An Open Letter To The DVD Consortium

by Dean McIntosh

Introduction - Why I Wrote This Letter

In the past few days since my article about my view of the previous year in the life of the DVD Video format was published, I have received a few emails with a few (not so) nice things to say about the Region Coding Enhancement scheme. While I want to assure all of those people who have emailed us here at Michael D's that as long as consumer demand exists, there is no way anyone can stamp out our desire to buy titles from anywhere, I would also like to give those faceless corporations that make up the DVD Consortium a little piece of my mind. Being that I primarily view titles on a Toshiba SD-2109, I am among the many who are affected by this highly anti-consumer action, and it seems that the Consortium have not got the message about the right way to end parallel imports. This article exists to assure readers out there that we are all in the same boat, and to assure the DVD Consortium that no amount of technical trickery will ever stop me from rejecting an inferior product.

Why Consumers Choose To Import DVDs From Region 1

The first answer to this rather nagging question is to take a look at the number of DVDs which are available to consumers in the USA, and compare that with the number of DVDs which are available to consumers in Australia. The deficit between the two countries is still something in the order of several thousand titles, and shows little sign of improving within the next year. Compounding this is the fact that a major difference exists between the independent distributors of America and Australia: the American independents seem to take pride in the work of their transfers. Many of the transfers offered by independent distributors in Australia are so bad that they attract seriously derogatory comments from all reviewers, myself included. This is to say nothing of the inferior transfers foisted upon the Region 4 market by the smaller players amongst the major distributors, with Buena Vista's transfer of Starship Troopers being so careless and inconsiderate as to completely ruin the entire experience of the film.

Expecting Australian citizens to put up with a markedly inferior transfer or presentation solely because they are Australian citizens is not on, and in my opinion such behaviour is a form of racism. If you expect users of the DVD Video format, who are by nature better educated and more aware of imperfections than users of any other format, to buy the local product, you have to treat all markets as equally as the laws of those markets allow. It really is that simple, and following that rule would be a much better way to stamp out parallel imports than any Region Coding Enhancement scheme you care to come up with.

Nothing is more upsetting than finding out that a DVD you just paid good money for is inferior or lower-specified in comparison to a version that exists elsewhere. A number of DVDs sold in Australia fall into this category, with The Thing, Scream, Starship Troopers, and Air Force One being prominent examples in the mind of Jack and Jill Filmbuff. Starship Troopers is my favourite example primarily because Paul Verhoeven and Ed Neumeier are my favourite director and screenwriter, and they have delivered two of the best commentaries in my collection. The Region 4 version of this disc is without special features, and the film is broken in half at one of the film's most tense and dramatic sequences. In comparison to the Region 1 version, it is simply a waste of time and money. The Thing is a classic example for many reviewers because the Region 4 version suffers severely from excessive aliasing, a dreadful transfer flaw given that much of the film consists of slow panning shots. If you expect people to buy the Region 4 versions of these discs, you simply have to provide the Region 4 market with adequate transfers. No amount of Region Coding Enhancement is going to make consumers any less determined about this.

Region Coding Is Being Abused

No matter what way you look at it, there is simply no excuse for using Region Codes upon a title that finished its theatrical run a number of years ago. While I can appreciate the desire of film studios and distributors to protect their investment in the theatrical release of films in the present market, trying to prevent most of the world from buying an old, classic film such as Robocop or Animal House is inexcusable. Given that these films were released thirteen and twenty-two years ago, and it appears that no distributor in Region 4 has any intention of making them available, trying to prevent a man who wished he could be the title character of the former as a boy from buying the film is quite similar to walking through Redfern in a police uniform.

There was once a chance that Region Coding could have been accepted as a responsibly-used method of protecting a film studio's investment in the DVD Video format and in the films themselves. The time to convince film buffs of this has passed, as has the time for apologies. Region Coding will now never be accepted by the film buff, and the passive acceptance by Jack and Jill Public is going to fade very rapidly when they become aware of what it is and what it represents. The world is globalising, and trips on the part of Australian citizens to America in which a truckload of clothes, CDs, and even DVDs are bought are extremely commonplace. Even with the current exchange rates being what they are, I have been assured by members of my family that it is far cheaper to buy many consumer items while holidaying in America than locally. Slapping everything with a Region Code is not going to stop them from buying such products when they go overseas. It is only going to make them very, very mad when they get home with a number of items they have bought which refuse to work on their hardware. That is to say nothing of the anger it will cause among people who move from one nation to another (say, from Australia to Scotland as I plan to do within the next decade).

I've already outlined a number of moves that make better sense than Region Coding in order to protect the local market, so I will not waste my breath repeating them here, as it could not be more obvious from distributor actions that they have no intention of following my suggestions. Those suggestions, in brief form for those who have yet to read them, are to make the films available, price them reasonably, make their specifications as similar from one Region to another as is possible, and to make the transfers as equal in quality as is possible. All of these moves will encourage Jack and Jill Filmbuff to buy the local product in a positive manner, rather than attract the groundswell of angered opposition that Region Coding Enhancement is going to.

Some Questions I Want Answered

Because of the confusing nature of the new programming that is being introduced, as well as the inherently anti-consumer state of the Region 4 DVD market, I have a few questions that I would like the DVD Consortium to answer. Some of these questions have specific responsible parties that would be better qualified to answer, but in their absence, I will happily accept an answer from anyone. If I do receive any answers from representatives of DVD distributors and developers, I will publish them here, along with an acknowledgement for having the guts to answer, which is a big step to regaining my respect. In any case, the questions I have are as follows:

The programming involved in Region Coding Enhancement seems specifically designed to target machines that have been Region Modified. This could mean that such enhancements to discs in Region 4 would make films that have been locally purchased unplayable on locally purchased machines. One retailer that I have dealt with rather frequently in the past twelve months, who shall remain nameless for their protection, has stated that they cannot give away machines that have not been Region Modified. Instead of making local discs unplayable on overseas machines, this could translate into making local discs unplayable on up to seventy-five percent of local machines. Doesn't this seem like quite an anti-consumer action to you?
The difference in the number of titles available in Regions 1 and 4 amounts to several thousand, more than six thousand at last count, as a matter of fact. In light of your apparent desire to cease all parallel imports in defiance of the fact that all other markets are becoming increasingly globalised, do you have any plans to reduce this difference? If no, please explain in no less than a thousand words why. Previous answers that I have been given, namely variations of "we want to make sure only the best quality titles are available in Region 4" will not suffice.
There are already a number of DVDs available in Australia that are either of poorer quality, or lower-specified, than their American counterparts. Region 4's version of The Thing is of such inferior quality that it builds the case against Region Coding all by itself, and Region 4's version of Apollo 13 is missing an extra that is considered to be essential by those who have an interest in the American space program. Does anyone in the DVD Consortium have any intention of ensuring that these heinous errors are rectified, or will you simply use Region Coding Enhancement to force us to accept them?
The DVD Audio format is already quite questionably desired due to distrust in the DVD Consortium, a fact that is not helped by the fact that the local music market is rather monopolistic in nature. Almost all of the so-called local music labels in this country are in fact owned by foreign multinationals, and ninety nine percent of their business lies in importing, with pretty much all of their profits going offshore. Only a handful of independent, truly local Australian music labels remain, and they are straining to keep their head above water, chiefly by importing music from overseas independent labels. While I have been assured a countless number of times that the Consortium has no intention of Region Coding the DVD Audio format, the opportunity to completely kill independent music in Australia is far too tempting for monopolistic labels to pass up. Given that less than one percent of the music I own is produced locally, all that recent moves such as Region Coding Enhancement have done is further decrease my confidence in the Consortium. Please explain to me in as much detail as humanly possible why I should not believe that the DVD Consortium intends to use such programming initiatives to completely destroy my right of choice in music as well as film.
Lastly, please explain exactly how any film buffs are supposed to benefit from Region Coding when all it does is restrict their choice in the number of films available to them. Almost all of my favourite films are either unavailable in this Region, or available in versions that suffer from unacceptable formatting, and I have no intention of accepting such inferior quality in films that mean so much to me. Starship Troopers is a film that means a great deal to me because I have severe beefs with the education system that lead me to view it as a Nazi recruitment centre rather than any genuine organization concerned with the education of human beings. It is therefore no surprise that I feel a sense of tragedy when I see soldiers portrayed by the likes of Casper Van Dien or Dina Meyer dying for a cause that I personally wouldn't lift a finger for. Would you please explain to me in explicit detail why I should buy a featureless version of the film that is broken in half, rather than a version that plays through without a break, and features one of the most entertaining and insightful commentaries it has ever been my pleasure to listen to?

In Closing

Six months ago, distributors worldwide had enough chances to prove that they were committed to treating all of their customers fairly, and now they have firmly blown it. Region Coding Enhancement is a move on the DVD Consortium's part that proves to me that they are my enemy rather than any sort of friend, and I for one will never cease to fight against this highly anti-consumer action. I strongly encourage all DVD collectors in Australia to put their foot down and flatly refuse to buy the local product until distributors get the message that positive actions such as equalizing transfers will do more to cease parallel importing than a thousand enhancements to Region Coding ever will. The time to scream out our opposition in one loud voice is now.