In an apparent effort to give customers a reason to buy DVDs instead of renting them, movie studios have begun disabling certain features of new releases on discs rented out by Blockbuster and Netflix.
Consumerist reader Joseph brought this to our attention after he spent $3.99 to rent the DVD of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World from Blockbuster. When he went to the disc’s main menu and attempted to watch the Blooper Reel special feature, he was greeted by a screen telling him: “This disc is intended for rental purposes and only includes the feature film. Own it on Blu-Ray or DVD to view these bonus features and complete your movie watching experience.”
Over at HackingNetflix, they have the same report from a reader who rented the disc from Netflix. The site also claims that the Netflix version of the disc for hit Disney/Pixar film Up contains no captions for the same reason.
Let’s go back to a frustrated Joseph for his final thoughts:
I didn’t pay $3.99 to just watch the movie itself; I paid $3.99 to rent the physical DVD for a week. To have full access to the entire DVD and everything contained within the menus. What made it worse was that Blockbuster gave me absoutely no warning that the DVD had its Special Features locked. There was no warning label or sticker or anything of the sort.
Should rental companies be alerting customers that the special features are blocked on these discs?
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Also noteworthy:
When you BUY a season of some TV shows it comes in 2-4 discs. When you RENT the same season of the same show, it will instead be spread out over 8-10 discs. What?!
AND there will be zero special features on the rentals!
First disc I ever received from Netflix was one episode of The Sopranos. I assumed it was going to take me forever to watch that series.
Ok, see – this is going to encourage piracy. In general, you only get bare bones movies when you pirate, if you wanted special features you had to pay. So, you might be willing to pay for a rental. But if rental doesn’t get you anything you couldn’t already get for free, fark it, just download the damn thing.
I only pay for movies that I collect, and there isn’t that many of them. I’m not willing to shell out $20 to watch your bloopers. I might have been willing to shell out $4 for the rental though to see the bloopers. Oh well.
Oh well, this will just make me more of a criminal. Why don’t they just go back to VHS tapes for chrissakes?
At video stores the videos have a large “RENTAL” stamped on the bottom. Only a few movies like “Scott Pilgrim” and “Get Him To The Greek” actually have the complete menus with access to the special features blocked. Almost all of the remaining films just allow you to play the movie.
As for captioning, there was a hub-bub when the rental version of Up didn’t include the captioning because when stripping the bonus features, they accidently stripped the captioning also. I don’t think that has been an issue since, unless the movie never had captioning in the first place.
I never rip those anyway.
I noticed this a while back. Pissed me off at first, but now if I really want the extras I’ll find them somewhere online, either newsgroups, torrents etc. This just makes me want to download more. And I had pretty much stopped since I have been able to stream much of what I want already online through Netflix, Hulu, etc.
Like someone else said, I am renting the physical DVD. I expect to have everything on that disc available to watch.
Renting a movie is often how I decide that it’s worth purchasing, and the special features are a big, big part of that for me. Bad move if you want me to buy, studios.
As much as I don’t like this either- it actually is a good move for them (movie companies) as few folks purchase DVDs anymore vs all of the “rental” options these days. BUT there absolutely MUST be some warning that the disc only contains the film and renting another disc is required for the bonus features or purchase. Hiding it is grounds for lawsuit. I see the argument for lower rental fees to since the rental product is quite clearly less substance. There must be subtitles included on the film for the hearing impaired or this WILL be sued over.
Luckily small independent rental places still get the retail copies. I rented this movie and can honestly say the outtakes and extra scenes were the only entertaining parts.
I still buy movies I love to watch and will watch again, (I have a lot!) but I usually don’t bother with special features. Unless it’s a gift or something I absolutely adored and want right away like The Dark Knight, I wait until the movie goes into the $5 bin anyway.
I probably would not buy a used disk from BB or Netflix if I were forced to watch the previews, though. That bugs the hell out of me.
figure its legit but false advertising. any lawyers in here wanna get rich?
Deaf people need movies, too. But they gotta PAY!
Why does the doctrine of first sale not apply to DVDs? Blockbuster should be able to just buy the full-version DVDs, and since they’re not copying them, rent them out as they please. It’s no different than a library, except that you have to pay.
Libraries are required to buy different copies of books. They’re licensed for library distribution, and cost a whole lot more than a retail copy.
[citation needed]
Untrue! Many library systems have accounts at Amazon, B&N, and other retailers so patrons can buy books to donate to the library. If the library could only buy special versions, they couldn’t have an Amazon or B&N wishlist.
“I didn’t pay $3.99 to just watch the movie itself”
No, but they charged you $3.99 to just watch the movie itself. Suck it up.
“Should rental companies be alerting customers…”
No. Rental copies of movies have been likely to be different for a long time. And they’re renting the customer the movie. No one ever implied that the extras were included. Sometimes they are. But that’s just what they are; extras.
The rental Blu-Rays are often BD25s.
And blank BD25s are much much less than BD50s. It’s almost like they want you to copy it.
Who would buy a DVD just to gain access to the extra features? If I like a film enough to watch it again and again — and the DVD has extra features — I’ll buy it. But if the film is as suckworthy as most are these days — I consider it barely worth the $1 overnight rental at Blockbuster Express or Redbox…
Can they please SELL these movie-only discs without all the extra crap? I’m tired of paying for extra “features,” excessively long “artsy” menu sequences you can’t skip, previews, and other junk. I just want the movie. But every store wants to sell me the “extra special 25,000 useless extras first-month-after-release gold anniversary edition” disc for an extra special $10+ more.
My husband normally ignores extras. I only watch them if the movie seems like it would warrant it. Generally, if I like a movie enough to watch the extras, I like it enough to buy it. So this makes no difference to me at all.
On top of that, most of the rental places only have those first release no-extras DVDs anyway. :-/
Having said that, it seems pretty dumb to me. If they’re doing it to stop pirating, it obviously won’t work. If they’re doing it to force you to buy the movie, that won’t work either. (If you don’t like the movie enough to buy it, what makes them think you’ll buy it just for the extras?) If they don’t want you to have the extra because they feel like they’re getting the short-draw financially, why not just release DVD/Bluray that don’t have any extras to begin with? Instead of teasing/ticking off their customer base?
So yeah, dumb move.
Doesn’t bother me actually. But I’m the type that if I like a movie enough, I will buy the disc to always have it to play whenever I want.
I do use Netflix, but don’t really check out the extras on the discs. Again, if I really like the movie, I’ll buy it. Besides, most of the movies I get from Netflix are for my website, so I don’t care what the extras are!
I never noticed they were gone. I rent a ton of DVDs from Netflix. I don’t buy new DVD’s either. Even the month delay of their release to the rental market will not make me buy a new DVD.
Like the new season of Dexter. I’ll wait patiently for it to come out on rental DVD. No problemo.
Another dumb move by Blockbuster. If I’m doing a one day Redbox rental I probably don’t have to watch the movie and features. The only reason to rent from Blockbuster is the special features. Strip them away and they make themselves even more irrelevant. Redbox should be ashamed for moving away from full discs. To what benefit? A month earlier window or slightly better prices? How about pissing off your customers. I think they are alienating movie buffs with this move. I’ll think twice about keeping my membership now.
Another dumb move by Blockbuster. If I’m doing a one day Redbox rental I probably don’t have to watch the movie and features. The only reason to rent from Blockbuster is the special features. Strip them away and they make themselves even more irrelevant. Netflix should be ashamed for moving away from full discs. To what benefit? A month earlier window or slightly better prices? How about pissing off your customers. I think they are alienating movie buffs with this move. I’ll think twice about keeping my membership now.
Blockbuster and all video stores hate this. The rental discs are produced by the movie studios and most are forcing distributors to sell them to rental accounts.
The rental copies are an attempt to kill the used DVD market as well as devalue the rental experience to the advantage of retail sales. Unless Redbox buys off the shelf, they will have the same rental copies the video stores have.
hmm… when i rent movies i care about the movie more then the specials most the times they dont interest me. Soooo.. yea this does not effect me, if the previews are off then oh well I guess they loose out.
Yes they should be warning their customers that the features are blocked. Or they could have a huge class action lawsuit on their hands soon for fraud.
Agreed. If they are advertising a disc with features for rental and not providing as such is fraud.
I honestly haven’t rented a film since around 2002, but I still think this is very wrong. If customers are made aware of the fact, then that’s fine. If not, then I would say it is a perfect candidate for a class-action lawsuit.
Ahahaha! Nice try studios. Guess what? Most people still don’t want to buy your stuff and you can make them buy it. Awww, no behind the scenes or blooper reels? Somehow I think someone will get that on youtube or any number of torrent sites.
Why don’t you just cut key scenes? Or the whole ending? Maybe that’ll work?
I noticed this on a Red Box movie recently.
After I rent the movie and watch it I’m not about to go buy the DVD just so I can watch the gag reel.
All you’ve done is made me angry. Why do you want your customers to be angry?
This is news?
This is among the reasons I dropped Netflix a couple years ago. And it was old news then.
“This disc is intended for rental purposes and only includes the feature film. Download it from the internet to view these bonus features and complete your movie watching experience.”
They have been breaking the special features out onto a 2nd disc for a long time now. A 2nd disc you have to specifically get from netflix if you want to see them.
Personally i could mostly care less about the substandard crap most movies “add” on to pretend there is value in what they are selling.
I for one, do not miss it.
Special features, I can shake my fist at. But not having captions on a rental DVD has to be against some sort of law.
SInce when are captions a “special feature”? That would be like releasing a DVD that had no sound on it. I am not deaf, but I am hard of hearing, and a lot of words sound garbled to me, which means I miss a lot of the storyline if I don’t have captions. This is incredibly frustrating to me that they don’t include captioning on a rental. I am not going to buy a DVD if I don’t even know if I like it first.
Blockbuster is still charging $4 for movie rentals? So their plan to recover from bankruptcy is essentially “close a few stores, then keep doing the same thing we’ve always done and hope for the best?”
They are actually charging $4.99 for the newest releases. Brick and mortar stores cannot charge $1 for new release rentals, the pricing structure does not produce enough revenue to run a retail store. A B/M store is not a kiosk. There is payroll, utilities, rent, R/M, and cost of goods to consider.
Point being, there’s no way they’re going to sustain it long-term.
I can’t believe anyone would pay $3.99 to rent a single DVD.
Does anybody really care all that much about the extra stuff?
The situation with the Up DVD was covered here last year, actually:
http://consumerist.com/2009/11/disney-removes-closed-captioning-from-up-rental-release.html
http://consumerist.com/2009/11/disney-claims-up-dvd-missing-captions-were-a-mistake.html
As for the bonus features, most of the rental-only DVDs I’ve seen recently remove reference to the bonus material on the back of the box, so at least they’re not falsely advertising something that’s not there. Up was a notable exception: the discs were shipped to rental stores in the retail box, which claimed the DVD had both bonus shorts and subtitles– neither of which were present on the rental disc.
they are basically asking you to download it for free off of bittorent. the film industry is burying itself by treating customers like crap.
The average person still renting a movie, either from Redbox or a brick and mortar store, neither has the inclination nor the knowledge to find and download a torrent.
Please be advised that the term, “hearing impaired†is unacceptable. Here is the explanation:
The term “Hearing Impaired” is a technically accurate term much preferred by hearing people, largely because they view it as politically correct. In the mainstream society, to boldly state one’s disability (e.g., deaf, blind, etc.) is somewhat rude and impolite. To their way of thinking, it is far better to soften the harsh reality by using the word “impaired” along with “visual”, “hearing”, and so on. “hearing-impaired” is a well-meaning word that is much-resented by deaf and hard of hearing people.
While it’s true that their hearing is not perfect, that doesn’t make them impaired as people. Most would prefer to be called Deaf, Hard of Hearing or deaf when the need arises to refer to their hearing status, but not as a primary way to identify them as people (where their hearing status is not significant).
Hope that you and your people respect by refusing to use the outdated and offensive term.
What happens when the demand for the movies wane and the rental companies try to sell the movies. In the past Blockbuster would sell copies of the movies they bought because there wasn’t a need for 500 copies of a movie after a year or so after it came out.
UPDATE – I just talked to Netflix about it. They confirmed it was from the studios and there wasn’t really anything they could do. Please read this as the tech support woman was super friendly and understanding. I told them to throw their weight around a bit more and to at least put a warning on movies’ main pages of those that are blocked…heck I think it’d be great if they listed all the extras (if any) on the main page. Hope the update adds to the information and I hope my phone call did something. (Netflix member since 2005)
UPDATE – I just talked to Netflix about it. They confirmed it was from the studios and there wasn’t really anything they could do. Please read this as the tech support woman was super friendly and understanding. I told them to throw their weight around a bit more and to at least put a warning on movies’ main pages of those that are blocked…heck I think it’d be great if they listed all the extras (if any) on the main page. Hope the update adds to the information and I hope my phone call did something. (Netflix member since 2005)
That’s too bad, because the Blooper reel for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is hilarious. They really should put a label on the DVDs stating it is just the feature film, otherwise it’s false advertising since the box says it has all these extra features you can’t watch.