There was such an immediate and vehement response to my last column that we decided to update you with our thoughts a little more frequently than we did so far, and make the “Breaking the silence…” column to appear somewhat regularly.

Last week Warner Home Video finally unveiled their $14.95 DVD range with a number of title announcements. Priced at a suggested retail price (SRP) of $14.95, these titles will be available in stores for less than $10! This is exactly the price cut DVD needed in order to aggressively compete with the VHS format. Now tagged the same price, the major difference is that DVD simply offers an enormous quality improvement over VHS that is easily visible to everyone. Nevertheless, immediately after releasing the information, the inevitable complaints started yet once again. All these releases Warner lined up for their $14.95 price range are pan & scan versions and do not feature Dolby Digital soundtracks. Everyone who expected supplemental material on those discs will also look for them in vain.

Let’s be realistic for a moment, and see what we’ve got, before we start agitating people into another frenzy of flame mails. It seems to me that many people are not aware of the fact that producing high quality DVD releases costs substantial money  or if they are indeed aware of it, they seem to willingly ignore it. If Warner want to bring down the price for a certain line of DVD releases, they need to save money somewhere to make sure they are still lucrative. Of course they start by removing the extras, the bells and the whistles, which substantially reduces authoring time and thus, costs. Next, they remove the need to remix the soundtrack to a Dolby Digital track, which again cuts costs. Not having to encode and compress the Dolby Digital soundtrack saves time and once again, costs. Removing subtitles is another way to save money overall. Looking a little closer at all these aspects we suddenly find that those DVDs look and feel an awful lot like their VHS counterparts and that is exactly what Warner want. Using the same pan & scan transfer and the Dolby Surround soundtrack used in the VHS version helps Warner to cut their prices even more. What remains is a version of the film that is identical to the VHS release, only that is of a superior visual and aural quality at exactly the same price on a shiny disc that is easier to handle than a VHS tape.

Warner are clearly targeting this line of releases at people cross-entering DVD from the VHS format, and not home theater owners. It is common knowledge that these customers do not want letterboxed films, it is also common knowledge that those customers are unlikely to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a Dolby Digital sound system. This kind of targeted release line-up is probably as focussed on a certain group of consumers as it can get, without sticking a physical label, saying “Home Theater Owners Stay Away!” label, on it. Yet, exactly the videophiles among the DVD users start ranting against this kind of release. It is almost as if they wished DVD remained an elite format that only the ambitious can afford. A format as dedicated, and intrinsically self-limiting as Laserdisc. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Warner’s new low price line, because for the ambitious film lovers, there are still the full fledged releases with anamorphic widescreen transfers, Dolby Digital soundtracks and plenty of supplemental materials. It almost makes me feel like people start bitching about the fact that there is a Ford Pinto… after all, every car could be a Ferrari, right? What’s your problem Ford? Don’t you know how to build a car? It doesn’t make sense to condemn something I do not want anyway? Why would I bother about the quality of beef in a certain fast food chain, when I am a vegetarian to start with? I guess you see my point. The problem at hand is tolerance and variety. Range of goods and demand, which eventually leads to a diversified market and most of all to success. DVD is on its way to success and thankfully Warner Home Video are paving the way once again.

Don’t get me wrong. I love high quality DVDs that make good use of the technology and its capabilities, but Warner’s new line is just as important for the format to succeed. The more we tolerate this approach, the more our infectuous excitement for the medium will catch on with other people, instead of leaving them with a sour taste.

Have a nice day, everyone, and enjoy your movies.

 August 23, 1998

© 1997-99 by “DVD Review”. All rights reserved.