Smallville season 1 is coming to region 2 dvd.
The season will be broken into 2 boxsets and first part is set for release on the 19th of May.

Play.com are now taking Pre-orders for the first part priced at £27.99

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Smallville season Two starts at 7.pm Tonight on Network Two in Ireland and on E4 at 9pm Monday the 27th and repeated the following night at 1am.

I would have preferred a single boxset and I assume it's presented in widescreen, DD 5.1 and uncut.
If it's not upto scratch then it's a long wait for the R1 boxset

It will be uncut and in widescreen plus it should be in DD5:1

The U.S should be getting the first season around the same time as the uk plus it will be in 2 parts aswell.

That would be a pleasent surprise.
It would however be unlike a US network to ignore future syndication revenues in the US and bring out a series on DVD when it's only two seasons old and not sign of cancellation.

Any definitive source for the US release?

Not at all. That used to be the case in the days before the sales of TV on DVD exploded in the US, just as they have done here.

For example:

"24", "The Shield" and "Queer as Folk" released season 1 box sets before the start of season 2, even though the second season was guaranteed. QaF season 2 is out in a couple of weeks even though they've got a contract for another 2

"The Sopranos" already has three seasons available, as does "Sex and the City" and Buffy.

I could go on but I trust the point is made.

Having said all that, I can find no evidence on the web or the newsgroups of a US announcement. I'd take the R2 entry on play.com with a pinch of salt too until it turns up on a few other sites - plenty of titles have been listed on Play for future release that have subsequently never seen the light of day.

Murray

Actually it isn't, the examples you have given are not representative of the US sell through market.
HBO material has limited appeal in syndication mainly because it would have to be cut to pieces and the same goes for The Shield which someone commented had been pulled from a Canadian station due to it's violent content.
Buffy does have three seasons out on DVD but it's in it's seventh season so that is a big delay and Angel is in it's fourth season and it's first DVD release is next month.
Charmed is in it's fifth season and has yet to have a DVD release and it's a reasonably successful show and also on the same channel as Smallville.

Granted it looks like studios and distributors are looking at sell through as the next major revenue source perhaps even at a level where they can lose some income from syndication.
Maybe the down turn in the US economy and subsequent advertising revenues make a short term cash injection from sell though more attractive to them as well.

Either way I hope that Smallville does get an early R1 release and the US distributors bias there product more to sell though instead of syndication.

Warner bros where all set to go releaseing Smallville on dvd in the states this year BUT news on the 17th is that they have now canceled it until next year . Bad news for u.s fans then.

The uk release is still a go.

Whats the betting that the r2 will be almost bear bones while WB spend the rest of the year filming loads of extras for the r1 version like the did with Friends