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Disposable DVDs? Arrghhh!!! The curse of DIVX lives on!!!

Disposable DVDs? Arrghhh!!! The curse of DIVX lives on!!!

 
Old 05-21-03, 12:50 AM
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Not the "official" divx players - but there are a couple of renegade players available online that will circumvent macrovision, play mp3s, play all regions, and will play old divx discs.
I think you are mistaken--the only players left that will play Divx discs are the ones that were "unlocked" prior to the shutdown, something that was only done for certain high-ranking Divx and Circuit City employees.

RD
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Old 05-21-03, 01:44 AM
  #77  
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Originally posted by DivxGuy
I think you are mistaken--the only players left that will play Divx discs are the ones that were "unlocked" prior to the shutdown, something that was only done for certain high-ranking Divx and Circuit City employees.

RD
He's not actually mistaken, but he isn't entirely correct, either .

There are DVD players now on the market that will play "DivX discs". Not the Divx disc format sold by Circuit City, but the DivX compression format designed for audio/video streams. I'm pretty sure that it is one of these players that jough saw advertised.
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Old 05-21-03, 07:43 AM
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Originally posted by RoboDad
snip. ..
With EZ-D (what a STUPID name! ), those concerns have been addressed, but a whole new set of problems crop up:
  • Built-in late fees - they admit that the cost of these discs will be higher than conventional rentals.
  • Inventory management problems - with conventional rentals, if a title is rented out the first time you want to rent it, you can usually try again (and don't some places even let you reserve a copy?). What happens when stores run out of these discs? How long will you have to wait before they restock?
  • Environmental concerns - if this concept becomes popular, landfills will be overrun with throw-away discs, or some mechanism for recycling them will need to be established, increasing their overhead, and raising costs (or, possibly, requiring a "deposit", as most states do with bottles and cans).
  • Piracy - how long will it be before someone discovers a way to circumvent the coating used on these discs, making it possible to view a movie long beyond its intended expiration?
  • Customer complaints - with conventional rentals, if you go beyond your rental period, you are charged a late fee, but you are still able to finish watching the movie. With EZ-D, once the "rental period" expires, so does the disc. If you didn't have a chance to finish it, YOU WOULD HAVE TO "RENT" IT ALL OVER AGAIN.

I just don't see how this format can ever succeed.
Well written response and you make some good points.

However, I think there is a very large difference between test market strategies and reading the press announcement as 'the' marketing strategy.

They need to be careful of trying this approach without upsetting existing sales and rental channels. I would hope that if you believe that the price point won't work that it is also obvious to those actively involved that it won't work either.

I would hope that releasing these rentals with a few weeks lag after the existing rental release is not a winning strategy either. I think it obvious that they know this as well. Forget the lag, it won't be there at full rollout.

So, what are they doing? Testing the concept within the realities of releasing any new concept into the market. It is never easy. What they hope to prove is that even with some of these disadvantages, there is still some market. Then what?

What would you do? If you can sell these things at $4 dollars (at scale) and still earn a better return then through working with Blockbuster, would you do it?

So, forget the mindset that this won't work because the late fee and distribution lag are already built in. They won't be issues if they ever make it to full rollout.

Then, without late fees and (more important to me) no trip back to return or (ship back) the disc - it becomes more of an interesting idea.

Their idea of trying to get these discs near the registers ... heck everyone wants their stuff by the register. And DVDs still take a lot of room. Most items slotted by grocery, mass merch, and drug retailers near checkout are single items - not variety slots. This keeps things simple on restock. I don't see that changing. They probably will get slotted like a greeting card aisle.

Screeners? ... these are given to people of influence whose influence the studios are trying to influence (ahem). This is the last group the studios will ever mess with. I can see five screeners sent out for best picture at next year's Oscars and one is one of these disposable DVD ... guess which one will not be winning the Oscar ....

Do I think that this idea will work? Very questionable. It certainly depends on price point and what return will work for both studio and grocery outlets. Selection is also an issue. If another studio is renting first run films (at the same time of retail release) and Disney is renting Son of Flipper, the early years next to it ...

Which brings us to cannibalization of retail. This could be a deal breaker if Disney realises that it needs first run feature films (or at least feature films) to make it work. If they make more at retail and lose that margin due to rental sales .... goodbye EZ-D.

Last edited by ctyankee; 05-21-03 at 07:46 AM.
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Old 05-21-03, 01:46 PM
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<small>
Originally posted by jough
[....] there are a couple of renegade players available online that will circumvent macrovision, play mp3s, play all regions, and will play old divx discs [....] I don't want to post a link here for such a device, even if it was available as a pop-up ad on DVD Talk a couple of months ago [....]
</small>

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=293775
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Old 05-21-03, 06:08 PM
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Maybe someone mentioned this and I didn't see it, but if no one did, I'm really surprised.
The main reason this intrigues me is: NO SCRATCHES!
I rent at Hollywood Video (I stopped renting at Blockbuster after too many late charges for discs I returned on time), but the dvds are often so scratched that I sometimes have to skip chapters even after going over it several times with the SkipDr. If you take it back to the store they will not refund the money only give you another copy of the same title.

It would also be great if they could be rented sealed through the mail; then I wouldn't have to worry about the post office losing them on return mailing.
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Old 05-21-03, 07:27 PM
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Other than the fact that I like special features and would rather buy a full DVD than rent a movie or buy one of these, how would these show up in supermarkets? Someone mentioned something like a greeting card aisle? The way it sounds is that Disney will put out some titles (4 or 5 a month) and rotate them... when the new ones come in the old ones get blown out?

Personally I liked the idea mentioned that new movies come out a couple of months after the theater release, but before the regular DVD release. Remember though that these are being developed by Disney... and we will only see movies that they control... and they state that some major titles will never see the format. It would really have to take off in order for other studios to take up the format. Also, unless the technology were foolproof, which we already have several ideas for bypassing the security on these discs, then people would just buy these and not the regular DVD when it gets released... hence DVD prices would go up.

I also liked the idea mentioned of putting preview disks with trailers and stuff packaged with regular discs... but why have a seperate medium for this... in other words, what reason would the studio have to put trailers on a disc that is useless after two days?

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Old 05-22-03, 07:34 PM
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All I keep hearing in the pitches for these types of products is "no more return trips to the video store". Well, if I just order a pay-per-view or use VOD I don't even have to make the first trip. I can stay at home and only pay the $3 to order it. sounds even better my way, doesn't it?
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Old 05-23-03, 05:33 AM
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There's another saying: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
DVDs have seen overwhelming popularity; its been the fastest growing technology ever and DVD sales are great. Blockbuster has converted most of their stores to DVD, and online rental places like Netflix are doing good business as well.

I just don't see any way the Disney disposable discs can work. Hopefully, the test markets will make this clear to them before they waste too much money on it.
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Old 05-23-03, 02:07 PM
  #84  
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Originally posted by LordJezo
So uhh..

You are saying, you buy it for a few bucks, you rip it, burn it to real dvd, and you are set?
That's just what I was thinking. The pirates will love it.
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