Why DVD is not succesful in Australia and the solution.
me
Many factors have contributed to the unfortunate state of Australian DVD
sales, and if not resolved shortly, will cause damage to the high potential
of this technology in Australia.
1) There were only 9 region 4 movies released in the last five months. This
together with the quality of them has severely hurt the short-term success
of DVD as people have not seen any real benefits of buying an expensive
player and having only a few titles to play on it. For a list of titles, go
to: http://www.village.com.au/cgi-bin/frame.cgi?http://www.roadshow.com.au/
2) Cost of Hardware: the current cost of your average DVD player is A$1500.
The price would have already turned a few people off DVD. The fact is that
DVD players cost double of what an excellent VCR costs and for the average
person does not weigh up to the initial cost of the purchase. To even make a
successful start, prices would need to be around A$700/A$800.
3) Advertisments: Have you seen any advertisments for DVD lately? The last
one I had seen was at the start of The Crow dvd. The truth is that I do
not need to be convinced that DVD is the way to go, I already have a DVD
player, and I know of its benefits. The production companies should focus on
an area of the public which enjoys films and would be interested in such a
system. ie: Cinema audiences. The audience obviously enjoy watching films
enough to pay for the privelage, and would more than likely be keen to have
a similar system at home.This is the selling point. The companies should
tell them that they can, with the help of DVD..... If you have gone to the
movies, you know that there is a certain atmosphere where by everything is
BIGGER and LOUDER than you can possibly achieve at home. If an advertisment
were shown before the feature presentation that displayed the benefits of
DVD harnessing the most out of the cinemas sound and image system, it would
sure enough get some people really interested in the format.
4) Cost of movies. Quite simply, VHS movies cost 29.95, at the most, but
DVDs cost 34.95 and range up to 49.95 for Evita. Why would a person pay
double? Is the quality that good? This is what a person considers, and this
is what should be considered when releasing movies.
5) Regional coding: With the amount of titles available in Australia, it may
be an option to import titles from America since there are hundreds of
available titles over there. But if you have regional coding on your player,
it will be impossible to play imported titles. This is becoming less of a
problem since there are modifications available which will let you overide
this function. One example is with Creatives Encore DVD drive. A program
called drive.exe simply writes to the EPROM on the card and lets you have a
multiregion drive, and hardware modifications are available for your
standalone DVD players.
Links: DVD in Aus'. www.dvd.anu.edu.au
has the Creative drive.exe crack as well as lots of info on DVD in Australia
If this does not work, do not put the www before the address
http://www.village.com.au/cgi-bin/frame.cgi?http://www.roadshow.com.au/
Shows the current collection of roadshow DVDs.
If you have any questions or comments, then e-mail them to
tri...@alphalink.com.au
Hope to hear from you.
Andrew Davis
My reason that DVD has not taken off in Australia is the fact that it
has not been released here yet. The average Joe Blogs, or for that
matter, anyone who doesn't have internet access and is interested in
video and doesn't frequent specialty hifi or video stores, doesn't even
know that DVD exists as there has been no public awareness canpaign. You
can garantee that there would be more people in Australia now that know
about HDTV than DVD. Probably about 10,000 to 1.
We will not see ANY serious release of titles / features untill the
public awareness increases. I would be interested to see the figures for
the Australian Player sales.
Andrew Davis
stc
It wouldn't be to high.
Just look at any pc store to see if they have dropped cd-rom for
DVD or give the option of paying an extra couple of hundred dollars
for a DVD drive.
Went into a video store the other day and they didn't have
any dvd players. I wouldn't pay $1500 for one anyway.
Maybe $1000 if they could also record. $1500 to high a price.
Would more than likely buy a pc version for about a third
of the price.
When I sold pc's I made DVD standard in all pc's as I assumed
it was going to take off. Well virtually no interest at all as this
ended up inflating the price of the pc.
Now looking into DVD regional code 1 video's.
Have contacts in the US and will enquire about
ordering DVD titles coded 1.
Will advertise and see what happens over a 4 week
period. I suspect hardly anyone will buy as before.
New pages under construction at:
http://www.iinet.net.au/~stc/
DVD page up but also under construction.
>
>
>Andrew Davis
Brett O'Callaghan
Andrew Davis <qgr...@magna.com.au> wrote:
>My reason that DVD has not taken off in Australia is the fact that it
>has not been released here yet.
You know, I think you could be on to something there. ;-)
It's a bit early in the day to get all doom and gloomy about DVD in
australia when the actual launch hasn't happened yet - you early
adopters knew what you were getting in for.
Byeeeee.
--
Visit my webpage - http://www.cbl.com.au/~boc/
Home of WhoINFO, free Doctor Who database for W95/NT.
Mark Bowman
Hi there..
I couldnt give a stuff whether DVD takes off in Australia or not..as long
as it kicks on in the US I'll be happy. The quality of the Australian
DVD's that I have seen has been pretty appalling..P&S and MPEG2
sound..whoopee!. Most sensible people buying DVD players at the moment
will get a player that has been de-regionalised.
Besides I can get stuff deliverd to my door in about 2-3 days and a price
cheaper to or equivalent to VHS versions..plus I get LBX and AC3.
just my opinion..
David B Koong
Mark Bowman <mjbo...@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
: Hi there..
: I couldnt give a stuff whether DVD takes off in Australia or not..as long
: as it kicks on in the US I'll be happy. The quality of the Australian
: DVD's that I have seen has been pretty appalling..P&S and MPEG2
: sound..whoopee!. Most sensible people buying DVD players at the moment
: will get a player that has been de-regionalised.
: Besides I can get stuff deliverd to my door in about 2-3 days and a price
: cheaper to or equivalent to VHS versions..plus I get LBX and AC3.
: just my opinion..
It is appalling that there are literally HUNDREDS of titles over in the US
and a handful of crappy ones here. I believe it will be a very long time
before it kicks off here. For me i will be ordering my DVDs from
overseas. Companies should just bite the bullet and spend money promoting
DVD rather than wait for a consensus thing i.e. wait till everybody is
into it before pushing the product.. the only problem witht that is that
everyone is waiting for everyone else... sheesh... typically Australian.
David.
Brett O'Callaghan
Mark Bowman <mjbo...@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
>I couldnt give a stuff whether DVD takes off in Australia or not..as long
>as it kicks on in the US I'll be happy. The quality of the Australian
>DVD's that I have seen has been pretty appalling..P&S and MPEG2
>sound..whoopee!.
Well, that's nice if you want DVD's to stay a nice little elistist and
expensive hobby.
If in 3 years you still have to import most of your stuff from the US
then DVD has lost one of it's major potential advantages over
laserdisc and it's failed IMO.
ase...@hotmail.com
I can't agree more. Way to go region 1!!!
Wake up region 4 you are not breathing!!! (No insult intended:)
Regards Andrew Seale
In article <35330249...@ozemail.com.au>,
Mark Bowman <mjbo...@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
>
> Hi there..
>
> I couldnt give a stuff whether DVD takes off in Australia or not..as long
> as it kicks on in the US I'll be happy. The quality of the Australian
> DVD's that I have seen has been pretty appalling..P&S and MPEG2
> sound..whoopee!. Most sensible people buying DVD players at the moment
> will get a player that has been de-regionalised.
> Besides I can get stuff deliverd to my door in about 2-3 days and a price
> cheaper to or equivalent to VHS versions..plus I get LBX and AC3.
>
> just my opinion..
>
> Brett O'Callaghan wrote:
>
> > Andrew Davis <qgr...@magna.com.au> wrote:
> >
> > >My reason that DVD has not taken off in Australia is the fact that it
> > >has not been released here yet.
> >
> > You know, I think you could be on to something there. ;-)
> >
> > It's a bit early in the day to get all doom and gloomy about DVD in
> > australia when the actual launch hasn't happened yet - you early
> > adopters knew what you were getting in for.
> >
> > Byeeeee.
> > --
> > Visit my webpage - http://www.cbl.com.au/~boc/
> > Home of WhoINFO, free Doctor Who database for W95/NT.
>
>
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
Andrew Davis
The biggest problem that I see in Australia is that the software and
hardware manufacturers have not gotten together to launch the medium not
a product.
It seems that the hardware manufacturers are waiting for more titles,
yet the software manufacturers are waiting for greater penetration of
players.
These are not two non-exclusive events, and MUST happen at the same time
for any hope of DVD to obtain any serious market penetration.
Do any of you that keep complaining about those of us who have import
code free machines actually have a player?
You would have to be pretty silly to buy a region 4 player at the
moment. That is unless you are happy with the 9 or so Roadshow titles
and 5 other brand titles that are available. I have more DVD's than that
and they are all titles that I want to see.
As much as not buying Australian DOES hurt the local branding and sales
of Players and Titles, it is far too early on in the game for ANY
manufacturer to right off DVD in Australia because of lack of sales.
This will only happen after a reasonable amount of time after a
reasonable launch.
The other day I went into Grace Bros in Sydney and asked at the video
tape section whether they had any DVD discs and was told they didn't
sell them any more or the players. Funny thing was that about 5 steps
away was a DVD player set up in the TV/VIDEO section.
I then went to David Jones and tried their video section. The sales girl
who was running the music and video section blankly stared back at me
and asked what group played DVD. I tried to explain that it was a video
disk format and she said that she had never heard of that video, who was
in it. Eventually I gave up and went and looked in the hardware section,
about 5 meters away, and found tucked in a corner at the bottom of a
display case all the roadshow releases.
How bad is this for informing staff of products. There is no doubt that
both DJ's & Grace Bros SHOULD know there product.
That reminds me, I called Harvey Norman, who sell RCA and Samsung
players, and asked them where I could get the DVD discs. The salesman on
the other end of the phone went real quiet. I asked again and he said he
didn't know, just that they didn't. I asked to talk to someone else, I
suppose a supervisor or something and he didn't really know either. I
asked if they had sold many players and was told "we can't keep up with
the demand".
I asked him what he said to all those people who bought players and
asked for movies. he said that he told them that xxxxxxxxxxx , i cant
remember, in the city sold them. I rung them and NO ONE had the foggiest
what a DVD was.
We really need to get our act together or there will be no players
bought in Australia and EVERYONE will import.
Mark Bowman
Brett,
My point was not that I dont want DVD to succeed in Australia..of course I do.
But the thing is if I can get what I want, with the features I want I will buy
locally... if I cant then I'll buy from the US.
To me importing stuff from the US is easier and quicker than say getting stuff
from an interstate location plus I get it before it will ever be released in
Australia anyway.
Like it or not DVD players are expensive as is the supporting
equipment....that means it will always be 'elitist' to some extent. But
certainly all early adopters have to pay a premium and if that makes us elitst
then so be it..
Regards
Mark Bowman
Brett O'Callaghan wrote:
> Mark Bowman <mjbo...@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
>
> >I couldnt give a stuff whether DVD takes off in Australia or not..as long
> >as it kicks on in the US I'll be happy. The quality of the Australian
> >DVD's that I have seen has been pretty appalling..P&S and MPEG2
> >sound..whoopee!.
>
> Well, that's nice if you want DVD's to stay a nice little elistist and
> expensive hobby.
>
> If in 3 years you still have to import most of your stuff from the US
> then DVD has lost one of it's major potential advantages over
> laserdisc and it's failed IMO.
>
Justin Deeley
Mark Bowman wrote in message +ADw-3534115A.E16D71AC+AEA-ozemail.com.au+AD4-...
+AD4-Brett,
+AD4-
+AD4-My point was not that I dont want DVD to succeed in Australia..of course I
do.
I'd agree with you whole heartedly here Mark - It would be a fantastic thing
to be pop in to my local movie store and purchase a movie - something I
haven't done for many years.
+AD4-But the thing is if I can get what I want, with the features I want I will
buy
+AD4-locally... if I cant then I'll buy from the US.
This is my situation exactly - I love movies but I will only buy them in the
Widescreen format. Now out of the movies that are released here there are 3
that I would buy immediately, BUT, they are not in widescreen son I buy them
from the US instead.
+AD4-To me importing stuff from the US is easier and quicker than say getting
stuff
+AD4-from an interstate location plus I get it before it will ever be released
in
+AD4-Australia anyway.
I wouldn't say it is easier, or quicker, but you certainly beat the release
dates on a lot of titles (if they are released at all)
+AD4-Like it or not DVD players are expensive as is the supporting
+AD4-equipment....that means it will always be 'elitist' to some extent. But
+AD4-certainly all early adopters have to pay a premium and if that makes us
elitst
+AD4-then so be it..
LaserDisc's were always elitist and so we paid a price. They were never
easy to get for the majority of enthusiasts and this in itself inflates the
price.
For me the allure of DVD is that I will be able to buy movies locally in a
decent format (other than P+ACY-S VHS) as well as having to import them. This,
of course, is reliant on the platform taking off in Australia and
essentially that boils down to education. Apart from tech minded PC users
and home theatre enthusiasts most people I know wouldn't have a clue what
DVD is and that is the single biggest threat to its success in Australia.
Even the stores that stock them don't really know what they have and hide it
away in a corner, or, more stupidly, stock players without titles - how many
computer stores don't stock some form of software - people want to play with
their new toy when they get it - not after they've spent hours scouring the
city for someone who stocks the damned things....
Anyway - enough rambling from me....
Justin
Brett O'Callaghan
Mark Bowman <mjbo...@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
>My point was not that I dont want DVD to succeed in Australia..of course I do.
>But the thing is if I can get what I want, with the features I want I will buy
>locally... if I cant then I'll buy from the US.
>To me importing stuff from the US is easier and quicker than say getting stuff
>from an interstate location plus I get it before it will ever be released in
>Australia anyway.
I'm only talking from my perspective as someone who was never
interested in laserdisc and really wants DVD to eventually replace VHS
for sell-through releases. If you are OK with importing from the US,
then cool. I can't be bothered.
>Like it or not DVD players are expensive as is the supporting
>equipment....that means it will always be 'elitist' to some extent. But
I disagree that DVD players will always be expensive, there's really
not that much to them and I'd be very surprised if there weren't
pretty good quality sub $400 players in 2 years.
Mark Bowman
Justin Deeley wrote:
> For me the allure of DVD is that I will be able to buy movies locally in a
> decent format (other than P+ACY-S VHS) as well as having to import them. This,
> of course, is reliant on the platform taking off in Australia and
> essentially that boils down to education. Apart from tech minded PC users
> and home theatre enthusiasts most people I know wouldn't have a clue what
> DVD is and that is the single biggest threat to its success in Australia.
>
Thats what attracted me to the format as well..if DVD wasnt around I would have got
a LD player.. I want something better than the norm VHS and DVD provides me with
this.People are getting upset about the lack of awareness in Australia..this is not
really a problem as the product is not really launched here yet..Lets wait until
September-December. Australians are the quickest adopters of new texch in the
world..we love gadgets. We can only speculate what the situation is going to be
like for zone4 when the product is launched.
> Even the stores that stock them don't really know what they have and hide it
> away in a corner, or, more stupidly, stock players without titles - how many
> computer stores don't stock some form of software - people want to play with
> their new toy when they get it - not after they've spent hours scouring the
> city for someone who stocks the damned things....
>
Or you can go to a good hi-fi store like I did. the guys there lent me some DVD's
from their private collection :)
Mark Bowman
Brett O'Callaghan wrote:
> Mark Bowman <mjbo...@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
>
> <deleted ramblings>
>
> I'm only talking from my perspective as someone who was never
> interested in laserdisc and really wants DVD to eventually replace VHS
> for sell-through releases. If you are OK with importing from the US,
> then cool. I can't be bothered.
>
> I prefer to get the titles from the US as I get them before zone4 releases so I'm
> happy with the situation. But obviously if I could get the same title locally
> with the same features & quality I'd be very happy.
>
> I disagree that DVD players will always be expensive, there's really
> not that much to them and I'd be very surprised if there weren't
> pretty good quality sub $400 players in 2 years.
>
I am not talking about the future situation..I'm really talking about early
adopters of the technology at this point...
seeya
Andrew B
In article <6h19sv$avp$1...@nswpull.telstra.net>, jus...@gp.com.au says...
One point none of you has mentioned is that the only widescreen & P&S
version available (Evita) costs $49. If this is to apply to all of the
DVDs with those features then I will always buy from the US. I can get it
6 months before the Aus release and cheaper.
The most expensive disk I own this far is the Fifth Element ($48 landed)
which I bought at the time when the aussy dollar really sucked in value.
Most disks I own that have better features then Evita only cost $37 to
$40.
The silly thing is, I would never have tried to buy overseas if they had
released titles at the same time as the players as I had never done so
before and was unsure whether their was a risk or not. Now I do it all
the time, thanks to the studios constant pushing back of the release
date. I now doubt whether I will ever buy in Australia unless they are on
special and it is something that is a "so so" title that I would not have
already bought from the US.
hmmm, could of used a little more punctuation up there but you get the
idea :-)
Andrew
> LaserDisc's were always elitist and so we paid a price. They were never
> easy to get for the majority of enthusiasts and this in itself inflates the
> price.
>
> For me the allure of DVD is that I will be able to buy movies locally in a
> decent format (other than P+ACY-S VHS) as well as having to import them.
> of course, is reliant on the platform taking off in Australia and
> essentially that boils down to education. Apart from tech minded PC users
> and home theatre enthusiasts most people I know wouldn't have a clue what
> DVD is and that is the single biggest threat to its success in Australia.
>
> Even the stores that stock them don't really know what they have and hide it
> away in a corner, or, more stupidly, stock players without titles - how many
> computer stores don't stock some form of software - people want to play with
> their new toy when they get it - not after they've spent hours scouring the
> city for someone who stocks the damned things....
--
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Ken Little
It is premature to start assessing DVDs success or failure in Australia. The two main
areas that DVD will be targeted at will be the PC platform and home theatre
entertainment.
Home Theatre Entertainment:
At this stage, I don't think anyone can argue there is a lack of DVD hardware for home
theatre entertainment since there now exists Region 4 DVD players from RCA, Samsung,
Panasonic, Philips, JVC, Pioneer and Toshiba as well as DVD ROM kits from Verbatim,
Creative Labs, Samsung and Diamond.
The delay in releasing sufficient number of Region 4 DVD titles to coincide with the
hardware releases has undermined the launch of DVDs in Australia but this cannot be
construed as a failure for DVD. Rather, it is a reflection on the ineptitude of
Australian distributors and their management to effectively plan and implement long
term strategies in the market place.
PC Platform:
Currently, DVD drives are not standard gear on new PCs. The hardware solution of an
add-on MPEG2 decoder card is still expensive whilst the alternate solution of software
decoding is still in its infancy and will require a PC with lots of processing power.
The lack of software titles, in particular, DVD games and multi-media titles is the
biggest stumbling block for DVD on PCs. This will change when Win98 is released this
year as it will provide both operating system support for DVD files and video as well
as a upgraded standard application progamming interface through DirectX for DVD
software developers.
Summary:
The early adopters will kick start the technology's momentum and movies will initially
be the attraction but it won't be the main attraction in the long term by sheer weight
of numbers. Once the prices fall and the awareness and availability of the
technology becomes more prevalent it then reaches mainstream popularity. More
importantly, the number of DVD drives and titles for PCs will be potentially far
greater than players and titles for home theatre entertainment and at this stage of the
game, it is way too early to be claiming DVD's success or failure.
Fish!
In article <353459A8...@ozemail.com.au>, mjbo...@ozemail.com.au
says...
>
>
> Justin Deeley wrote:
>
> > For me the allure of DVD is that I will be able to buy movies locally in a
> > of course, is reliant on the platform taking off in Australia and
> > essentially that boils down to education. Apart from tech minded PC users
> > and home theatre enthusiasts most people I know wouldn't have a clue what
> > DVD is and that is the single biggest threat to its success in Australia.
> >
>
> a LD player.. I want something better than the norm VHS and DVD provides me with
> this.People are getting upset about the lack of awareness in Australia..this is not
> really a problem as the product is not really launched here yet..Lets wait until
> September-December. Australians are the quickest adopters of new texch in the
> world..we love gadgets. We can only speculate what the situation is going to be
> like for zone4 when the product is launched.
>
>
>
>
> > away in a corner, or, more stupidly, stock players without titles - how many
> > computer stores don't stock some form of software - people want to play with
> > their new toy when they get it - not after they've spent hours scouring the
> > city for someone who stocks the damned things....
> >
>
> from their private collection :)
>
>
> > Anyway - enough rambling from me....
> >
> > Justin
>
>
>
>
players are, hence the lack of LD acceptance in Australia.
Be buggered if I'm going to pay roughly double what US owners pay.
Mark Gillis
I am only new tothe DVD world.
What are the prices of DVD's (latest releases) to order in from the US (both
tite cost and mailing costs) ?
How long do they take to arrive back to us ?
Mark Bowman wrote:
> Hi there..
>
> I couldnt give a stuff whether DVD takes off in Australia or not..as long
> as it kicks on in the US I'll be happy. The quality of the Australian
> DVD's that I have seen has been pretty appalling..P&S and MPEG2
> sound..whoopee!. Most sensible people buying DVD players at the moment
> will get a player that has been de-regionalised.
> Besides I can get stuff deliverd to my door in about 2-3 days and a price
> cheaper to or equivalent to VHS versions..plus I get LBX and AC3.
>
> just my opinion..
>
> Brett O'Callaghan wrote:
>
> > Andrew Davis <qgr...@magna.com.au> wrote:
> >
> > >My reason that DVD has not taken off in Australia is the fact that it
> > >has not been released here yet.
> >
> > You know, I think you could be on to something there. ;-)
> >
> > It's a bit early in the day to get all doom and gloomy about DVD in
> > australia when the actual launch hasn't happened yet - you early
> > adopters knew what you were getting in for.
> >