ridiculous prices of dvds

CodeMonkey · 17-10-2002 5:33pm #1

Check this out...

http://www.playserver4.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R1&title=109407

That's £29.99 sterling for the Buffy season3 region1 boxset compared to...

http://www.playserver4.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=95126

$59.99 sterling for the region2 version and the content should be identicle. In fact, if you look at american sites like amazon.com, you can get the region1 boxsets (if you live there) even cheaper.

What authority or people I can talk to to bitch about this? I mean, that's just silly and I am sure people are also tired of buying the more expensive but not as feature rich region2 dvds for movies as well.

Caesar_Bojangle · 17-10-2002 7:38pm

dvd prices are ludicrously overpriced, especially tower records but there are others which wont escape my wrath, in due time.

Heard cdwow were pretty good but the bulk of their dvds are from Australasia or North America so unless you have a multi region dvd player dont bother checking.

bonkey · 17-10-2002 8:06pm

It should be pointed out that the R2 Buffy stuff has been available for quite some time.

Season 3, IIRC, was released on vid in mid-season 4, and on DVD early this year or late last year.

The R1 series 3, on the other hand, isnt due for release until next January which puts it about an entire year behind us poor, discriminated against peoples on this side of the ocean.

Woe is us....getting the stuff an entire year before the nation where the series was made, and having to actually pay for it.

If you still think you're hard done by, then buy a R1 player. Not a chipped jobbie (cause theyre illegal) but an honest-to-god R1 player. Then buy R1 disks.

As for "someone to complain to"....not a hope. Regionalised disks are not supposed to be sold outside their region. This allows the producers to set regionalised release dates, regionalised pricing, and so on.

You are not supposed to be able to buy R1 disks in Europe. You are not supposed to be able to play R1 disks in Europe. The fact that you can doesnt mean that you automatically have a right to complain that the US gets better prices. It would be like complaining that petrol is cheaper in the US than over here.

jc

sceptre · 17-10-2002 9:18pm

Originally posted by Caesar_Bojangle
Heard cdwow were pretty good but the bulk of their dvds are from Australasia or North America so unless you have a multi region dvd player dont bother checking.

Just keep in mind that most Aussie DVDs (region4) are coded for region 2 as well (Oz being a PAL country, it makes sense). CDWow usually tell you if they are. If it's both r2 and 4 it's often exactly the same disc you'll get here (looking at my DVDs a few are r2/4)

Makaveli · 17-10-2002 10:03pm

Originally posted by bonkey
If you still think you're hard done by, then buy a R1 player. Not a chipped jobbie (cause theyre illegal) but an honest-to-god R1 player. Then buy R1 disks.

Illegal? Since when, I would have thought it only voids your warranty.
Anyway, the majority of dvd players dont need to be chipped there is usually a remote hack for them.

The majority of the time play are more expensive for region1 dvds.
If the prices bother you so much, do as Bonkey says and get a dvd player that will play region1 dvds, it'll mean waiting another 4 months for you boxset, but it's your call.

CodeMonkey · 17-10-2002 11:31pm

I already have the season3 region2 boxset. I am just outraged there's such a big difference between the 2 regions when they have identicle content. It just shows how much money those studios are making off us. Sure you can argue that we have the boxset a whole year longer but season 1 and 2 are prices in a similar manner and they've been released in the states for a while now. We are not paying the extra for the priviledge of having it early. We are being screwed because regionalised releases allows movie companies to rip off other regions.

You are not supposed to be able to buy R1 disks in Europe. You are not supposed to be able to play R1 disks in Europe. The fact that you can doesnt mean that you automatically have a right to complain that the US gets better prices. It would be like complaining that petrol is cheaper in the US than over here.

Yeah but importing petrol from america here is probably not illegal and if the price difference is that big then people will be doing it like buying the r1 boxset instead of the r2 one. And just because there are laws to make segregating markets legal doesn't make it right. I never understood the reasons for the region thing, it was something about piracy right? Oh yeah, look who the crook turns out to be. Things aren't going to change soon if everyone just bend over and take it.

Draco · 18-10-2002 10:30am

Originally posted by bonkey
Not a chipped jobbie (cause theyre illegal) but an honest-to-god R1 player.

No they are not. All chipping a DVD player does is invalidate your warrenty. Film companies would like to make out that they are illegal, but they haven't a leg to stand on.

The sooner this DVD region stuff is scrapped the better.

eth0_ · 18-10-2002 10:43am

Codemonkey - don't diss play.com! If it weren't for them you'd be paying twice the price for DVD's if you were going to HMV etc!!!

gandalf · 18-10-2002 10:53am

FS lads I buy most of my DVD's from Canada and Australia. My current DVD Player was multiregion out of the box. The only way R1's are illegal is if they are been sold in retail outlets here as they haven't passed thru the censors office.

BTW I have noticed HMV stocking R1's but at one hell of a price.

Play are expensive unless they have DVD's on their special offers.

Gandalf.

CodeMonkey · 18-10-2002 10:59am

Originally posted by eth0_
Codemonkey - don't diss play.com! If it weren't for them you'd be paying twice the price for DVD's if you were going to HMV etc!!!

Where and how am I dissing play.com? Re-read my posts, too lazy to explain myself.

DrizztIE · 18-10-2002 1:21pm

Originally posted by CodeMonkey
Check this out...

http://www.playserver4.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R1&title=109407

That's £29.99 sterling for the Buffy season3 region1 boxset compared to...

http://www.playserver4.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=95126

$59.99 sterling for the region2 version and the content should be identicle. In fact, if you look at american sites like amazon.com, you can get the region1 boxsets (if you live there) even cheaper.

What authority or people I can talk to to bitch about this? I mean, that's just silly and I am sure people are also tired of buying the more expensive but not as feature rich region2 dvds for movies as well.

That much I have to pay for a DVD? -> nahhh I'll just get it on video instead... or just watch TV.

RasTa · 18-10-2002 3:22pm

www.dddhouse.com is very cheap
all r3 dvd's though
coolashop is good aswell
do we ever get hit with customs on dvd's in ireland?

The Gopher · 18-10-2002 6:42pm

WTF would any1 buy a DVD boxset?

I mean,you can shell out £££ for boxsets of the simpsons that have been repeated a billion times.All decent tv shows get a rerun-why spend loads of money on a boxset just to see 10 minutes of behind the scenes footage?:rolleyes:
Anyway,as long as people are suckers to pay those prices they will continue selling for those amounts.

LoGiE · 18-10-2002 7:31pm

When you buy DVD's you get extra features etc
When you watch re-runs they tend to make cuts eg Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama on Sky1 and Babylon 5 on Bravo.
There are no ads breaks on DVD and most importantly you watch them whenever you want :rolleyes:
I agree there is a serious problem with over priceing in this country and it's not just on DVD's:mad:

Lex_Diamonds · 18-10-2002 7:32pm

Yeah, whats the story lately? DVD's in Tower and HMV are all suddenly over 30 euro to buy.

Makaveli · 18-10-2002 7:47pm

HMV do happen to have a sale on at the moment.
Some pretty good ones at not so bad prices. It's a change.
Xtra Vision is good for reasonably priced dvds, but have a limited selection.

spooky donkey · 22-10-2002 9:45pm

ah it would be nice if movies were just free to download of the web!

Kali · 22-10-2002 9:51pm

Think the worst prices are on music dvds tbh..

Metallica DVD cost me €23 on ezydvd.. 55 in hmv.
Any Bjork live concert are around the 21 mark on play.. €40 in hmv.

Then again I did see South Park The Movie for a tenner in hmv.. which in anyones world is a bargain

gandalf · 22-10-2002 10:26pm

ON a side note November is going to be the most expensive DVD purchase month for me in ages.

I have the Band of Brothers Boxset, Lord of the Rings (FotR) Collectors Edition, Spiderman Limited Collectors Boxset all on order :rolleyes:

My poor Credit Card has melted down !!

Gandalf.

Makaveli · 23-10-2002 1:13am

Expensive for me too, I just ordered the Beverly Hills Cop Trilogy, also going to buy Monsters Inc and probably Back To The Future Trilogy too.

ObeyGiant · 23-10-2002 11:10am

Originally posted by gandalf
I have the Band of Brothers Boxset, Lord of the Rings (FotR) Collectors Edition, Spiderman Limited Collectors Boxset all on order

I hope you're not forgetting about the 2-disc Special Edition of Army of Darkness? It's almost compulsory that everyone buy that.

KdjaCL · 23-10-2002 11:19am

I hope you're not forgetting about the 2-disc Special Edition of Army of Darkness? It's almost compulsory that everyone buy that.

Just browsing this thread and that quote really pissed me off

I bought 3 versions of that DVD now there is a 4th coming out.
Its sickening that its being milked that much i mean for one its pricey now when they start releasing mutiple versions with 1 extra feature on them thats taking the piss.

LOTR is doing it now although i prolly will buy it BOB and Spidey ,we are weak

Kdja

gandalf · 23-10-2002 12:23pm

No Obeygiant I would love to order it along with the following for November, Glengary Glenross (Special Edition), Ice Age, Reign of Fire but I can't afford it

On a side note all the DVD's I've ordered are Region1's why because they are a fraction of the cost over here. Its about time the distys and retail outlets realised that they are losing loads because of their high prices.

Gandalf.

ObeyGiant · 23-10-2002 12:24pm

Originally posted by kdja
Just browsing this thread and that quote really pissed me off

I bought 3 versions of that DVD now there is a 4th coming out.
Its sickening that its being milked that much i mean for one its pricey now when they start releasing mutiple versions with 1 extra feature on them thats taking the piss.

One of the major things to remember about Army of Darkness is it's obscure distribution rights. Originally released as a film-only DVD by Universal, Anchor Bay teamed up with Universal to release it in 1999 - this time including the original ending as an 'extra feature'. At the same time, they decided to release a 2-disc, limited edition version, one disc with the R-Rated cinema version, and one disc with the director's cut. Then, in 2000, Anchor Bay got sole distribution rights for the film, and decided to celebrate it with a release a limited edition director's cut-only version, strictly for collectors, with a run of uh.. 40,000, I think. They're still running this version, but it's no longer a collector's edition, now it's the uh.. bootleg director's cut (note: there is very little difference between these two, save one is aimed at 'collectors', and the other aimed at 'average joes'), that you can buy on Play.com.

Which brings us to today.

As far as I'm aware, this is the first time Army of Darkness has been released on an R2 DVD. Besides the murky history of the distribution rights of Army of Darkness, it is not unusual for extra features to vary from region to region. This has been standard practice, for as long as I have been buying DVDs. Not a new thing.

I also own a couple of copies of the R1 Army of Darkness, and will definitely be buying the R2 version not only for the extra feature, but because NTSC sucks my muck.

As you can see, this is not entirely 'greed', merely a problem with studios not knowing what to do with what is, essentially, a pretty unsuccessful movie. I would even say that there is very little actual 'greed' involved in the different versions of LoTR being released, purely because Jackson wanted to produce new, probably unfinished, scenes for the 'special edition' DVD, at the same time as putting Two Towers through post-production. This does take time, and I can understand his need to balance between appeasing hungry fans, and producing a top-notch DVD.

But anyway - back to the original topic... I don't think it's fair to say the problem is with "ridiculous prices of DVDs", since almost every case is someone complaining about a greedy shop (particularly HMV), and then saying how they got it for much cheaper on the internet. HMV has never been a fantastic place to get bargains on DVDs (although their sale right now is amazing).

More and more, I'm finding Golden Discs to be one of the best places to get DVDs. They tend to have DVDs out for sale much earlier, sometimes weeks, ahead of HMV (Tron, Pulp Fiction etc), and at not-too-unreasonable prices too. Shame their selection is generally crappy.

artvandelay · 24-10-2002 2:47pm

Ireland and England have the dearest dvds and cds in europe
thats all that has to be said.

CodeMonkey · 24-10-2002 4:11pm

Originally posted by ObeyGiant
But anyway - back to the original topic... I don't think it's fair to say the problem is with "ridiculous prices of DVDs", since almost every case is someone complaining about a greedy shop (particularly HMV), and then saying how they got it for much cheaper on the internet. HMV has never been a fantastic place to get bargains on DVDs (although their sale right now is amazing).

The original topic is not about bitching about a particular shop though. The cost price set by the distributors to the retailers of the buffy boxset are obviously very different for the different regions. No shop would be stupid enough to charge those prices deliberately to cheat customers if they stock both regions. The point is, there is no reason the r2 prices are so high if they can sell the r1 boxset at such a low price and still make money.

ObeyGiant · 24-10-2002 4:51pm

Originally posted by CodeMonkey
The original topic is not about bitching about a particular shop though. The cost price set by the distributors to the retailers of the buffy boxset are obviously very different for the different regions. No shop would be stupid enough to charge those prices deliberately to cheat customers if they stock both regions. The point is, there is no reason the r2 prices are so high if they can sell the r1 boxset at such a low price and still make money.

What is happening here is that European distributors require shops to sell DVDs at a certain price (usually a great deal more, because of the costs of 'importing' the stock). This is not limited to DVDs - it has been standard practice for many industries. It opposite is also true; European companies require their American distributors to put up the prices on their stock. Unfortunately for the corporations, and fortunately for us - we are no longer forced to follow this pointless idea.

What you will find though, is that many of these online retailers that stock both regions will offer 'discounts' on the more expensive region, to bring the prices closer together. This is usually quite difficult, as distributors tend to have strict limits on exactly how much of a discount the retailer can offer on their product. You can see this in the case of Play - they are doing their best to bring the price of the R2 Buffy box sets down to correspond with their R1 counterparts.

In the case of the R1 discs, they are not bound by any such rules, so they can offer the DVD at whatever price they like. They can buy them up at wholesale price (note: wholesale price of Buffy season 3 is USD$39.90, which is roughly GBP£25), and sell them with as much or as little markup as they like.

But then, as I said in my previous post, you have to put up with the NTSC encoding, which, as I have already said, sucks my muck.

So - to answer your original question.. I think your best bet would be to write to Fox's European distributor, and ask them exactly why they are setting the RRP so high.

LFCFan · 01-11-2002 4:28pm

Originally posted by Makaveli
HMV do happen to have a sale on at the moment.
Some pretty good ones at not so bad prices. It's a change.
Xtra Vision is good for reasonably priced dvds, but have a limited selection.

What annoys me about HMV's DVD sales is that they offer 2 for the price of one but make sure the one you buy is at the ful retail price. eg. Buy Gladiator for €35 and get Whatever free. Yet, when they are just selling the DVD's normally the prices is usually around half that. If you know what I mean. In other words you're not getting that great a deal.

Makaveli · 02-11-2002 1:42am

Yeah I know. I was looking at them yesterday and most of them are about €39.99.
Also the way it works is you pay for the dearer one and get the other one for free.
So it's not that good, but I did get the Rock Anthology for €40 which was great value.

Winters · 02-11-2002 2:36am

Agreed. The prices of DvDs seems to have gone up a good bit in the last few months. I notice that Star Wars (Episode 1) is something silly like €40 or something. I bought it for like €25 a good few months back.

I dont think the price increase has anything to do with the euro or anything .... i think it might just be HMV etc. or film companys etc. looking for more money. Play.com i find though is still a lot cheaper then HMV or Tower Records.... big savings if you get 2 Disc box sets where i save about €10 on each one

/me waits for Band Of Brothers box set to come in the post.....if it dont come on the 4th im gonna be pissed

ridiculous prices of dvds

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