Gifts of the silver disc

CDs and DVDs to make everyone happy

By Todd Leopold and Porter Anderson
CNN

• Gallery: Holiday CD, DVD guide

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(CNN) -- For a circular piece of foil encased in plastic, it has certainly had a dramatic impact.

The compact disc and its cousin, the digital versatile disc (DVD), have changed how we listen to music, play games, and watch television and movies. Each year thousands more are released, offering us a rich variety of entertainment -- or, in the worst cases, a rich variety of cold-drink coasters and rearview mirror ornaments.

Fortunately, there's enough good stuff out there to keep your electronics buzzing for months to come -- particularly when it comes to box sets.

On the CD side, Rhino Records (always a leader in this arena) is releasing a Talking Heads complete collection (in a white plastic case nicknamed the "Brick"), the caffeinated compendium "Whatever: The '90s Pop and Culture Box," the comic-book artfulness of "Weird Tales of the Ramones" and garage band followers in "Children of Nuggets."

Other notable CD boxes include Jelly Roll Morton's "Complete Library of Congress Recordings" (Rounder), the landmark CD/DVD three-disc blowout of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" (Columbia/Legacy) and a seven-disc (!) expansion of Jeff Wayne's 1978 musical version of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" (Sony).

Want more? Click here.

On the DVD side, the folks at Criterion have done a spectacular job releasing movie classics in top-notch editions, including Orson Welles' "F for Fake," Pietro Germi's "Divorce Italian Style," and Akira Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" and "Ran."

There are also the usual selection of television series, including boxes of seasons of "The Simpsons," "Seinfeld," "Lost," "Arrested Development" and -- finally -- "The Muppet Show."

Oh, and did we mention there's a new DVD version -- the "Don't Call Me Shirley!" Edition -- of "Airplane"? Well, go get it -- there's a sale at Penney's!

Click here for the DVD gallery.

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