Video Underground

Redbox Agrees to Warner Brothers' Artificial DVD Release Delays

2010-02-18T13:35:00.001-05:00

First, it was Netflix--the shady Red Menace--that agreed to comply with Warner Brothers' system of artificial release delays for new releases. Now, Redbox has stupidly jumped on board with this scheme. Once a Warner Brothers movie comes out on DVD, you will have to wait twenty-eight days to rent that DVD from Redbox.

By creating this artificial delay, Warner Brothers is hoping to push you into buying that DVD instead of waiting to rent it. To gain favorable pricing and acquisition terms, Redbox is going along and shafting their customer base in the process. This is the stupidest move Redbox has made so far and raises questions about the wisdom of Redbox management.

The best way for consumers to respond is to not buy Warner Brothers DVDs during the first twenty-eight days after release. Also, consumers should find alternatives to companies like Redbox and Netflix. If Warner Brothers, Redbox, Netflix, et al. get away with this sort of sleazy behavior, we will see only more delays of this sort from more studios and more rental companies. The movie industry and rental companies are testing you to see how much you will take. If you intend to take a stand on this, now is the time. This situation is bound to get much worse if the consumers accept it.

The State of Disappointment from MTV

2009-08-21T16:10:00.008-04:00

The State is the best show to ever air on MTV. It was a half-hour sketch comedy show formed by a troupe of very talented young comics. It ran on MTV in the mid-1990s and was like the Generation X version of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The State--specifically the first two seasons--was a hilarious, fresh, hip, and innovative show. The show had a strong and devoted cult following, and it was filled with 90s pop culture and music, making The State an important snapshot of Generation X culture during that period.

When DVD releases of television shows started to come into vogue, fans of The State began begging for a DVD box set of The State episodes. Years passed, and there seemed to be no hope the show would ever come out on DVD. Finally, after years of delay, The State: The Complete Series was released on DVD by MTV on July 14, 2009. That is when the disillusionment began to set in.

Apparently to save money on royalties, MTV chose to remove or obscure nearly all of the music and pop culture images from the classic comedy pieces. With The State, this was an incredibly tricky situation, because some of the sketches were centered around particular pieces of music and/or pop culture images. In many sketches, the actors actually spoke dialog over music and delivered lines standing right next to images of celebrities.

Rather than pay royalties, MTV actually chose to blur many images which might require payment of fees. For example, the "Cindy Crawford" sketch centers around the famous model. The original sketch displays photos of Cindy Crawford. On the DVD, these photos are just blurred out. Similar situations exist throughout the DVD set. They even blurred out Yoda in the "Dixon: Jedi Talent Agency" sketch for goodness sake. (As a surprising side note, the most famous Disney characters [Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, et al.] are visible on Billy's comforter in the "Boogey Man" sketches. There must be some good reason why MTV did not blur them out. If not, maybe those notorious lawyers at Disney will file a lawsuit.)

Making matters far worse, MTV re-recorded the audio tracks for many sketches. They replaced the music with bland imitations of the originals and brought the actors back to record their lines--many years later. Even though MTV used the original actors to record the audio, something is just off in many of the sketches. The vocal inflections and comedic timing are off, and many of the funniest lines just fall flat now. It is as if the humor has been neutered, and its spirit is gone, giving the sketches a manufactured feel. The most egregious example of this is seen in the "$240 Worth of Pudding" sketch. In the original sketch, Barry and Le Von romance a large mound of pudding while Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" plays in the background. Of course, to remove the song for the DVD release, all of the dialog had to be re-recorded and dubbed. The new music and dialog, just does not work. What was once the funniest sketch from The State, is now just moderately amusing.

If MTV had altered just a couple of sketches for legal reasons, this release would not have been so bad, but they have made changes to many sketches, and many of the altered sketches were some of the best ones. What MTV has released is a mutilated rendition of what was originally a great show. This DVD release taints some great memories that should have been left alone. MTV should have either spent the extra money to fund a proper DVD release of The State episodes in their original form or just not released the collection at all. How much could it really have cost MTV to display photos of celebrities like Cindy Crawford and Andrew Shue? How much could it have cost to play songs from Marvin Gaye, Black Sabbath, The Breeders, The Smashing Pumpkins, etc.? Certainly, the fans would not have minded paying more for a collection that maintained the integrity of the original show.

This DVD release in unfair to the loyal fans of The State, because the collection is substantially inferior to the original material. This release is unfair to the new first-time viewers, because they are seeing an inferior recreation of something that used to be special. Even though the cast of The State is partially to blame for participating in this release, it is unfair to them, because this collection tarnishes their reputations as artists. With this DVD release, everybody loses except maybe MTV. At least MTV gets to cash in with this cheap chop-job on what was originally a wonderful, creative, and hilarious show. What a shame.

Just Say No to Blu-Ray

2009-04-01T01:54:00.004-04:00

This Blu-ray boondoggle has gone far enough, and it is time to clear the air. The Blu-ray format should have failed two years ago, but the entertainment and electronics industries are keeping it alive. We have all seen the commercials. You buy a DVD, try to play it, and you get slapped in the face with a commercial for Blu-ray. The music is fast and loud. Your screen is filled with explosions and cars flipping over. The sound effects blast through your speakers. Spider-man looks like he’s about to jump right out of the screen and land on your lap. As the excitement builds, the announcer implores you to gaze upon the incredible clarity of Blu-ray. The problem is this is all taking place on your entertainment system. You are enjoying the wonderful spectacle that is the Blu-ray commercial because you already have a decent entertainment system. If you enjoy the sights and sounds in the commercial, then you do not really need anything else. Call it a day, and enjoy what you already have at home.

Here’s the deal. Blu-ray is a ridiculous format. If you are not using it yet, do yourself a favor and do not go down that dead end street. If you are already on Blu-ray Street, get off now, cut your losses, and stop wasting your money on a format that will be obsolete in a few years.

On HD screens properly connected to HD players, Blu-rays are more clear than DVDs, but the difference does not really matter that much. Really, are DVDs that bad? Just ten years ago, people were awe-struck with the clarity of DVDs. In the past couple of years, however, Sony and the other contributors and members of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) have managed to convince a lot of consumers that Blu-ray is a major leap in technology.

In reality, Blu-ray is little more than a glorified high-capacity DVD. Sure the image is nice, but the cost is way too high, the title and equipment selections are limited, and the price to assemble a true full HD entertainment system is out of reach for most people. The problem is that if you do not have a spectacular entertainment system, you will not be able to appreciate a sufficient difference between DVD and Blu-ray. There is just not much quality to access, and accessing it is just too costly.

The real purpose of Blu-ray is not to benefit consumers. The entertainment and electronic industries are who really hope to benefit from Blu-ray. DVDs are fairly easy to copy, but Blu-ray discs are not duplicated so easily. Blu-ray discs are produced with a more advanced and expensive technology, and they hold much more data. Blu-ray discs also allow for other more sophisticated electronic copy protections. The entertainment industry has realized they cannot stop people from copying discs, so they are trying to move to a disc that is so expensive to duplicate that many people will not bother. Also, by using such large files for Blu-ray content, the entertainment industry makes the downloading of Blu-ray content cumbersome and time-consuming.

Also, the electronics industry hopes to benefit from Blu-ray by pushing consumers to replace their existing DVD equipment with new Blu-ray equipment. What better way to sell electronics than to make existing electronics obsolete. This is what they are doing. They know your DVD player is going to last for ten more years. Since you are not going to buy another DVD player for a while, the electronics industry has just chosen to make your existing one useless.

The biggest drawback to Blu-ray is its inevitable obsolescence. The era of the disc is rapidly coming to a close. Soon, we will all be moving to fully digital downloadable content. Movies will be transferred over the Internet and flash drives. Few people will be using discs, because discs will be largely unnecessary. If you want to see what is going to happen with movie content, all you have to do is look at the music industry, which typically stays five-to-ten years ahead of the movie industry.

The music industry abandoned cassette tapes for CDs years before the movie industry abandoned VHS tapes for DVDs. Currently, CD sales are plunging as the consumers force the music industry to move toward downloadable digital music. At some point, the CD will be relegated to obscurity. This same thing is going to happen in the movie industry as well. Video discs (DVDs, HD DVDs, Blu-rays, etc.) are the movie industry’s counterpart to CDs. If you want to see what is going to happen to Blu-ray and the other video discs, just watch what happens to CDs over the next couple of years. As goes the music disc, so goes the video disc.

In summary, DVDs are inexpensive, and the quality is very good. Blu-rays are expensive and they do not provide enough quality to justify their associated expenses. Video discs of all types will be obsolete in a matter of years anyway, so why start investing in a new format? The Blu-ray Disc Association, the movie industry, and the electronics industry are trying to jam Blu-ray down our throats. If you have not already said no to Blu-ray, consider the poor prospects for the technology and consider swearing it off. The era of fully digital downloadable movies is just beginning. You really should be saving up your money so you can enjoy digital downloadable content once it becomes the new standard for all video.

Redbox DVD Rental Vending Machines

2008-12-24T02:48:00.007-05:00

Have you used a Redbox (www.redbox.com) DVD rental kiosk? If so, please describe your experience here.

The New Release DVD Rental Kiosks

2008-12-23T00:55:00.002-05:00

Have you used one of The New Release (www.thenewrelease.com) DVD rental kiosks? If so, please describe your experience here.

DVDPlay Rental Kiosks

2008-12-22T13:58:00.002-05:00

Have you used a DVDPlay (www.dvdplay.com) rental kiosk? If so, please describe your experience here.

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2006-04-06T14:26:00.000-04:00

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Quepidity

2006-02-17T16:29:00.000-05:00

Anyone who has subscribed to a DVD-by-mail service has learned how to create and organize a list of DVDs that he wishes to see. This wish list is commonly called a queue.

The odd thing is that many people get upset when a company ships them a DVD that is anything but the first choice in their queue. For example, a person will get his fifth DVD choice and be outraged over the horrible injustice. The disgruntled subscriber will be filled with dread at the thought of having to watch the undesirable DVD.

This outraged subscriber is suffering from quepidity. Quepidity is a very common syndrome that compels an afflicted person to put DVDs in his queue that he does not want to watch. There is no explanation for the existence of quepidity, but the condition is widespread and causes a lot of unnecessary frustration and conflict.

The reality is that a DVD-by-mail company will rarely ship a DVD that is not in a customer’s queue. If a subscriber does not wish to watch a DVD, that subscriber should make certain the DVD is not in his queue.

The best way to avoid the symptoms of quepidity is to go through your queue and carefully examine each title. If there is a DVD in your queue that you do not want to see, remove it. If there are DVDs in your queue that do not excite you, move them to the bottom of your queue. In the end, make sure that your queue reflects the top thirty DVDs you would like to see, ranked by importance.

Understand that anything in your queue--especially in the top ten positions--could possibly be sent to you without warning. If you are in the process of viewing a multi-DVD set, keep the volumes at the bottom of your queue. Move each DVD to the top of the queue only when you are ready to watch it.

Queues have become the primary point of interaction between the subscribers and the DVD-by-mail companies. With some careful planning, you can get the most out of your rental plan and avoid the inconveniences of quepidity.

GreenCine Promises No Throttling

2006-02-15T15:29:00.000-05:00

Amidst a storm of criticism of throttling in the DVD-by-mail industry, GreenCine has wisely clarified their "no throttling" policy. Click here to read more.

CleanFlicks Plays Dirty with Artists’ Creative Rights

2005-11-29T17:51:00.000-05:00

CleanFlicks, founded by Utah’s Ray Lines, is a DVD rental company that edits profanity, nudity, violence, etc. from movies and rents them out to people who find those things unbearably offensive. It is wonderful that people have the power to avoid things that they do not want to see, but the problem is that CleanFlicks is editing these movies without the consent of directors. This is akin to putting a fig leaf on a naked statue, clipping out words from a song, or blacking out text in a book.

Film is an artistic medium, and directors are artists. An artist creates a piece of art as a complete work. Every element in that piece of art is there because the artist put it there for a purpose. When companies delete things from art, they diminish the art and degrade the artist.

This is a free-market system where people are supposed to vote with their wallets. Whenever people rent or purchase a movie, edited or not, they are giving the director financial support. If people are offended by nudity, profanity, violence, etc., they should not financially support directors that put those elements in their movies.

If a lot of people start paying for only family friendly movies, the studios will take notice and shift their financial backing to more tame fare. Look at the movies from the 1940s. They have virtually no profanity, nudity, or violence. This is not because of prudish directors, but because the American movie-goers at that time demanded clean movies. Show business is a business, and the entertainment will eventually conform to market demands.

The issue here is not consumer freedom. Consumers should be able to see or not see whatever they want. The issue here is the rights and reputation of the artists. The artist is the creator of the work and accountable for its content. Therefore, the artists (and their financiers) are the only ones who have the right to authorize changes to their work.

Television networks edit movies all of the time, but they do it with the permission of the directors, studios, etc. Likewise, CleanFlicks should be allowed to edit whatever they want from movies, but they should have the decency to get the permission of the director before they do it.

Mel Gibson is currently suing CleanFlicks, because they edited out three minutes of material from The Passion of the Christ. Gibson’s case against CleanFlicks is bound to be a landmark decision for artists’ creative rights.

Most DVD-by-Mail Comparisons Are Flawed

2005-11-12T20:33:00.000-05:00

Almost every week, some well-intentioned but clueless journalist releases the obligatory DVD-by-mail comparison story. The story is generally titled something like "Customers Win in War of Online DVD Rental Firms", “Who’s Winning the DVD War?”, "In the Competition for DVD Rentals by Mail, Two Empires Strike Back", “Netflix vs. Blockbuster”, etc.

The titles of the articles don’t matter, because the stories are all the same. The brilliantly original, hard-hitting investigative reporter always signs up with Blockbuster Online and Netflix and tracks the turnaround of DVDs for one month. The reporter then compares the numbers and draws conclusions about who is better. The results are almost always like this:

Netflix has a better Web site
Netflix processes DVDs a little faster
Netflix carries NC-17 titles
Blockbuster Online has more new releases
Blockbuster Online processes DVDs on weekends
Blockbuster Online provides free coupons for in-store rentals

The comparison stories always seem to wrap things up so cleanly and finally get to the bottom of the issue about who is better in the DVD-by-mail industry.

The problem, however, is that anyone who has tested Netflix and at least one other rental company knows the methodology used for most of these investigations is flawed. Anyone who has tried renting a lot of DVDs from Netflix for more than a few weeks in a row knows that Netflix begins applying throttling measures to limit the flow of DVDs after as little as one month of heavy use. Since Netflix throttles users, no comparison story is complete without explaining this concept.

The failure to address throttling is the major flaw in most of the comparison stories; however, the stories often have other major errors and glaring omissions that make the results useless. Please read these comparison stories with a critical eye, and keep in mind that no DVD-by-mail comparison story is complete unless it meets the following criteria:

The study covers a single time period lasting at least three continuous months.
The investigator took full advantage of each rental plan by returning DVDs as quickly as possible.
The investigator lives near distribution centers for all companies studied.
The investigator rents DVDs that are representative of the readers’ viewing habits. (For example, an investigation conducted for a mainstream newspaper should include a sample of DVDs that represents mainstream viewing tastes.)
The investigator details the fine points of each rental plan (e.g., throttling, plan limits, poor inventory quality, number of shipping days per week, etc.)

DVD-by-mail comparison stories have become a popular diversion for lazy journalists and provide the readers with misleading or useless information. As readers, we need to be demanding more. When you see these incomplete comparison stories, consider contacting the authors to let them know what they missed. Hopefully, journalists will start conducting some thorough investigations of these companies, and we can finally reach some real conclusions about where consumers can get the best value.

DVD-by-Mail Company Comparisons

2005-11-11T10:56:00.000-05:00

Have you compared multiple DVD-by-mail companies? If so, please share your experiences.

24 Hour Video Store

2005-11-09T18:26:00.000-05:00

If you want an easy way to search for independent video stores near your home, 24 Hour Video Store (www.24hourvideo.com) allows you to search their database of video stores using your ZIP code. The results will first list 24 Hour Video Store member stores followed by a list of video stores listed in order of proximity to the ZIP code you provide.

Video Rodeo Advertising Campaign

2005-11-01T11:36:00.000-05:00

The people at Video Rodeo (www.videorodeo.net) in Gainesville, Florida are taking on the video giants with their advertising campaign. The ads are funny and contain a lot of truth. See some of the ads at www.videorodeo.net/adarchive.html.

RentAnime

2005-10-17T16:50:00.000-04:00

What is your opinion of RentAnime?

QwikFliks

2005-10-17T16:37:00.000-04:00

What is your opinion of QwikFliks?

MovieZip

2005-10-17T16:35:00.000-04:00

What is your opinion of MovieZip?

DVDOvernight

2005-10-17T16:34:00.000-04:00

What is your opinion of DVDOvernight?

Moviepaks

2005-10-17T16:31:00.000-04:00

What is your opinion of Moviepaks?

Take 2 Video

2005-10-17T16:28:00.000-04:00

What is your opinion of Take 2 Video?

Family Pass

2005-05-18T11:45:00.000-04:00

What is your opinion of Family Pass?

Netflix

2005-03-29T19:05:00.000-05:00

What is your opinion of Netflix?

Post your comments and find information at Netflix Undground.

Netflix Underground
http://netflixunderground.blogspot.com

Blockbuster Online

2005-03-29T19:00:00.000-05:00

What is your opinion of Blockbuster Online?

Post your comments and find information at Blockbuster Underground.

Blockbuster Underground
http://blockbusterunderground.blogspot.com

GreenCine

2005-03-28T15:40:00.000-05:00

What is your opinion of GreenCine?

Intelliflix

2005-03-27T15:41:00.000-05:00

What is your opinion of Intelliflix?

GamezNFlix

2005-03-26T15:39:00.000-05:00

What is your opinion of GamezNFlix?

Peerflix

2005-03-24T15:46:00.000-05:00

What is your opinion of Peerflix?

nicheflix

2005-03-24T15:42:00.000-05:00

What is your opinion of nicheflix?

DVD Avenue

2005-03-24T15:37:00.000-05:00

What is your opinion of DVD Avenue?

Cafe DVD

2005-03-24T15:35:00.000-05:00

What is your opinion of Cafe DVD?

Comments

2005-03-24T03:00:00.000-05:00

Please post your general comments here.

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2004-03-13T03:32:00.000-05:00

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