Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Looking for a site that will tell me when a DVD (or book) is released and available for sale

Often I'll come across a film that isn't screening in theatres (near me or sometimes anywhere) and I want to be alerted when it is available on DVD.

The same could apply for a book or even a CD.

Is there a site that will let me track DVD (book or CD) releases and push an alert via email or RSS when it is available?

There is a service such as the Amazon Feed Generator which will generate an RSS feed from an Amazon search string, but it doesn't seem to work for searches with no results (yet).

The kicker here is that in some cases the DVD release isn't even announced - so essentially the product doesn't exist yet.

I guess I could RSS a twitter search string and/or a Google News alert to be notified if/when my specific string is mentioned - but I'm looking for something a bit more elegant and easy to use/setup.

  • I think Amazon is more or less doing what you want. Check out this link for example, http://www.amazon.com/Sorcerers-Apprentice-Nicolas-Cage/dp/B002ZG99KO/ref=sr_tr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1278528100&sr=1-1 for the Movie the Sorcerer's Apprentice (a movie coming out soon). If you login to your Amazon account you can add a notification request of when the movie will be released on DVD.

    That is probably about as good as you are going to get right now. Amazon and any other site can't create product links for products that don't exist and that they don't know about yet. If they know they will exist then they can create a preview for the product in the future but that can always cause issues when projects or products get canceled or changed.

    From RandomBen
  • There are sites like http://DVDTalk.com and http://www.blu-ray.com/ with forums that discuss when different versions of movies are due to be released. Amazon usually shows the last date it knows about, but the other sites will let you know if something's been delayed or if there are problems with the final release of a product. For instance, maybe a boxed set is shipping with 2 disc twos or maybe the subtitles are messed up and a re-mastered version is in the works.

  • This maybe? http://www.crapimissedit.com

    "How many times have you missed a concert, new CD, or top movie just because you didn't know about it? It's hard because there's too much information.

    Cut through the clutter. Sign up for a maximum of one combined e-mail per day, for events and items ranging from a couple times a week to once a decade."

  • Looks like Merecal may fit the bill. Found it via a twitter search RSS I had going for "Racing Dreams DVD" (which according to Merecal, is out in September.

    I can even set up an RSS feed of a search for something that doesn't exist yet, in this case, I'm still looking for the DVD release of the excellent documentary "Shadow Billionaire"

    From 3rdparty

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