[thechat] Netflix?

[William Anderson]

Kevin Stevens wrote:
>>Rental copies cost more than retail copies - something that's gone way
> 
> back
> 
>>in the heyday of video cassette rental.
> 
> 
> I have never understood this. With rental videos they were made of a higher
> quality tape for repeated viewings, but is it possible to make a higher
> quality DVD?

No ... well, possibly [1], but as Mr. Pressure says, it's the commercial 
cost that's being sucked up.  It takes longer for the rental shop to get 
their money back, but the distribution company (and thus the studio) get a 
higher return per unit than they would with retail units.

Also, rental DVDs these days tend to be different from their retail 
counterparts - invariably they just have the movie with perhaps a couple of 
extras (commentary, trailer) if at all.  This helps differentiate the rental 
unit from the retail unit in that if the customer wants to see just the 
movie, they can simply rent it, but if they think "hey, I want all those 
extras too", they have to buy it.

[1] Well, yes - they can have stronger hard-coating outer plastic used at 
greater expense to massively decrease the possibility of scratches.  The 
next generation of "armoured" DVDs will include UV protection, as 
environmental light can progressively destroy the inner substrates over time.

-- 
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