Blockbuster Chief: End DVD Region Codes 729
Xesdeeni writes "Blockbuster's President/COO Nigel Travis has called for the elimination of the DVD region code. At issue is the situation when a movie is released in one country several months before it is released in another. He points out that pirates 'can drive a cart and horses through these holes in the release schedule.'"
Preach it brother (Score:5, Insightful)
I think they just might be.
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's be realistic here, if Blockbuster complains about it, the rest of the rental business is not likely to hold views that are a lot different. And together they certainly have the clout to make region codes go away.
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Interesting)
Blockbuster quarterly filing [yahoo.com].
Also note that the gross margin has jumped quite nicely since converting to a DVD driven rental business. Better product for the customer, at a slightly higher price, with better profits for the company.
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Informative)
Blockbuster only rents DVDs because it became the new standard. Look at Blockbuster's 5 year stock rates. When DVDs hit, Blockbuster tanked, and they were the last major US rental chain to go to DVD in most areas, and they've only risen as they started moving to DVD and improving their rental prices to be more competetive.
Also note that the gross margin has jumped quite nicely since converting to a DVD driven rental business. Better product for the customer, at a slightly higher price, with better profits for the company.
Again, their rental prices (to consumers) have dropped, they moved to DVD after their business started shrinking, and it has shown a huge increase since they moved. Blockbuster was not ahead of the curve here, they just managed to survive.
Adoption of DVD was the fastest new technology adoption in US history. Many businesses were caught off-guard, and many of the movie companies, despite being the driving force behind the move, still haven't gotten a large percentage of their catalog over.
As for DVD region encoding, with several countries already removing it, it's only a matter of time before the US follows, and Blockbuster can only help with that by pointing out what is blatantly obvious to the rest of us. Perhaps Blockbuster sees a chance to regain more of the ground they lost 2-3 years ago (they were losing business before DVDs were released, especially in southern California where Hollywood Video moved in and really started undercutting them with a better selection and longer rentals), but I hope the other big rental outlets follow their lead on this. It may not be good for the movie industry in those places where they inflate prices and use the region code to artificially segment the market, but in the long run it's better for consumers.
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Interesting)
"You don't like our region codes? Fine--noDVDforyou." And that's all she wrote for Blockbuster.
Sure, cut off a major portion of your income out of spite and watch otherwise profitable movies become money losers. I'm sure the MPAA will do that.
Re:Preach it brother (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Preach it brother (Score:4, Informative)
This is a good thing. The MPAA will hear this comment. Whether they listen...who knows.
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Informative)
J
Re:Preach it brother (Score:4, Interesting)
Tiggs
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Insightful)
Blockbuster is the industry [viacom.com].
Re:Preach it brother (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Preach it brother (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Preach it brother (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Informative)
I stopped renting at Blockbuster because of this.
Re:Examples? (Score:4, Informative)
This should be common knowledge; try http://pintday.org/archive/20031007.shtml [pintday.org] for a few links.
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Informative)
Alot of this has to do with Blockbuster's "family" image. They will not rent out NC-17 movies (which is a real bummer, because there have been some excellent movies which happened to carry the NC-17 rating) or anything "too contraversial". Consequently, this is another reason why studios tend to fear NC-17 movies -- the home rental/sales market is lucrative enough for studios to bend to Blockbuster's will.
Re:Preach it brother (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Preach it brother-What's in it for me? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Preach it brother-What's in it for me? (Score:3, Interesting)
So what good is a coded DVD when the players can play them anyway, one way or the other.
Re:Preach it brother-What's in it for me? (Score:5, Insightful)
no, in europe, given the choice, always buy the multiregion player that can play anything. virtually all our machines are multiregion these days.
afaik, the problem with buying plain region 1 players is a) sourcing them and b) they probably only support ntsc, and not pal and secam that much of the rest of the world uses.
dave
Re:Preach it brother-What's in it for me? (Score:5, Interesting)
Finally (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not like the consumers had any say into the design of the DVD spec. The studios have a monopoly (copyright) on pretty much all of the movies made in the past 75 years. If the studios didn't get their way, they could have killed DVDs before they even got started.
Re:Finally (Score:5, Informative)
Ya know, that's funny because the Magnavox DVD player I got last Christmas at BLOCKBUSTER will play DVDs from all regions. Sure, I have to punch a few buttons on the remote first, but it works just fine.
A lot of DVD players, name brand as well as the cheap Chinese imports will play DVDs from all regions if you know how - check the list of region free hacks at this site [dvdrhelp.com] to see if your DVD player can.
Re:Finally (Score:5, Informative)
more info here [dvddemystified.com]
Re:Finally (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Finally (Score:4, Interesting)
Tk
People don't stand for it (Score:5, Informative)
Outside the US, where most consumers watch a mixture of domestic and US produced content, multi-region players are the norm. I think I read that all players in New Zealand are multi-region, and I know for a fact it would be hard to get one here in the UK that isn't.
So it's mainly a problem for Blockbuster: they can't rent out an out-of-region DVD even if 90% of consumers can watch it, because the other 10% will cause them so much trouble.
Re:People don't stand for it (Score:5, Informative)
At least, the bios for my Apex AD1200 came from Australia, fully unlocked.
Re:Finally (Score:4, Interesting)
At least the adult industry (as always) has it right. All pr0n DVDs are region free!
Re:Finally (Score:4, Informative)
The DVD player also supports NTSC and PAL. In the setup screen choose Multisync and give it a few seconds for the video to stop rolling and it will let you play pretty much any disc you put in it. I've played CD-R KVCD, VCD and SVCD in both NTSC and PAL, as well as a non-USA region DVD (an anime disc from a friend, don't remember which one) and all have played with no problems.
It also will accept a CD-R full of JPG files and display them on the screen, which makes it easy to bore your family and friends with all your crappy vacation photos.
Re:Finally (Score:3, Funny)
Maxxx Orbison: What's your name, again?
Sancho: I am Sancho.
Maxxx Orbison: Look, I get a lot of people auditioning all the time. What makes you think that you'd be good enough for porno?
Sancho: I am Sancho.
Maxxx Orbison: Great... but what do you do?
Sancho: What do I do? I am Sancho.
Maxxx Orbison: And...?
Sancho: And there are many Jeffs in the world, and many Toms as well. But I... am Sancho.
Maxxx Orbison: And...?
Sancho: Are you Sancho? No you are not. Neither is Scott Baio Sancho. Frank
Still a problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
What I'd like to see them doing is ending staggered releases worldwide and releasing everywhere on the same day.
Re:Still a problem? (Score:4, Informative)
What country is this? Moldova and Byelorussia do not count as part of "Europe" as the rest of us understand it, really. I don't know what part of "Europe" you've been hanging out in, but this statement is just plain silly.
Since when does Ebay shut down auctions of DVDs? Doing a search for 'DVD' on ebay.com yields about 170,000 results.
Customs searches your bags for narcotics and guns and kiddy porn and such. Do you really believe they have that much free time?
Of course you can buy American DVDs in Europe. The same goes for American games nd American paperbacks--they just cost a bit more if bought retail, and your shipping charges are slightly higher if ordered.
Re:Still a problem? (Score:4, Informative)
But isn't he confusing (Score:5, Insightful)
Now whether having a standard no-code product instead of multiple regional products in the same language saves money for the DVD producers is another story, but he didn't mention that.
Re:But isn't he confusing (Score:3, Interesting)
Far be it from me to defend the DVD producers here, but it depends.. R1 DVDs only need to carry English audio, subtitles and menus while R2 DVDs theoretically have to have English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and usually other languages. The producers will want the R1 disc out ASAP, following up with the R2/other regions as the translations are done. Sure, in some cases those translations will already be mostly complete (for
Re:But isn't he confusing (Score:5, Insightful)
As it stands, region codes are what allow the staggered release dates to work -- sure, the American version is out, but that doesn't do Joe British Consumer any good because the *AVERAGE* DVD consumer doesn't have a region-free DVD player (the average Slashdot poster is apparently another story).
But yes, of course they could release all the regions on the same date (or very close, instead of months apart). But at that point, of course, you have to wonder what's the point of regions at all?
This is really about creating artificially closed (or nearly closed) markets, so a cheaper supply or a lower demand in Country X doesn't affect the price in Country Y. That would be the case regardless of release dates. Piracy is tied to the release date disparities as much as the region codes, but the market for pirated discs would be diminished IF you could just order a legal copy from elsewhere rather than wait for the local release.
Yet another front in the battle over Globalization, I guess. I guess the movie industry has the numbers to justify this scheme as more profitable than worldwide simultaneous releases (or nearly so). I guess they only pull these long delays for movies that do well? If I were them, I'd certainly want crap movies to hit all the markets at about the same time, lest the people in Country Y have a few months to hear from Country X that "Tomb Raider: The Push-Up Bra of Life" defies the laws of physics by managing to suck AND blow, and end up not renting/buying it...
Xentax
Re:But isn't he confusing (Score:5, Insightful)
Either way, regional encoding should go.
Or.... (Score:5, Insightful)
After all, if they simply junked region codes, we'd have Studios complaining about people importing foreign versions of movies for which the hold "exclusive North American rights"
Region coding has to do with control, not markets (Score:5, Interesting)
But why are old movies region encoded ?
Even DVDs of movies from the 60s and 70s are region coded !
Why region encoding in the first place? (Score:5, Interesting)
Can somebody please enlighten me as to the benefits of region encoding? I simply cannot see how the movie industry makes more money by selling to certain people earlier.
Re:Why region encoding in the first place? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why region encoding in the first place? (Score:3, Insightful)
released in Nov 2002 in the UK, it took until late June 2003 for it to find a release in the US. The DVD was released in the UK in May 2003. US distributors will typically wait a long time to gauge how a movie does overseas before they risk it on US audiences.
this happens all the time - more often in reverse too: finding Nemo was on DVD in the US before it wa
Re:Why region encoding in the first place? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why region encoding in the first place? (Score:4, Insightful)
Every studio has a monopoly over its own movie. Yeah-yeah-yeah, theres a degree of substitution-ability between them, but let's just assume we want "The Matrix" and nothing else.
In a common monopoly, the monopolist faces a demand function, relating the price he sets to the ammount he manages to sell. There are a number of techniques economists learn in order to estimate demand functiond, and the Cobb-Douglas General Function Form tends to be the most adequate simple continuous algebraic function for that, but you can use a linear function if you feel like doing some numeric exercises.
So, the profit function of the monopolist is
PROFIT = PRICE * QUANTITY - COST
As we've seen, the quantity the monopolist manages to seel is a function of the price - as is the cost, but we said it'd be constant.
PROFIT (price) = PRICE * QUANTITY(PRICE) - COST (QUANTITY(PRICE))
To simplify the calculus involved, and since there's always one and only one quantity for each price in a common (linear or Cobb-Douglas) demand function, we tend to write price as a function of quantity - that is, the price the monopolist must charge in order to sell a certain quantity. It can be easily done the other way around using the chain rule, but the notation'd get really confusing. So,
profit(quantity) = price (quantity) * quantity - cost (quantity)
By common calculus, profit is at its maximum when
d(profit)/d(quantity) = 0
So, by the product rule,
dp/dq + p - dc/dq = 0
Thus,
dp/dq + p = dc/dq
The dc/dq argument depends on the production structure of the firm and we won't use it here. The central thing here is how sensitive is the quantity purchased to how price changes, or equivalently, how much must one lower the price to sell one more unit.
The form of the p(q) function depends mainly on consumer preferences and their budget restriction. Assuming that preferences for The Matrix (versus alternative uses of the money) are the same all over the world, let's just focus on budget restrictions.
If budget restriction determines the demand function for a specific country, you can as well sum all the q(p) demand functions and get an international qi(p) demand function. You can then invert it to pi(q) form to fit it in our profit-maximizing criterium.
You can easily see that, if you can charge only one price worldwide, the fact that if Argentina is affected by a crisis, and they start buying less DVD's, you face the trade-off between charging less in Argentina (and elsewhere!) and selling less worlwide, or charge the same and sell less in Argentina. The importance of Argentina in the worldwide DVD market will end up determining how much lower your optimal price will go.
So, yes, region encoding puts the producer in an advantage regarding the consumer. It's a market failure, and it happens because of the monopoly.
On the other hand, if you can charge different prices in different countries, you can squeeze Denmark more than Argentina, since they will be willing to pay more for the same product. The extreme case is the third degree monopoly, where the seller can charge a different price for each consumer, and squeeze all their willingness to pay to the end, not facing any trade-off at all.
It's complicated enough there, but add exchange rates deviation from Purchasing Power Parity. In fact, it's how much the current exchange deviates from PPP that (mostly) determines how much international trade is done, and in which direction. In fact, foreign currency traders are the True Illuminati of the early-2000's.
And yes, it makes much more sense to try to regulate DVD coding than to try to regulate currency traders away from pushing exchange rates back to PPP. Ideally, monopoly regulations should make monopolistic firms as if there was no monopoly, that is, as if there was such a large market
Codes are just local monopolies by any other name (Score:5, Insightful)
- Trader A buys DVD in country X for $n
- Trader A sells DVD in country Y for $n+m
Hmmmm. Seems like a nice, free-trade policy that anyone in the Enron Adminstration would support. But codes _try_ to prevent that free trade, saying, hey, you can't sell it over here.
I think the producers of coded DVDs should be sued under WTO rules as prohibiting fair trade.
Re:Codes are just local monopolies by any other na (Score:3, Insightful)
Airline tickets for business travelers cost more because they can afford it. Don't want to stay over? Ticket will cost more. Prescription medication, too. Early adopters? Them, too.
This isn't wrong, per se. It is essential capitialism and does nothing to mitigate free trade.
It's going to be a fight (Score:5, Insightful)
It's never made sense to me just why they make us (The UK) wait so long for movies after their release in the US, when no changes are required (except maybe a couple of censorship issues). All it means is that if the movie is crap, we hear about it well in advance and then don't go and see it.
Nice plan!
Re:It's going to be a fight (Score:3, Interesting)
So what's a good solution for the actual problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Doing additional dubs and subtitling takes time, making simultaneous release worldwide somewhat tricky, unless you plan on delivering a "one size fits all" product, or holding up the release of an essentially finished and ready for Market X product until the product is ready for Markets A-Z. One size fits all product means either limiting content to the most restrictive censorship laws in all the regions you want to distribute in. Holding up the release date until all are ready means movies will lose their currency and timeliness.
Re:So what's a good solution for the actual proble (Score:3, Insightful)
Releasing regional versions as they are ready does not require (or benefit from) lock-out codes. If the initial release kills the market for localized versions, so much the better for the studio.
Doing away with lock-out codes would allow people in "other" markets to use (buy) the initial release if they choose. Currently their only choice is "piracy." Who does that help?
The only thing left standing is price-fixing.
-Peter
Re:So what's a good solution for the actual proble (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems to me that if anything, having multiple worldwide releases for different languages, would be beneficial.
Say a studio makes a worldwide release of a Hollywood movie as soon as the DVD is complete in english. If somebody in China spoke english well enough to get something out of it, they should be able to buy the english version. Then when the studio releases a Chinese version, that person might
Re:So what's a good solution for the actual proble (Score:3, Interesting)
So? In a free market, if the customer demands it, then you'd better figure out a way to do it.
Which, ironically, Hollywood has done. Most of the recent blockbusters did have simultaneous releases in the theaters, and there's no reason why the same can't be done for DVDs.
It ain't technical reasons. The movie studios have at times been very open with the real reason, which usually boil down to timing, i.
I wonder what his motives are.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I regularly buy region 1 DVDs and have them shipped to the UK. I don't believe I am doing anything legally wrong and certainly don't believe it is morally wrong. This gives me a DVD months earlier than I can normally get it locally and its often cheaper as well even taking postage into acount.
Strange how this trade wasn't mentioned in the article at all....
Yarrrrr, Matey! (Score:5, Funny)
What sort of landlubbin pirates be these?
A real pirate sails the high seas on a fine pirate ship. I'd keel haul these donkey driving pirates, then make them walk the plank!
Thanks to the internet (Score:3, Informative)
I'm honestly suprised that when movie companies green-light a project, they don't have the script translated and the sub-titles / voice overs ready for final production.
Matrix III was the first to do this, hopefully not the last.
Region codeing is useless anyway. (Score:4, Insightful)
Most DVD Players now come with region unlock codes or are just plain chipped. The region 1 DVD's are also easily available in the UK (region 2)
All this makes region coding useless.
In the Market for a DVD player (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry for the bother..
Region Coding=Stupid (Score:3, Interesting)
How Ironic (Score:4, Funny)
Just a little insight on BBVs sway. (Score:5, Informative)
Blockbuster pretty much has deals with all the movie companies (profit sharing, things like that) but for a time FOX had refused to sign on with BBV. At the time FOX was just about to release Lake Placid for the rental market BBV had orginally slated the title as a "Guarenteed in Stock" title that means there would have been a ton of this title in the stores for rental and FOX would have cashed in quite nicely.
BBV wanted FOX to sign on like the other companies so they dropped the title from guarenteed status and ended up getting one or two of this title in each store effectively screwing FOX out of millions of dollars in rental revinue.
Needless to say they signed on shortly after.
I could see BBV pulling this off if they play hardball.
Sounds like it wouldn't work on a large scale (Score:3, Insightful)
Seems to me that the method is indeed very effective when you only need to use one movie. However, if Blockbuster is trying to sway the entire movie industry, they'd have to drop the "Guaranteed in Stock" thing with every new release. If customers start getting frustrated becau
DVD Region Free is what you need... (Score:3, Informative)
FREEWARE EQUIVALENT (Score:3, Informative)
Would be great for us multi-region travellers! (Score:4, Insightful)
They lost sales to me because of region codes... (Score:5, Insightful)
Last year I was in London on my Honeymoon. We ened up doing a lot of shopping and hit a few music/video stores. My wife, who had no idea what region codes were, started picking up a few DVDs that are not available in the US. (A couple of them were Eddie Izzard as I recall) She was very disappointed when I told her that these DVDs would not play in the DVD palayers at home without hacking them.
Whoever was distributing those DVDs LOST money since we can't buy them here (I've never seen them on shelves here and I didn't care enough about them to try to find them on Amazon). Really, what kind of business model is it to make it impossible to buy your product? Drop the region codes and they will probabily increase sales and kill a few pirates in the process!
Re:They lost sales to me because of region codes.. (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, don't let that stop her. It didn't stop my wife.
My wife is nuts for the band Roxette, but they don't distribute their music in the States anymore because of how the recording industry in the US screwed them over. So when she heard Roxette was releasing new music videos on DVD, she asked me if she would be able to play European DVDs on our player, and I had to explain to her about the region coding.
One week later, we had a brand new DVD player, region free, auto-detecting PAL/NTSC, fresh from Ebay, and her coveted Roxette DVD a week later.
DVD Region Code silliness (Score:5, Interesting)
So the whole region thing is not supported in some countries. I happen to live in one, a small country called Israel.
The outcome?
1. DVD Players legally sold in an already patched-to-RPC1 (region-free) state.
2. DVD Videotheques holding DVDs from just about every region code out there, 7 and 8 not excluded.
3. The few players that are sold in RPC2 state are sold with written instructions from the supplier on how to patch them to RPC1. In case you can't read, their help line will be happy to instruct you on how it's done.
4. Locally-licensed DVD's of hollywood films carry a region icon (which says region 2). A simple inspection with any ripping software confirms there is no encryption on the DVD.
I'll bet this is ignored by the law of most east-european countries, at least half west-european countries, and I don't even think I need to mention South America and the East.
And that's without mentioning the fact that any 6-year-old with a DVDR, CloneDVD and a certain 3rd party app I won't mention can reproduce a copyrighted DVD in less time than it takes me to write this comment.
So I fully agree with Mr. Blockbuster. The whole region idea was a bad idea which may or may not have initially set piracy back a bit, may or may not have returned the investment and saved a penny or two for the MPAA, and is nothing more than a complete nuisance today in most of the sane world. A little dialog box in CloneDVD or wherever saying "Reproducing this content is illegal in the United States. You are responsible for your actions. Press CANCEL to abort now or OK to continue" - like Roxio's CD Copier gives out for Audio CD's - would save everyone the time and hassle. Everyone INCLUDING the MPAA.
My 2 cents.
While they're at it... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a big step back for usability when the user can no longer control (i.e. use) the product the way they prefer to. With VHS we could skip trailers, copyright notices and assorted other bullshit - with DVDs they ram it down our throats. I mean, is there *anyone* of the millions of DVD owners who *actually* reads the copyright warnings *every single time* they come on? Are we too stupid to be allowed to skip the warnings if we choose, even though we've seen them a hundred times before? Surely it's enough that we can read the warnings if we want to, and that it is clear that we can do so.
The decisions made in the development of the DVD format smack of a cartel, not a collaboration between rivals.
The next step up the trickle-up ladder (Score:5, Interesting)
Almost every complaint I've had in the past 6 months has been addressed pretty quick. But I would not complain if I didn't hear it from my customer base.
Blockbuster is doing the right thing in my opinion, but I doubt many of us here have complained to the retail stores about region encoding. Bitching and moaning at slashdot isn't a very good start. Tell Blockbuster (and Wal*Mart and Target and Borders and Tower) that you hate region encoding. Enough people complaining WILL make a difference!
I've even seen end customers bitch to the distributors and manufacturers to no avail, because most retail customers don't buy direct. I'm the customer of the distributor and they do listen.
The only two codes that make sense (for now) are.. (Score:4, Insightful)
With digital television, there is even the opportunity for consolidation. But do you think that anyone will want to let go their standard ? No way... It's sad to have to go through another VHS/Betamax debacle all over again. Some people/industries will never learn.
You mean, you mean, you mean... (Score:5, Funny)
...copy protection only hurts and inconveniences legitimate users, but not the pirates? Who would've thought!
(Sheesh.)
-Rob
WTO (Score:3, Interesting)
Its a bit silly also when 99%* of DVD drives can take a 4 digit code just to multiregion them up...
Paul
* in my experience... no data dudes.
More important.. (Score:5, Informative)
Where do I buy a DVD player that lets me skip the FBI warning and trailers? I would like to just play the movie I already paid for.
Re:More important.. (Score:4, Informative)
Devil's Advocate Again (Score:3, Interesting)
Only the largest of films, such as The Matrix or Lord of the Rings (or Spiderman 2) will have the ability to be released worldwide into the cinema.
Why is every movie released this way? Well, translations of course. And sometimes some editing, depending on the culture of where a film is being shown. For example, you may see some cuts in the US version that aren't in the british release or vice versa. Or singapore, just to pull one from the air.
The fact is that region coding allows films to be released faster and a universal region code would slow down this process considerably (just imagine the work for all of those extras to be released in their respective languages).
But perhaps that's too narrow. Let's just say we released the english version with no region codes. That's fine for huge films such as the blockbusters mentioned before, but what about smaller films, such as Jersey Girl, Kevin Smith's new picture which will come out in February but will definitely have a delay before it reaches places like Australia. Changes like this could ruin smaller films chances at box office success in other countries.
On the other side of the coin, 28 Days Later was on Region 2 DVD before it was available to be seen in US cinemas. And its good it wasn't a universal region code--the film opened to excellent and stable box office, something that would've never, ever happened if this ridiculous idea was embraced.
Not neccesarily a simultaneous release issue (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally I hate region codes (having friends/relatives in other region really sucks) but DVDs aren't the only thing subjected to the non-level playing field that is the global marketplace.
Don't Stop there.. Keep going. (Score:5, Interesting)
It shouldn't be standard pratice to load a DVD in the player 10 minutes before turning on the TV just so the previews are over. It's very User Unfriendly.
Sombody fix the FF button on those DVD's! 5 seconds in a preview is usualy enough to tell if the movie and preview are something I do or do not want to watch. Forcing an unwanted age inapropiate offensive preview is as welcome as a goatse.cx link in a technical discussion. The previews should not be rated worse than the feature. R, X and XXX previews should not be on G, PG or PG-13 features. Thank goodness the worst I have seen so far is R previews on PG-13 films. But like the seven words you can't say on TV, I don't expect them to keep to the curent high but dropping standards.
That alone has kept me from buying several DVD's I have rented.
Also ditch the crazy attempts at copy protection. I rented Legaly Blonde 2. The FBI warning got stuck in an endless loop on both a standalone DVD player (Classic brand) and a computer.
Anybody else experiance this?
I returned the defective DVD for exchange. I was told 8 others were returned the same day for the same problem and an exchange would not fix the problem. Copy protection is lost revenue. I got a refund as I couldn't view it. It also caused extra overhead for Hollywood Video the handle the consumer complaints. Third, there is no way I would consider buying it later because I already know all copies are broken. I also suspect anything else by the same studio may be plagued by the same ailment so I avoid that studio's work, just as I avoid CD's by those dabbing in audio copy protection. It might work, It might not, but once opened, it's almost impossible to return. Why bother?
A look on the good side is several of the DVD's I have bought lately list right on the cover they are all region! This is limited to old TV programs so far and not movies, but hopefully that day will get here. The down side is due to the music copyright issues the original theme songs are removed. Bummer! A new generation may view these classics and never know about the original theme songs. I guess they don't want people to enjoy the music as it was intended. There are some people out there that do want to sell DVD's and have taken steps to make them user friendly. They even took steps to keep the price reasonable by not paying inflated ASCAP prices so the DVD is reasonably priced. Too bad a reasonable price could not be reached with the music copyright holder to include the theme songs.
FYI the altered DVD's are The Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith Show.
Re:Don't Stop there.. Keep going. (Score:4, Informative)
You sure about that? I know the MOVIE American Wedding was rated R, but the preview? Every preview I've ever seen actually has a little preamble "this preview is rated PG-13" or some such, to avoid precisely the controversy you describe. They basically show only the "kid-appropriate" (whatever that means) material in the preview. It's not like an R-rated movie is 90 minutes of solid sex scenes
Now, if your complaint is that you don't want PG-13 previews for R-rated movies on your PG-13 movies, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.
Even if they don't dump it... (Score:4, Informative)
One example I can think of is that of our player. It didn't take me long at all to find this page [home-cinema.de] which describes, in disgustingly clear detail, how to make it region-switchable AND turn off that nasty Macrovision drenn.
Region encoding was a silly idea from the start. There's just too many ways around it.
Timely (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow, this is timely. I just posted a GrepLaw article [harvard.edu] about the subject of region codes.
Unfortunately, the CEO of Blockbuster was not interested in whether or not region codes were fundamentally evil. He was only concerned with the fact that their implementation caused an increase in piracy and a decrease in his revenues. I like the irony of the fact that a system that the MPAA created to impose unfair pricing has actually benefitted their illicit competitors. Here is hoping the MPAA continues to shoot itself in the foot.
Does region enforcing really work with you? (Score:4, Interesting)
Ain't it the same way there in the States?
Region coding is the SYMPTOM. Cure the disease! (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem isn't that the DVD's are region coded. The problem is that the DVD players are intentionally crippled not to be able to play out-of-region disks. But even that is merely a symptom. All manufacturers WANT to produce all-region players - they'd sell better. The DISEASE is stupid LAWS that force manufacturers to produce crippled products. The disease is laws like the DMCA and EUCD.
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Re:is there anyone out there... (Score:3, Informative)
der Joachim
Re:is there anyone out there... (Score:4, Insightful)
The other part of this is that one would hope it could turn into a consumer digital rights stand where consumers demand to be able to do whatever they like with what they buy, but I doubt that will happen. Personally, I'm perfectly fine with them producing dvds that can't have previews skipped, that are region encoded, etc, but I do NOT think that law should require dvd player manufacturers to adhear to your will.
Re:is there anyone out there... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, there you have it -- region coding is an unpatriotic scheme cooked up by people who are on the side of the terrorists!
Re:is there anyone out there... (Score:5, Interesting)
me: do you sell multi-zone DVD players?
guy: no Sir, they're illegal in this country. (U.S.)
me: well, I'm surprised, some companies sell them on their website
guy: well, you can buy illegal drugs on the internet, Sir.
me: but they're companies in the U.S., one website said the company was based in Illinois.
guy: Even if it was legal, we wouldn't sell them. It hurts our economy. The movie people in Hollywood need that system to protect our movies.
me: protect them from what?
guy: piracy
me: but I'm trying to watch zone 2 movies that I legally purchased in Europe recently.
guy: I don't know about that...
And then I walked out. This is still the perception out there.
May be if Blockbuster calls for change it'll make a difference.
Re:is there anyone out there... (Score:3, Informative)
me: do you sell multi-zone DVD players?
guy: no Sir, they're illegal in this country. (U.S.) but if you were to ask the manufacturer or look on the web, you'll find that you can switch region by pressing the open and 1 keys at the same time. wink. wink.
I doubt if anyone buys region-coded players in the UK anymore.
Re:is there anyone out there... (Score:5, Funny)
Then that stuffy looking Hi-Fi salesman would have riped off his button down shirt and tie and revealed his cape and BSD insignia lycra tights.
He would have then led you to the revolving fireplace-secret entrance, that leads to the basement where where all the Christman elves work fastidiously on multi-zone DVD playes of all types. That run Linux! That have big stickers that say "No way in hell even remoteley do these players have anythig to do with Microsoft!"
Or maybe he would have just said "Slash-who?"
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Yes, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
There ends my rant for the day.
Re:is there anyone out there... (Score:3, Interesting)
2) I think playback is locked in the firmware of the drive. You would be able to
Re:Well, obviously.......... (Score:3, Informative)
If you said "Pakistan" or "China" or "Thailand" or "India" that would be more in context.
Re:but what about... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, you can't stop the people who are actually pirates with lawsuits. The pirates that "drive carts and horses" through the holes in these ridiculous release schedules are the kind that are really pirates. That is, they're really criminals. With guns. Like organized crime.
The MPAA/RIAA has done a good job of brainwashing willfully ignorant people into thinking that "pirate" means some harmless 15 year old kid with pimples that's downloading all the latest releases for their own use. They're not pirates, they're just punks with no money. Pirates really cause problems. There really are pirates and they really are selling bootlegs and they really can be dangerous criminals. They're the ones that are actually pressing illegal copies of games, music, and DVDs and selling them for huge profits. It's like a whole business model and it takes coordinated law-enforcement efforts to bust the operations.
I've always wondered when someone of consequence would wake up and point out that DVD region encoding is a HUGE catalyst for overseas piracy. If they run a profiteering racket by not releasing a DVD for months (or ever) in certain countries (so as to prevent market saturation and allow them to, effectively, sell 5 or 6 "different" copies of the same, often unchanged, movie over a period of years, each at a full price because you have to buy your own special regionalized version) it's just a huge enabler for people who want to sell bootlegs.
Think about it. If the movie has been out for three months in Japan and is selling used for 1/3 of the original price, why should I have to wait for them to release it in the U.S. and have to pay full price only because it's "region encoded". It's a scam, plain and simple, and the pirates are having a field day with it.
Re:Has anyone come across a region 8 dvd? (Score:5, Funny)
Guantanamo Bay. There are actually only two physical Region 8 DVDs in existence; they're a copy of "Gigli" which is shown to "enemy combatants" to break down their willpower, and one of "Ishtar", which they get to watch as a reward for spilling the beans.
Re:R-Free DVD players in europe with video convert (Score:4, Insightful)
Far from it, many DVD players in europe (and around the world) are either multi-region out of the box or easily set to multi region by entering 'secret codes' into special hidden areas of the machine's set up menu. For the rest that aren't easily switched (which are oddly the more expensive 'branded' models), there are companies that can modify them to be region free.
I think region coding really only restricts Americans, the rest of the planet happily carries on with little if any notice of region coding at all.
Tk