REWIND NEWS FOR 2003

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO REWIND!

Tuesday 16th December 2003

This month sees Rewind celebrate it's 4th birthday! The site launched in November 1999 and is now regarded as the site for your DVD region comparisons. Thanks to everyone who has either worked on the site over the years or have been regular visitors. Please continue to show your support and help us stay around for another 4 years by buying products from the sponsor links found around the site. Stay with us throughout 2004 as many more exciting things are planned which will ensure we remain number one!

IMPROVED WAY OF CONTACTING US

Friday 31st October 2003

Due to an overwhelming amount of spam e-mails Rewind has been receiving, we have unfortunately had to take the decision to remove all e-mail addresses from our sites. However, as well as doing this we have also launched a brand new feedback form. This form makes it even easier and quicker for you to get in touch with us. Although we would still prefer you to use The Rewind Forums for queries relating to the Comparison Database, if you do need to contact us directly just go to the About Us section and click on the Contact Us link. Hopefully this will mean we will finally begin to receive less spam e-mails! Please note that as of November 1st 2003, all e-mails sent to addresses ending in either dvdcompare.org.uk or dvdcompare.net will be ignored. Later this year, these addresses will be deleted.

REWIND UPDATE

Sunday 26th October 2003

We apologise for the continued delay in the return of Rewind Premier and for the general lack of updates (outside of the actual Comparison Database). The future of Rewind is currently being looked at. Don't worry, we do not have any current plans to close the site. We are just thinking of ways of how we can improve the site. Whilst this is going on, no updates will take place to any part of the site OUTSIDE of the Comparison Database. As you can see, the database is continuously updated on a daily basis by our great, hard working team. We will keep you informed of any developments concerning Rewind on this page.

SITE SUPPORTER BLACKSTAR IMPROVES SERVICE

Tuesday 26th August 2003

One of Rewind's longest supporters, Blackstar.co.uk has recently improved its pricing structure. For a start, all DVDs are now shipped FREE if you live in either the UK or Ireland. Secondly, for all products under £18, Blackstar now ship them from Jersey which means they don't have to pay VAT. What does this mean to you? Well cheaper DVDs for a start! For example all DVDs that have a RRP of £19.99 can now be bought from Blackstar for just £13.99 - £14.99!! Coupled with the fact that Blackstar offer Customer Service second to none, do you really need to shop anywhere else?!

Remember, each time you click on a link to Blackstar.co.uk from THIS site, you will be supporting Rewind and helping make sure we stay around for a bit longer yet!

NEW USER FEATURES COMING SOON TO REWIND

Sunday 1st June 2003

Throughout May and June, Simon Warren has been busy adding new features and enhancements to the "behind the scenes" aspects of the Rewind Comparison Database. Therefore, there have been no noticeable benefits to our visitors but rest assured, the database is now easier to use for our team which in the long run is better for you as it allows us to add even more detailed comparisons. Now the majority of the "behind the scenes" work has been completed, Simon can concentrate more on the user aspect of the database. From later this month/early July, there will be some new features which will allow registered users more interaction with the site. We can't reveal too many details at the moment due to competitors, but it will be worth the wait.

If you are a member of Rewind Premier, we apologise for the continued closure of this service. We are working on this section of Rewind and Rewind Premier will return all improved later in the summer, probably around August/September time. It will be completely re-designed with enhancements to the original service plus loads of new and reliable features. The best thing of all is that the service will remain completely FREE for the remainder of 2003 at least.

For users of Rewind Mobile, the Rewind Spreadsheet service has been updated this weekend so you can now download the latest version of our spreadsheet for use on the move. The remainder of the Rewind Mobile features will, like Rewind Premier, be returning later in the summer in either August or September.

Please accept our apologies for the lack of certain features here on Rewind at the moment but remember that Rewind is free for you to use and our team get no money for working on the site. All of their work is done in their own spare time. Please try to remember this when you use The Rewind Forums and request about 50 films to be compared in the Comparison Request forum! Please show some courtesy and consideration for both The Rewind Team and other Rewind visitors and keep your requests down to a minimum. Feel free to come back in the future and request the other titles but do not do them all at once. Failure to comply with this fair and simple rule may result in you being permanently banned from the site.

REWIND WELCOMES NEW TECHNICAL MANAGER

Saturday 5th April 2003

After months of searching, Rewind has finally managed to recruit a new Site Technical Manager. Simon Warren is an experienced programmer and has joined us to help improve our famous Rewind Comparison Database. Over the past few months, we have been listening to what improvements our visitors want and now we are going to start to action them. We will also be improving the database behind the scenes with changes you won't see, but they will allow the Rewind Team to add even more comparisons to the database and with more information. To see how Simon is getting on with all the enhancements, there is a new section in the column to the right. As each phase of our improvement programme is completed, we will post details of it in that section.

One part of our improvement programme is the Rewind Mobile service. Whilst the improvements to this service are being carried out, we have taken the decision to close the service completely. A brand new Rewind Mobile service is expected in June but we should be able to get Rewind Spreadsheet back to you later this month.

All of our improvements are first being tested in an offline section so that we can thoroughly test them before letting you use them. Rest assured we will do our best to get all the improvements to you as soon as we can but we have no intention of rushing them. Rewind would like to take this opportunity to thank Simon for joining the team and hopes he enjoys working with us!

STAR WARS PETITION

Monday 24th March 2003

If you want the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD, there is now a petition online that you can sign. Go to www.originaltrilogy.com to give your opinion. Hopefully if the site gets enough signatures, then Fox/George Lucas will listen and release the trilogy on DVD.

ANOTHER MILESTONE REACHED!

Friday 21st March 2003

Another milestone was reached by Rewind earlier last week. We have now hit and surpassed 3,000 films featuring in our Comparison Database. This means that we now have nearly 1,500 MORE films than our one and only competitor. That's not all! We now have 1,000 registered members using our forums and we are just under 1,000 comparisons away from hitting the 10,000 DVDs compared mark! Thanks go out to the Rewind Team who have managed to add accurate comparisons at such an amazing rate. To our visitors, stay with us as we are going to get much better in 2003.

A WARM WELCOME TO ALL BBC VISITORS

Friday 21st March 2003

If you have come to Rewind after seeing our mention on BBC Ceefax or the BBCi Digital Text service last week, a warm welcome to you. We hope you enjoy the site and please let us know what you think.

REWIND - WE'RE GETTING BETTER!

Thursday 13th March 2003

There are some important developments happening to Rewind over the weekend of March 15th and 16th. As of these dates, our URL will be changing to www.dvdcompare.net. The reason for the change is that a .net URL looks more professional than a .org.uk one. Also, a .net address is easier to remember and less to type! The change over should be smooth and will hopefully not affect your service in anyway. Just to make sure, we have decided not to get rid of our .org.uk URL just yet. This means for the next few months, the full Rewind service will be available at both URLs for maximum convenience. Please do update your bookmarks though to point to dvdcompare.net. To do this automatically, click on the relevant link at the bottom of this page in the right hand column.

Also as of this weekend, the proper launch of The Rewind Network becomes a step closer. As of Sunday, therewindnetwork.co.uk, rewindextra.co.uk and dvdbasement.co.uk will all become live. Whilst the sites will have no actual content on them, holding pages will be available with details about each service. The proper launch of The Rewind Network (we had a soft launch on January 1st 2003) is due later this year but no actual date has been confirmed as yet.

Finally, if you turn to page 579 of BBC Ceefax this week and wait until page 5/10 appears, or go to BBCi on Digital TV and select the Entertainment -> DVD section, you will see a nice little plug for Rewind! Thanks to Rewind Team Member David for that one! Welcome to all visitors who have come to the site as a result of seeing this article and we hope you enjoy what you have found!

WE'RE STILL GOING STRONG

Sunday 26th January 2003

We now have over 1,000 more comparisons than our nearest rival! Coupled with the fact that our comparisons are more detailed and much more accurate than their ones, you don't need to go anywhere else for your comparison information! Remember - Rewind @ www.dvdcompare.org.uk!

IMPORTANT REWIND FORUMS INFORMATION

Friday 24th January 2003

As of 4pm on Friday January 24th 2003, The Rewind Forums have moved to their new home at www.therewindforums.co.uk. This is now the only website address you can access the forums from. The old site address of www.dvdbasement.net has now been closed. This is the 2nd phase of The Rewind Network. More details about The Rewind Network will be announced on February 1st 2003.

NEW WAY OF DONATING TO REWIND

Sunday 19th January 2003

As of Monday January 20th 2003, there is now a 3rd way of donating to Rewind. In addition to the Nochex and Paypal options, you can now send a cheque directly to Rewind. It was brought to our attention that a lot of visitors are put off from donating because they do not want to use Nochex or Paypal. By Rewind introducing this new scheme, hopefully more visitors will be inclined to donate money directly to the site. To donate, please send an e-mail to donations@dvdcompare.org.uk and full details will be sent to you.

NEW HARDWARE REVIEW ONLINE

Sunday 12th January 2003

The Digitheatre ZXR budget Home Cinema System from Pure Digital review is available now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Sunday 5th January 2003

Welcome back to the full Rewind service, we hope you have all had great Christmas and New Year celebrations! As of January 1st 2003, there were some major changes behind the scenes here at Rewind. On that day, The Rewind Network was launched. This new initiative is set to make the Rewind brand more known in the Internet world as well as allow us to launch more sites throughout 2003. The first noticeable change will be The Rewind Forums. Within the next few days, we will be moving our forums to www.therewindforums.co.uk. This is the first of many changes happening to Rewind throughout 2003 so please keep checking this page for the latest information.