Aussie DVD while International get Blu-ray

[Rick Grimes]

There was a listing for Cyrano for Australia, but the dizzy (Universal, I believe), cancelled the release. DVD only. Universal have been doing that a lot lately in Australia. UK and Canada also got BD’s.



An Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film and nominated for Best Picture gets a DVD only release on Aussie shores. Fracking Madman. There motto should be:

“If it is not anime,
it is not going out on Blu-Ray,
that is the Madman way.”


US and a host of other countries are getting BD releases. Put the UK BD up for reference, as well as the US Criterion release (which will be Region A locked).

Might import Cyrano, but will definitely be importing Drive My Car. It’s a travesty when critically acclaimed films go DVD only down under.

[lateralspin]

Originally Posted by Rick Grimes

There was a listing for Cyrano for Australia, but the dizzy (Universal, I believe), cancelled the release. DVD only. Universal have been doing that a lot lately in Australia. UK and Canada also got BD’s.

Eventually, one hopes for Umbrella to acquire distribution rights to everything and re-issue everything.

[Rick Grimes]

Originally Posted by lateralspin

Eventually, one hopes for Umbrella to acquire distribution rights to everything and re-issue everything.

Yeah. Wouldn’t that be nice. And then, 8K TV’s become so popular, the need for Ultra-HD Blu-Ray becomes paramount for a decent upscaled picture, and people desert DVD and streaming in droves, and Blu-Ray and 4K Blu-Ray becomes the dominant force in multimedia entertainment.

[blurayagent]

Grumble Grumble, is this correct that Licorice Pizza is only getting a dvd release for bleeps sake??? One of the best films of 2021 for my mind, but matrix crapola gets all kinds of releases(4k, standard blu and dvd) locally.

[Rick Grimes]

If JB’s listing of Licorice Pizza is anything to go by, yet another Best Picture nomination gets a DVD only release. And yet another Universal release!! They are getting bad with not releasing BD’s lately.



Above is a link to the US listing for ease of importing. It is yet another film I’m adding to my list of imports.
I easily spend more money overseas on BD’s now than I do on Australian releases.

[Rick Grimes]

Another couple of films/mini-series to point out that didn’t get shit here. Oh wait, they did. Their are DVD releases.

First of all, there is this:



The US gets a 4K release even! Albeit, the 4K review gets half a star (with no discernible difference between UHD and BD, suggesting the dizzy coded the 1080p Blu-Ray release at 2160p HEVC). Will pick up the 1080pBD knowing this.



Saw a bit of this on Foxtel, mid-series, with Colin Farrell and old mate from Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Jason Flemyng). Very interesting. Was awaiting a BD release, but lo, we get DVD only. And while the US and UK do too, at lest “Zee Germans” are doing the right thing. Will definitely look to import via EBay or Amazon DE directly, if it lets me.



US and UK got BD’s on this one. But we got shit (DVD only). Not a bad little film. Done on the cheap, but it’s got Bruce Dern, which was was got me watching the second half on Foxtel late one night. Kind of like a Firestarter type story for the 21st Century (and yes, I am aware of the remake of SK’s psychokinetic tale). Starts off as a tale of a paranoid Father and his daughter and goes from there. Will pick this one up again to watch all the way through with my wife.

[Alister_M]

Originally Posted by Rick Grimes

Another couple of films/mini-series to point out that didn’t get shit here. Oh wait, they did. Their are DVD releases.

First of all, there is this:



The US gets a 4K release even! Albeit, the 4K review gets half a star (with no discernible difference between UHD and BD, suggesting the dizzy coded the 1080p Blu-Ray release at 2160p HEVC). Will pick up the 1080pBD knowing this.

RLJ is one of the worst companies involved in physical media. Absolute goddamn hacks. Their slipcovers are nice and shiny, but that's like putting a red ribbon on Johnny Depp's pillow.

[Adster81]

Let's just face it unless it is a Marvel star wars or Disney mainstream action blockbuster moving making $$$ movie. we are never guaranteed to get a blu ray or 4k release in Australia it is frustrating as hell. very expensive and the wait time in the mail sucks. this is why piracy is big here. we are a 3rd world country when it comes to technology and completely ripped off with paying overs to upgrade it.

I just got the last picture show on blu ray sitting next to it in the same cover was the DVD $6 price difference I can see why the average person would pick the other one up instead.... thinking 'meh makes no difference to me Ill say $6'

[shireguy]

Originally Posted by Adster81

Let's just face it unless it is a Marvel star wars or Disney mainstream action blockbuster moving making $$$ movie. we are never guaranteed to get a blu ray or 4k release in Australia it is frustrating as hell. very expensive and the wait time in the mail sucks. this is why piracy is big here. we are a 3rd world country when it comes to technology and completely ripped off with paying overs to upgrade it.

I just got the last picture show on blu ray sitting next to it in the same cover was the DVD $6 price difference I can see why the average person would pick the other one up instead.... thinking 'meh makes no difference to me Ill say $6'

Consumers aren't 'stupid' (well the ones that we discuss here are !) but when you have:

NO TIME TO DIE
DVD - 19.99
BLU-RAY - 29.99
4K 39.99

... you get those 'meh' thoughts from some (of course negating that they are ignoring uptake in image / audio quality) : price does matter

Studios and Distributors are the ones to blame - they keep selling DVDs to B&M stores - and failed to 'sell' BD / 4K.

Blu-rays has been out for 16yrs....

This thread is now sadly redundant. Consumers have spoken... long live DVD



.... as I order and receive more imported titles.

[Alister_M]

I mean, the pricing makes sense when you look at the respective costs of authoring each disc format. Manufacturing cost also plays a part, but that's not nearly as disparate as the authoring costs. In terms of availablity and pricing NZ is even worse, we get to pay 20 bucks more for 4K than BD for dual-format titles, and Disney have entirely given up on the physical media market here and it also looks like Umbrella has stopped supplying JB Hifi.

[Adster81]

It makes you wonder though, lets say DVD stopped being sold and standard 480p DVD players would people still pay $40 for a new 4k blu ray day 1?? with the only choice they have or just 'quit buying straight away and only watch streaming stuff or use piracy.

remember the people buying DVDs are usually the 'mothers' out there (and I am not being sexist here) who know no better and just grab the cheap thing and be happy with it. or the elderly who have no idea and still have old tvs and couldn't care less.

[Levi0ffline]

Originally Posted by Adster81

It makes you wonder though, lets say DVD stopped being sold and standard 480p DVD players would people still pay $40 for a new 4k blu ray day 1?? with the only choice they have or just 'quit buying straight away and only watch streaming stuff or use piracy.

remember the people buying DVDs are usually the 'mothers' out there (and I am not being sexist here) who know no better and just grab the cheap thing and be happy with it. or the elderly who have no idea and still have old tvs and couldn't care less.

Controversial opinion here, but I think that DVD is keeping physical media (as a whole) alive. While it is definitely an inferior format, the casuals prefer DVD. I want to see BD comeback, but DVD is what more people are using.

[Adster81]

Originally Posted by Levi0ffline

Controversial opinion here, but I think that DVD is keeping physical media (as a whole) alive. While it is definitely an inferior format, the casuals prefer DVD. I want to see BD comeback, but DVD is what more people are using.

yeah but that is kinda like saying people want AVI copies of movies digitally because they are only 700 meg in size and download fast and play and all hardware so it keeps people pirating because they don't care about quality. compared to MKV files. that are 20 gig in size

[Rick Grimes]

Originally Posted by Levi0ffline

Controversial opinion here, but I think that DVD is keeping physical media (as a whole) alive. While it is definitely an inferior format, the casuals prefer DVD. I want to see BD comeback, but DVD is what more people are using.

I concur. It is still keeping the few and far between BD releases here in Australia, and the once or twice a month 4K release. Having DVD as the dominant physical media in Australia and NZ sucks balls. It is strange that in the US, Blu-Ray has 50% market share for popular titles (would be more like 15% here). I guess Australian’s are a bunch of technical savages.

There is an alternate reality out there where Blu-Ray was marketed properly, the war with HD DVD was avoided and consumers said “Get fu€ked” to DVD and/or dizzy’s stopped releasing DVD… And Blu-Ray is king. This is also a reality where people have good eyesight, poverty is almost non-existent, piracy has been stamped out with illegal providers prosecuted, people don’t watch TV and films on their phones and COVID-19 was acted upon and never left China.

Covid-19 was the nail in the coffin for BD in Australia. Streaming won, but with inflation and over saturation, BD should make a bit of a comeback.

Originally Posted by Adster81

It makes you wonder though, lets say DVD stopped being sold and standard 480p DVD players would people still pay $40 for a new 4k blu ray day 1?? with the only choice they have or just 'quit buying straight away and only watch streaming stuff or use piracy.

remember the people buying DVDs are usually the 'mothers' out there (and I am not being sexist here) who know no better and just grab the cheap thing and be happy with it. or the elderly who have no idea and still have old tvs and couldn't care less.

It is often a female that I see picking up the DVD of the latest blockbuster and the mother convinced her son that the DVD will suffice. But it is not always the way. While checking out some real estate online recently, there was a beautiful home theatre with the physical media lined up in bookcases against the wall. 90% of the discs were DVD, with a handful of Blu-Rays. What a waste of a thumping HT with a 75” screen.

And then there are the ********s at JB who give bad advice. I overheard an interaction at JB. An elderly woman went up to the clerk and she said she wanted Forrest Gump on Blu-Ray. The clerk looked, couldn’t find a copy. She looked up the computer and said “We don’t have a copy. Only DVD here. There are stores A,B and C that have a copy, I could get it in”, the elderly woman replied “Is there much difference between DVD and Blu-Ray”, the clerk replied “No”, without batting an eyelid.



I nearly lost my shit, but of course said nothing. And while I am not a fan of Forrest Gump, just the PAL Speed-up would suck balls when simply listening to the film, let alone watching a shithouse upscale. It’s that kind of attitude from clerks and marketers that led to a lack of market penetration for BD, among other things. To this day, I still support Blu-Ray and only if I abso-f*cking-lutely have to buy a DVD (e.g. The Duece S3 or The Handmaid’s Tale S4), I would rather not watch a TV series. If it’s not good enough for BD, it’s not good enough for me.

Will continue to turn to this thread as a cathartic way to vent, when a movie that deserves a BD release gets DVD only. Relevance is in the eye of the beholder or the crappy eyesight of someone who still buys and plays DVD’s on their 55” 4K TV.

[Alister_M]

Asking a sales clerk for technical advice is like asking a supermarket shelf stocker for culinary advice. You might as well be talking to a sentient lump of chewing gum.

[Adster81]

Yes I had a JB clerk once tell me not to spend money on a stereo amp system with full atoms sound and 'just buy a sound bar it will do the job' tried to tell me speaker systems are absolute and sound bars are the thing

I stopped shopping for any hardware at JB after that, it is now why I do most buy browsing online now I can do it in peace and filter out the DVDS

that is what pisses me off about my jb store I am in a regional area and they mix the DVDs with the Blu rays (wasn't like this at first) the TV shows area is a joke even more when it comes to blu ray i would rather just stream it then own a DVD version of it. and that goes for having half a series on difference formats.. no thanks yes I am OCD about my collection!

[kuzronk]

I know it's a bit off topic but it reminds me of this post I once read.

Originally Posted by Draeve

I went to the local Big W tonight looking for the Crystal Skull version they are advertising. When I asked the girl at the counter she said she hadn't heard of Indiana Jones (wtf) and didn't think they were selling it... I then pointed to the 9 screen lcd display behind her with Indy in all his glory and she said 'Oh, is that it, I haven't heard anything about that'. I then walked off in disgust and went and bought it from Kmart.

[Levi0ffline]

The 2022 list of Pain (so far)

Any Disney/Umbrella title in NZ
Drive My Car
C'mon C'mon
Licorice Pizza
X
King Richard
The Mitchells vs The Machines
A Journal for Jordan
Cyrano
Moonfall (got a BD but the above didn't)
And so much more

[Aunt Peg]

Also:

I'm Your Man (Kino US)
Fabian: Going to the Dogs (Kino US)
Perfume (English friendly French Blu Ray release)
Benedetta (US release, German Release and UK MUBI)
The Worst Person in the World (Upcoming Criterion & UK MUBI)

[Alister_M]

Originally Posted by Levi0ffline

The 2022 list of Pain (so far)

Any Umbrella title in NZ

Have you seen the f**king cheek of Umbrella opening a sales account on Trademe and then having the additional gall to charge a base rate of $17 for postage? Talk about adding insult to injury