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International Shock to release ORDINARY PEOPLE on Blu in Australia... (1 Viewer)

Dick

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I wrote to EZY in Australia, who have a sort of tenuous-looking pre-order link for ORDINARY PEOPLE, just to confirm it was true. Here was the reply:


Hi Rick,


Thank you for your email, yes that is correct Ordinary People is due for release in May by supplier Shock here in Australia.


Rick sorry but we don't actually ship outside of Australia and New Zealand so would be unable to ship to the US.


Very sorry we are unable to assist you.


Regards


Ezy DVD

Customer Service


I have now written to Shock and am asking if they will ship to the U.S. I will let you know the response, when and if I receive one. Obviously we are all hoping these Paramounts will be coming from someone in The States also, but for now, this at least indicates that the studio is easing up on its icy grip of classic catalog titles, which of course includes the titles coming from Imprint, such as WAR OF THE WORLDS..
 

RMajidi

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Presumably any Australian Blu-ray disc will be stocked by JB Hi-Fi who do ship abroad.

Yes, absolutely.

If it turns out that Shock can’t ship directly to the US, it would be analogous to the situation with Kino discs. Kino can’t sell their own product to Australian buyers, but the likes of Amazon, Deep Discount etc. can.

While I’m glad that the big retailers open a purchasing channel for a product line that would otherwise be inaccessible, it’s a puzzling one for me, as the labels lose out on direct overseas sales, while the big retailers cash in. If it is driven by contractual agreement by the licensor, it seems redundant, as region-locking is the main thing that will have actual effect.

Cross-territorial distribution doesn’t stop, it simply shifts from the boutique label that does all the hard work and takes the financial risk, to the big retailers who are free to cross the geographical boundaries without restriction.

A case of denying the obvious child in Paul Simon parlance.
 

David Weicker

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I suppose it depends on how much the label
receives from the customer vs. how much they receive from the retailer. And factoring in the cost and hassle of dealing with international shipping including Customs fees.
 

RMajidi

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I suppose it depends on how much the label
receives from the customer vs. how much they receive from the retailer. And factoring in the cost and hassle of dealing with international shipping including Customs fees.

If that choice is made by the label itself rather than the licensor, then fair enough. However, in past discussions on this issue, members indicated that, insofar as Kino is concerned, the restriction was imposed by licensing contract.
 

David Norman

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Shock is a fairly large label in AUS very much like Shout, Kino, etc and as far as I'm aware all their items have generally been available through multiple retailers - JB as mentioned, but also Sanity which often has better deals and faster shipping, Fishpond, and a few other smaller retailers.

It's actually reasonably common that Deep Discount and a few other retailers who sell through Alliance Entertainment have AUS discs for sale though stock is hit/miss

EZY hasn;t shipped to the US/Internationally in several years. I'm not aware that EZY is an exclusive seller for any label (like SAE/TT is for TT discs)
 

David Norman

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Paramount sourced -- a good chance, but no way to be sure until May or if someone gets a review copy a couple weeks ahead.

About 2/3 to 3/4 of Shock releases that have been tested/reported at various sites are A friendly though most Shock don't seem to have been reported.
 

JohnRice

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It's available to purchase for streaming on iTunes (and probably others) in HD. That's what I resorted to doing when it was on sale for $5.

I'm sure I bought DVDs from EzyDVD several years ago. I guess they stopped shipping internationally.

EDIT: I bought from them in 2006.
 

Dick

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I think this shipping issue has to do with retails and suppliers cutting back to make way for priosity items in the wake of the pandemic.
 

Garysb

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I think this shipping issue has to do with retails and suppliers cutting back to make way for priosity items in the wake of the pandemic.
Amazon is the only site I am aware of that has stopped shipping internationally due to pandemic. For example Amazon UK won't ship media to the USA. Of course so few planes are currently flying that if something is sent internationally it will most likely take a while to be received. I am sure I will be corrected if I am mistaken.
 

David Norman

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Amazon is the only site I am aware of that has stopped shipping internationally due to pandemic. For example Amazon UK won't ship media to the USA. Of course so few planes are currently flying that if something is sent internationally it will most likely take a while to be received. I am sure I will be corrected if I am mistaken.

As a retailer Amazon may be the only one that has gone as far.

Others have it thrust upon them -- AUS Post has basically shut down most Economy Air package service which is what JB and Sanity use so while they can still take orders and say they are shipping product internationally, it's not really true unless they use far more expensive alternatives or Ship by Sea service whose transit time is measured in month, not days or weeks.

JB site doesn't say they aren't taking orders, but I haven't been able to get an order past the address screen in weeks (others have said the same). It seems the system just will not allow an order to get to Submit stage once you insert US as the shipping destination
 

David Norman

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A bit of good news -- at least one US customer who put a preorder in at Sanity for this a few weeks ago says he got a shipping notice.

Normally my packages from them have averaged 7-8 days, so it will be interesting to see how long this one takes.
 

battlebeast

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A bit of good news -- at least one US customer who put a preorder in at Sanity for this a few weeks ago says he got a shipping notice.

Normally my packages from them have averaged 7-8 days, so it will be interesting to see how long this one takes.

I tried to order from the JD Hi-fi, as they have it in stock, but they kept saying my phone number was invali. no matter what i choose, INVALID. If I plugged in an Australian number... INVALID. so I couldn't order from them :emoji_shrug:

I DID order it from Sanity, but it's on back order, so we shall see how long it takes to arrive...
 

David Norman

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I tried to order from the JD Hi-fi, as they have it in stock, but they kept saying my phone number was invali. no matter what i choose, INVALID. If I plugged in an Australian number... INVALID. so I couldn't order from them :emoji_shrug:

I DID order it from Sanity, but it's on back order, so we shall see how long it takes to arrive...

That's been one of the issues with JB over the last few weeks. I finally have been able to get through the system in a roundabout method an even get to the final check out screen, but it's takes entering a AUS Mobile Phone number with a bit of trial/error (leave it at +61 Mobile then start 04 xxxx xxxx or actually 04xx xxx xxx), then I was finally able to enter an address and choose a shipping method with an active Proceed to Payment button

Honestly I'm not sure at that point the order would even be accepted. At this point it's marginally cheaper and I'd think safer just to stay with Sanity and wait for a restock

At the shipping I also got this message
"Australia Post Mail Arrives on or before Tuesday 4th August via untracked Australia Post Mail. "
 
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David Norman

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A bit of bad news: 1st quickie review from AUS wasn't kind. Best summary I can give was that it appeared to be a very old master with less than stellar results with increased noise and ??banding.

If anyone has a digital or streaming access - how does that look? The poster was going by memory said it looked very similar to what he remembered from an underwhelming Digital version.

If so it could explain why it's so cheap for a new release if it's just a recycled version from many years ago. It sounds much like the reviews from teh DVD and possibly they just repurposed the basic work they did in 2000
 
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battlebeast

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A bit of bad news: 1st quickie review from AUS wasn't kind. Best summary I can give was that it appeared to be a very old master with less than stellar results with increased noise and ??banding.

If anyone has a digital or streaming access - how does that look? The poster was going by memory said it looked very similar to what he remembered from and underwhelming Digital version.

If so it could explain why it's so cheap for a new release if it's just a recycled version from many years ago. It sounds much like the reviews from teh DVD and possibly they just repurposed the basic work they did in 2000
Well that stinks.
 

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