Suggestion: Ditch DVD Zones
Here comes my wee little voice against the mass of the motion picture industry.
DVD zones are such a pain in the ass. I'm a frequent traveler. Together my wife and I speak eight languages and have bought DVDs in all those languages, which includes DVDs from zones 1, 2, 4, and 6, and in the future could also easily include 3 and 5 as well.
On my old PowerBook G4, I was happy to have been able to hack the software so I could get around zones and play all these DVDs, thanks in large part to the admirable efforts of xvi. He has yet to get to my new 17" PowerBook G4's Matsushita DVD-R UJ-825, but I'm hoping he will at some point.
In the meantime, there is a weeping and gnashing of teeth every time I want to watch a DVD on my computer.
The major motion picture companies say they're trying to avoid "market manipulation." I guess what they have in mind is that, for example, a movie is released in zone 1 and then bought and exported to zone 4 before the movie has been released there, digging into their theatre profits on the DVD profit they would have made at some point anyway.
The obvious consumer-friendly resolution is to make a world-wide release date, which pirating seems to be forcing to happen anyway. Even without pirating, that seems to be the best way to do it because movie-goers in the secondary markets always feel screwed when they have to wait and these friggin zones screw us who hop zones.
As zone-hoppers are only going to get more and more common as the world barrages forward on its path of globalization, DVD makers need to get a clue. Am I supposed to not buy DVDs while abroad? The general trend is to standards instead of market-warping fragmentation.
The biggest problem arises with movies are are never released abroad. We've got a bunch of French, Chinese, and Japanese movies that have never made it into the U.S. in any form and, moreover, it's cheaper to buy them in their home market (which might just be one of the reasons the companies don't want you to buy it there).
So ditch these zoning rules! Let the consumer get what he wants, which is the convenience to buy whichever DVD he wants where he wants to buy it and play it on any machine.
DVD zones are such a pain in the ass. I'm a frequent traveler. Together my wife and I speak eight languages and have bought DVDs in all those languages, which includes DVDs from zones 1, 2, 4, and 6, and in the future could also easily include 3 and 5 as well.
On my old PowerBook G4, I was happy to have been able to hack the software so I could get around zones and play all these DVDs, thanks in large part to the admirable efforts of xvi. He has yet to get to my new 17" PowerBook G4's Matsushita DVD-R UJ-825, but I'm hoping he will at some point.
In the meantime, there is a weeping and gnashing of teeth every time I want to watch a DVD on my computer.
The major motion picture companies say they're trying to avoid "market manipulation." I guess what they have in mind is that, for example, a movie is released in zone 1 and then bought and exported to zone 4 before the movie has been released there, digging into their theatre profits on the DVD profit they would have made at some point anyway.
The obvious consumer-friendly resolution is to make a world-wide release date, which pirating seems to be forcing to happen anyway. Even without pirating, that seems to be the best way to do it because movie-goers in the secondary markets always feel screwed when they have to wait and these friggin zones screw us who hop zones.
As zone-hoppers are only going to get more and more common as the world barrages forward on its path of globalization, DVD makers need to get a clue. Am I supposed to not buy DVDs while abroad? The general trend is to standards instead of market-warping fragmentation.
The biggest problem arises with movies are are never released abroad. We've got a bunch of French, Chinese, and Japanese movies that have never made it into the U.S. in any form and, moreover, it's cheaper to buy them in their home market (which might just be one of the reasons the companies don't want you to buy it there).
So ditch these zoning rules! Let the consumer get what he wants, which is the convenience to buy whichever DVD he wants where he wants to buy it and play it on any machine.
posted by Vincent at 8:12 PM
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