dx23

From the imdb.com:

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2008-01-24/

Good news for those unavailable films on DVD, but what about print restoration and extra features?

Peep

I'm not sure if this is good news. Hopefully this won't mean that Sony rtires a whole slew of titles. And hopefully those titles won't be available only as bare-bones DVD-Rs. Nobody will ever convince me that the shelf life of DVD-Rs is close to that of mass-produced DVDs.

MrDs10e

That is good news if, 1) the price is right (no more than $5 max for a DVD-R), and 2) it does NOT result in cancelling of any regular releases, and instead simply serves to add MORE options for obtaining copies of obscure movies.

rw2516

Where does it say these would be dvd-rs? On the other hand it may be too expensive to "press to order". There may have to be a minimum demand. I would expect the price to be higher than for normal dvds as this would be an elite service catering to hardcore movie enthusiasts. I think this is about the really obscure stuff such has TCM has been showing in recent months that would never get a DVD release in a million years: Hammer films like Sword of Sherwood Forest, crime/noir films like Contract For Murder and City Of Fear, movie series' like Crime Doctor, I Love A Mystery, etc. First rate prints exist for the several hundred super obscure Columbia titles TCM has shown recently so print quality wouldn't be an issue.

Sean O'Hara

If they offer Bud Boetticher's Westerns, I'm in.

Now if they'd cut prices on their existing Columbia DVDs like In a Lonely Place.

FrancisRizzo3

If this agreement does eventually include other studios, I wonder where this would leave the Criterions of the world?

Drexl

They say they're titles stores don't bother to stock. Does this mean they'll actually be doing already available titles that you just can't find at Wal-Mart or wherever, or will they be unreleased titles?

MonsterHunter

What purpose would the HP deal serve on already available titles? If it's just already available titles that Wal-Mart doesn't stock, you can just get them from Amazon or some other online retailer.

islandclaws

Sounds interesting, but I definitely need more information. If this would include titles not yet available, and in their OAR, I'd happily pay $5 a disc for certain films before they get released. Hell, maybe if certain titles are requested enough Sony will give them a proper release sooner than they would have.

Drexl

True, but it doesn't actually say they will be unreleased titles. I was thinking it may be geared towards those who don't shop online. Or maybe I'm just looking for a "catch" when there isn't one.

MonsterHunter

So those who normally don't shop online would suddenly decide to shop online at an HP Store?

Jah-Wren Ryel

DVDs go out of print all the time.

This service would enable them to effectively keep them "in print" using a just-in-time manufacturing model instead of the burdensome and efficient overhead the current system requires.

DiscGuy

Here's a link to a more detailed news story: More Details

This looks like sloppy reporting to me. The terms "manufactured-on-demand" and "HP can press and ship" just doesn't seem realistic. The costs and time to create glass masters for injected molding ("pressing") machines would make a service like this impractical. The article says: "HP typically presses the disc, prints the packaging and drop-ships DVDs the same day consumers order them through wholesalers or third-party retail Web sites..."

I think "presses" the disc is not accurate: HP most likely "burns" the disc (i.e. a DVD-R) in order to turn them around so quickly. The digitizing of the movie is done up front and the title is listed as available. Then to fulfill an order, HP has only to burn a DVD-R for you. Furthermore, I've heard that this is the same system that was being test marketed in Wal-Mart (from HP) to produce discs on demand in their retail stores. Seems HP has decided to centralize their service instead. I guess Wal-Mart and HP couldn't work out a deal.

IMHO this is a "clutzy" step in the evolution of content delivery. HP and Sony need to skip the burned DVD-R and just deliver the digitized movie directly to the consumer over cable/internet. That's where we're all headed, right?

So DVD-R's from HP? Like the guy said: "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

DiscGuy

Here is a link to the official HP news release: "HP and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Announce Manufactured-on-Demand Content Licensing Agreement.

The word "press" (in terms of the manufacturing of discs) is not used. In the HP news release the word used is "produce" as in the following quote: "HP’s manufactured-on-demand service is used to produce a DVD of any movie, TV show or other video content, regardless of niche or obscurity."

DVD-R

kenbenobi

Can anybody find a list of titles available? One of the articles mentioned this is a "year old service" yet I can't find any lists of titles they have available. Even their previous list, before signing Sony, would be fine with me...

matome

I hope so!

rfduncan

So when they do this, does the DVD arrive in some crappy generic case? Part of enjoying my collection is looking at the cases!

Trevor

You can always make your own. See the cover/cases/insert forum for some really creative things going on in that area.

milo bloom

Getting slightly OT, but I have never been able to print out a custom cover that didn't look like, well, like I printed it out myself.


As for main subject, unless they wait a week or two for a minimum amount of orders than do actualy pressing, it's probably going to be DVD-R's.


I seem to be the only person that remembers this, but I recall hearing years ago, when videogame consoles were moving to optical formats, that it would allow game companies to do quick and easy re-issues, because it was to hard to do cartridges in small batches. Yet it's the year 2007, and we still see games get hard to find and languishing in OOP status, while the eBay profiteers make out like bandits.

Just doesn't give me much hope that this will work for movies.


One more thing I may be imagining, wasn't there a machine that could do paperback books on demand talked about years ago? Anyone else remember that?

BambooLounge

^ titles some times go OOP due to rights issues, so this will not necessarily bring all OOP titles back. So the laws of supply and demand (or as you call it "profiteering") will still apply in many cases.

milo bloom

Maybe, but something like Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1? You know good and well who owns that, and so do they.


I'm just saying I'm not very optimistic about this whole idea.

Peep

DVD-R = no sale

DVD Guy ATL

I'd say it wouldn't affect them much. I'm a huge fan of Vittorio De Sica's work for example, and if I were able to choose between buying the existing bad print of "Two Women" for, say, $5 or purchasing a restored, properly subtitled Criterion version with commentary for $26 from dvdplanet, I would totally buy the latter. I think it's safe to say I'm far from the only consumer who feels this way.

Alkaline

I hear you there.

Jah-Wren Ryel

This whole setup is probably "made possible" by the recent creation of CSS for DVD-R.