Comments on: Download Your DVDs

By: brandymaye

brandymaye — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:55:06 +0000

I have yet to join on the digital band wagon. I love my extra features. Especially if I have seen the film in the theatre. I like to see why they picked this actress or this actor. I love to see the deleted scenes or the bloopers. I too am a collector. I like japanese horror, and foreign horror. At times not only are their films very different but the way they market their films are too. I like that Disney re releases the dvd's and adds things I've never seen before. Or just having in your possession a great work of art. I work on computers all day. They have their ups and downs and the last thing I want to do is rely on my movies being stored on anybody's hard drive. It goes back to somebody telling me last week that we should watch tv from our computers all the time. I started laughing. Its nothing wrong with that. But not everybody have a computer attached to their hip. Please. Before you know it anything that once exist will never be anymore. EVER!! It will just be a lost art/form. I love mother earth. Its our only one. Make things more affordable, take the plastic down a notch. And I'll still buy me a dvd or bluray Collectors Edition!!

By: brandymaye

brandymaye — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:55:06 +0000

By: lostinryan

lostinryan — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:48:11 +0000

Thank you for the reply and I'm completely for a multiple format concept. The only problem there is when you look at how cost effective it would be. If like you said “the vast majority of movies we watch fall into the other category – the single play type.” it makes it harder for a studio to want to invest in a hard medium as the majority of their films are viewed digitally. In the end it's all about how they can make money.
Though I do admit that the indie film industry is far ahead of the game, it is the smaller film that will never see a theater quality home release, it's just not cost effective to produce a solid state format for a film that only a few people will buy, Classic Wes Anderson films being an example.
In the end it all comes down to what is cheaper and selling, and a digital format would be the most “Green” and the studios are all for that right now, but if the money was still in solid state then I'm sure they wouldn't mind adding to the global plastic count.

By: Luci Temple

Luci Temple — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:02:23 +0000

Hi Ryan,

I don't think anyone is suggesting to get rid of dvd and blueray options - it's about multiple distribution options. All of us have some movies that we cherish and want in high quality, hard copy, with the trimmings of covers, booklets, extras....

However, the vast majority of movies we watch fall into the other category - the single play type.

Not only do many of us have no desire to waste money on the extra cost of purchasing a hard copy (when a single play digital version would suffice), 'hard copies' as a standard leads to huge negative impact on the environment.

In a day when we are trying to recycle, purchase local, cut down on our carbon footprint, I shudder to think of all those plastic covers, wrapping, dvds, and transport fumes adding to the problem. What do people do when they get sick of a dvd, or it gets scratched beyond use? And what about the copies that don't sell? In the book industry, they pulp non-moving stock, I have no idea what they do when they get stuck with half a million unsold dvds, but I doubt it's any better.

We all want the option to purchase a high quality hard copy of our favourites, but it's irresponsible to keep this the mainstay of mainstream home entertainment.

*** By the way, the extras can also be delivered digitally, and in fact many indie filmmakers are getting ahead of the game by releasing this material online for free before the feature is finished.