Topic: King Kong (2005) R3

[chiemonyo]

hi there guys,
WideScreen din ba yung sa single disk? single na lang muna siguro kunin ko until wala pa R1. : )
tnx

[av_phile1]

it's the price we collectively have to pay for the reason that local buyers are not willing to pay the right price for a good product... 

ultra-thin slipcase! lousy presentation and deskjet-like artwork.

sad reality.

pretty soon, studios would either release future titles in the same fashion or not sell any DVD at all.

 

What is the Right Price?  P1200?  The peso equivalent of the R1s priced at $30?

Studios cannot expect every person on earth to shell out DVD money as if he/she were earning American minimum wage.  If they want their product to get huge market shares in the regions they sell, its product must be priced to what the local market can afford.

Warner Bros have shown the way with its 395 and 495 titles.

So now we get lousy packaging from other distributors at affordable prices.  Perhaps the market deserves that.  But I don't think so.

I have more reason to believe it's the price we have to pay so the distributors can maintain their profit margins.  It's called value engineering.  A misnomer but it works.  The entire production chain from source to distribution is re-engineered so the market gets a reasonable product they can afford without dilluting the profit margins of the people involved in the chain.  In simpler parlance, it's called corporate GREED.  And it's good business.   Don't get me wrong, there's nothing bad about greed.  At least not in business. Coke does it. Car makers do it, Airlines do it.  Every business does it.  At least in DVDs, it's just the packaging that suffers.  In other products, it's the product itself that gets dilluted.  For instance, the Heno de Pravia soap of today only has 10% of the long lasting fragrance the Heno de Pravia of the 60s had, among other re-engineered items.  The selling cost in real terms may be the same, but the cost of production has gone down so that profit margin per unit remains.  But the product degradation becomes obvious by comparison.  

DVDs are no different.  They evolve, or at least their packaging does, to penetrate the market more effectively.  Without dilluting profit margins. Or in other words, without sacrificing corporate greed,   But the effects are quite obvious.  

[av_phile1]

Agreed. Though on these forums, we're clearly in the minority.

I tend to agree as well.  But maybe not for P895. 

This is not the first time I've heard about lousy amaray cases in commercial releases.  That's actually the reason I bought those empty amaray cases - to replace the lousy ones used by Magna and C-interactive with many of their titles lately.  Maybe distributors can just take out the Amaray cases and just package the DVDs on slip cartons.  The consumer can just buy the amaray cases of his choice and have the labels printed from online sources.  Then, again, that would be much of a hustle for majority of DVD users.  And having an idea of the costs of printing and those cheap amaray cases, that would only shave off around P40 from the selling cost.   

With all the flak this title is getting, maybe I can just wait for the sale later this year.  Then replace the amaray case.   

[seph1018]

Saw this last Tuesday...Man is this disappointing or what. Good thing my power of resistance has greatly improved.

Magna are you really there?

[mongaddi]

the worst talaga packaging ng magna.

even c-interactive has better packaging, cases.

ang masama nyan, puro reklamo tayo, pero bumili pa din tayo. so malamang, tuwang tuwa ang magna nyan!

overall, ok na din ang price na 895 dahil you get two titles. but buying it on its own is crazy!

just think of this as the "budget edition" and just splurge on an imported extended version if/when it comes out.

[seph1018]

Kala ko ba wala 'tong budget edition?

Magna, Magna talaga!!! Ikaw ha...

[2ngaw]

kaya siguro pinapareserve nila ung title para once we see it, there's no turning back. buti na lang may free.

[av_phile1]

kaya siguro pinapareserve nila ung title para once we see it, there's no turning back. buti na lang may free.

Ha ha.    That could be their planned tactic.    

[X-®an™]

I haven't claimed my reservation yet from Astro Podium, so di ko pa nakikita yung bad quality ng packaging na sinasabi niyo.  The way I see it, I bought it for the PQ and SQ of the movie.  Kung parehong DVD9s yan, at PhP 420... mukhang good deal na.

[wrathboo21]

What is the Right Price?  P1200?  The peso equivalent of the R1s priced at $30?

Studios cannot expect every person on earth to shell out DVD money as if he/she were earning American minimum wage.  If they want their product to get huge market shares in the regions they sell, its product must be priced to what the local market can afford.

Warner Bros have shown the way with its 395 and 495 titles.

So now we get lousy packaging from other distributors at affordable prices.  Perhaps the market deserves that.  But I don't think so.

I have more reason to believe it's the price we have to pay so the distributors can maintain their profit margins.  It's called value engineering.  A misnomer but it works.  The entire production chain from source to distribution is re-engineered so the market gets a reasonable product they can afford without dilluting the profit margins of the people involved in the chain.  In simpler parlance, it's called corporate GREED.  And it's good business.   Don't get me wrong, there's nothing bad about greed.  At least not in business. Coke does it. Car makers do it, Airlines do it.  Every business does it.  At least in DVDs, it's just the packaging that suffers.  In other products, it's the product itself that gets dilluted.  For instance, the Heno de Pravia soap of today only has 10% of the long lasting fragrance the Heno de Pravia of the 60s had, among other re-engineered items.  The selling cost in real terms may be the same, but the cost of production has gone down so that profit margin per unit remains.  But the product degradation becomes obvious by comparison. 

DVDs are no different.  They evolve, or at least their packaging does, to penetrate the market more effectively.  Without dilluting profit margins. Or in other words, without sacrificing corporate greed,   But the effects are quite obvious. 

bullseye... very well said 

biktima tayo ng cost cutting 

[DVD_Freak]

While I would like to believe that to make Magna's DVDs more affordable, they sacrifice on packaging and prints.  And that some say we are getting what we paid for.  To get King Kong at an affordable price of P420 (if you deduct the P475 free DVD), you have to accept the bad printing and packaging.

What makes it difficult to accept that reasoning is because we have something to compare Magna's relases to.  And that is Warner's pricing scheme at almost always top notch releases.

So is Warner operating at a loss by their recent price set up.  If yes, then probably I can understand or to a lesser extent accept Magna's philosophy in terms of their releases.

 

[av_phile1]

What makes it difficult to accept that reasoning is because we have something to compare Magna's relases to.  And that is Warner's pricing scheme at almost always top notch releases.

So is Warner operating at a loss by their recent price set up.  If yes, then probably I can understand or to a lesser extent accept Magna's philosophy in terms of their releases.

 

I don't think Warner is such a saint to operate at a loss.  I can only speculate that corporate greed is much greater in other companies than in Warner.      Either that or warner enjoys better cost efficienies and economies of scale so they can bring down the price without dilluting their profits. 

[av_phile1]

I haven't claimed my reservation yet from Astro Podium, so di ko pa nakikita yung bad quality ng packaging na sinasabi niyo.  The way I see it, I bought it for the PQ and SQ of the movie.  Kung parehong DVD9s yan, at PhP 420... mukhang good deal na.

It's actually a good deal for those who had it reserved.   

[duncanfranchise]

the worst talaga packaging ng magna.

even c-interactive has better packaging, cases.

ang masama nyan, puro reklamo tayo, pero bumili pa din tayo. so malamang, tuwang tuwa ang magna nyan!

overall, ok na din ang price na 895 dahil you get two titles. but buying it on its own is crazy!

just think of this as the "budget edition" and just splurge on an imported extended version if/when it comes out.

You have a point.  Most of us gripe whenever Magnavision comes out with these kinds of subpar releases yet we still patronize them.  Since we don't have a specific forum here or anywhere else that allows us to air our dissatisfaction over general DVD releases in our country, the best that we can do is to control, if not totally eradicate, our urge to purchase titles released by this company.  The people there won't get it until they've been sent the right message.   

Sa tingin ko lang, mukhang bulk purchase ng "Amaray" cases ang ginawa ng Magnavision sa Quiapo.  Doon ko lang kasi nakikita yung mga ganoong klaseng lalagyan.   

[DVD_Freak]

I don't think Warner is such a saint to operate at a loss.  I can only speculate that corporate greed is much greater in other companies than in Warner.      Either that or warner enjoys better cost efficienies and economies of scale so they can bring down the price without dilluting their profits. 

My point exactly av_phile1!!!!  That's why Magna really has no excuse putting out crappy releases.

[keating]

Speaking of the VCD box set, the first time i saw this, i honestly thought that there was a figurine or something inside a la Copse Bride, i said to myself, "hey, this is quite an improvement". Then the sales lady, gave me the pleasure of showing the real DVD. Like, ah, ok. Hehehe. 

Saw that vcd box-set at Astro Sm North a while ago. The box-set really stands out. 

[baby]

You have a point.  Most of us gripe whenever Magnavision comes out with these kinds of subpar releases yet we still patronize them.  Since we don't have a specific forum here or anywhere else that allows us to air our dissatisfaction over general DVD releases in our country, the best that we can do is to control, if not totally eradicate, our urge to purchase titles released by this company.  The people there won't get it until they've been sent the right message.   

Sa tingin ko lang, mukhang bulk purchase ng "Amaray" cases ang ginawa ng Magnavision sa Quiapo.  Doon ko lang kasi nakikita yung mga ganoong klaseng lalagyan.   

If we don't buy from them anymore.  They will think of how to bring the prices even lower.  They are not collectors like us.  The thinking of a businessman is different from a collector.  So put youself in the possition of the owners of Magna.  How can I have bigger profit.  One is to cut cost buy importing only the disc or worst replicating it locally and do the printing packaging here in the philippines.  I you do that the cost would be 50 to 100 pesos. And the SRP is 895 tapos buy one take one.  Big profit parin.  We can't blame them for that.  Not all of us here in the Philippines who buy DVD's from Astro or any other stores are members of Pinoydvd.  Lets say mga 20 to 30 % lang tayo sa market nila.  So even though we all go to Magna para magrally hindi rin tayo papansinin.  And sa hirap ng buhay ngayon we are budgeting are expense sa mga dvd's.  Syempre for all of us we want to buy the best editions from other countries like the Japan,UK,R1 us releses.  Pero it higher than 895 pesos and we all know that it's gonna be better than the local release.  But we have the choice.  Either buy the crappy local 895 release which have a promo or settle for the import.  Wala nang tayong choice from local distributors.  Tayo rin naman nagpupush para gawin nila yun.  Dati we complain for the very high price pero ngayon binaba nila and yet we complain.  Pero seriously.  Hindi kopa nakukuha reservation ko from Astro Makati.  Pwede naman siguro ibili ng ibang item yun.

[keating]

If we want free enterprise regarding dvds, they should open up the market also for R1 dvds. In that case you have the option to choose whether to buy R1 or R3. Its not that I'm defensive on R1 dvds, their packaging now also sucks. If you want to shell out your hard earned money, then go for the quality one.

[allanmandy]

If we want free enterprise regarding dvds, they should open up the market also for R1 dvds.

Di ba this sort of defeats the purpose of region coding DVD's?

I think the best solution is to release two versions: a cheap budget edition (pressed or printed locally, I don't care) for the masa crowd and a reasonably priced, imported quality R3 edition (like what Hong Kong or South Korea is getting) for the more choosy people.

[av_phile1]

I think the best solution is to release two versions: a cheap budget edition (pressed or printed locally, I don't care) for the masa crowd and a reasonably priced, imported quality R3 edition (like what Hong Kong or South Korea is getting) for the more choosy people.

I agree, but the local market for high quality collectible DVD packaging is just too small compared to that in Hongkong and Korea.   Local distributors won't cater to these if the numbers are not right for them. It may be cheaper to just buy them online from Amazon  for people who can afford.  There may be times you could even get away from import duties at the post office for just one or two DVDs at a time.   

[baby]

I agree, but the local market for high quality collectible DVD packaging is just too small compared to that in Hongkong and Korea.   Local distributors won't cater to these if the numbers are not right for them. It may be cheaper to just buy them online from Amazon  for people who can afford.  There may be times you could even get away from import duties at the post office for just one or two DVDs at a time.   

At first there were no charges.  But every week nakikita nila ako pabalikbalik.

[av_phile1]

Tayo rin naman nagpupush para gawin nila yun.  Dati we complain for the very high price pero ngayon binaba nila and yet we complain. 

You're right.  And I'm glad they react to market demands.  Too bad they reacted wrongly, if not stupidly..  We complained of high prices.  They brought the prices down, thank you.    But they did so at some expense the market is not prepared to accept (or just a small part of that market).    Like lousy packaging and/or watered-down from DVD9 to DVD5.   Only Warner seems to have done the right reaction.

[av_phile1]

At first there were no charges.  But every week nakikita nila ako pabalikbalik.

Try changing your mailing addresss everytime so you can tour the capital region's various post offices one municipality every week.   

[allanmandy]

Is it possible because Warner has a "BRANCH" here in our country? What if...Fox, Sony, Buena Vista, Dreamworks/Paramount, Universal, etc. set-up their own "BRANCH(ES)" here in our country? Will it make any difference?

I've posted this before somewhere. but let me repeat it 'coz relevant naman sa topic. I've read in a newspaper that kaya Warner is able to come up with very reasonable prices for their releases without sacrificing quality is that in China, the master copies are legally sold for as low as US $ 10. I'm not sure if that's where we get the DVD's that Warner sells here in the Philippines though, 'coz it was not mentioned in the article.

[av_phile1]

Is it possible because Warner has a "BRANCH" here in our country? What if...Fox, Sony, Buena Vista, Dreamworks/Paramount, Universal, etc. set-up their own "BRANCH(ES)" here in our country? Will it make any difference?

This is a rather complex issue.  It's actually a lot more expensive for a company to set-up local offices in other countries.  Overhead costs increase.  This is often done if the company has production facilities or adheres to some policy of strict marketing and distribution controls or product image maintenance they can't do remotely.  But most would rather entrust the selling to the locals either via franchising or appointing authorized local dealers/distributors. The audio and video brands we've known for so long do this.  Airlines appoint their GSAs (General Sales Agents) rather than put-up offices overseas.  These GSA's just retain their commission when remitting to the principal airlines.  

OTH,  Dell, IBM and Intel have offices here because of the complexity of their operation and the extent of their distribution network that needs to be managed and controled locally.   More importantly, their products have strict pricing rules dictated by the parent company that cannot be entrusted to unsupervised distributors.  

But studios like Walt Disney, Universal, etc, I am not sure but it seems they just dispose off their inventories to a syndicate of dealers at home who then appoint dealers and distributors overseas given that these dealers have the right market numbers and the local distributors can afford their minimum sales quota.  Bahala na yung local distributors to do their own packaging, promotions and selling and how they price them and what profit levels they want.  Local distributors often get their wares from regional distributors or international middlemen/brokers based in honkong or singapore, so you can expect padding of profits.  

To some extent maybe yes, the presence of local offices from these giant studios could lower the price, especially if they have production plants locally and are aware of the real production costs.  They can in fact do away with middlemen and distributors like C-interactive or Magnavision as they can distribute directly to the retailers like Astro.    That way, they can be more flexible with the pricing because they know their margins better than those distributors.  I suppose that's what the local Warner does - deal directly with retailers like Astro, Video City, etc.  Unlike  having a middleman like Magna, Viva or C-interactive sitting between Universal/Fox/Disney and the retailers.   Just some thoughts.

[keating]

Di ba this sort of defeats the purpose of region coding DVD's?

I think the best solution is to release two versions: a cheap budget edition (pressed or printed locally, I don't care) for the masa crowd and a reasonably priced, imported quality R3 edition (like what Hong Kong or South Korea is getting) for the more choosy people.

It surely defeats the region coding of dvds but it will challenge R3 more to come up with more innovative ideas. Look at Warner, on how they come up with marketing strategies. The slip cases in their two-disc release are good, count the price also and consumers are buying their dvds. I'm glad that they wont offer again those crappy snap cases.

[av_phile1]

I'm glad that they wont offer again those crappy snap cases.

A bit OT but let me just say that those snapper cases may be crappy, but they guaranted excellent printing quality and required special die-cutting process that can be difficult or too expensive to duplicate locally.    Actually, it cost Warner a lot more to package DVDs with those snapper cases.  So it's not all market demand that prompted them to shift to amaray.  It made better value engineering and business sense so they can lower their DVD prices one step while vastly increasing their profit margins five steps. 

The very first DVD I saw back in late 96 was in snapper case.  Having a DVD with snapper case almost guarantees it's not pirated.  These days, with genuine DVDs that have no insert materials, you can hardly distinguish between the two.   

[keating]

A bit OT but let me just say that those snapper cases may be crappy, but they guaranted excellent printing quality and required special die-cutting process that can be difficult or too expensive to duplicate locally.    Actually, it cost Warner a lot more to package DVDs with those snapper cases.  So it's not all market demand that prompted them to shift to amaray.  It made better value engineering and business sense so they can lower their DVD prices one step while vastly increasing their profit margins five steps. 

The very first DVDs I saw back in late 96 was in snapper case.  Having a DVD with snapper case almost guarantees it's not pirated.  These days, with genuine DVDs that have no insert materials, you can hardly distinguish between the two.   

Snap Vs. Keep cases, huh? Its a wise move on Warner's part. Think about it, the durability of those keep cases as oppose to the cheap, fragile snap ones. And besides there were no inserts on those snap cases. Throw them 10 feet to the ground and lets see if they will torn into pieces. 

[viperkid]

According to Attack of the Show's Chris Gore there will be an extended version of King Kong set for release later this year.

[hemisphere]

What is the Right Price?  P1200?  The peso equivalent of the R1s priced at $30?

Studios cannot expect every person on earth to shell out DVD money as if he/she were earning American minimum wage.  If they want their product to get huge market shares in the regions they sell, its product must be priced to what the local market can afford.

................DVDs are no different.  They evolve, or at least their packaging does, to penetrate the market more effectively.  Without dilluting profit margins. Or in other words, without sacrificing corporate greed,   But the effects are quite obvious. 

short and simple. if one is dissastified with the packaging, dont buy it. there are actually 12 existing known versions of this title. can easily purchased via marketplace sellers.  if one cant afford the dvd or the technology, learn not to stretch.

this is a free enterprise and for almost all forms of businesses, profit is the ultimate driver and object for operation. many items have been discussed but.. in a nutshell, the issue here is all about customer satisfaction.