Forum - View topicChicks On Anime - Producing a DVD
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krelyan
Posts: 173 Location: Utah |
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Why not? Singles were released in two month (at best) intervals. As the article noted, they run multiple projects concurrently. I’d assume they also give themselves a buffer cushion in case a problem arises. I also don’t think the R1 distributors have complete control over how they release the titles (I'm guessing they need to have the Japenese license committees approval), so that may play a part in why complete collections are not often released initially, but that’s just conjecture on my end. It may be easier for them to get a few extra blind buys with a $60 partial release than a full blown $120 set. FUNi has a lot more information available to them on what release strategies work than I, the ignorant consumer, do. I personally would prefer buying it in one go as well, but two sets is pretty damn close. However, I will agree with you for series that aired on TV, but don't see DVD releases till (sometimes) months after its finished airing. I’m not sure if that’s part of the deal of getting the show on TV or not, but if the dubbing is already obviously complete, logically, there should be reduction between sets. |
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Hachiman76
Posts: 19 |
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...hmmm, i get the feeling i'm about to enter a lions den, but here goes nothing.
on the subject of dvds, i am someone who has only started buying them in earnest the past 1-2 years. not for a lack of caring or fandom, i've been into anime for going on 12 years now, but because I am the child of a lower middle-class family, and therefore did not have the funds to drop 50-60 bucks every few months on the newest collection without being ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it would be good. as we all know, absolute certainty of a shows quality is an oxymoron, with the only way to figure it being to watch the show online, which would ruin the point of getting the dvd in the first place. plus, i've always been a fan of physical media, and nothing can beat the surge of pride when i look at the shelves covered in my passion (...i think that came out wrong dirtier than intended). now that i can find most boxed sets of shows online for like thirty bucks, the risk is less, and plus i now know which places to look for advice on shows that i might like. actually, i can honestly say i have made no mistakes in my purchases (except for shigurui, which was just...bad). the only gripe i can really make with the dvds is that theyre still a little too pricey sometimes, and that the unfortunately frequent dearth of extras is annoying. the biggest joy of dvds in general, besides ownership of the beloved show, is the extras. as for dubs, well, what can I say? i had to live as a "take what you can get" guy for years, so i've become completely alright with them. not to say i am blind to quality, i watch roughly half my shows in japanese witht he subtitles and i have heard some dubs that are just awful, but i think theres a rather large number of fantastic dubs that people seem to glaze over just because "it's not the original". and i think thats one of the big ideas behind it. in some cases, people who are so adamant on not watching the dub arent doing so because of a lack of fidelity. its because they are too enthralled with maintaining the concept of foreign mystique that they dont want it to be dirtied by american hands, even if it means not enjoying what they loved in the first place. if its good, and the dub is not too bad, then i watch it, no questions asked. if they dont screw up the storyline or the characters baddly (and no, i don't want to hear about the "lost subtlety" believe me, i know) then whats the big deal. well, i also want to be a voice actor, so maybe i'm biased, heheh. sorry for the wall of text. well, thats all from me. see ya *walks off into the sunset* |
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MokonaModoki
 Posts: 437 Location: Austin, Texas |
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Ah... this finally explains it, because I was really lost before when you said prices were increasing. You've confused decreasing discounts with increased prices. This has nothing to do with price increases from Funimation, which simply haven't happened. Nor does it have to do with the economy, since you are describing Amazon's pricing as it has existed for years. The bulk of Amazon's discounts come up front. The bulk of other retailer discounts come in remainder product. This is just how the different companies perceive their target markets. This is why Amazon currently sells School Rumble volumes 1-6 for $26.99 (except for v. 2, at $24.99) when Rightstuf has volume 1, 3, 5, and 6 for $6 (they don't have v. 2 or v. 4). When the School Rumble Season 2 boxset releases (probably in October) at a $70 MSRP, Amazon will have it cheap again. Until then you are still looking at the primary release, which Rightstuf will have on sale for cheap when it goes into remainder after the next release. The other business about using a boxset as the primary release... well... that's just not going to happen. It makes little sense. Why convert your entire primary market to paying secondary market prices? The license has to be paid for somehow. |
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SD Maruko-kun
Posts: 26 Location: Netherlands |
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Well, I think that the amount of 'fanatics' willing to buy at full cost far outweighs the bit of hype lost by releasing the cheap set later... (something like for ex. 2000 * $120 + 7000 * $50 is more than 10000 * $50 ...  )
But to look on the bright side: at least with anime after some time you get such a "cheap set" that's discounted more than 50% compared to single DVDs. I've branched out into buying some manga and it seems that for the same amount of storyline those are about as expensive as single DVDs and a anime-like price drop is unlikely for manga even after being on the market for years. (plus manga also take up much more storage space than anime) About the eternal sub/dub debate: here in the Netherlands anime DVDs come in 3 flavors: - Ghibli DVDs with both Dutch sub and Dutch dub - dub-only stuff for little kids (Pokemon etc.) - DVDs that only have Dutch subs, since no youth or adult would ever buy/watch a Dutch dub DVD unless they're watching it along with their small son/daughter/brother/sister/etc. (so a dub would be a pointless waste of money) Unfortunately the two childrens TV channels over here are American-owned and those people seem to want to indoctrinate our kids into being dub zombies using such abominations like Dutch dubbed live-action American kids series... 
About DVD subtitles: the most important thing to remember is that they're fairly _low resolution_ bitmaps, so DVD subs looking like crap isn't the fault of Funimation etc. , but the fault of the idiot who put such an inferior subtitle format into the DVD specs. I wonder why no company has integrated OCR + some good fonts into their stanalone DVD players... (Dutch TV harsubs on American/British/etc. TV programs look so much smoother than blocky DVD subs...  )
PS: what I am pissed off about at Funimation is having to buy a FMA vol7 to bridge the gap between the FMA season 1 whole season set and the FMA season 2 part 1 set. To me that means they messed up either the half-season quarter-series) boxed sets or the whole-season (half-series) ones... |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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That's actually quite a novel idea. I assume it'd have to perform the same role as subrip (etc) whilst decoding and filtering the DVD itself. Though I don't know the technical plausibility of that sort of feature in a standalone player, I assume quite a bit of processing power would be needed to recognise and redisplay the characters in real time. |
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edzieba
Posts: 704 |
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It's technically feasible, but essentially pointless. You'd need:
- standardised fonts - even more restrictions on placement than the existing technical limitations - persuade enough DVD producers to use your more restrictive standard - persuade DVD player producers to implement an entirely new and complex function (not gonna happen) - get everyone who has a DVD player to buy as newer, slightly more expensive DVD player in order to gain the market penetration needed to make using the specific subbing standard worth it And by the time all this has been accomplished, BD has been adopted and already has a better subtitle framework, making the whole effort moot. |
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