Disney to rent 'self-destructing' DVDs

[Pin Wizard]

Interesting...

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/05/19/disney.dvds.reut/index.html

 

[wdwoldtimer]

I can see it now....mountains of useless black DVDs filling the nations dumps.

 

[Chattyaholic]

I heard about that too, and think it's a dumb, wasteful idea myself.

 

[Steve H.]

Is Mission Impossible the first one?

 

[SuiteDisney]

What a waste. I won't be renting any of them.

 

[Towncrier]

Geez. I thought we (the consumers) made it clear that DIVX and any other scheme to make "disposable" DVDs was unacceptible. I for one refuse to set foot in Circuit City due to their attempt to cram this idea down our throats.

This new idea won't prevent piracy. It will just be a pain for the honest DVD consumer when their movie turns black and refuses to play.

I suggest that we send a clear message to Disney by not purchasing disposable DVDs.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Originally posted by Towncrier
I suggest that we send a clear message to Disney by not purchasing disposable DVDs.

I'm with you, TC.

 

[wdwoldtimer]

Geez, I'd forgotten that horrible divx/Circuit City debacle. Notice they don't do that anymore?!?

Now if they just lowered the average price of a DVD a couple bucks, they'd sell more and not have to worry about doing this nonsense.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

OH-Kay . This sounds like something out of a James Bond or sci-fi movie. Why would you want to promote this? Who will gain from self-destructing a DVD? More waste in the landfills, I agree.

 

[Towncrier]

In the "good old days", we purchased soft drinks in returnable bottles. Then someone came up with cans and plastic bottles that could simply be discarded.

The self-destructing DVD that Disney wants to use follows the same logic. Some people don't want to rent a DVD simply because of the hassle of returning it. These same rocket scientists believe that there is some appeal to being able to buy a single use DVD and then watch it whenever it is convenient without having to worry about late return fees. Once you've watched the DVD, you throw it in the trash along with your empty 2 liter bottles.

I can sort of understand their twisted logic. We're about to embark on a 2000 mile roundtrip to WDW. We're taking along a notebook computer which just happens to have a DVD player in it. I can't rent DVDs from the local Blockbuster because we'll be gone for a couple of weeks. My only alternative is to borrow them from the public library (and pay a fee for returning them late) or to actually purchase the movie. With disposable DVDs, I could just buy a handful of titles and pick and choose when to watch them. On paper this looks like a good idea. Only I'll never buy one of these DVDs and I'm willing to bet that there are an awful lot of other consumers who won't buy them either.

 

[CruiserDew73]

Originally posted by Steve H.
Is Mission Impossible the first one?

lol!

 

[MarkRG]

lame lame lame lame! And what heppens when you get a package that wasn't 'airtight' ? Or gee you watched half the movie and fel asleep on it? Tomorrow the disc is useless? What a joke.

 

[Dizz-knee-whirl]

I may be the minority here, but I think it is an excellent idea.

I can never seem to return videos on time when I rent them. So with these DVDs I can rent it and never worry about returning them. This would be excellent......assuming the price of rentals remain about the same.

About the landfill waste thing.....I do not want to seem like I don't care or that your concerns are not valid, but do you recylcle every bit of you trash that is recyclable now? Probably not. As a matter of fact I bet you even use disposable trash liners for you trash cans. These liners actually preserve your trash in the landfill, preventing or dramatically slowing decomposition of some trash. I seriously doubt that disposable DVDs will have that large an impact on landfill, especially if everyone were avid recylers. And according to the majority of the posters here, it won't be popular anyways. I may be wrong......


benoit

 

[wdwoldtimer]

Yeah, but the "convenience" of not having to return them is only a byproduct of this whole thing. They are doing this so they can easily multiply the number of rental outlets without the overhead involved with staffing it, maintaining it. If they could, they'd have disposable DVD vending machines on every street corner.

What the driving force behind this is wanting to push more product, which in turn means they want to make more $$$. That's all well and good, but it seems like a very wasteful and potentially environmentally unwise method.

 

[Towncrier]

The unfortunate side effect may be that it won't be possible to purchase "permanent" copies of Disney DVDs. The Circuit City/DIVX fiasco caused Disney to delay release of several titles. Why sell a single copy of Little Mermaid if you can repeatedly soak the consumer every time they want to watch the movie?

Being a Disney stockholder, I suppose that I should be excited about the prospect of increased profits for "The Mouse". But I fear that disposable DVDs is only another round in the copy protection paranoia that seems to have Disney (and all other media companies) in it's grip.

 

[Jeff in BigD]

My dad got suckered into the DIVX deal.


So is Disney doing this as an alternative or are they planning on only releasing the self destruct DVDs?

 

[Towncrier]

The DIVX thing caused Disney studios to delay their entry into the DVD market by several months. I would not at all be surprised if they either dropped "regular" DVDs or jacked the prices of those titles up in an effort to steer people to the "disposable" ones. It makes good marketing sense.

Another thought that I had. Would the disposeables have all the extra content (director's commentary, deleted scenes, links to websites, games, etc.)? How would someone be able to fully appreciate all the extras if they are limited to 48 hours. Eureka! Another way for Disney to save money. Just leave out all the extras.

I'll bet that videotapes are pretty inexpensive. Maybe they could put movies on VHS tapes. They tend to self destruct on their own.

 

[MarkRG]

Hm, do we recycle? Yes, on most weeks we have a lot more in the recycle bin than in the trash can. We recycle everything that they allow us to. Our village requires all trash be in plastic bags, so there is no alternative there. I am totally disgusted with what will be another waste.

I certainly hope they don't stop producing 'regular' dvd's. I will be very disappointed, and I won't be buying these wierd things, and a little more of Disney will quietly die and slip away.

The fact is, they're grasping at straws to come up with a VHS version of a DVD. DVD's can be played hundreds of times with no significant loss, but a vhs will wear out rather quickly. I'm sure Disney really pushed the vhs on the idea they'd sell mutiple copies to the same household based on the wear out factor.

 

[Serena]

I think it's a stupid idea and I hope they decide not to do it.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

totally bad idea alert: the whole idea sounds more comical and I'll buy my dvd's the old fashion way