DVD Cost Differences Between Countries

SkydivinGirl

SkydivinGirl

Retro Girl
Joined
Dec 16, 2008
Posts
7,082
Country
USA
Region
Raleigh, NC
It seems like the Rant section has been getting a workout so I figured I'd put one out that's been bugging me lately.

I won't be talking about the actual prices in this thread.

Basically, it seems like the costs of almost every television series on DVD or Blu-Ray is quite a bit higher in the USA compared to many other countries and it's really annoying. I want to buy lots of these shows, but the prices are prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, I can buy many Blu-Ray versions Region Free from Amazon.co.uk.

For example:

My uncle wanted the entire Harry Potter series on Blu-Ray. I compared the cost of the set on the Amazon USA site and the UK site. I was able to get the UK version, region free, shipped to the USA for about 45% of the cost of the USA set. So, now my uncle has The Philosopher's Stone instead of the Sorcerer's Stone. :p

Another example is the Doctor Who series. I was was able to buy both Series 5 and Series 6 on Region Free Blu-Ray shipped from the UK for less than the cost of just Series 5 here.

I really don't understand this. Even with the exchange rate from the strong GBP to the USD I can get my videos cheaper from overseas.

The difficult part for me is getting region free NTSC DVDs. Even though DVDs are cheaper overseas, I can't really buy them because I'd need a region free player and a TV that could play PAL videos.

Oh well... Just had to get that off my chest. :thumbsup:

Heather
 
Hang on? It's more expensive in the States?!

I always thought it was us guys in the UK who got screwed over by the magical $1/£1 exchange rate that we often see applied to stuff from the States. :lol:

But yeah, the whole reason that regioning exists on DVDs is explicitly so that the manufacturers can force arbitrary price discrimination based on people's locations. :mad: Outrageous, huh?

I guess it's perhaps unsurprising that UK-generated content like HP or DW is cheaper here than there. I believe the inverse applies if we're buying US TV shows and movies. I'd be interested to know how much Star Trek DS9 DVDs cost in the States.

It's awesome that you've been able to find region-free versions for sale. I thought the BBC releases were all 2+4 (I think all my Doctor Who DVDs are 2+4), but the PAL/NTSC thing is also irritating.

Most modern TV sets are PAL/NTSC agnostic. My plasma TV in the lounge certainly is. If you can get a region-free player with an agnostic TV, you should be fine. My solution of course is to use a computer. I can rip any region of DVD and playback is at whatever resolution the computer is outputting, scaling where necessary.

Yet again, more reinforcement for the principle that stealing this stuff is better than paying for it. :picard
 
LOL! Well, you don't have to worry about us getting any Star Trek series for less than you. Paramount has the price so high on those everywhere just because it's Trek.

I've also seen non-UK movies region free on the Amazon UK site for less than here. The Back to the Future series, the Alien series, and many others for a fraction of what they cost here. I'll certainly be buying more shows from Amazon UK in the future. :)

As for format agnostic displays, I'm not sure if we really have those in the USA. Since we are such a large market, we tend to get a lot of tech that is specifically engineered for us. Unfortunately, that means that we don't get a lot of the features that we otherwise might. For instance, I had never heard of SCART until I started getting into retro gear and found out there was a wonderful connector that we simply don't have. :(

Heather
 
With analog being switched off and modern tv's now being ntsc compatible, i'm surprised pal isn't being phased out in the UK gradually to bring us in line with America and Japan. Would make things easier in the long run for manufacturers but then I guess distributors would loose control of release dates and pricing.
 
I actually prefer American released Blu-rays! :lol: I guess it depends on what genre you're into but a lot of US releases are far superior to UK releases (dependant on whoever does the HD master of course). :unsure: Some studios use the same transfer but there are subtle differences amongst a lot of them.

I use blu-ray.com and dvdbeaver.com to compare before buying :)

Of course over here in the UK we have the dreaded BBFC who cut a lot films (although I doubt Harry Potter will seccumb to their lunacy!) You can probably tell I'm into my horror flicks from the 1980's :D

Rarely buy DVDs now unless there's no alternative... they don't half look like a load of mush compared to HD material!!
 
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