Fantasia, the first DVD I ever purchased.

Evil Dead

(I keeeed! I keeeeed!)

If TV counts, The Young Ones-Every Stoopid Episode. Maybe because I loved the show so much, but I loved everything about this release. The one area for improvement would be getting the rights to the song Subterreanean Homesick Blues so they wouldn't have had to clip those few minutes out of the episode.
Was the 2disk Abyss the first release? If so, that was a darn good one.

Definitely disagree, as Valley Girl's music got screwed with badly, Superman and Jackie Brown both left lots of stuff out they could have included and there were a few changes to the music on Superman as well...

Dancer In The Dark
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Princess and The Warrior
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Insomnia (Christopher Nolan version)
The Life Aquatic (2-disk Criterion)

The excessive, Die Hard 3 levels of edge-enhancement are enough to warrant an entirely new transfer-somebody really messed up on this one. Extras and audio-wise, the set is fantastic, though.

and with the holo-foil cover of course!

The first Terminator disk was an ugly, non-anamorphic affair. Though I do dig the wonderfully chintzy (snapper, sadly) cover.

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For me, I'd have to say The Matrix. I am also 99.9% positive this was my first dvd. I think I actually bought a ps2, and soon after bought the Matrix to watch it on the ps2. I know it is in a snapper, but I still like the artwork of the dvd, it is one of the few snappers that has a fold out cover, and it is the one that got me into dvd's in the first place. I actually prefer to look at the snapper case cover of this one than one that is behind plastic; the artwork is on thicker material, and there is no plastic to get all dull. My copy is still in mint condition, but I can see why some hate snappers because of the ease of getting the covers torn, ripped, damaged, etc, and the snapper enclosure is not the best enclosure out there.

Some other notables that I agree with also are The Fight Club and The Godfather Set. I'm not sure if Gladiator Signature Edition counts, because it might have came out a few months after the single disc (according to DVD Profiler), but if they came out at the same time, then that would definately be one they got right the first time out.

Seventh Seal: Criterion
Contact
Adventures of Robin Hood
Bambi
Mickey Mouse in Living Color Vol. 1
The Red Shoes - but I hear a new restoration may improve it
The Grapes of Wrath

right on!

CENSORED!!!

only way to see it intact is on LD.

The Dogma/Jay and Silent Bob releases.

The Lord of the Ring extended releases. (didn't these come out at the same time as the 2 disc dvds?- if not, then the 2 disc dvd releases.)

Dogma was first issued as a single disc whose biggest special feature was a fullscreen version on side 2, and The Lord Of The Rings extended editions appeared months after the initial 2-disc releases of each film.

- 12 Monkeys
- Akira
- E.T.
- Fight Club
- Independence Day
- Mallrats
- Meet the Parents
- Moulin Rogue
- Rent
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Spider-man
- Spider-man 2
- Versus*

* The ultimate release is nuts, but the first special edition was pretty bitchin' as well.

Across The Universe
Titus (This had to have been one of the First 2-disk Special Editions for an "Art" film.... Ad a great Special Edition it is.)
Frida (Julie Taymor Kicks ass)
Fast Food Nation
Bamboozled
Paris Texas (not only was it a great special Edition it had a list price of $9.99!)
Final Fantasy:the spirits within
Lucky # Slevin
The Jackal
Blow
The Incredibles
Grace of My HEart
From Hell

My vote for "Out of the Gate" niceness is Scorcese's "The Aviator"...that 2 disc is jam packed...really great extras and doc's...and its only $4.75 this week at Target...the best $5 youll ever spend on a special edition...

Oh yeah, and X-Men 2 was pretty good as well as Spider Man 1 & 2...

Near Dark is a great set.

True, but you can't judge it that way. It has to be about how good it was for its time. Going by your logic you'd have to discount the original DVD release of The Matrix too since it was topped by the UE box set version (or any other DVD that they slap a new featurette on). The original Enter the Dragon SE was a solid single-disc release that was hardly seen as a letdown to collectors when it first came out.

Valley Girl's soundtrack was badly screwed with? They changed one song. And it wasn't particularly relevant to the scene - it mainly just functioned as background music. The featurettes on the DVD are great and make it a solid single-disc release. Now it could have been even better if they had gotten Deborah Foreman to participate in the commentary & making-of documentary, but you can't look a gift horse in the mouth. It's Valley Girl, not Gone with the Wind. It made my list because no one in the world expected MGM to give it anything more than a trailer. So for the movie it is, I think the DVD absolutely "got it right."

And I think the original Superman DVD was pretty killer for a single-disc release as well. The transfer looked great by 2001 standards, it restored the 8 min. of deleted footage that no one thought we'd see because of legal issues, and the extras were outstanding. I mean who in the world expected we'd get to see screen tests by some of the actresses who were turned down for Lois Lane? Obviously the 4-Disc SE eclipses it now, but that doesn't change the fact that it started out as a very respectable DVD in the first place.

The original T2 DVD was from 1997 put out by Live Entertainment. While technologically advanced for its time (it was, I believe, the first DVD to use Reverse Spiral Dual Layering), it none the less had only a trailer and a teaser to its credit as special features.

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You're probably thinking of the Special Collector's Edition put out by Elite, but that wasn't the first Evil Dead DVD. The first Evil Dead DVD was released by Anchor Bay in January 1999 and was bare-bones other than a single trailer.

another vote for 12 monkeys and fight club.