Moderator: MichaelB
Something tells me, that this is a 1984-like lie, i.e. increasing the price and saying you cut the price:BFI to launch DVD and Blu-ray ‘Dual Format Editions’
Not only does the price mean that the BFI's quality Blu-rays are instantly more affordable,
Some consumers wont buy because of the dual format.
No, you're being cynical. Being critical would require evidence-backed argument, which has been in distinctly short supply thus far.Mozart wrote:MichaelB, I am just being critical here.
Disney has been releasing dual-format Blu-ray and DVD editions for some time - I personally own Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Pinocchio, Up, and most recently Ponyo: I'm not privy to their figures, but I'm assuming that their most recent releases wouldn't have been dual-format if the earlier ones hadn't been successful. Sony's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is also dual-format, presumably because they think the idea worked well enough for Disney. Perhaps you could come up with a concrete counter-example?The thing is: bundling of 2 different media has never worked as far as I know.
I think that's extraordinarily unlikely, given that the RRP for a DVD plus Blu-ray is exactly the same as the RRP for the DVD edition. Can you seriously imagine someone saying "Well, I was going to buy the single-format version for £19.99, but now that they've thrown in another disc for no extra cost I think I'll give it a miss"? Especially if the film in question isn't available anywhere else in either format - as is often the case with BFI releases?Some consumers wont buy because of the dual format.
I imagine my colleagues will be touched by your concern, but they presumably did all the relevant number-crunching before making this announcement. And it's not really anyone else's problem.BFI will sell more units due to the lower price, but will lose units due to no double dip.
I think you are making the mistake of assuming that the purchasing household has one set-up to view movies and it's BD-capable. I suspect that many households with children have the capability to view movies in more than one location simply because the tastes of adults and children tend to diverge. There are also quite a few people that view movies on their laptop, particularly when traveling. I'll wager very few of those laptops have Blu-ray capability.Mozart wrote:The mere price is not decisive for consumers in a market psycological view, but the perception of the product: consumers "feel" they have to pay for something (half of the whole product) they dont use.
What? When did MoC ever say that they were doing a BFI-like dual with this title?Mozart wrote:counter-examples:
- MoC Sunrise bundle which has not seen the light of the day
I have hundreds and hundreds of discs that I've never watched and will never watch, either because they're in a foreign language (i.e. extras discs on releases where only the main feature has English subtitles) or because I was only interested in the main feature. This has never been of the slightest concern to me.Mozart wrote:The mere price is not decisive for consumers in a market psycological view, but the perception of the product: consumers "feel" they have to pay for something (half of the whole product) they dont use.
So your counter-examples consist of a format that flopped in the marketplace regardless of how it was packaged, and something that, even if it was ever mooted (and I'm not at all sure about this) was certainly never released? You'll forgive me for not being especially swayed by these.counter-examples:
- numerous HD/DVD tries on the german market (e.g. Kinowelt, Capelight, ...)
- MoC Sunrise bundle which has not seen the light of the day
That's me in a nutshell. My Blu-ray viewing time is very limited indeed, for various domestic reasons - whereas I can watch DVDs more or less whenever I like, and often on my daily commute. Much though I love having the option of watching the Blu-ray, there's very little question that DVDs are far more convenient - and once I've watched the Blu-ray once, the chances are that it'll be the DVD that I turn to for reference.triodelover wrote:I think you are making the mistake of assuming that the purchasing household has one set-up to view movies and it's BD-capable. I suspect that many households with children have the capability to view movies in more than one location simply because the tastes of adults and children tend to diverge. There are also quite a few people that view movies on their laptop, particularly when traveling. I'll wager very few of those laptops have Blu-ray capability.
We are (unfortunately) not the median...MichaelB wrote:This has never been of the slightest concern to me.
My mother-in-law's tastes are as mainstream as they come, and I'm willing to bet that she also has dozens if not hundreds of DVDs that she's never watched and will never watch.Mozart wrote:We are (unfortunately) not the median...
It's still a few days short of this month's Criterion announcements and people are running out of things to squabble about is my guess. I can't believe anybody's finding a downside to this either.peerpee wrote:Anybody moaning about this initiative is a troll or an idiot.
Are these kind of childish insults really necessary?peerpee wrote: Anybody moaning about this initiative is a troll or an idiot.
Couldn't care less about your faux-disdain about my language. What's your point about BFI's dual-format initiative?godardslave wrote:Or maybe you would prefer a forum where all the members posted opinions that only agreed with yours?
If you're going to go the polite route, I think the softest you could phrase this is "someone with a wrong opinion."godardslave wrote:I think the words you are looking for are "someone with a different opinion to mine" not "troll or idiot".
By encoding it in such a way that both fit. Which isn't that much of a challenge with Ozu's films, given his slow-moving, undemonstrative brand of cinema.Mozart wrote:How is BFI able to put both the main feature and the bonus film on 1 DVD?
Well, in some cases, the Blu-ray and DVD will indeed have identical content (HD/SD distinction aside), but in others there'll be differences. For instance, the DVD of Institute Benjamenta has one additional extra not present on the Blu-ray, simply because the old production featurette (as featured on the long-OOP Kino DVD) looked absolutely hideous when upscaled - the on-set footage was originally shot on a cheap camcorder. I think BFI policy is to make all Blu-ray content 1080p only, to maximise compatibility - since many non-European players have difficulty with PAL-sourced SD material.perkizitore wrote:Actually, the DVD is not 'spare' because it has exclusive extra features.
This needed to be said.peerpee wrote: Anybody moaning about this initiative is a troll or an idiot.