Rental shops join Nu Metro outcry

[sdd]

100% correct

I stopped buying Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro distributions ages ago and only purchase imported discs. They cut the subtitles out of their local distributions leaving my hard of hearing wife unable to watch the DVD. As usual approaching both companies was met by the usual 'We don't give a damn' attitude... a Proudly South African service.

As BeVonk says, they are just driving piracy even more.

This practice of removing subtitles totally pisses me off. I had the same problem and when I complained they blew me off.

I can hear properly but just love watching movines with subtitles ... it brings a whole new dimension to the movie especially comedies.

 

[Syphonx]

I stopped renting dvd's after they all became region one and i dont have a single dvd player that can play them, anyway its not my loss, i can get all the movies i want from friends.

 

[PeterCH]

That is just LAME - it takes effort to take those subtitles out and they DONT take up much space on the disk. Very lame and will backfire no doubt.

Its not lame. It's cost cutting, to maximise profits at the expense of
a relatively small customer base.

I'm willing to bet that NM/SK get charged extra per subtitle/soundtrack set
by the Buena Vista Distribution Co, Universal, SONY and other vampires of this world. So they opt the cheapest route.

Subs on foreign DVDs, they all have them (almost) are great not only
for people who are hard of hearing but also for those whose English
isn't so good and who don't always make out the accents of the speakers.

 

[PeterCH]

Problem with DVD rentals is also their selection. 95% of the stuff on the shelf are Z Grade movies for which i would not even pay R2. How cheated do I feel after being duped by a flashy cover and a interesting synopsis on the back cover.

90% of the movies Hollywood churns out are not art but showbusiness.
They are just rehash of the same, with no originality and when you
get some originality they fill it up with bull. Foreign NON-US cinema and
US Independent movies are much more satisfying but you won't
find those in the rental store, you need to import from the likes
of Criterion Collection, Artificial Eye etc.

 

[general_koffi]

Nu Metro recently won the case in which it claimed Mr Video was buying DVDs of US film titles from distributors other than Nu Metro, resulting in Nu Metro and US film companies losing millions of rands in revenue.

Rofl. I love it.

I hope McDonalds don't decide to sue me if eat at Steers.

 

[PeterCH]

They get like that because too many people are barbarians who have no concept of how to handle the discs or look after other people's property (to be these people probably abuse their own property too). It was even worse with VHS.

I agree with you on the fact that many people have no respect for the
property of others'. For that reason I hardly ever rent a DVD or a CD
out to friends or family. Most of them just don't care. Maybe its
also ignorance, they may think that CD/DVDs are indestructible.
With BD disks of greater density this problem is just compounded.

However I also had a run in with a Mr Video manageress
in Table View (Beachfront). Her copy of TROY would not play in any
of my DVD players - Sony, Pioneer, even PC latop and computer drives
and even on a Sanyo portable. 5 of my DVD players would get into 30
min of the movie then pack up, saying either the DVD is dirty or
unplayable. The DVD was clean, but it was full of minute scratches.
The woman was most rude when she heard my complaints, after I called
her, she said my equipment was at fault. Well she lost a customer
and got a lot of bad publicity from me for that attitude.

Maybe Video store owners should put up signs in big bold letters about
DVD handling and care. The only way to handle a DVD is to hold it
gently by the edge with clean hands.

 

[gregmcc]

Maybe Video store owners should put up signs in big bold letters about
DVD handling and care. The only way to handle a DVD is to hold it
gently by the edge with clean hands.

+1

The worst is the PS2 game titles - it looks like the DVD has been used as a coaster. I never lend out my cd/dvd/games as people just don't look after it.

out of all my 100's of originals if I have more than 10 scratches in total, its a lot!

 

[Moederloos]

Not to get into a bun fight, but if a product that comes into constant contact with people must be "handled gently, only hold the edges, after a sugical scrub down, and then only when wearing hand woven kidskin gloves" well, it is a **** product.

Imagine a book was like that?
Or a keyboard?
Or a remote control?

DVDs are poorly manufactured rubbish.

 

[Mastercarder]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc0mfw4EFEU

<3 Boondocks

 

[PeterCH]

Not to get into a bun fight, but if a product that comes into constant contact with people must be "handled gently, only hold the edges, after a sugical scrub down, and then only when wearing hand woven kidskin gloves" well, it is a **** product.

Imagine a book was like that?
Or a keyboard?
Or a remote control?

DVDs are poorly manufactured rubbish.

That's true too. However its a good thing for the manufacturer. After all
a medium which has no contact (unlike tape or vinyl LP) has the potential
to last a lifetime if treated reasonably. That's bad for business, it would
be better if the DVDs were so susceptible to poor handling that they'd
need frequent replacement. Plus it also cuts down on the
second hand market. They're raking in millions.

If you remember Vinyl records, they were even worse, because each time
you put the needle on you risked a scratch, and the ease with which they
broke if they fell out of your hands....

 

[zaknight]

DVD Rentals

Check out this site. It is something similar to what they have in the U.S. where your movies get posted to you. It is similar to Netflix.

http://www.pushplay.co.za

 

[Velenoso]

.

 

[Joshua_KIng]

Owned a video store...

I owned a video store; past tense.

There was a Mr. Video on our turf and they did the same. This is 2006/7 'She's The Man' not out to rent yet, but Mr. Video has it. Note 1 Copy Region 1. The movie gets released 7more copies get added this time Region 2. Does it cross idiotic minds to remove the Region 1 movie? No, they leave the movie on the self. Ugly duckling NOTHING AT ALL like the other 7. Box art, region etc.

Well I can live with that.

The more 'disadvantaged' areas...they have 7Copies of 1 pirated movie.

Now I have a problem with that.

No one is free from sin.

Personally when I rented movies I watched them and took them out. I didn't touch the disc/tape, I didn't 'stress test' the disc. I didn't even destroy the protective cases.

That is what 90% of adult customers do. I would order 3Copies of 1Movie and I would have 1Copy left.

No one is without sin. Not the unscrupulousness chains, not even the 'innocent' consumers who deface private property.

Yes, 'rental' copies do cost more; much more. Nu Metro has a red strip that says, "For Rental Only" on the box art. What does the disc say? "Not for rental" You need to be authorized to rent. It doesn't fall on Nu Metro or Ster Kinekor. There's a bigger bully the Film and Publication Board.

If they say that you are authorized to rent whether it's imported or 'local' then...

FPB is a adhesive sticker and Nu Metro is that advert you can't skip.

I suggest to all hearing impaired or not. Import US or UK subtitles are almost guaranteed. I have 5 Seasons of 'The Office' 3 of them SA/R2 and of them 2 US/R1 US includes subtitles and better quality overall.

Read DVD copyright laws and Rental Rights.

 

[mister]

I want to sit on my ass in front of my TV, press "RENT", be charged R25 bucks on my credit card and watch the latest movie down my DSL line. But thanks to Telkom's gready shareholders, that won't happen anytime soon.

Transactional Video on Demand or TVOD in short will enable subscribers to have access to the latest block buster movies before they become available on DStv. The movies will be made available on a pay-per-view basis. So in essence subscribers will be able to ‘rent’ and view new movie releases via their decoders.

This is final survey for 2009 and we would really appreciate you taking 15 minutes of your time to complete the survey by clicking on the following link.

http://surveys.c-search.co.za/survey/TVOD09.htm

 

[diabolus]

Nu Metro recently won the case in which it claimed Mr Video was buying DVDs of US film titles from distributors other than Nu Metro, resulting in Nu Metro and US film companies losing millions of rands in revenue.

Ok, what am i missing? How are US film companies losing millions? Who are Mr Video buying DVDs from then, if not directly from US distribitors ?

The statement is making it sound like Mr Video is buying [and renting] pirate copies. I'm certain US film companies are getting paid one way or another, Nu metro is the only one getting "bypassed" here.

Nu Metro and Sk is a bunch of monopolistic greedy corporates of the worst kind. As much as one can blame Video Rental companies for not upping their game [i.e. offering more convenient options like dvd-by-mail which is popular in the USA] , i'm pretty sure Nu Metro is the "vark in die verhaal" here.

 

[Sackboy]

@Gaz

Re Scratched CD's:

Chatted with a Video Shop Owner once and he told me that a Video Shop Owner may not copy a Video to preserve it or attain a new "free" copy from the people he buys from when a CD is scratched and unusable. What this entails is the Video Shop Owner has to fork out another R200 to R400 or more (not sure what it costs now) for a new CD from the Supplier for a CD he essentially owns in the first place as he may not copy his Original nor get a "free" replacement from the Supplier when the CD is scratched.

I told the Video Shop Owner that the "scratch policy" made no sense and he just said that is the way it is.
Hence the amount of effort the Video Shops place into making sure the CD is not scratched when you rent them.
The whole scratched CD policy is ridiculous in my opinion as it places most of the blame on the customer when CD's get scratched which is crazy as after time CD's are going to get scratched if they are used continuously as this is the very nature of the Video Rental Business.

Surely the CD/DVD the Video Shop Owner pays a premium for is the content/data on the CD and not the CD itself?

The rental DVD's are thicker/stronger than the ones you buy.

 

[wHiTe*LiGhTnInG]

when its cheaper to rent or buy than it is to download, then Nu-metro can have some bucks, until then i dont care

 

[rorz0r]

Why does nu metro employ 600 people at it's dvd factory? Seems somewhat excessive considering they only produced 1000 titles in a year.
1 oke to put the dvd in a duplicator/printer thingy and load it with blanks.
1 oke to print the back and front covers.
1 oke to print the box.
100 to put the covers in the cases
100 to fold the boxes
1 to insert stupid adverts and remove subtitles
100 to assemble the boxes
100 to put the dvd into the cases and then into the boxes
??

 

[diabolus]

Why does nu metro employ 600 people at it's dvd factory? Seems somewhat excessive considering they only produced 1000 titles in a year.
1 oke to put the dvd in a duplicator/printer thingy and load it with blanks.
1 oke to print the back and front covers.
1 oke to print the box.
100 to put the covers in the cases
100 to fold the boxes
1 to insert stupid adverts and remove subtitles
100 to assemble the boxes
100 to put the dvd into the cases and then into the boxes
??

1000 titles, not 1000 dvds. Each title consists of thousands of copies which are sold. So a title would actually be say "Transformers 2" .

The part that you should look into

and sold 7 million units.

 

[Sackboy]

Why does nu metro employ 600 people at it's dvd factory? Seems somewhat excessive considering they only produced 1000 titles in a year.
1 oke to put the dvd in a duplicator/printer thingy and load it with blanks.
1 oke to print the back and front covers.
1 oke to print the box.
100 to put the covers in the cases
100 to fold the boxes
1 to insert stupid adverts and remove subtitles
100 to assemble the boxes
100 to put the dvd into the cases and then into the boxes
??

I once worked in a VHS packing factory. There were hundreds of machines which had to be loaded every 30 minutes or so, but despite this, 600 hundred people would still be excessive. DVD is far less labour intensive.