the outrageous price of new release vhs video's

[jeex]

has anyone noticed that new release vhs video's cost almost $100? or they arent even available for sale.. but in comparison, the dvd's are only about $20, and they're always available at the time of release..

this seems sorta like an extreme thing to do to force dvd's on consumers..

i remember a coupla years ago you could buy the vhs the day it came out for about $20.. nowadays you cant even buy them until quite a while after the movie has been out..

is'nt this legaly wrong in some way? sorta like how microsoft makes msie a part of the o/s, sorta forcing people to use it..

i hardly ever rent vhs movies, but i still think this is a really wrong thing to do.. it'd be sorta like charging cable tv subscribers $75 a month & charging satellite subscribers $10 only a month..

[kingoflubrication]

i worked at suncoast (movie sales) a few years ago when dvds just started to come out. its always been like this, not just since the time of dvds. companies dont want to cut rentals down by having the movie available to buy the same day its released for rental. there are still some vhs movies that come out the same day as the dvd: i think spy kids did this recently.

[jeex]

i understand your point.

but why are the vast majority of dvd's available for purchase at the same time they are released, but not vhs'?

[kingoflubrication]

not sure exactly why dvds are available before most vhs. laserdisc was also like this. maybe they see dvd as more for the collector, and not the average movie renter. however, this is rapidly starting to change.

[BIGTHREE2001]

YOU THINK THATS BAD..
WELL OVER HERE NEW VIDEO RELEASES COST ABOUT £150
BLOODY DISGRACEFULL!!!!

[likkletree]

I remember back in time to when I bought Superman the movie and that cost me £18000 ...and that was on BetaMax...bloddy disgraceful actually, when one thinks about it !

[AntnyMD]

DVDs are released simultaneously with rental VHS because DVDs are copy-protected. People who still rent VHS will continue to rent VHS until the studios no longer support the format. People who buy DVDs have pretty much eliminated rental VHS from their lives. They'll rent the DVD, but their first thought is to purchase it.

Yeah -- I'm inside the head of DVD fans.

[DiViNeLeFT]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-09-27 11:52:33, AntnyMD wrote:
DVDs are released simultaneously with rental VHS because DVDs are copy-protected. People who still rent VHS will continue to rent VHS until the studios no longer support the format. People who buy DVDs have pretty much eliminated rental VHS from their lives. They'll rent the DVD, but their first thought is to purchase it.

Yeah -- I'm inside the head of DVD fans.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

copy-protected!! lmao!!

[AntnyMD]

I never said the copy protection actually works

[tuan711]

I used to own and operate a video rental store. It was a tough business and getting tougher everyday.

There are two types of pricing when it comes to newly released VHS.

The dollar cost is what I used to buy from the distributors as a video store owner.
80-90% of A-title movies cost about $55-$70 per VHS.
The remaining 10-20% are around $15 each (these are called Sellthrough - movies that you can buy at COSCO).
This was even before the introduction of DVDs.

Why the two vastly different pricing policies?
It all depends on what the production studios think would bring in the most money.

The two deciding factors are purchase or rental.
If they think the average consumer would purchase a movie for their family to watch over and over again then they would price it low. Most purchased movies are family oriented (see if you can find a newly rated R VHS movie for $10-$20 - I haven't seen too many or at all).

The rental pricing are for movies that the average consumer want to watch, but not over and over again. These movies are priced so high that only video stores would purchase them.

DVD pricing are different than VHS because even though DVD is getting more and more popular each day, it has yet to generate the money (sales + rentals) that are close to VHS. Most of us techie wouldn't believe that, but it is the fact. Also, the average consumer (that already own a DVD player) is more likely to purchase a DVD than he or she would with VHS due to the fact that DVD is more user friendly (FF,Pause,Slow) and won't lose quality over time like VHS so explain the cheaper price for some DVDs.

The studio wouldn't care less what format to support other than what bring in the most money. Actually, some were very hesitated in the begining to release their movies on DVD fearing that they would lose money from VHS sales + rentals.

In the future, if the Studios thinks they can make more money with DVD rentals than sales then you will see DVD prices rocket to a level that only video stores be able to buy it, and the average consumer like you and me will have no choice but to rent them from the video stores.

It's all about the bottom line.

[jeex]

tuan,

beautiful explanation of how it all goes. thanks for taking the time to lay it all out.

they say you learn something new everyday, and i just did.
thanks.

--
antnymd,

most newly released vhs' are copy protected as well, with macrovision.