New DVDs this week include a collector's edition of "Woodstock" and the final season of "The Shield."

"Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music: The Director's Cut: 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition" (Warner, 1970; R for drugs, nudity, language; three discs, $59.98). This 1970 Oscar-winner, originally a three-hour film, has been in circulation with the 40-minutes-longer director's cut for 15 years now. But strangely, the 1994 VHS edition was vastly superior to the disappointing 1998 double-sided DVD.

So it's great to finally have "Woodstock" in a superior DVD release, much improved in both picture and sound. Of course, it always helps to watch this movie on a big screen, to better appreciate the split-screen effect of Michael Wadleigh's remarkable direction with his artistic team of photographers and editors (Martin Scorsese among the latter).

For baby boomers like myself, this film captures a fragment of an era we lived through that was unlike any other, for good or ill. The film itself retains its fascination, and the third disc's featurettes are fascinating in their commentary on the social aspects of the three-day event and the sheer mammoth undertaking that was the filmmaking effort.

But ultimately "Woodstock" rises and falls on all those fabulous bands and singers onstage performing live, captured in their unbridled, wildly talented youth (Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joan Baez, Grateful Dead, Country Joe & the Fish, Arlo Guthrie, Crosby, Stills & Nash and many more).

Actually, this write-up is based on the $24.98 two-disc "Special Edition," but Warner also provided critics with the third disc from the "Ultimate Edition" box set for review. (And if you buy it from Amazon.com, there's an exclusive fourth disc!)

The only "Special Edition" bonus features is a plug for the Woodstock Museum in Bethel, N.Y. But the "Ultimate Edition" third disc features more concert footage — 18 performances by Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Joan Baez, the Grateful Dead and others — plus featurettes with new interviews and a number of "collectible" doodads, including a 60-page Life magazine reprint.

Extras: widescreen, additional performances, documentary, featurettes, (the "Ultimate Edition" is also available in Blu-ray, $69.99)