Disc for Rental Purposes Only

sfoster

sfoster

Staff Member
Moderator
In the last few years, new DVDs that have been coming out on netflix no longer let you access the special features. If you want to listen to the directors commentary, it gives you a message that you have to go out and buy the disc instead.

How do you guys feel about this?

I would never go pay $15 just to listen to a commentary, the only reason I ever buy a feature is because Ireally enjoyed the film. Like the man from nowhere.. I got that on blu ray, and now I can see more blood sprays when people get stabbed in the neck :yes:
 
Yeah, Redbox does it too.

It's more than just that, though. I've always loved special features, I bought the DVD for That's My Boy, being told about all these special features my friend's version had... turns out you can only watch them on the Blu-Ray.

And I've seen that for other movies.
 
I agree it's unfortunate that via streaming we're losing a lot of cool stuff that special features have offered in the past - commentaries, blooper reels, deleted scenes, etc. But, in all honesty, I've never had any issue hopping on Youtube and finding those things very quickly so I don't see much of an issue with it, especially when the pro of having so many films available to me instantly far outways the potential con of the format in which they are available to me.
 
As a filmmaker I actually don't mind it, it encourages people to buy your product. Renting is great, it's an affordable way to see the movie but extras are meant to be that, extras. One of the big reasons they started commentaries and behind the scenes was to encourage people to buy the DVD instead of the VHS. Same logic applies here.
 
Is this not common?

For as long as I can remember, here in the UK, there have been “Rental Copies” of films. This occurred across the board, from Blockbuster to LoveFilm (the UK equivalent of Netflix, now part of Amazon). More often than not, both the case and the disc will say RENTAL COPY or FOR RENTAL ONLY. If you see that, you know there will likely be very few, if any, bonus features.

I don’t see it as a problem. If a distributor wants to produce a rental copy, so those renting the film can see the film only, that’s up to them. They’re not obliged to give you extra value for you money. If you don’t want to buy the disc (as you don’t value the content as having the same value as the retailer) that’s up to you. I don’t think anybody’s in the wrong here.

On a side note, a lot DVD’s don’t come with any bonus features anyway. I know the UK copy of “The Lords of Salem” has none, while the US release has several, which disappointed me. I guess that’s due to the UK distributor not buying the rights for the additional content. In fact, thinking about it, could that not be the same as rental? Is the rental distributor always the same as the retail distributor? Or does a distributor have to buy to sets of rights; retail and rental? I don’t know. But it would make sense that a rental distributor wouldn’t want to pay extra for additional content, when their revenue would be pretty tight as it is.

On another side not, Blockbuster used to sell off their unwanted rental copies of films, labelled as EX-RENTAL. I would never buy them, due to the lack of content, as well as my (snobbish) dislike of the RENTAL COPY or FOR RENTAL ONLY branding that was always on the front of the case.
 
Interesting, in Australia (afaik, I'm not a bigger renter) most rental copies of the films are the real deal just with random branding from that store stuck on the cover.
 
Most Australian video stores will have some movies on dvd that are two-disc special editions, usually you just have to ask for the second disc when you're renting otherwise they don't generally place the second disc in the case.
 
One could make the argument that the point of renting a movie is to be able to watch it cheaply and see if you like it.

If you like it enough that you want to watch it many more times, you'd be better off buying it, and then you get better value as you also get extra features.

The argument could be made that if you don't like a film enough to buy it, then why would you even want to watch the special features at all?
 
sfoster said:
Have you ever rented a movie, and then decided to buy it just for the special features ?
Click to expand...

Nope. I've bought after because I liked the movie, and have watched special features after that, but never bought solely for the purpose of special features. None the less, that's the marketing logic. Same reason people often pay more for the two disc DVD+Blu-Ray special edition and only ever watch one of the discs. Same reason people pay more for the special edition with a limited run paper box around the plastic disc case with cool artwork, and an extra commentary track. It's all about perceived value (for only $5 more I can get this extra thing) even if they'll never use it.
 
PaulGriffith said:
Nope. I've bought after because I liked the movie, and have watched special features after that, but never bought solely for the purpose of special features. None the less, that's the marketing logic. Same reason people often pay more for the two disc DVD+Blu-Ray special edition and only ever watch one of the discs. Same reason people pay more for the special edition with a limited run paper box around the plastic disc case with cool artwork, and an extra commentary track. It's all about perceived value (for only $5 more I can get this extra thing) even if they'll never use it.
Click to expand...

i have gone for the special edition when i already wanted to buy a movie.. like lotr (wow had to edit this twice. stupid autocorrect kept making it "lots"). regular disc or special edition disc. yes i will pay a little more for the special edition.

but if i rented a movie in the first place, i don't think I would ever go out and buy it just for the special features either
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top