Wetlook World Forum

You can sure store more DVD's and VCD's in about the same space as tapes & I can relate to the privacy issues while viewing such material (We're not pressed for space, but with only one VCR it's nice to have the DVD option).

Walt

Website:

Walt, FYI, some more insights.

1) DVDs and VCDs are more popular than VHS in Asia...and have been that way for almost 10 years. The reason is largely cultural and their family lifestyle. Most people in Asia live in small apartments. For example, my wife's family in Hong Kong all live in 400 sq ft apartments (not much bigger than a hotel room or a 2 car garage). With space being so limited, they do not have the luxury of privacy space to be able to have several tv sets in the house or privacy areas away from their kids. For many folks living in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc, the only privacy you get is your cubbyhole area where your pc is...and normally some sort of screen/room divider. Therefore, most asians like to watch adult media on a laptop or their pc privacy area...hence why VCDs and DVDs are more popular than VHS.

2) There are no rip off artists in the small business community (which all wetlook producers are). The prices for their media depends on their own local production costs, and models and equipments can be very expensive when you are only catering to a tiny tiny wetlook market. The only rip off artists are the mainstream movie industry and the music recording industry. A good example is the music recording industry telling lies about blank cd media...ie. they tried to spread the myth that in order to burn a CD audio disk..you must buy the more expensive CDR disks that are labelled as "CDR AUDIO"...and you should not use the cheaper "CDR DATA" disks for burning your favorite music to CD. The CDR Audio disks are 50 to 75% more expensive than CDR data disks are. Initially people would buy the more expensive CD audio disks cos they were told to do that by the manufacturers and recording industry. This was all a big myth...cos the cheaper CDR Data disks work perfectly fine for burning CD music files too. The real reason was...the recording industry was (and still is) getting a royalty from every CD audio disk being sold.

Anyway...it is only the big guns who are overcharging you (mainstream movie industry and recording industry) not the small business owners and producers. Small business people just do whatever they need to do in order to recover their costs.

mk

Website:

I like the idea of DVD's; that way I don't have to comandeer the VCR in the family room!! I have been wondering about the cost difference & now I know DVD's can be less expensive & will avoid the rip-off artists who may want to charge more for them.

I like the thoughts of producers not having to worry about NTSC, PAL, etc. formats now, as well.

Thanks for breaking new ground!!!!

Website: http://www.wamtec.com/DVD/

FYI, I am introducing a wild new concept -- i.e. Wet & Messy DVDs at $20 less than the VHS price.

This is how the DVD medium was supposed to be, and DVDs were originally intended to be lower cost than VHS, but a higher quality format for the consumer to enjoy. However, the movie industry continues to artificially inflate the price of DVDs higher than a VHS version, and the only industry that really prices DVDs as they were supposed to be priced (i.e. lower than VHS) is the adult video industry. In the past it has not been feasible for us small time producers to release DVDs in a low cost way, cos the DVD recorders were expensive and blank DVDr media was even more expensive (many times more than a vhs cassette). However, that is now all starting to change. DVD recorders are now becoming more affordable (so I have bought more of them to handle bulk productions of more DVDs more easily) and the blank DVD media is now becoming much affordable too.

I know many AE and WAMTEC customers who have problems with having too many vhs cassettes lying around the house (cos they don't want their kids or others stumbling upon their collections). I also know many folks who live in countries where vhs tapes sometimes get confiscated by customs authorities, so the CD sized media is easier to get to them in the mail. I also know many folks in PAL based countries in Europe & Australia who are reluctant to buy an expensive multi system NTSC vcr and paying extra for NTSC conversions to PAL is not helpful to the consumer either. The DVD media eliminates the PAL versus NTSC problems (95% of the time) cos even thought our DVDs are burned in NTSC, they are region code free and universal and will play just fine on DVD players or pc's in PAL based countries, and 95% of DVD drives or players in such countries have the codecs to be able to play ntsc DVDs with no need for conversions to PAL.

Anyway, seeing as I have now found a good source for low cost blank DVD media, and have bought additional DVD burners, I am going to pass those savings down to the consumer, plus extra large discounts on top too...and am now introducing a radical new concept...i.e. DVDs at $20 LESS then the VHS price. The incentive here is...to encourage more folks to go out and buy themselves a DVD player...cos you can get a DVD player for only $59 these days, so if you are saving $20 every time you order from us, you only need to have ordered 3 items and you saved enough money to buy yourself a new DVD player already.

Anyway...check my Wet & Messy DVD website for the radical new pricing structure and a list of all the pro tapes and custom tapes you can get at $20 under vhs price.

http://www.wamtec.com/DVD/

MK