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Disney's Disposable DVDs Deemed Duds
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like disposable DVD's are headed the way of the dodo bird. Consumers (ahem, customers) in several markets are rejecting the $7 self destructing flexplay discs. Some stores have decided to stop selling. According to the stores, 'Customers aren't interested in paying more than $6 for a limited-play DVD when they can pay $2 at the video store. Even with a $2 late fee, it's cheaper than buying a disposable DVD.' and 'he hasn't seen one customer purchase an EZ-D, though some of them have been shoplifted out of the store.'"
That's an easy one for any marketing genius. Just raise (ahem adjust) the prices for rental videos and people will be happy to buy those.
i thought self-destructing discs were supposed to be cheaper than normal rentals because you wouldn't need the return/inventory system. were they more expensive to make, or were they just out of their minds?
This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.
I am not sure what the eco nuts were so upset about. There is a recycling plan (according to the article) and even gave people a free disk if they sent in 6 disks. Though, I understand why stores are not selling very many...while the story is an exageration (what rental places rents for 2 bucks a DVD), these disks are a lot more expensive than renting.
"Get your limited copy of Beauty and the Beast now! And we do mean limited! This film will expire in two weeks and after that you will have to wait until we rehash this film and sell it again in another two months! Don't even think of renting a copy from Blockbuster, because we own them, too! This film will only last in your memories!"
Seriously, though, here's the amazing truth: people like buying crap that doesn't break. Imagine if your copy of Detective Comics #27 spontaneously combusted after 60 years of age. Who would want to collect and read that?
--Chag
I thought they were a little over priced, but did buy one in october right before heading to the airport to fly back to chicago. I bought Frida and it was a great movie to watch on the plane and when I got home gave it to a neighbor to watch before it died. I wasn't going to return it.
they should sell these things in airports and the $7 wouldn't seem like a big deal at all. I also like some of the test marketing things they were doing down there that allowed pizza and other delivery services provide a dvd with your delivered meal- no worry about a return and it comes to you on demand. I didn't really appreciate the idea of the extra waste factor, but face it- we live in an extremely disposable world and I doubt one product would make a difference.
overall, I like the convenience the one time I tried it and found it to useful and assumed that once they were mass marketed the prices would become more reasonable.
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
Agreed. The only thing issuing limited-life DVDs will accomplish is it will make the general public much more familiar with DVD ripping tools. If someone buys a DVD and it'll only play once then it's not going to take long for them to decide that that single play is going straight to DVD:Rip or the hard disk so that it can be watched repeatedly.
;-)).
Of course, that's only if titles are only released in such a format: if there's a choice, consumers will just ignore the self-destructing option.
New Line got it right with the Special Edition LoTR DVDs. They're lovely products, well packaged with high quality extras (and don't self-destruct
People will happily pay for something like that: they will be far less happy at movie companies that treat them like scum who can't be trusted with the content they're so graciously permitted to view.
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
It's not the exact same as renting. The nice thing about a system like this is that you could buy a bunch of them in advance of a party for your kids. You buy 4 of them, but the kids only watch two. Well, now you have two that you can watch at another time. So it's not a direct comparison to a standard DVD rental. You could also buy a bunch of them and everytime the babysitter is over, she can grab another one for your kid to watch.
Of course, the kids that watch Disney videos tend to watch them over, and over, and over, and....well, you get the idea, so I would think that for that market the parents would just buy them.
-dave
/., where "Apple and Google provide Iran with nukes" will be refuted with "But Microsoft is a convicted monopolist"
Disney ought to realize that you don't ever really rent their movies - you usually end up BUYING them because the kids want to watch them 5 zillion times...
It used to be a great racket when they were on VHS - the tapes wore out, and Disney got yet another sale... or maybe some smart parents kept the original VHS and just dup'd it. Then they watched the dups until they turned to dust, and re-duped the master until the master became crap. At which point, the kids probably moved out... Or maybe they bought another copy for their grandkids, or whatever.
Now though, people just buy one DVD and short of it getting scratched to shit, that's all they're buying. Maybe the geeky parents run it thru deCSS and burn whatever # of copies they want... But it's pretty much 1 copy...
So why not play off those "no more late fee" fears and create something that you just don't have to deal with. DivX locked disks require encoding, and a bunch of shit in the hardware of the player that'll probably be hacked and it's been proven to be pretty useless... Besides, negotiating with all the hardware vendors is a pain in the ass...
So why not just make the DVD "fade away"... sure some geeky types might hack it by making a real copy first, but the majority of the morons buying it will watch it once, let it sit, and then it's useless... If they want to watch it again, they'll have to buy another copy - PURE GENIUS! We'll charge as much as a ticket to a real movie, but it's still cheaper (no theater popcorn/soda) and easier than dumping the kids into the car, etc...
And even better - some of these fools will buy the thing, open it, get distracted, leave it sit for 3 days and it'll be useless! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa.... free money! woooo hooo!
Pffffett! *snap back to real world* People usually keep a bunch of these DVDs around so they can shove one in the DVD player/babysitter and park the screaming yellow zonker in front of the TV for a few hours...
I don't even have any kids and I own most of the Disney classics on DVD. They're great for when my friends or clients drag a kid with them to my house and I get sick of listening to the kid bullshit... They'll also be great when I have kids someday... And ya wanna know the crazy part? I wasn't even going out with anyone when I bought the things 2 or 3 years ago - Amazon had them for something like $10 each on some special and I bought a bunch figuring I'd need them someday...
The problem with these "entertainment" companies is that they are busy wasting time and energy on milking old dried up cows for every last drop of milk rather than CREATING new content. Disney, MPAA, whoever - wake up and FOCUS people... stop with the BOHICA acts, and copyright extensions, and all the other bullshit - just create stuff, offer it at a FAIR price, and we'll buy most of it.... Some of it will be shit and we won't - but dem's the risks of business... Fuck us over, and we'll return the favor...
my video-club beats all of this. I pay U$ 7/mo; I can have 5 dvds with me at all times, the only restrictions being: only one new disc at a time, for 2 (work)days or pay U$ .50 per disc per day fine; the other (non-new) 4 discs, i can keep them up to 9 work days (yes, almost two weeks). How about that? It's simple, we have 300 associated people and we always have the good titles. And it's a democracy. nice, uh?
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
This is something I've thought about, but never did much research into it...are there certain companies that tend to put the non-skippable ads at the beginning? Or do I just not know of a way to by-pass them? Fwd and Menu don't seem to work, and it only serves to piss me off.
If I knew which companies were guilty, I would go out of my way NOT to buy any of those movies.
The next Hollywood playa to repeat the disposable disc fiasco should have to eat the acrylic refuse from DDVD and DivX that's stockpiled in landfills across the country. The rest of us are paying, in taxes and poisoned environment, for their costly mistakes. The next test for this kind of scheme must include a realistic recycling program, to ensure the acrylic makes it back into the petrochemical foodchain within the year, not in the next geological age.
--
make install -not war
I personaly prefer the other options...my methods are as follows:
1) Wait a 6-12 months...buy it for $10 on discount DVD and own it forever
2) Wait 18 months and buy it for $5.50 on Wal-Marts elcheapo DVD wall...and own it forever
3) If you REALLY must see it right away and dont want to own it for some silly reason just get it on pay-per-view ($4 here)...then you can usualy see it before it even hits DVD!
Seriously, as long as media companies, and I'm including music, try to avoid seeing their product as a commodity, they're going to keep coming up with brain dead ideas like this one. MS is barely getting away with it, what chance did Disney think they had?
If you jack people around on any commodity long enough and boost the price on them, they'll find ways to get by without your product and someone else will offer them better terms and eat into your market share. Movies, music and, increasingly, software are like gasoline, sugar and coffee. Inconvenient to live without, but consumers will adjust their consumption if you dick them enough.
Another classic case of the problem trying to dictate the solution.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I think that what people here are forgetting is that Disney was betting on the convenience factor. With new rentals at Blockbuster, you can end up paying $8 or more if you are late in returning the movie. With the self-destruct DVD's, you don't have to remember to return it, hence no late fee. However, $7 is still too steep for this type of product. If they had priced self-destruct DVD's closer to $4-$5 more consumers might have bought in.
IANAL... But I play one on
I can't believe that Disney of all companies backed this. I mean, I don't know any household with kids that doesn't have at least a few Disney movies, and they're watched over and over and over again. Nobody in their right mind is going to buy a copy of "The Little Mermaid" and then try to explain to a sobbing five-year-old that they can't watch their movie anymore.
Just junk food for thought...
I was actually rooting for this tech.
However, current pricing is definitely the greatest barrier.
But what I was hoping to see was a DVD vending machine offering DVD's for $2.00 or $3.00 a piece. If they could deliver the tech for a low price, it would definitely be a netflix killer. Why wait 1 day for the dvd to arrive via snail-mail when you could get a movie at your works breakroom, cornerstore etc and no worries about late fees or scratched discs?
Really, this is a superior solution but is being killed by it's very non-competitive cost... can we say Beta-Max anyone?
The new anti-piracy measure on TTT extra features disks render them unreadable in some players. My parents have a player that refuses to play them. They will have to buy a new player to watch them or spend even more to have their old player "fixed".
Lasers Controlled Games!
if I were an exec, it seems fairly reasonable what to do...
1) Don't screw your customers. Yes, everyone wants something for nothing, but not very many of them will take it unless you manage to anger them. How do you ager them? Jacking product prices up for worse product is a prety good stsrt. Trying to take their copyright protections (fair use, etc.) without compensation and advertising the crippled products as containing extra "features" is another. People have told the companies that do this that they don't want it (copy-"protected" CDs, DivX, etc.) - if you ignore it, they will get angry, and won't be your customers anymore.
2) Given that you haven't angered your customers, give them enough to be happy. Returnable rentals, nonreturnable rentals for a little bit more, or purchasable DVDs with as little restriction as possible are probably good (since they seem to be what your customers want).
Trust isn't an issue here unless you anger your customers or try to screw them, at which point they will return the favor. Trust becomes an issue for content providers only when they've screwed their customers - once they've done that, the customers don't feel any need to behave as if they were trusted (because they know they're not) and behave accordingly. There are always people who will take you product by physically stealing it or by copying it, and this segment won't go away - but it requires effort and overcoming conscience and so most people don't do it. Once you anger your customers, anything goes, and for many, anger provides enough motivation to take the time to screw you.
Nonreturnable rental is a choice for customers, but it restricts users activity significantly AND costs significantly more than rental. It isn't real suprising, then, that this is an unpopular choice. Combined with previous attempts to sell a "licensed" product where the user pays full price to buy the product but loses control over its use, it's understandable why people mistrust this method of sale.
What? I live in Kansas City! I've had my eye out for disposable DVDs for months, even since hearing about them on Slashdot, and I haven't seen a single one. Can't find them anywhere. Now I find out that I'm in one of the test markets.
I'm thinking that what we may have here is a truly *spectacular* failure in marketing, rather than a failure of the product.
I have to admit, I never looked for disposable DVDs in a Walgreens pharmacy. On the other hand, I never looked for them in freaking Petsmart, either. Walgreens?!?! What the hell? Who goes to Walgreens looking for DVDs? Who goes to Walgreens at all, other than senior citizens?
I don't know... it sounds like a good point. Rental agreements and purchase agreements are different.
If you've PURCHASED the DVD, you've purchased the right to view, and making backups is fully supported by laws (it's bypassing security that isn't).
It's not the same when you rent, you borrow the real owners right to view while you're in possesion of the disc... having the original disc is the key part, IMO... if you're viewing a "backup", and someone accuses you of copyright infringement, you can produce the original and say "but I bought it!"
Stupid sexy Flanders.
There's nothing stopping you from ripping it and burning it to DVD-R. Even a dual-layer DVD can be copied if you're willing to accept some (usually negligible) quality loss. (I've heard occasional references to a dual-layer DVD-R being in the works...that would allow a 1:1 copy of any DVD. Here's info on a demo Pioneer did at this year's CES with a DVR-A06 and some tweaked firmware.)
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
And you wonder what the whole DeCSS fiasco was about.
Why dosen't some Pizza chain offer to sell single use DVD's along with Pizza delivery?? The driver is already making the trip, the guy ordering the Pizza isn't in the mood to drive to Blockbuster, etc. I could see Dominio's offering 4-6 of the latest release for that weekend on this format.
And for the environmental concerns, a 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew has the same, if not more plastic than the single use DVD.
Paying $1.99 is fine for me for most movies.
If you have Movie Gallery stores in your area, they let you rent overnight on Wednesdays for a buck. This counts as a "normal" rental, so it still gives you points toward free rental coupons. Their normal bulk renting deals apply as well, so you can literally rent five non-new releases for three bucks on Wednesdays, and each month (I think it takes 12 points...), you get a coupon for a freebie.
If you have Blockbusters (who doesn't?), and still use a land-line phone, switch to the "MCI Neighborhood Complete" package... It includes all the standard phone services (CID, VM, 3-way, CW, etc), unlimited free LD, and even covers your local service, for just over $50 per month. And, to make it relevant to my point, you'll get a free rental coupon for every $25 you spend (ie, 2 per month). In combination with the BB Rewards card (actually pretty crappy, except that they send you a coupon for one free rental per month, and only costs $10 for a year), as well as the occasional special deal ("Pre-order Movie X, and get 10 free rentals", where even if Movie X sucks, the free rentals would have cost more than the movie does), I literally never pay to rent at Blockbuster.
Anyone know of any other good ways to rent for a pittance at other stores?
They tried this already in the mid 80's Lotus 1-2-3 would only have 3 installs before the disks would erase themselves. The second install was always to copy the disks, it actually encouraged piracy by people that would never normally pirate things. Lotus dropped this pretty damn quick when they only started selling 10 copies of their software a year. They probably taught more people about copying disks than any other single entitity in this industry. So I guess the saying is true, "Those who dont learn history are doomed to repeat it".