Thursday, December 30, 2010

Rental DVD's With Missing Features Suck

I rented Scott Pilgrim vs the World last night and loved all video game references. I noticed ones like the Zelda Link to the Past theme, Q*bert sound when a guy jumped down the stairs, and all the enemies turning into coins like in River City Ransom. There were probably tons of references I missed so I decided to watch the commentaries and trivia on the Bonus Features menu.

This is what the DVD shows though:

"This disc is intended for rental purposes only and only includes the feature film."


"Own it on Blu-Ray or DVD to view these bonus features and complete your moving watching experience"


What a pain. I was watching a rental and not a purchased copy. The deal with a movie rental used to be I get it for a limited time vs owning it and being able to watch the movie as many times as I want.

Now rental means I get it for a limited time AND features are missing. I won't be surprised if someday rental means I get to the final fight scene and I get a message saying:

"RENTAL COPY: Buy the DVD or Blu-Ray to see the rest of the movie"

Has anyone else seen this on their DVD's from Netflix or RedBox? What do you think about it?

14 comments :

Commodore Computer Club said...

Well that just sucks. I haven't rented a movie in years, but reading this just inspires me not to rent any movies.

I wonder if this is wide spread on all DVD's?! Another question I would have would be, what happens when rental places sell used and/or previously viewed copies of movies now? Do we get stuck with this lame version. Bah!

JJ Hendricks said...

@commodore - Good point about buying from the rental places. I bet you get the rental version. The studios don't want to encourage buying used movies and I'm sure Netflix and RedBox don't buy regular copies to sell.

Anonymous said...

More and more DVD and Blu-Rays are like this now.
I rent all the time and on the disk it has rental copy on it. Not a sticker but in the print on the lable.

Commodore Computer Club said...

@JJ Hendricks: Thanks. I'm actually thinking of picking up a used/previously viewed DVD copy of the same movie you rented (Scott Pilgrim vs the World) and see what happens with it. Something else I'm wondering is when they started doing what you've experienced with the DVD's. Hey, that could be something else for you to track with your site :)

Anonymous said...

I've never heard of rental editions of movies. But then again, I haven't been in a movie rental store since early 2004, and I've never rented a DVD. Once VHS went out, and we switched to DVD, Netflix became the obvious better alternative to the movie store. But anyway, I think rental editions of movies without the special features is lame. If it's going to have less features, it should cost less to rent accordingly.

Anonymous said...

i rented this movie and noticed the same thing, which is a first for me. so lame.

JJ Hendricks said...

@anonymous - It sounds like most people haven't seen this before so it is probable pretty new. Hopefully it doesn't become the standard.

Has anyone seen this with Netflix movies yet? I use Netflix for older stuff that doesn't have special features but I am curious if they are doing it too.

JJ Hendricks said...

@commodore - Funny you would mention tracking movie stuff. We are actually working on tracking movie prices (DVD, Blu-Ray, VHS, etc) and hope to launch this feature within the next few months.

Jonathan Sullivan said...

I rented the same movie last night, and I was completely fine with the whole "rental disc" thing. In theory, it works in getting people to buy the movie, and that's what companies want. At least you got to WATCH it.

JJ Hendricks said...

@jonathan - I can understand why they use the "rental disc", it probably does help get people to buy the disc. But that doesn't change the fact that we now get less for the same price.

Anonymous said...

After watching it I was thinking of buying the movie...that is until I tried to access the commentaries. I know for certain now I will not buy this or any other Universal Movie. Just my way of protesting the BS.

I test drive a car before I buy it. I look at a house before I buy. And I watch the DVD, and all the features before I buy! If I'm going to buy a DVD I'm going to be damn sure it has re-watchability!

-D

Anonymous said...

You know, I was noticing for a bit that the DVDs were missing Special Features, but thought it was the DVD itself, until I saw the same exact screen! I am so pissed! I really looked forward to the special features.

Is there a protest campaign we can start? This is not cool!

Oldiesmann said...

Universal Pictures is now doing this with titles released to Redbox. I've seen it now with Hop and Big Miracle.

Robin James said...

Actually the thing is you should be fair with your business. If you loose customer's trust you cant even run your business. Same in the case of DVD rental business try to provide what you have told to the customer. Do not be fake just try to be original.

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