the situation was reversed. Once CLV was the standard, I think the first film released in CAV, (again NOT Discovision), was Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the years between Disco and Criterion (1981-1984), it had to be a very big movie that got a CAV release. Image released a few discs in 1985 that had commentary tracks, including the first commentary for Citizen Kane. I love these discs and they are often overlooked. I guess CX could also be considered a special feature in the early days as not every disc was CX encoded. Also, many of the 1981 Japan Magnetic Video titles were bilingual using a second audio track.