Page 1 of Questions for the UK DVD Committee

I found the interview with David King from the UK DVD Committee interesting, although I feel you always have to take things with a pinch of salt when they come from a spokesperson from an organisation which exists solely to sell you things. :-)

Anyway, the question I`d most like asked relates to David`s answer to the questions about regional encoding. He says it`s mainly done so the studios can stagger theatrical release. This is the same old stupid lie that I think we`re all sick of. If it were the truth, they would not regionaly encode thirty year old films. I`d like a better explanation, although I suspect the real answer is greed and a desire to control the market at the expense of consumers.

It will also be interesting to see whether theatrical releases continue to be staggered once digital movie projection becomes standard. There will no longer be any difficulties in making an arbitrary number of copies of a film, but I wouldn`t be surprised if they continue to stagger releases so that their PR machines can concentrate on one place at a time, and so that they can see, for example, how to market a film in the UK based on how it performed in the USA.

David is right in saying that region 2 DVDs are now often better than region 1 DVDs (only making it more confusing, if you ask me :), every time I buy a DVD I have to research which version is best). What he fails to mention is that there are still apparently thousands of titles which are only available in region 1.

Finally, when asked about price David says that as formats grow the economies of scale change to allow for lower pricing. OK, sure, we`re now seeing some budget titles available, but to me these look the same as budget titles on any other format, CD, computer games, or whatever. The cheap titles are not usually the big films everyone really wants to buy. Now ask yourself this question: How many times have you been told that a format will become cheaper as it becomes more popular? I remember it for CDs and for Amiga games and then for PC games. How many times has it become true? NONE. How many times has the price actually INCREASED? ... :-)

Yours

Leo, the jaded consumer.

:-)

Hello,

Interesting points from Leo.... my opionions on the interview were not given in that text. I thought about making them another column but that would kind of defeat the object of an interview, so let`s have a look at some of them now.

The regional coding thing probably *will* become a column topic, despite what I just said. What Daivd said about the theatrical releases (and the production of prints) is obviously true, but whether or not it`s enough to justify regional coding is open for debate. I don`t think so. No doubt the real reasons are more likely to be greed and control freakery amongst various companies in the industry, but as consumers of course we`ll never see that.

In his defence, David did mention that he "would be interested to see if and how things change regarding regional coding following the introduction of digital projection technology" into the cinemas.

As for pricing, yeah normally things have increased in price in the past. But recently some prices have come down. Leo mentions PC games - I can remember when you couldn`t get a new game for under 39.99, but now that`s come down to 29.99. CD prices do appear to be going up, but we have to consider how much more money is worth now than 10 years ago. It`s the nature of economics that everything will always increase in price if you wait long enough - look at staple foods like beer, for example.

Oh, and Leo, jaded is probably the wrong word, realistic *may* be more appropriate.

Mark J, in his capacity as a cynical ole git.

Actually, you are right, PC games have become cheaper over the past few years, despite the fact they now cost a lot more to make. Not quite sure what I was thinking this morning, still some shower water in the brain, I think. :-) Console games and CD prices are still a complete mystery. (Mystery? Nah, the record companies are just greedy bastards. (Although, call me a pragmatist, but I actually support Metallica and co. in their case against Napster... But let`s not get in to that!))

FWIW, I thought David`s answers were good considering his position. Obviously he is trying to do his job, to sell us UK DVDs and to represent a set of corporations, but I think he did well within those restrains. I also think it would`ve been very wrong and also damaging to the site and the chance of future interviees if you`d had an argument rather than an interview. :-)

It`s very good to hear that there is at least some chance that if digital projection comes in we may see less regional encoding. Let`s wait and see what happens, though. We won`t know for quite a while, either way.

Anyway, I probably failed to say this earlier, but many thanks to David King and to Mark for the interview. Despite what I`ve said, it *has* increased my opinion of the UK DVD industry.

...and let`s all be honest for a moment, it`s a stonkingly good format!

Leo, so cynical for someone so young, as the older cynical people I work with frequently tell me.

Well I think if we are heading toward a free trade area with the US and Europe, how long will this regionality last?
Having Regions on DVD`s is awfull, because I don`t like it. Wait hang on.......I know that sounds stupid, but I want to be able to buy a movie from anywhere in the world at the the same time as anyone else in the world.
I don`t care about corporations arguments for regional encoding, since the corporations are established round the regional encoding system why would they argue for anything else?
Again the bottom line is I want to buy whatever I want from wherever I want without restrictions, and I don`t think that is such a bad aspiration.

Damn right!

Plus, if you move from one country to another, I think you have the right to take your DVDs with you and be able to play them on local equpiment, or play those you buy in your new home on your existing kit.

As far as I can tell, regional encoding does no good for the consumer.