Once Again, With Feeling: No One Wants Self-Destructing DVDs

from the trying-again... dept

Simply amazing. Over the years, there have been way too many attempts at offering "disposable, self-destructing, DVDs." It started in the late 90s with Circuit City's Divx, which failed (note, this is a different Divx than the video compression format). A few years later, some other company started pitching disposable DVDs, which never went anywhere. Then, suddenly, Disney seemed to think they had come up with something new and started offering disposable DVDs. Guess what? They failed too. Miserably. Even though Disney convinced some gullible reporter that things were going great, they barely sold any of the damn things and got out of the business entirely. In fact, it got so bad that the company that made the self-destructing DVDs for Disney sold itself off to some other company that now seems to think there's a big market out there for the product. Yeah, good luck with that. If anything, the market has gotten even smaller with services like Netflix (no late fees -- one of the major selling points of the disposable DVD gang) and Blockbuster's plan to sort of, but not really kill late fees.
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  1. identicon
    Stronimo, 7 Feb 2005 @ 4:51am

    It could work at the right price

    The first time I heard about this I thought: what brilliant opportunity for somebody to undercut Blockbuster. Push these out into standard sales channels like the supermarkets and all the overheads are eliminated. There is no member database to manage, no late reminders or late fees to issue, no premises to rent, no staff to pay, no old movies to dispose of. And then Disney launched them at $7 each. D'oh! That's not undercutting anybody, that's pure price-gouging.

    Thinking about these as slighty cheaper DVD sales is all wrong, it is a method of movie rental and the first company that realises this and pitches the price accordingly is going to clean up.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    thecaptain, 7 Feb 2005 @ 4:55am

    Re: It could work at the right price

    Exactly, I mean why would I pay SEVEN BUCKS for something like this when I can BUT the real thing for NINE?

    Its so stupid I can just imagine the people who keep pushing this must be seriously high.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2005 @ 6:32am

    Re: It could work at the right price

    That's what you get when you hire 20-somethings with no real work experience and the ability to only hold about 2 thoughts in their head at once. I've got a similar gripe with broadcast TV and movies. BrainDead.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Jared, 7 Feb 2005 @ 9:56am

    Garbage

    Not to mention the amount of garbage this would produce if it became mainstream. How fast to DVDs biodegrade again?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    RJD, 7 Feb 2005 @ 11:32am

    Others should take the message to heart

    Maybe Napster will understand this message ... people don't want to 'rent' things that go 'poof'. We generally like to own them. Especially when the price of ownership is roughtly equiv to the rental.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, 7 Feb 2005 @ 12:11pm

    Good deal?

    1) Buy disposable DVD movie
    2) Make copy of DVD movie with freely available software
    3) Put copy of DVD movie into case and drop the disposable DVD into the trash or recycling container.

    For the price of $7 plus a blank DVD ($0.25+ depending on qty) you have a movie you can watch time and time again.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Haig S., 7 Feb 2005 @ 9:13pm

    Re: Good deal?

    And why is that any different with disposable dvd's than it is with your plain old blockbuster dvd rentals, or netflix rentals. You can burn those too and send them back for less than $7.

    Disposable dvd's are a great way (until VOD and other digital distribution gain ground) to offer movie rentals.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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