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so and have all the faith in the format’s success. One thing is clear, if DVD is to succeed, rental will play an integral part in it. Studios are fully aware of this scenario and have taken a pro-active approach with various business models, providing retailers with DVD hardware and software displays so that stores can let their customers try out the format for themselves very inexpensively, by renting players and discs. Tower Records/Video, Hollywood Video and Blockbuster are actively starting to offer DVD rental throughout their chains and the results throughout the industry or inspiring to say the least, with each available DVD player renting, on average, twice a week. Warner even had a VSDA Special Offer for their Rental Starter Kits we reported earlier about it dropping the price by almost $1000 on all the three kit setups. We wouldn’t be surprised if many video stores took this chance to finally introduce DVD to their clientele. It was sad to see that one video store organization became rather militant during the show, plastering the walkways to the Convention Center and its interiors with hateful slogans against both DVD and Divx. It did not make a big impact, We hope, even more so as the folks did not even know how to correctly spell Divx, mislabeling it DVYX. Anyway… it was a clear sign to me that still a lot of education needs to be done on behalf of the VSDA, to make sure that video store owners and retailers understand that DVD will actually enhance and boost their business, instead of ruining it. Unfortunately even the best rental model will not be able to completely eradicate the confusion Divx is creating in the market, or the insecurity of people with HDTV looming on the horizon. Image Entertainment’s Garrett Lee perceives this confusion as DVD’s biggest opponent - and he is probably right. Not the technologies themselves are a threat to DVD, but the insecurity they introduce in the market, leaving people dazed and confused. Circuit City’s approach to sell their own hatchling Divx to their customers by utilizing obscure and deceptive business practices will certainly do a lot of damage to the market, but we here at “DVD Review” are hopeful that in the long run the better one will win - and that is clearly DVD. No matter how hard Divx executives try to believe their own marketing tirades, convenience is definitely not one of Divx’s key selling points... at least we fail to see it. It simply has nothing to offer that DVD does not. Studios reportedly back away from the format already and their original hopes to have exclusive day-and-date alliances with the studios for major movies have become void. As a matter of fact, all they get so far, are poor pan&scan wash-offs from exisiting DVD releases. DVD rental is here and it will expand rapidly once stores get a real whiff of the format capabilities. The VSDA conference has definitely done a great job in educating retailers and the press about the quality and the prospectus of the DVD format. Many retailers came to the show, not knowing what DVD is, returning with solid information and an impression of DVD’s presence in the market. It was all over the show. In every corner you saw the DVD logo and although certain press coverage might have left the impression that not even people in the industry or the movie stars are aware of the DVD platform, our experience was a totally different one. All the celebrities we talked to knew about DVD and were in fact extremely hyped up about the technologies capabilities. Studio representatives are welcoming the format just as heartily, as it gives them the opportunity to re-sell their film libraries, while in other areas, such as the adult video industry, DVD has sparked a completely new life. Although it is unlikely that DVD will quickly replace VHS as the dominant video format, the signs are clearly visible for everyone to see, that DVD is a rising star. This was this year’s VSDA conference the first one for “DVD Review” by the way and brings our coverage of the show to an end. We know many have hoped for Fox’s announcement to support DVD after all, or Paramount’s title announcement none of which really happened. And although DVD took up a big portion of the show, it also became obvious that it still is a niche market. With roughly 350.000 player sold, it stands boldly against an installed base of 82 million VHS players in the US, but let’s face it, the studios are in the business to make money and there is only so much money to be made in such a small market. Although all studio representatives we have talked are very favorable towards the format and we would like to expressly include Fox here some of them either don’t have the technical capabilities to enter yet, or they simply cannot or do not want to enter because the installed base is too small. This is nothing we DVD owners want to hear, we know, but the truth of the matter is that the average DVD title sells only a couple of thousand units. The phenomenal numbers we hear about 200.000 sold copies of “Air Force One” or other titles are singular exceptions from a catalog of roughly 1400 titles, most of which probably did not even sell 10.000 copies. We need to understand that the DVD platform is still posing a considerable risk to the publishers and the only way to minimize this risk is by supporting them. If the disc is not exactly what we wished for, because it does not contain the commentary track we had hoped for so badly or because it is not 16x9 enhanced, we all have to consider for a moment that, no matter what, the company that brought us this disc went out on limb for it, and probably made the best out of the restrictions and limitations they had. Not a single publishers is releasing DVD because they want to consciously disappoint their customers. If they do things a certain way, they do so for a reason… and whatever the reason may be, it is definitely not to let down its customers. It has also become very clear during the show that studios like Paramount and Fox are fully aware of the hostility certain groups of people on the Internet incinerate and the various unfounded rumors floating around. They are aware of the boycotting campaigns and the flame wars in the newsgroups and to tell you the truth, they clearly did more harm than good. In fact, especially in the case of Fox I would go as far as to say that one of the reasons Fox has not committed yet is because of this hostility. Why should they do people of favor who make it a profession to rant, yell and insult them? It went so far that Steve Feldstein, Fox’s VP of PR, had to change his email address because of constant flame mails he received after someone posted |
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