Will this be continue to be tolerated? (DVD Forum)

Member Name: tommy7

Product:	DVD Forum
Date:	14/04/01 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See below

Disadvantages: Will it last?

It was only a few years ago that the advent of the video recorder had a huge impact on cinema attendances. Although cinema attendances have recovered this recovery has been put in doubt by the emergence of region one DVD's.

At least in the past once a film left the cinema you faced a long wait before you had the opportunity to hire it on video. It was then a further long wait before you could own the film. This position has now gone full circle if you own a region one or a multi-region DVD player.

If we look at a current example "Men of Honour" which has just been in the UK cinemas for a couple of weeks. To go and see this movie at the cinema you would pay £5 per person, £x for any refreshments and £x for travel. Or you can order the Region One DVD for £17.99 with free delivery from www.play247.co.uk. Although you are taking a gamble buying the film when you may hate it the costs involved are very similar and if it does turn out to be a good movie there can only be one choice.

So where does this leave the video shops? In truth I do not see a future for video shops. I don't think it's any coincidence that they now stock all kinds of video games in addition to the video and DVD supplies. Only a few years ago a video shop was just that. The changes may be an attempt to move with the times but I feel it may be a futile effort.

At least with a cinema it is a night out. The video shop doesn’t have that defence and you have the hassle of returning the video. In the past video shops paid £80 for a new release (they may still do?) which allowed them to make a nice profit once it had been hired 50 times or so. However, with brand new DVD’s being available for a quarter of that price how can video suppliers continue to justify that price? I see 2 options, 1 being the video shops getting the videos much cheaper which they will have to pass on to the customers or the cost of DVD’s rising ma
ssively for say the first 2 years of their release.

At the moment we are getting the best of both worlds and the fact the consumer never seems to get a great deal for very long leads me to believe some action will be taken. I hope I am wrong but time will tell.

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