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Post by berry on Jun 18, 2006 12:37:42 GMT -5
The first season (and only season) of CE's Doctor Who is going to hit the shelves in the US on July 4th. Geez, what a ridiculous price ($76 USD on deepdiscountdvd and $70 USD on Amazon). On average a 22 episode 1 hour long US series might be about $43 or so. Is this a manifestation of "free trade" and the tariffs are kicking it up about 150% MORE than it should be costing (13 1 hour episodes here are usually around $30) or were the Great Britain customers gouged as well. Fortunately, I just bought a DVD recorder and the Sci-Channel just had a mini-marathon, so I have already recorded 1/3 of the season myself. I will be able to put the season on about 4 DVDs and won't have to pay ridiculous prices for it. Of course, I will have that annoying little Sci-Fi logo at the bottom right hand corner of the picture, but I'll live with that and save $70.  |
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Post by The Thinker on Jun 18, 2006 15:46:26 GMT -5
Well, DVD prices in Britain were along the lines of £15- £20 which in dollars is... Erm, does anyone know the US$ to Pound Sterling exchange rate?
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Post by boies00 on Jun 18, 2006 16:19:03 GMT -5
I guess Berry you have never noticed the inflated prices Showtimes ask for series like The Sopranos or Six Feet Under...
Dom
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Post by berry on Jun 18, 2006 20:27:42 GMT -5
I guess Berry you have never noticed the inflated prices Showtimes ask for series like The Sopranos or Six Feet Under... Dom Whoa now, Trigger?  Surely, you are not putting Doctor Who in the category of The Sopranos are far as popularity, publicity, awards won, or anything else. I don't even watch The Sopranos, but these two series are not at all comparable. And neither is the Sci-Fi channel in the US running Doctor Who and a premium station like Showtime running The Sopranos. Whatever the answer is, that "ain't" it.  |
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Post by berry on Jun 18, 2006 20:31:16 GMT -5
Well, DVD prices in Britain were along the lines of £15- £20 which in dollars is... Erm, does anyone know the US$ to Pound Sterling exchange rate? 1 British pound = 1.8437 US dollars |
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Post by boies00 on Jun 18, 2006 21:30:48 GMT -5
My point was just that not all TV sets are cheap.
These were two examples of US shows with 13 episodes by season that are much more expensive than the Doctor Who DVD.
Dom
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Post by berry on Jun 18, 2006 22:50:27 GMT -5
My point was just that not all TV sets are cheap. These were two examples of US shows with 13 episodes by season that are much more expensive than the Doctor Who DVD. Dom OK, you want to compare US shows...Boston Legal, the hour long show on ABC, is advertised on deepdiscountdvd for their 1st season on DVD. It was 17 episodes and they are charging $29 and some cents. Now, c'mon, Boston Legal (winner of several Emmy's over a couple of years) has 17 episodes for $29 and Doctor Who has 13 episodes for $76. Uh, whether we are talking US dollars or British pounds, there is a major monetary problem here. Once again, I suspect it is a tariffs issue! |
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Post by boies00 on Jun 19, 2006 6:59:11 GMT -5
There are other BBC shows that are very cheap, so I don't think it's a tariff issue.
My best guess is that Doctor Who is the top value of recent BBC programming and they know they'll sell the new series whatever the price. So, why put a lower price when you can put a higher one?
Likewise, how many Star Trek fans complained about the price of the season sets -- over $100 each. But they still bought them.
At the end, it's just marketing...
Dom
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Post by Massimo on Jun 19, 2006 8:20:13 GMT -5
Dom, it's true that Star Trek DVDs are expensive too but at least for region 2 you can find them at about the same price as DW season 1 box and periodically you can find special offers so I bought some ST box sets at about £ 28 while so far I have seen no special offers for DW box set and I can't find it for less than £ 45.  |
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Post by The Thinker on Jun 19, 2006 9:55:37 GMT -5
Well, DVD prices in Britain were along the lines of £15- £20 which in dollars is... Erm, does anyone know the US$ to Pound Sterling exchange rate? 1 British pound = 1.8437 US dollars Thanks! So 20 times 1.8437 equals... So a £20 DVD in the UK should cost US$36.87 exluding tariffs, approximately... So, why the DVDs in the USA are so expensive I don't know why.  |
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Post by davisonera on Jun 19, 2006 10:40:55 GMT -5
All BBC DVDs are expensive. In the UK one classic series DVD is £20. That might only be for a 3 part story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh well at least now I can copy my old vids onto DVD.
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Post by berry on Jun 19, 2006 17:28:25 GMT -5
Oh well at least now I can copy my old vids onto DVD. I just bought a DVD recorder and have been copying my VHS tapes to DVDs. But I discovered the real reason why industry was pushing DVDs over video cassettes. They have really improved the anti-copying technology. I recorded Spiderman off one of the premium stations onto my Replay TV and then transfered it to a VHS tape. Trying to do that with the DVD recorder shuts down the recording after a few seconds with the message that "copyrighted materail can not be recorded." I'm sure the quality of DVDs is superior and perhaps the recordings will retain their quality longer (that is yet to be determined), but I think the actual reason for the switch is so they could finally do something workable to prevent people from copying movies and the like. They tried to do it on VHS tapes, but quite frankly, it didn't work very well at all. |
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Post by Massimo on Jun 20, 2006 5:15:24 GMT -5
berry, you're right about possibility of copy protection on DVDs but tapes are obsolete anyway because of many technical advantages of the DVDs which non only have better quality but also the possibility to have multi-sound-tracks so you can have commentaries but also different languages and this is great for people who don't live in anglosaxon countries and could get easily only dubbed tapes while local DVD editions always carry at least English audio track for movies / TV shows produced in English.
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Post by The Thinker on Jun 20, 2006 9:51:37 GMT -5
I read what Berry wrote and I think that's strange, my DVD recorder actually allows you to record movies off the TV. Anyway anti-copying software, like all programmes, can be ultimately overidden with ample time and patience, and skill. Same goes for CD/DVD write protection.
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Post by berry on Jun 20, 2006 12:30:39 GMT -5
I read what Berry wrote and I think that's strange, my DVD recorder actually allows you to record movies off the TV. Anyway anti-copying software, like all programmes, can be ultimately overidden with ample time and patience, and skill. Same goes for CD/DVD write protection. It was unclear to me by your response what "movies off the TV" you are referring to. I was specifically talking about movies from premium stations, not regular broadcast TV or cable stations. I can do that also. I was referring to a movie which I put on my Replay TV storage area duing a free preview weekend of Showtime or some such. |
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Surely, you are not putting Doctor Who in the category of The Sopranos are far as popularity, publicity, awards won, or anything else. I don't even watch The Sopranos, but these two series are not at all comparable. And neither is the Sci-Fi channel in the US running Doctor Who and a premium station like Showtime running The Sopranos. Whatever the answer is, that "ain't" it. 
