UPCOMING PRE-ORDERS

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UPCOMING PRE-ORDERS

If it were truly at a premium for a physical copy, many might opt out; however, $3-5 less to get both digial and physical copies can hardly be considered "a premium." For instance, many HDX new releases are $22.99 (or more) on Vudu, while most Blurays can be snagged for $19.99 on release day, with prices decreasing the longer they are on the shelf, until they hit the $7.88 bin. With so few EST discounts, like Vudu offering the recent digital 'blue bin' and an occasional $9.99 title, the margin is even higher, like, almost $15 in favor of physical w/UV over pure EST.

The delta price between waking into Wal-Mart and buying a Bluray combo pack pre-order (which is what this thread is about) and just getting the title clean via an EST purchase will always cost less via the EST route.

I challenge you to come up with an example otherwise.

I too troll for good movies for $1 - $2 in my local pawn shops to subsequently be added to my library via D2D at a savings over the EST price. I see no value in forking over thirty dollars for a pre-order combo pack just to have a Bluray I will store in my garage.

As I have indicated, I have no reluctance in embracing DRM so for me the physical copy has no extra value.

Other folks may see value in the optical disc. I do not.

[Speedaddict81]

Re: UPCOMING PRE-ORDERS

The delta price between waking into Wal-Mart and buying a Bluray combo pack pre-order (which is what this thread is about) and just getting the title clean via an EST purchase will always cost less via the EST route.

I challenge you to come up with an example otherwise.

I too troll for good movies for $1 - $2 in my local pawn shops to subsequently be added to my library via D2D at a savings over the EST price. I see no value in forking over thirty dollars for a pre-order combo pack just to have a Bluray I will store in my garage.

As I have indicated, I have no reluctance in embracing DRM so for me the physical copy has no extra value.

Other folks may see value in the optical disc. I do not.

That being the case (I'm too lazy to check), with some clarification as to acceptable use/disposal of one's physical media after redeming the digital copy, there could be a valid reason to buy physical media. Until there is a way to transfer the digital rights, it is hard to say selling the physical copy without the digital is illegal. We need a UV license resale market in order to fully "own" our digital copies.

For me, I only buy the pre-orders for movies I want to own physical media (mostly non-UV titles, ie Disney) to ensure that I will be able to watch it regardless of the fate of a single company (Apple, Vudu, or Amazon). I am fully comfortable with only owning the UV rights to a movie, due to the redundancy of the system.

[MoWeb]

Re: UPCOMING PRE-ORDERS

That being the case (I'm too lazy to check), with some clarification as to acceptable use/disposal of one's physical media after redeming the digital copy, there could be a valid reason to buy physical media. Until there is a way to transfer the digital rights, it is hard to say selling the physical copy without the digital is illegal. We need a UV license resale market in order to fully "own" our digital copies.

For me, I only buy the pre-orders for movies I want to own physical media (mostly non-UV titles, ie Disney) to ensure that I will be able to watch it regardless of the fate of a single company (Apple, Vudu, or Amazon). I am fully comfortable with only owning the UV rights to a movie, due to the redundancy of the system.

You last paragraph is a really good point. Since Disney isn't UV there is somewhat of a risk to purchase EST only.

***EDIT***

On a side note...my Pacific Rim pre-order is shipping today . Finally

[LuzRinggold]

Re: UPCOMING PRE-ORDERS

The delta price between waking into Wal-Mart and buying a Bluray combo pack pre-order (which is what this thread is about) and just getting the title clean via an EST purchase will always cost less via the EST route.

I challenge you to come up with an example otherwise.

I too troll for good movies for $1 - $2 in my local pawn shops to subsequently be added to my library via D2D at a savings over the EST price. I see no value in forking over thirty dollars for a pre-order combo pack just to have a Bluray I will store in my garage.

As I have indicated, I have no reluctance in embracing DRM so for me the physical copy has no extra value.

There is value in anything physical, however there is no value in anything you can't touch. Then again, I guess it depends on what you mean by value. Sure, a digital copy has value to you but it's not in any way something that has value in a traditional sense. For example, someone was able to cash in on their physical media when they pawned it at the pawn shop you visit. Try getting cash for your UV locker.

I don't mind paying $3.00 more for the disc because I do feel there is value in owning the disc.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UPCOMING PRE-ORDERS

There is value in anything physical, however there is no value in anything you can't touch. Then again, I guess it depends on what you mean by value. Sure, a digital copy has value to you but it's not in any way something that has value in a traditional sense. For example, someone was able to cash in on their physical media when they pawned it at the pawn shop you visit. Try getting cash for your UV locker.

I don't mind paying $3.00 more for the disc because I do feel there is value in owning the disc.

I respectfully disagree.

if we are talking market value on optical disc of movie industry content, this is a subject I can speak to.

I have five pawn shops near me. Three flat out refuse to purchase DVD or Bluray movies.

One will do so, but only on a select basis.

The remaining will take just about any DVD for $0.25 per title and any Bluray for $1.00 per title. In turn, they sell DVDs for $5 in batches of six (i.e. less then one dollar per). Blurays are $5 per, with a select few at $2 per.

The street value of these has dropped to near nothing in the past two years as there has be a mad rush to sell and not enough demand to buy. One pawn shop owner told me he had so many people coming in selling their DVDs and Blurays that he had to stop buying and was just getting rid of what he had in shelf stock. He told me people said they were just watching netflix and getting stuff off the internet so they were trying to get some money from their movies on disc.

To pay extra for a pre-order combo pack to get a physical disk because it has "value" to me is not a realistic statement. It would be like saying I am going dumpster diving to find aluminium cans because they have "value". Well, yes, but very little and not worth my time to hord.

The real question is if you have comfort with DRM or if it is something you are insecure about. If you are insecure about it, then the physical copy premium is something you are willing to pay to alleviate your fear.

I do understand this being a new technology that some may have insecurities about it and may find paying more to get a physical copy justified. This is a personal judgement call.

For me, the judgement is simple. Anytime EST purchasing costs less, that is the route I take. Further, there are even some times where the cost is the same or EST is a little more that I will still choose that route due to the convenience of being able to make the purchase in my pajamas.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: UPCOMING PRE-ORDERS

I also respectfully disagree.

If you are selling DVDs or Blu-rays, the worst place to sell is to a pawn shop! Especially new releases!

You would want to sell on eBay or Amazon to get the best price. We have a used media store here named McKay Used Books, CDs, Movies, And More and that place is AWESOME! I can find virtually any title I am looking for there. I can also take any new release in there and sell for $5 to $7 and Blu-ray for about half the price I bought it for.

If VHS is any indication of how things might be, then when they stop making DVDs the value of our collection will go up. We sold many VHS tapes over the past few years on eBay and on many of them we made more than we would have made selling DVDs. Yes, there is still a market for VHS and there will continue to be a market for physical media. This is what I meant by saying the physical media has value while digital license really don't have any real value.

I guess you could say that we are still very insecure about DRM. Look what recently happened to Disney movies on iTunes. Things that keep running through our head is could this happen to our movies in our UV locker or in our Vudu library? If someone was able to get access to our UV account and change the password then how difficult would it be for us to get it back? Isn't it possible that companies like Vudu decided to start charging a fee for us to watch movies that we own the right to watch? If we loose internet access then we loose access to all our movies. ...and these questions and insecurities go on and on...

We have found that we are only paying anywhere from 1 to 3 dollars more for a physical copy, depending on the title. Sure, we might have to wait until after the title is released...but that is acceptable for us. We have bought a few (very few) through EST, but for us it's not really EST until we can download our movie and do the same thing we can do with MP3 files (i.e. burn a copy to replace our kid's scratched DVD).

I have no problem with anyone who decides to go the way of EST and put all their trust in DRM. But we choose to keep in mind that this is the movie industry and they do have a reputation that will cause many great hesitation. Like I said before, it's not really the technology we don't have faith in...it's the people/companies profiting from these technologies.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UPCOMING PRE-ORDERS

You make good points.

I will reiterate, that for three of the five pawn shops in my area, the value of an optical disc of movie industry content is zero. At one of the two remaining, they will only purchase a very select few, relegating the remaining titles to a zero value in their eyes. In the last pawn shop a DVD has a value of $0.25.

A pawn shop will typically buy just about anything that has value. I feel you are trying to inflate the value of your physical media collection by suggesting there is one store that will take buy-back of discs for slightly more, or that on e-bay there is sometime higher value placed on optical discs.

I think this is rather missing the point. The trend is these items have decreased in value over the past several years due to supply and demand forces leaving a glut of supply and little demand. Used optical discs of movie industry content is very close to a zero street value now.

Insecurities about DRM I can understand and sympathize with. Technology is a fickle thing, but the trend is sufficient clear to me to make my fears non-existent in respect to UV. As testimony to reinforce my confidence, I have yet to find need to go into my garage, open up the boxes of optical discs and bring them inside to play in about two years. Further, there is no reason I can find to do so in the foreseeable future.