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"Why are DVD's so expensive....."

Sorry if this question has already been asked and answered but why are they so expensive? I've seen some Dvd's that are about £25 and up. I know the quality is better than a video and you do get a few extras but does that really give then the right to slap another £10 onto the price?
Is the manufcaturing process more expensive than making a video? For some reaon i doubt it but i don't know anything about Dvd's so it could be.
If anybody could enlighten me i would be very greatful.

Darkreaper

Ain`t gonna happen is it!!!!

Cheap is not a word big companies like. Why settle for a universal format (a mistake they proberly regret with VHS and music cd) when you can split the world into reigon codes and let the public get confused and outraged by releasing disks with minimal extras at higher cost!!.

And why do you, Mr Shanks, enjoy disecting my replies??? it`s a hobby right???

I don`t see you do it to anyone else... oh well, suppose it keeps you happy!

As it happens i think the gap between quality of R1 & R2 disks is closing. We`ve seen some excellent releases over here like MEN IN BLACK, INDEPENDENCE DAY, GHOSTBUSTERS, GLADIATOR and THE MUMMY - all crammed chock full with extras and certainly on a par with anything in the US.

I also think that as such, multi-reigon players will become a non-item, as the increase of quality UK R2 disks will improve further still as demand increases in this market.

The only thing i wish the main companies would agree upon is the fact that the technology exists to record onto DVD disks and that DVD recorders should be more freely available. However they seem to wish to keep this secret for a little longer.

BORGDRONE wrote:

Surely then the argument against that would be
> to lower the price of DVD to make MORE popular???
I don`t doubt
> that given time the prices will come down, the question is why were
> they so high in the first place...?

I dont think they are going to come down all that much...

New vids tend to cost 14-15 pounds... with many new DVD's at 17... They may meet in the middle 15-16... but I suspect that they will stick at around 16pounds for a standard DVD release... with inflation and everything else moving up around that...

We are still a year or two away before DVD comes anywhere near being the standard format.


As for R2 and R1 disk
> extra`s, we are at last starting to see quite a few R2 disks with
> the same or more extras than R1. The simple reason being it was
> becoming noticable that people are purchasing DVD to aquire these
> extras from a collectors point of view, thus the industry is gearing
> towards this with just a few exceptions.

But why not just do a direct copy of the US DVD's from the start... just change the region code from 1 to 2? ... Quick, easy and cheap?

Mewtwo wrote:
> One of the main Reasons DVD's are more expensive is that they are
> currently not as popular as VHS. Remember the extortionate amount
> charged for CD's compared to MC's or even CDR's. Early CDR's were
> selling for £5 per disk, now you can get them for 25p. Just
> give it time DVD's over the next few years will come down in price
> to a similar level to VHS but will probably always remain generally
> that little bit more expensive.


Surely then the argument against that would be to lower the price of DVD to make MORE popular???
I don`t doubt that given time the prices will come down, the question is why were they so high in the first place...?

As for R2 and R1 disk extra`s, we are at last starting to see quite a few R2 disks with the same or more extras than R1. The simple reason being it was becoming noticable that people are purchasing DVD to aquire these extras from a collectors point of view, thus the industry is gearing towards this with just a few exceptions.

I could go on to make comparisons with the car industry, but i think you all get my point...

One of the main Reasons DVD's are more expensive is that they are currently not as popular as VHS. Remember the extortionate amount charged for CD's compared to MC's or even CDR's. Early CDR's were selling for £5 per disk, now you can get them for 25p. Just give it time DVD's over the next few years will come down in price to a similar level to VHS but will probably always remain generally that little bit more expensive.

Thge annoying part is that...
Doh i have a multi region so it makes no difference to me!!
any way the annoying part is that theyre cheaper over there and when features are cut over here nothing extra is added to fill the void.

Britain is a third world country

It does confuse me quite often...

(actuallyt his is true of most things but)

Often, when they release a DVD over here, it contains fewer features and extras than in the US..

Now, some of these, such as music tracks, etc... may be owned by different companies, subjected to different agreements in Europe and the UK than inthe US...

But on the whole, I would have thought it would have been cheaper to just directly copy the US version, with just a reigon change?

If nothing else, they would save money on the costs of paying someone to decide what you cut, and how to lower the quality of the vid...

It would make them money (from people who would otherwise purchase direct from the US)

and on the whole, be so much easier for them (just having to change the region code) and better for us (getting all the good stuff)

???

Dvds are exspensive at the mo cos they are seen as a luxury
with a low price elasticity i should imagine and a high income elasticity. This means that the economys doing good so they can charge higher prices and people will pay them and they same in that dvds are percieved as a luxury and your willing to pay more for something like that i.e coca-cola over a crappy own brand name.
WHat you mentioned about not enough of them being sold is also probably correct. The less being made, the more costly each item is to make (economies of scale)which means that this has to be passed on to the consumer until demand increases to a point where factorys etc can use there full uotput levels thus lowering variable costs per item.

What i want to say is the way in which there is this growing trend to call dvds special or ultimate edition even though what your getting is basically pants.
Still images, actor biographies and sometimes director interviews etc.
Where is more deleted footage FAR more multi camera angles for different shots. and basically special features for the special edition?
What will the future bring

I dunno really... But, I'd guess...

Partly because they can :) ... Distributors are currently starting the hike the price of PC games up... They may be trying the up the price of movies under the DVD thing... although in the long term I think it'll settle around 15 quid.

and partley because not so many people have DVD players yet in comparison to Videos... The number of videos sold outstrips DVDs enourmously... so the mass production, with the estimated sales, making it work out cheap to manufacture/distribute/etc Vids than DVD's...

Just guessing though... so I'm probably wrong?

Sorry if this question has already been asked and answered but why are they so expensive? I've seen some Dvd's that are about £25 and up. I know the quality is better than a video and you do get a few extras but does that really give then the right to slap another £10 onto the price?
Is the manufcaturing process more expensive than making a video? For some reaon i doubt it but i don't know anything about Dvd's so it could be.
If anybody could enlighten me i would be very greatful.

Darkreaper