Forum - View topicNEWS: ADVFilms.com Lowers Prices on Episode Downloads
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Splitter
 Posts: 1276 Location: Knockin' on Heaven's Door |
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MSRP DVD with 4-5 episodes = $30 = $6-7.50 per episode. This new medium cuts that by nearly 5 bucks.
Between this and the new TAN streaming site, otaku who play by the rules have a lot to be thankful for this week. Pun intended. |
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Porcupine
 Posts: 1033 |
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Sounds interesting. Is this service active as of today? And what is the video format of these downloads? Is it really the same quality as DVD, as claimed? Are the videos then MPEG-2 files with an average bitrate of 7 mbps like their DVDs are?
The other comment I had is that $2 per episode is not as cheap as it appears. That'd be equivalent to about $8 to $10 a DVD in most cases, which is maybe 1/2 to 1/3rd the price, but you don't get any physical packaging, discs, or inserts. And maybe no DVD extras. Comparing the price of these downloads to DVD's MSRP prices is not a fair comparison. The prices should be compared to the typical prices at which DVDs are obtained, which are significantly lower than MSRP. |
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Rosyna
Posts: 40 |
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Well, ADV's DVDs tend not to contain any inserts and their thin pack DVDs contain no extras.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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You know, it's industry standard pricing. Two bucks an episode. That's what iTunes charges for its shows, it's largely been accepted as reasonable by the public. |
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Unholy_Nny
 Posts: 622 |
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That's still ~$50 for a 26 ep series. I'm not paying that much for a download... Fine for an actual disk release, but not for a download. (I highly dislike viewing things on my computer, and only available to my computer. Infact, if I was given a choice between a $60 DVD boxset and a $20 complete series download, I would go with the DVDs)
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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2 dollars an episode seems pretty fair to me. It's around what most stuff goes for on Itunes. If you buy the 2 buck episodes, that's 4 eps for 8 bucks, about 1/4 of what the dvd would cost.
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ryusaki
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I'm still surprised ANN has reported TAN Streaming Site yet...
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rankothefiremage
 Posts: 515 Location: Michigan |
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stilled chained to a ms-standard, needs open standards
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Draneor
 Posts: 355 |
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Is it dub-only or do they offer Japanese audio as well? I thought I heard somewhere that they did not offer the Japanese track. ADV's FAQ doesn't seem to address the topic unfortunately. As I will only watch anime in Japanese, I personally wouldn't pay any price for English-only downloads (for those that like to watch anime in English, it's probably a good idea). Although it it probably isn't something ADV has control over, I also dislike that they restrict the downloads to residents of the US (I may live in the US, but I strongly prefer companies that think internationally rather than locally and am slightly annoyed by those that don't). In any case, I think I'll stick to R1 and R2 DVDs for collection purposes. It's nice to own the physical object, I think. Perhaps I may be a dying breed though.
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Porcupine
Posts: 1033 |
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All the recent ADV DVD's I've had contained good to excellent (sometimes multi-page booklet) inserts. The thinpack boxsets contain no extras or inserts, but the thinpack boxsets cost the same as $2 per episode (the average price for an ADV thinpack is about $55 in many places) and you still get something physical as well (the discs plus boxset packaging). On the other hand the thinpack boxsets come out a couple years after the initial release, this is another factor. It's still not confirmed though that these download videos are truly DVD quality, based on the most recent reply here I'm guessing they are not (but confirmation and technical details, from anyone, would be nice). I've been curious about the dub/sub status of the downloads also. If they are claiming DVD quality then it should be selectable, just like on the DVDs.
I guess $2 per episode is industry standard pricing, that is good info. But the decision is still up to us consumers as individuals to decide for ourselves if that's a good price or not relative to the DVDs. |
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bayoab
Posts: 831 |
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rankothefiremage
Posts: 515 Location: Michigan |
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mp3 isn't an open standard either......... |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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I guess it's just a little disheartening when we finally see some progress in the digital domain like this and the instant response is to complain about the price and the format. This is a good step forward for the industry and something other companies should also be doing. The more people we have offering digital downloads like this, the better, as it's a system that has proven to be successful. |
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Furudanuki
 Posts: 1874 |
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It's a good thing to have available, but since the $1.99 download is in a 320x240 format I can't see myself using this service to any great extent. The DVD quality files are twice the price (according to the article), which would make the downloads for an typical 4-5 episode volume cost as much or more than the typical discounted price for the actual DVD. I also have the same concern that Draneor expressed reagarding language tracks: I'm willing to listen to dubbed anime, but I have no interest in purchasing dub-only titles. I could use this service to get a 1 or 2 episode impression of a series I haven't seen before - help seperate the wheat from the chaff so to speak. I probably will give it a try just to see how well the system works and be able to judge the quality/value for myself.
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Xanas
Posts: 2058 |
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So the instant response from people should be to say "good job" and to accept it even when they have problems with it? I'm sorry but that makes no sense. DRM infested media that will only play on proprietary software is not of interest to me. The pricing for me is a secondary concern. Anyway I'll just buy the DVDs and make x264 backups. It almost certainly gives me better quality and I can play it in my OS.
As far as 2$ being "acceptable" goes, I don't know the sales numbers of digital downloads. I know the industry "accepts" the price, but I don't know how many customers they are really getting at that cost. I don't necessarily have a problem with 2$ in and of itself, I would actually prefer a subscription based scheme though, and would accept some level of advertisements as long as they aren't as annoying as those on adult swim. |
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