Irritating DVD Prices

[Ben]

I complained about one part of this here some years ago. I have always wanted to get the "Space Above and Beyond" DVDs. The first time I complained it was because of the outrageous price of ~$200, and looking this morning, it's still that high at $240.

My new complaint is that it appears that if you live most anywhere else in the world, you can get the series for $40. Poking around, this seems to be the case with quite a few series. I'm curious about why these kinds of DVD sets are so expensive here while inexpensive in Region 2 areas. I've never actually understood the whole "region" thing with DVDs/DVD players.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=space+above+and+beyond&crid=2TJRGIX04U5K2&sprefix=space+abo%2Caps%2C268&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_9

[dogmush]

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-UPSCALING-Built-Region-Worldwide/dp/B00ZRP6LVA/

or if you don't need/want Blu-Ray and 4k upscaling:

https://www.amazon.com/Megatek-Region-Free-Connection-Full-HD-Upscaling/dp/B07PNMTP1Y/


The region codes are a leftover from when the studio's had rolling release dates.  A movie might be on DVD in the US, and still in theaters in Europe, so they DRM'd the disks to stop people from shipping them between regions and cutting box office sales.  High speed internet capable of downloading movies in reasonable timeframes kinda made them obsolete.

[Ben]

Thanks. I'd consider a new player except I already have a pretty new player. I still don't get the price discrepancy for these and other DVD sets in Region 1 vs Region 2, especially for older stuff.

[dogmush]

If you're good with 1080P that DVD player is $40.  Another $40 for your Region 2 DVDs and you have your Space set for under $100 clams.

As for the price?  I suspect Americans will just pay more for old DVDs, so they charge more.

[Ben]

If you're good with 1080P that DVD player is $40.  Another $40 for your Region 2 DVDs and you have your Space set for under $100 clams.

As for the price?  I suspect Americans will just pay more for old DVDs, so they charge more.

That might not be bad. Most of these older series DVD sets* that I've been looking at that have that big price discrepancy probably don't benefit a lot from upscaling anyways. Plus with my aging eyes, I'm not sure I'm getting the full benefit of my 4K stuff. 


*One of the reasons I'm into DVDs again is all the curating and censoring that is going on with stuff that I "own" from Amazon and elsewhere, or even just stuff like episodes or parts of episodes that are missing from streaming content on Netflix, etc.

[zxcvbob]

Get a new (not used) DVD or BluRay player, put in the region 2 DVD, and change the player to region 2.  (I think you can still do that.)  You only get to change it a couple of times, so it's now a dedicated region 2 player, but they are really cheap so that's okay.

If I'm wrong, someone please tell me so I don't waste $40 trying it myself someday.

[Brad Johnson]

Region-free 4k player. Fixes everything.

Brad

[Devonai]

Take a chance.

[Ben]

Take a chance.

 

[charby]

Try ebay

[HankB]

Netflix has it in their DVD rental section.

[Andiron]

Sail the high seas.

[HankB]

Sail the high seas.

Subtle.