Forum - View topicANNCast - Sheh's All That
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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I love the idea of On-Demand DVD/BD (having been the only person in the anime business that tried to make it work). Sadly, the numbers just don't make sense. The costs to manufacture are too high, and the technical limitations too frustrating.
In the end, it's a lot cheaper and easier to just pay for a small 500-disc replication run and let it sit in a warehouse, available through online stores only, like how Right Stuf does it. I predict you'll be seeing a lot more of that in the future. Not sure how that would work with Blu-ray, since I haven't priced replication for that. But with blank discs still in the $5-6 range, I can't see it being THAT different. I just see the overall cost-to-entry to be higher. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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HyugaHinata
 Posts: 3505 |
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Can we tell her about my $54K and $30K orders? That should cheer her up.
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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There's an even easier route called an Xbox 360. Save your video files to a specific folder on your computer and they all pop up on your tv. Nifty Netflix option added to boot, as well as the capability to play video games and DVDs. I still buy DVDs. More features, easy access, multiple audio options, not to mention that if you do manage to find a high quality file download you'd have to go through some nasty conversions to get everything from the sound to go properly through the stereo, to getting the subs to work right. Still, technology is getting better, but there's nothing like having it all right there physically available for you to grab whenever you want. I don't like the idea of having paid downloads easily lost/deleted when I could get an official hard copy much harder to lose. |
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pparker
 Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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Let me introduce you to present time... Gamers know the story of the $50 game that really cost $1,500... because they had to buy a new system to play it. I found myself in that position, but also in the position of not being able to play the new 1080p fansubs (before you start, I spend $500+ monthly on R1 DVDs.) Since video was a primary driver, that led to re-evaluating the entire entertainment milieu in my living room. What I ended up with new: 1 - Media PC with graphics card 1080p/HDMI/1GB, BD drive (and fancy gaming keyboard) 1 - Arcsoft Total Media Theater Platinum (DVD/BD/file player software) 1 - 50" Panasonic Plasma (2008 top consumer model) 1 - Pioneer HD Receiver 1 - 5.1 Surround Speaker Set Misc like an APC line conditioner ($125), wire, stands, gaming mousepad, etc Existing (rarely used): Playstation 2 Cable Box Total cost? Under $4,000. Sounds like a lot? Read that list again... And I could cut my few extras/corners and get there for $3,000. Point when BestBuy will offer the same capability out of the box for $2,000? Less than 2 years. Priceless? The ability to play any video file, from any current digital or physical format, in gorgeously upscaled or native 1080p, without getting up from my sofa except to load DVDs (not to mention flipping to ANN/Wikipedia for those anime references). I have a LOT of downloaded video connected to my old PC, and now it acts as the server to the media PC via ethernet (no need to re-copy files to the media PC). I login to my Crunchyroll subscription, and just click to watch 1080p/720p episodes. DVD and other "low resolution" video is upscaled very competently by the graphics card (much better compared to other components). I have access to any Internet based download/streaming service without the need for other devices. The TV includes its own net connection and built-in access to Amazon's DL service, and I can use other download/streaming services via my PC since all components are HDCP-compliant. Trouble getting it to work? None. My local PC guru shop built the PC custom for this purpose, for parts and labor. Everything worked literally out of the box, a first in my 25-yr PC-A/V history. Support just in case? I call the same guy who configured and built it, not a call center in India. File loss? A 1TB external USB drive costs $100 these days for backup. If you're really paranoid, it fits in a $200 home-sized fire-proof safe from Office Depot with room for 2 or 3. I'm a big collector of R1 anime DVD, as I was for live action. I LIKE having the nice boxes on my shelf. But I'm suddenly living in a new world, and the experience of just clicking to download and watch something in DVD/BD quality feels pretty cool right now. Technology changes, the market changes and people change over generations. I now can't imagine downloading not being the future, with physical media being relegated to a sort of aging die-hard collector audience willing to pay more. For example, a friend collects the newly re-issued vinyl copies of old rock albums because his ears can discern the difference between analog and digital. But that's a pretty elite market. |
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SD Maruko-kun
Posts: 26 Location: Netherlands |
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Erm, haven't most music shops changed over to DRM-free mp3 files by now? If music can do it, why not anime? Besides, with DRM "to own" is a big fat lie. It's at most "rent with a not yet determined end time". And the American anime companies must surely be glad that DVD's region coding is such flimsy/easily breakable DRM, giving them extra revenue from DVD exports to other parts of the world...
Yes, but the companies should also not see them as part of the ecosystem. I think that for a very large part of the real leeches the following would be true: if you take away their free supply of anime, they'll just migrate to another free hobby instead of spending money on anime, so there are no "lost sales" there and they shouldn't be seen as part of the "potential market"... PS: when I go to for ex. the SHAFT website, why isn't there an engrish page with a Paypal donate button, so I can send them a "thank you" for Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei? (replace with your studio and title of choice) |
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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If. Only two letters, but such a BIG word.
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Yeah... it looks to me like I'm doing it for a heck of a lot cheaper.  Not counting the cost of my flatscreen and surround sound system I already had all I bought was the Xbox360 for 300$. If I have to convert an HD file to play and properly on the xbox an don't feel like waiting for it I just hook up my laptop directly to the tv via the old HDMI-to-DVI I used before I made the Xbox the central entertainment hub. I have a nifty remote control Dell threw in with my laptop two years back I can use, and a regular wireless mouse.
PS3 I'll continue to use for Blu-ray. I'll eventually shell out the money for one of those fireproof backup storage devices, but not for a very long time so until then I'll not be buying my anime to keep digitally, especially if they haven't properly developed a way to give me dub and sub, with soft subs I can mess around with on my computer. |
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pparker
Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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Oh, I agree. I was using my laptop before with wireless to my server, and a regular DVD player for discs. But once I started in upgrading my old stuff, I just couldn't stop. My panel wasn't HD, so that was a given, but then the receiver didn't do HDMI, the sound system was kinda old, yadda, yadda... and there I was replacing everything. I only game on PC, so a PS3 didn't make sense just to play discs. Once I realized I didn't need a separate disc player, I liked that aspect as well. |
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KoujiTamino
 Posts: 163 Location: Tacoma, WA, USA |
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Yeah, and then put a cheap looking label on it? With no keepcases? No thanks. You see, I have a sort of obsessive-compulsive thing going on where I need things in my collection to look uniform and 'official' and nice. It's why I'm upset at the cost-cutting switch to lite-boxes, multi-disc keepcases and stackpacks and why I really dislike the idea of physical media going the way of VHS in favor of downloads.
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KanjiiZ
 Posts: 661 Location: Central Coast |
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I'm sorry for not having much to add in, but it's about damn time someone was able to make a good podcast like AWO. I got tired of all those other Naruto and Bleach obsessed podcasts.
I learned my lesson with downloading and not having an actual copy. There is a much greater chance of my date being corrupted or my computer not working than my DVDs being crushed. Down with digital distribution! Pretty damn useless in cases like iTunes where I lost my password and never got to finish Tactics ever again. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Hey, most of us physical media guys don't want digital distribution to go away, we're just hoping for a future where physical media and digital media can co-exist, just as how CD sales have diminished because of iTunes and the like, but CD's aren't going away because some of us will always want a pre-packaged physical copy of the music we buy. If I was into digital media, I'd probably back up everything as a precaution. |
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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Physical media and legal streaming are what anime needs now and here on. For manga, more simultaneous releases like they are doing with Rin-Ne.
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Cheesecracker
 Posts: 240 |
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I've been totally on a huge Sword of the Stranger  dyslexia rocks ...er...sometimes
I thought he was saying "Sort of a Stranger". I was like 'I don't get it but I'll go along for the ride... ----->Pie vs Cake - If you have to ask, you'll never know No contest really. I mean, literally, why even ask. A good pie beats cake every time and vice versa. And then sometimes it's a tie...Haupia pie...no wait...Lilikoi cake...ARRGH! If you don't know what those are, that's what you get for being a haole. Hawaiian for 'you're not from around here are you'. enough trolling no, wait, here's more... I think it's wrong to keep calling illegal d/ling 'getting anime for 'free''.It has a price, it always has a price, whether you pay it or not. It's more like 'easy to steal'. It's just like peoples' names: we don't stop having them just because no one talks to me. So anyway, I like the Podcast, even the parts where Zac talks. You have to get Clarissa back on, she was fun, too. |
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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