How much should we pay for DVD all series?

Chat about collectables, videos
AndyThomas
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Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2001 12:42 am
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How much should we pay for DVD all series?

Post by AndyThomas »

Just to recap as you may not know - althought these descriptions are saying "all episodes" strictly speaking what you'll get is 8 one hour edits of the show; the US video version. They do contain the bulk of the footage as it was broadcast in the UK, but not as 24 individual episodes.I don't sell copies of the series, but the "DVD fans clues are there" auctions are from StarFleetDirect which advertises here, although not recently. He did the original VCD version (I believe) and has since done a DVD version, as has, I believe, RareTV. So as far as I know there are 2 DVD versions done by "locals". It's unlikely that other sellers have gone to the trouble of sourcing the US tapes and creating menu systems, so I would imagine any other sellers are just reproducing those "originals".At the end of the day all of these copies are in breach of copyright, but at least you won't be getting ripped off quite so badly if you can buy them at a fixed price rather than having to bid for them. Normally fans of a series just pass it on at reproduction cost. It's an old argument...You mentioned elsewhere that DVD can look better than VHS - that're true up to a point because encoders can iron out some of the problems with "noisy" tapes, so the picture may appear smoother but it's still not going to be the quality you'd get from a professional transfer from original source material. Very watchable, certainly.
Andy Thomas - SFXB Webmaster and Forum Moderator
Happosai
Posts: 179
Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2001 1:38 pm

How much should we pay for DVD all series?

Post by Happosai »

Before going ahead and lining the pockets of people on eBay who are profitting from supplying copyrighted material, those of you with a broadband connection might like to check the eDonkey P2P network (use a client like eMule or Shareaza), where you should be able to find all the digital videos available for download with a simple search. They're not likely to be much worse quality that the VCDs/DVDs, given that they all come from the same source (and are the DVDs anything more that the VCDs put onto less discs?)[Happosai]
Happosai
Posts: 179
Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2001 1:38 pm

How much should we pay for DVD all series?

Post by Happosai »

Even ten quid for four DVD-Rs in jewel cases including sending them in a jiffy bag via next day recorded UK delivery would probably still include a small profit margin...30 quid is profiteering, pure and simple.Of course, buyers are free to pay whatever they think the going rate or value to them is, if they don't know that it is available elsewhere cheaper (i.e. free) and is just as 'legitimate' (we're talking about unlicenced copies of a copyrighted material here, after all, regardless of what medium is used to distribute it).I personally don't think there's any justification for profiteering in this way even by the people who originally did the digital conversions...[Happosai]
Happosai
Posts: 179
Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2001 1:38 pm

How much should we pay for DVD all series?

Post by Happosai »

Quote (raretv.co.uk @ 20 Jan. 2005,19:10)on the other hand if it wasnt for people like myself or starfleet direct,that took the time to source all the original usa tapes,took the time to capture and author the dvds or vcds.There wouldnt be a near complete series to watch.the free avis and or the vcd mpegs for download are from starfleet directs captures.But did you (and others) do this as a favour to other fans, or to turn a profit?You can't really use the 'cost recovery' argument -- you have a set of tapes that you could most likely sell to other collectors without making a loss (in fact you'd probably make a profit, such is the nature of collectibles like this); you may have had to make some investment in hardware, but that was up to you; the same goes for your time, which I really don't think you can legitimately put a price on for something like this -- were you doing this instead of a proper job? If you had to spend time learning how to rip/encode/etc. properly, why is your time worth more than someone that has that knowledge? What happens when you've covered your costs? Do you then sell the DVDs at cost price?As I've already said, fundamentally, we're talking about distributing someone else's property, without their permission...if you were selling an original work of your own, then you'd be free to charge whatever you thought it was worth, but what right do you have to do this for someone else's work and make a profit from it? How would you feel if others profitted from your original creation without your permission?What are your thoughts about other people selling copies of your DVDs for the same profit as you? People selling them cheaper than you? People selling them for no profit at all?Whilst I appreciate that some people have taken the time to produce good quality digital copies of something that is otherwise commercially unavailable, the fact that they're clearly profitting from this leaves a bad taste in my mouth.[Happosai]
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