Would Killing DVD Improve Blu-ray and 4K UHD’s Fortunes? (1 Viewer)

[jcroy]

To the people who think that Blu-ray and 4K are a scam and are being forced down their throats ...

This sounds like a very strange perception. Especially with $5 bluray dump bins flooding discount retailers over the past decade.

... killing DVD would not make them transition to the other formats. They'll drop out of buying movies altogether.

Basically going straight to streaming type services, or going back to attending the local cinema with a dozen screens.

 

[jcroy]

I see some resentment now towards 4K UHD when people exclaim: I'm not buying all the movies I already own again. That's a legitimate reasoning.

My big reason for not jumping onto the 4Kbluray treadmill (yet), is that there isn't any titles of interest to me. (Same reason why I never got into dvd-audio, sacd, bluray-audio, etc ...).

If some generic sci-fi or action movie ends up only being watched once or twice, then I mind as well just wait for the movie to show up on generic broadcast tv networks or basic cable channels. For example, I ended up watching the past three Star Wars movies first on a network tv broadcast. Also many fantasy and superhero movies over the past decade, I first watched them on network tv broadcasts.

 

[jcroy]

... then phase out the manufacturing of DVD only players as fast as possible and increase the number of costumers buying BDs.

This will be almost impossible to pull off, with almost all of the dvd player patents already expired.

Most of the remaining unexpired dvd patents, are related to burning dvdr discs.

 

[Guardyan]

This will be almost impossible to pull off, with almost all of the dvd player patents already expired.

Most of the remaining unexpired dvd patents, are related to burning dvdr discs.

At this point, who cares really... this shoulda been done more than a decade ago. Now it doesn't matter as I think people don't even buy DVD players anymore.

 

[jcroy]

At this point, who cares really... this shoulda been done more than a decade ago. Now it doesn't matter as I think people don't even buy DVD players anymore.

A decade ago, patent law in principle could have been used to abruptly kill dvd by having it tied up in the legal system. Today that avenue doesn't really exist anymore.

 

[Guardyan]

A decade ago, patent law in principle could have been used to abruptly kill dvd by having it tied up in the legal system. Today that avenue doesn't really exist anymore.

As I've said "more than a decade ago" and I didn't suggest any legal mesures.

 

[jcroy]

As I've said "more than a decade ago" and I didn't suggest any legal mesures.

With all that being said, one big reason why dvd wasn't killed off deliberately was that the patent holders didn't want to end the easy cash flow from dvd patent royalties. Apparently there were hardly any movie companies which owned any actual crucial patents for dvd or bluray for that matter. It is mostly hardware companies which owned the patents (ie. Hitachi, Panasonic, JVC / Kenwood, Toshiba, etc ...)

So even if the movie studios wanted to kill dvd deliberately back in the 2000s decade, they had no leverage other than perhaps copyright law. The only dvd patent holder which actually owned movie studio assets, was Sony. Though the question is whether the Sony movie studio division heads had any intracompany "political leverage" over the hardware division(s) and/or legal department.

 

[jcroy]

Going back further in time, it was like trying to "herd cats together" to convince the movie studios to be on board with dvd back in the early->mid 1990s. It took a lot of lobbying and intercompany "political capital" by then-Warner executive Warren Lieberfarb to convince the other movie studios to be on board with dvd.

Starting a Revolution: A Candid Conversation With Warren Lieberfarb, the 'Father of DVD' - Media Play News

The digital revolution in home entertainment may never have happened had it not been for Warren Lieberfarb, whose vision of movies on disc ultimately led to the creation of the … Continue reading "Starting a Revolution: A Candid Conversation With Warren Lieberfarb, the ‘Father of DVD’"

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Warren Lieberfarb - Wikipedia

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Attempting to convince all the big movie studios to completely boycott dvd in the mid->late 2000s, would have likely been a similar exercise in "herding cats".

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is straying off course again. Please get back to the subject matter at hand.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

“I don’t want to rebuy all my movies” isn’t a legitimate reason not to adopt a newer format. Nobody is asking anyone to rebuy any movies, all 4k players will still play even the oldest DVDs so you can continue to watch those if you think they still look good enough. The issue is that it’s really pointless to put any recent movie out on DVD now that better formats are available.

I have EVERY past format still hooked up and ready to use, including laserdisc, VHS, Beta and CED. I will never get rid of the equipment or movies I have on these old formats, but I would never buy a movie from this year on any of them as fun as that might be.

 

[DarkVader]

The average consumer couldn't care less about 4K or even Blu-ray. The majority will go ahead and purchase the DVD - they just want to see the film, they have no interest in being able to see every single sequin sown into one of Lana Turner's gowns or every single blade of grass in a John Wayne western. Options should always be made available to the consumer.

 

[jcroy]

“I don’t want to rebuy all my movies” isn’t a legitimate reason not to adopt a newer format. Nobody is asking anyone to rebuy any movies, all 4k players will still play even the oldest DVDs so you can continue to watch those if you think they still look good enough.

It's probably not legitimate, in the sense that it is an excuse for pure laziness and apathy. Likely Joe Sixpack would rather spend that cash on more beer kegs and weed.

The issue is that it’s really pointless to put any recent movie out on DVD now that better formats are available.

This will likely happen once Wallyworld, target, BB, hmv, biglots, etc ... ALL stop carrying ANY movie discs regardless of the format.

I have EVERY past format still hooked up and ready to use, including laserdisc, VHS, Beta and CED. I will never get rid of the equipment or movies I have on these old formats, but I would never buy a movie from this year on any of them as fun as that might be.

Only an extreme hardcore geeky/nerdy/tech type person would be doing this.

Will Joe Sixpack or "Jane Q Public" be doing something like this ^ ???

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Many “average consumers” were happy with VHS and would still be buying that if it were made. I worked for Tower during VHS’s last years and had many people ask for new titles on VHS and then say they had hundreds of tapes and weren’t going to switch to another format. (And again, nobody was saying they couldn’t still watch those tapes.)

With stores cutting back on media in general, they shouldn’t be wasting that decreasing space on obsolete DVDs. Some might grumble but most would just buy Blu-rays, some might switch to streaming instead but even THAT looks better than DVD, all “ownership issues” and whatnot aside.

 

[jcroy]

With stores cutting back on media in general, they shouldn’t be wasting that decreasing space on obsolete DVDs. Some might grumble but most would just buy Blu-rays, some might switch to streaming instead but even THAT looks better than DVD, all “ownership issues” and whatnot aside.

In practice, this is false.

That previous shelf space vacated by dvds, has now been replaced with cell phones and cell phone accessories !

 

[jcroy]

More generally, the movie studios likely suspect that replacing dvds with blurays/4Kblurays at walmart will not be a simple "zero sum game" replacement scenario.

More likely it will resemble a "negative sum game" of a lose-lose scenario, where the previous dvd customers will not buy movie discs of any type anymore.

 

[Malcolm R]

Walmart already has the option to stock 4K/Bluray, and usually choose to only offer DVD's other than for new releases. Likely because DVD's sell the most copies in their stores.

DVD is still the biggest selling physical format. If they stop producing DVD, they'll simply cut the disc media market in half. I don't believe many of those DVD buyers would suddenly switch to blu-ray/4K.

The studios would be more likely to discontinue blu-ray or 4K, as it sells less than DVD. They already don't bother with 4K releases on some titles that come out on DVD/Blu.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Generally, the vast majority of people don't really like change, but prefer the comfort of the familiar... although most probably can be won over if the benefits are great and obvious enough. That's at least partly why/how DVD took over the market, but also explains why BD didn't quite so.

Heck! I initially resisted upgrading to an HD format too... but did make the jump (just for BD) toward the end of the HD format war... and am now I straddling between BD and 4K (and probably never buying another DVD)...

More generally, the movie studios likely suspect that replacing dvds with blurays/4Kblurays at walmart will not be a simple "zero sum game" replacement scenario.

More likely it will resemble a "negative sum game" of a lose-lose scenario, where the previous dvd customers will not buy movie discs of any type anymore.

That could certainly be... especially given how forcing change (even for what should definitely be better) on people can get at least some of them very angry about that...

_Man_

 

[jcroy]

DVD is still the biggest selling physical format. If they stop producing DVD, they'll simply cut the disc media market in half. I don't believe many of those DVD buyers would suddenly switch to blu-ray/4K.

It could be even worse than a half.

 

[jcroy]

That could certainly be... especially given how forcing change (even for what should definitely be better) on people can get at least some of them very angry about that...

A hardcore nerdy/geeky/tech type could get very angry about it.

A non-geek/non-nerd type might not get angry, and just move on to a streaming service. (ie. No more impulse buys of movies on dvd).

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I find that hard to believe, though I also find it hard to believe that DVDs still sell the most but apparently that’s true. It really seems most people are clueless and will just buy whatever is put in front of them. If they were to simply discontinue DVD-only players and push the better formats more, I doubt many people would complain. It’s likely there’s people who don’t even know the difference and can play Blu-rays but just buy the DVD because that’s what the store puts out.

Blu-ray has been around for SEVENTEEN YEARS now anyways, it’s hardly a new format anymore. Three more years and it will have been around for as long as VHS was at the time DVD first came out.

Besides wouldn’t it be a lot less work for the studios if they didn’t have to produce DVDs of new titles anymore? At this point we have THREE levels of quality for most movies and at a time when general media sales are declining. Why not just focus on the one that provides the best experience? (Interestingly I’ve heard that Vinegar Syndrome, which mainly caters to the enthusiasts rather than the Walmart crowd, has stopped putting out DVDs and their existing titles will be going out of print.)