Disney to offer extras or 'rental ready' versions

[jw]

Walt Disney has announced that beginning next month they plan on offering different discs for the rental outlets and retail venues. This announcement comes on the heels of 20th Century Fox and their plan to curb lost sales to the sale of previously viewed titles. Disney will begin in June with the release of Morning Light, Confessions of a Shopaholicand Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experiencewill be released in premium versions with value-added material for the retail market and bare-bones offerings for rental, according to retail and distribution executives.

Rental retailers contacted by Video Business support the Disney strategy because it offers them the ability to choose between price and features. “That is all we care about,” said one retail executive. “Not only do you have the difference in price, but retailers can buy either version.”
Rentailers are generally not fans of the Fox program, which has gotten off to a rocky start. Amazon.com and other retailers received the rental version of Slumdog, with no bonus features, inside retail packaging. Then Blockbuster received beefed-up sell-through units of Notorious for rental, which provided the rental giant a surprise competitive edge over other rental stores left with the stripped-down version.

I like Disney's method, they are offering a choice

Recently, Disney also has offered less expensive, movie-only Blu-ray versions of Bolt and Bedtime Stories to rental stores.
Beginning with the June releases, Disney will handle standard DVD in the same fashion, making available a ‘rental ready’ version on many titles. The rental units are not shrink-wrapped and have no promotional inserts inside the box.
The Jonas Brothers DVD, for instance, will be available as a two-disc set holding digital copy and bonus features, priced at $39.99, or as a ‘rental ready’ single-disc version for $29.99 with the movie only.

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[NoQuestion]

Doesn't surprise me to see other studios follow FOX lead.

[wnicholas76]

My Hastings store has recently done this with the Fox Blu-ray releases of The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), Bride Wars, Marley & Me, and Notorious. They all have the words "Rental Exclusive" either on the top or bottom of the cover artwork. Still, this is no surprise for me either.

[Lunar_Chaos]

What's the point?

[Batman1980]

Well the point is some people just want the movie...kind of. Makes sense to release movie-only copies to rental stores so they don't have to pay as much. Then if someone wants stuff besides JUST the movie, they can buy a copy of it.

[OrlandoEastwood]

Well, wouldn't these rental DVDs make the quality some what better without the features?

So it means the US studios are doing it like the UK. In the UK they have Retail versions and Rental Versions.

[peanutlover]

The reason the studios are starting to do this is because they want to push the versions for sale and not make the used rental copies an attractive cheaper alternative. They feel that people will see the rental copies as stripped down versions and will opt to spend the extra money and get the "good" version. I don't think it will have much impact as some people just want to pay less for their copies and used copies offer an affordable alternative. Most that buy used rentals will just deal without the features while true movies fans and buffs will buy the new full featured versions when they come out.

[gradymay]

I personally think having a "stripped down" version is a good idea. Most of the people I know don't watch as many movies as I do. Well, let's be honest, no one I know watches as many movies as I do. But, my point is that most people don't watch the extras. Only people like us, people that spend time on forums discussing movies truly care about extras. I am not saying that only people on forums care about extras, but you see where I am going with this. John Q and Jane Q public can't tell the difference between Blu-ray and DVD or VHS for that matter. So, they won't care that the movie they rent or purchase doesn't have the extras.

[perfectdark]

great idea, people like me and my friends we never watch any extras or bonus features... Just the movie and in fact the "menu" is a pain too. I just want the movie. Strip the menu as well

[jw]

well unlike Fox, Disney is offering a price advantage

[kosvines]

This is normal here in Norway as well. Has been done ever since the VHS era. The reason is that it's illegal to rent retail-versions.

A rental outlet has to pay 4-5 times the price of a retail version. If there was no markings on the cover, rental outlets would instead just buy a retail version from across the street.

[Josh]

It serves two purposes. First is to prevent piracy. There are too many people out there who rent DVDs (and now Blu-rays) and rip the entire disc. The technology is out there to make perfect copies, so they save money, though break the law.

The second is to increase title sales. Renting no longer will yield an extras packed edition, so if you really want the extras, you have to buy it.

I wouldn't expect it to become common practice to see these versions show up on store shelves.

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by Josh

It serves two purposes. First is to prevent piracy. There are too many people out there who rent DVDs (and now Blu-rays) and rip the entire disc. The technology is out there to make perfect copies, so they save money, though break the law.

The second is to increase title sales. Renting no longer will yield an extras packed edition, so if you really want the extras, you have to buy it.

I wouldn't expect it to become common practice to see these versions show up on store shelves.

1. wrong, when people rip movies and put them up on the net the first thing they do is strip the movies of all special features to save as much space as possible. full untouched DVD-9's are a rarity in the pirate world. That would actually make a pirates job easier becasue he only has to use 1 ripping program instead of 2.

2. Yeah, it's an incentive to not buy the rental copies. I know it will be annoyance to some, but I realized over time that I never watch Special features anyways so as long as they don't compromise AQ/PQ it won't make a difference.

[OrlandoEastwood]

So, Disney is pulling an Alliance Atlantis and releasing the film with Bonus Material.

I don't mind Bonus Material really. Like I think the only time I've ever watched bonus is on Godzilla DVDs (if they have any) and Star Wars.

[goodstuff]

It makes sense for the studios to do this. I'm surprised it took this long.

[RazorFromHRSnet]

Originally Posted by OrlandoEastwood

Well, wouldn't these rental DVDs make the quality some what better without the features?

So it means the US studios are doing it like the UK. In the UK they have Retail versions and Rental Versions.

While it is theoretically possible that more space could be allotted to a main feature if space isn't being used for special features, but I doubt any time would be wasted / money spent on making a higher bitrate transfer for a rental title.

[Joe Cain]

Originally Posted by Josh

It serves two purposes. First is to prevent piracy. There are too many people out there who rent DVDs (and now Blu-rays) and rip the entire disc. The technology is out there to make perfect copies, so they save money, though break the law.

Originally Posted by wormraper

1. wrong, when people rip movies and put them up on the net the first thing they do is strip the movies of all special features to save as much space as possible. full untouched DVD-9's are a rarity in the pirate world.

Emphasis mine. I've know folks who've "added" dozens of their titles to their collections without up- or downloading a bit, without being the least concerned about extracting the main feature for sharing with anyone else. Piracy exists offline, too.

[jkwest]

I wish they'd offer the bare bones blu-rays at a discount to consumers....they can shove the extra features up their noses for all I care.

[goodstuff]

^Now that would be a great idea!

Originally Posted by RazorFromHRSnet

While it is theoretically possible that more space could be allotted to a main feature if space isn't being used for special features, but I doubt any time would be wasted / money spent on making a higher bitrate transfer for a rental title.

Yep, I would imagine they just copy and paste the movie-only files onto another disc.