Something Weird Video reformats to DVD-R

[Nukie 2]

I've looking at Something Weird Videos website and I noticed they reformatted to DVD-R, I'm wondering that is all about,
is it cheaper or something? It must be as it's something real small sellers use when they burn files from their computer.

[akiratubo]

DVD-R?  Is Something Weird not making any money?  

[Rev. Powell]

Cheaper. As a niche retailer I doubt Something Weird has ever been very profitable, and things are just getting worse with the recession and competition from YouTube and torrents.

[Jim H]

Cheaper. As a niche retailer I doubt Something Weird has ever been very profitable, and things are just getting worse with the recession and competition from YouTube and torrents.

I'd say it depends on the quantity.  If they're doing runs of a less than say 500 it is far cheaper, but when you get into the 1000+ quantity range a pressed run is cheaper.

However, a huge advantage for a small company is you can churn out DVD-Rs one at a time, meaning you don't have to have a large initial investment like you do with pressed DVDs.  I'd say that is the bigger concern rather than cost per unit.

[Andrew]

It does not look like they changed anything major about their offerings in the past year or more.  For a long time they have offered some movies on true blue DVD through Image, while their less sought-after titles have been available on DVD-R (years ago it was VHS).

What I have seen happen in the last few months is a big drop in the price of the Image DVDs.  They went from usually costing just under $20 to $10 or less on Amazon.com.

[Rev. Powell]

Cheaper. As a niche retailer I doubt Something Weird has ever been very profitable, and things are just getting worse with the recession and competition from YouTube and torrents.

I'd say it depends on the quantity.  If they're doing runs of a less than say 500 it is far cheaper, but when you get into the 1000+ quantity range a pressed run is cheaper.

However, a huge advantage for a small company is you can churn out DVD-Rs one at a time, meaning you don't have to have a large initial investment like you do with pressed DVDs.  I'd say that is the bigger concern rather than cost per unit.

You are correct, although I think pressing can be profitable even at quantities lower then 500.  It's just that it's a lot harder to sell even 100 DVDs of a non-recent release Hollywood film than people assume it is.  The truly independent filmmakers I know would probably be thrilled to sell 50 copies in a year. 

Burning DVD-R's a few at a time saves on warehousing costs also, that's probably a big factor.  If you print up copies of every title in a large catalog like Something Weird's ahead of time, you have to find somewhere to store them all.

[Jim H]

Yeah, tell me about it...  I was at a screening of zombie movies, and they had several independent micro-budget films on DVD there.  Huge zombie buff people, several hundred people around for 10 hours, but they still probably only sold a couple dozen DVDs out of 10 or 12 movies available.  And one of those was one I bought.

Oh yeah and you can definitely make a profit with pressing with under 500...  It's just per unit, more expensive due to the cost of the master.  From what I've seen of it, you can make DVD-Rs for something like $1 with inserts and printed on discs 50 at a time or so...  The glass master cost of a pressed DVD seems to be around $300ish or more, so it's not too practical to do much smaller runs.  Most of the pressing companies I've seen also price their plans with 1000+ copies as the price point where pressed discs with box and insert at around $1, quite obviously in an attempt to pressure people into larger orders.

[Criswell]

so will picture quality be worse on dvd-r?

[Jim H]

so will picture quality be worse on dvd-r?

I doubt it, unless they're using single layer DVD-Rs of movie that were formally dual layer when pressed.  I must admit I really prefer not to buy films on burned media though, as over the years pressed media tends to have more errors, and in the long run (5-10 years or more) may fail.

[Criswell]

ok. That's kinda not good, i guess as long as it saves money. which means they might be cheaper

[Nukie 2]

I doubt Netflix would want to carry DVD-Rs though.

[Rev. Powell]

I doubt Netflix would want to carry DVD-Rs though.

I know for a fact that Netflix will NOT carry DVD-R's, unless SW is able to cut some sort of deal with them.

[Skull]

I though most to all Netflix movie is copied into a database and we are seeing the dvd copy of the movie and if the movie is lost/stolen or broken Netflix has to do it make another copy print and send it out. At least several movies I have seen from Netflix seemed to be copied from a DVD and taged (Netflix)

[SPazzo]

Just curious; what do you mean by DVD-R?  Are we talking DVD5s vs DVD9s?

[Jim H]

I though most to all Netflix movie is copied into a database and we are seeing the dvd copy of the movie and if the movie is lost/stolen or broken Netflix has to do it make another copy print and send it out. At least several movies I have seen from Netflix seemed to be copied from a DVD and taged (Netflix)

Net Flix buys hundred of copies of retail DVDs and adds their own labels to them (I'd hazard a guess and say they actually pay higher than normal prices for most releases, in order to allow for renting).  They're identical to the DVDs you'll buy in stores.  So yes, that does mean lost/stolen copies must be repurchased at full price by Net Flix. 

Just curious; what do you mean by DVD-R?  Are we talking DVD5s vs DVD9s?

I alluded to DVD9 VS DVD5 in my post (dual layer DVD-Rs are much more expensive than single layer), but specifically we're talking about DVD recordable discs.  As in, burnt discs like you'd do at home on your computer instead of pressed discs.