Forum - View topicSurvey: DVD / BD Habits
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Kimiko_0
 Posts: 1796 Location: Leiden, NL, EU |
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Since I live in Europe, all my anime purchases are imports, and no anime is available streaming (at least AFAIK, CMIIW). You might want to add those options to the relevant questions.
As for buying options, what annoys me even more than premium-only sets are releases of separate discs. I want boxsets, so to me those releases only prolong the wait. |
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EricDent
 Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
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I know it's a bit too late, but an age option would have been nice.
Also under that would not have just a generic 35+ for us older fans (like myself). I kind of wonder about the average age of the people on this board, cause it sounds like quite a few of them are not out on their own yet, and have a ton of money they can spend on whatever. I used to be like that, but now I am on my own and believe me $75 is quite a bit of money to spend on just one volume of anime. That equals an entire tank of gas, a really good dinner out someplace, or about 3-4 cheaper anime sets. I have not taken the Blu-Ray plunge and have no plans to until there is no other option (IE they stop making DVDS). So like other people I do avoid the combo pack things. As for premium box sets, maybe for the price they want they provide a longer series instead of 13 episodes, maybe 24-26 for those prices. Personally I have not really been interested in those sets, and don't mind waiting around for a much cheaper version. I also don't stream at all, cause I have quite a bit of patience and can wait till it comes on DVD (preferably with both a dub & sub version). |
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Sorrior
Posts: 79 |
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Gotta say i liked this. Though as one of the crazier otaku(i have spent over 800 dollars this month alone on anime and manga) my opinions probably are more on the fringe. Hell i'll buy stuff at random cause it might be on sale and i have the money or just catches my eye and if it has nice extras oooh yeah. One example is that i plan to preorder the limited editions of madoka NEVER seen it and if it wasn't for those nice extras i may not have gone in for it.
So yeah crazy japanese definition otaku here. |
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Mizuki-Takashima
 Posts: 215 |
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Y'all are prolly gonna hate me for this, but I'm so dirt poor I don't even own a Blu-ray player. I don't own a PS3, and my computer can't play Blu-ray discs.
So if a anime isn't on DVD, my heart literally breaks Now, if I had the money, I would buy premium collections depending on just how much I love a particular series. If it were a premium collection of Hetalia, Madoka, FMA etc then of course I'd get it in a heartbeat. But I honestly can't afford stuff like that, so when they sell them the cheapest way possible, it's pretty much a miracle for me. (It breaks my heart that by the time I have the money for say, Madoka's limited edition box sets...they probably would be out of print. So I'll have to literally "settle for less"...) If I had my own house, my own source of income (that wasn't just a monthly allowance from my parents- who can't even afford blu-ray players or new generation gaming consoles, or hell even a new television ^^;;; ) then of course I'd buy my favorite anime titles no matter what the cost. I've survived with limited amounts of food in the past, and I can survive it again in the future for the sake of my anime needs. EDIT: Oh, I only buy my anime from Best Buy. I live in a small town so we don't have actual anime stores, and my family doesn't own any credit cards or any form of digital currency that makes online purchases possible ^^' Last edited by Mizuki-Takashima on Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:53 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Raikuro
Posts: 347 |
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I picked either/or when it comes to Bluray/DVD, but if I'm buying Blu it better be a combo pack. The only reason I really buy anime on disc is to show it to friends that are less inclined to stream/download stuff, and those friends are also less inclined to have a Blu-ray player.
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tuxedocat
 Posts: 2183 |
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I will buy Bluray when I think the production standards of the show warrant it. Many times it doesn't, and if the DVD is measurably more affordable, I will buy the show on DVD. Lately I have been buying mostly Bluray, since the cost isn't that much higher.
A few things, IMO justify a higher cost: complete video re-master to HD, a sturdy and beautiful artbox, an english dub. (Though I'm not a dub, or sub, purist by any means). I will pre-order any LE if I really like the show. I find the unusual shows and LE boxes released by NIS and Nozomi in particular, rather irresistible. For the most part though, I am a thrifty shopper. The bulk of my purchases result from being patient and waiting for a complete set, or I wait for sales. I checked the $19.99 option for the bare-bones release of a 13 episode series. I usually end up paying more than that because the shows that I like tend to not get the reprints, and sometimes go completely out-of-print, so I don't dawdle too long out of paranoia. I will very rarely spend over $120 for a show anymore, though I absolutely would if it was a show I really loved like Natsume Yuujinchou. I would also spend more for a "Criterion Collection"-type series that would include the art-house-like stuff. (i.e. Mononoke (Medicine Seller), House of Five Leaves, Dennou Coil, etc.) This is stuff only collectors would buy anyway, so I would expect, and be willing to pay a lot more for a one-off exclusive for shows like this. yeah, maybe I'm lobbying here a little bit.... 
edited to add: I very seldom will blind buy. I will resort to fansubs only as a last resort, if at all. Also, I am a female collector. I used to think there weren't very many others, but I've noticed recently that has been changing. I think the buying demographic is including more women. When I first started collecting, the only other female fans I noticed were mainly teenagers. Now a lot of those girls are now women with jobs and disposable income to spend on this stuff. I was surprised there wasn't a question asking if I was male or female on the survey. |
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hergen
Posts: 8 |
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The survey is missing some important options for non-american customers:
- The question "Some premium sets are only available from select online retailers. How do you feel about this?" would have needed a "I won't buy it, if it doesn't ship to my location (at a resonable price)" option. I was actually forced to skip several releases in the past because of that. - The last question lacks a "must stream to my location" option. I wasn't able to try out legal streaming yet, because american and japanese companies usually lock out europe. And the single legal streaming provider, which is available here in germany, has ridiculous conditions (DVD-like pricing for rather old titles, restrictive DRM, windows PCs only). Talking about DRM, the "Must support my potable device" choice is probably to specific. There are compatibility issues on desktop devices too, especially with DRM-protected streams on Linux PCs, Mac and media player boxes. |
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Kogoruhn
Posts: 3 |
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I am probably an extreme on the spectrum but I have no problem with any price for a series.
My Answers and Logic: 1) More or less ambivalent - it totally depends on the native resolution of the show - when a show is unscaled for a BD "HD" release I just notice all the mistakes since it isn't the native resolution and would rather watch the dvd but if the show is native HD than it's BD's 100% 2) Yes - I have a PS3, BluRay player and a BD R/W drive in my desktop 3) Sometimes - I watch A LOT of anime and buy most of what gets released domestically so if I haven't seen it and it gets a R1 release than I'll buy it before seeing it 4) Everything - Currently my collection is about 2000dvd's, 150BD's, 3000VHS tapes, 200 LD's 5) PREMIUM PACKAGES - I have the money to spend and want the quality boxes mainly 6) PREMIUM PACKAGES - see above 7) $200+ - Well I just spent 225 pre-ordering Madoka (which I'm not a huge fan of) so I'd be lying if I said anything else 8) $39.99 - I'd rather get an all around high quality release than a cheaper release that has had corners cut (lower quality box, etc.) 9) $40+ - I buy pretty much everything 10) When evaluating a premium edition vs. a standard edition I look at stuff that won't be available online eventually. (ex. art boxes/books > deleted scenes/interviews) 11) Doesn't bother me at all - 99% of my domestic anime is bought via Rightstuf so it's fine w/ me 12) Online anime retailer - Rightstuf 13) Online anime retailer (Rightsuf, Robert), Online Shop (amazon/ebay for stuff like NHK v.6 that's impossible to find), Convention (when I'm feeling [expletive] lazy) 14) Amazon, ebay, rightstuf, roberts 15) LOVE IT PREMIUMS ALL THE WAY! 16) yes 17) yes 18) NO ADDS - any site that offers to have me pay to remove adds I do |
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crosswithyou
 Posts: 2899 Location: California |
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I hear you! I bought the BD box set and am getting the BDs for San right now (Vol.3 should already be in my mail box at home) because this series probably won't get licensed. And if it's licensed down the road, I'll buy it again! LoL. I think a valid question would be if you own something on DVD and it comes out on BD later, if you would buy it again in BD. My answers: - I buy BDs, but will get the DVD if there's no BD available. - I can play BDs and will only buy if I've already seen the series. Don't have the money to spend on something I'm not positive I'll like. - I only buy my favorite series that I know I'll watch again and prefer packages with nice extras. - I will never buy at retail. $2-3 per episode sounds okay. Perhaps a tad more if it's on BD or includes cool extras. Still, if it's a series I must have and it's expensive, my wallet will swallow its tears. - For premium extras, I like Japanese cast interviews (huge seiyuu fan so it sucks that seiyuu extras on Japanese releases often don't make it onto North American ones). Art boxes and unseen animation are nice too. For my Japanese purchases, it's usually the seiyuu extras that get me to buy. - I don't like when certain series are only available at certain stores or where the store is not allowed to set the price (*cough*Aniplex releases*cough*). I prefer buying from Amazon since their international shipping is the cheapest. - All my anime is bought via Amazon USA/Japan, RightStuf, or at Animate stores, though I'll only buy DVDs at Animate if it comes with an Animate exclusive bonus I really want or is only available there. (Mostly it'll be seiyuu DVDs from Animate and anime elsewhere.) - I don't mind premium-only releases, though I may wince at high prices. - Despite living in Japan, I still watch 95% of my anime via download since most [good] series are aired late at night and I have work the next day. That and I don't have a video recorder. The only series I've stayed up for every week to watch real-time was Natsume Yuujinchou San. |
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tcdelaney
Posts: 169 Location: Mittagong, NSW, Australia |
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35+ here too. I remember paying something like $1000 for the first 3 seasons of Ranma 1/2 (box sets) all at once back in the VHS days (damned imports!). At one point my anime VHS and DVD collection was insured for a replacement value of around $40,000. Of course, I've got rid of all my VHS since then, and DVDs have gone down a lot in price (plus if I were replacing it would be with Blu-Ray where possible). I actually spend a lot less on anime these days, and am a lot more discriminating in what I buy. There was a lot of crap that I paid a lot of money for because there was no way to preview other than trailers. |
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Blightstrider
 Posts: 11 |
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Usually I would not vote for these options... But my favorite series is Kara no Kyoukai... ...And I live in Australia. Needless to say, my buying options are far from kind. |
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dewlwieldthedarpachief
 Posts: 751 Location: Canada |
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I think a potential weakness of this survey may be a lack of inquiry into the quality of releases, i.e. whether or not they are genuinely in high definition video and sound, how well they were remastered for HD, and how well they were encoded.
This is absolutely paramount in my decision-making process. In the past I have had many more bad surprises than good ones, so satisfying these three criteria is very important to me. Compared to the popular sentiment towards cheap and therefore affordable releases, I am much more satisfied with something that really takes advantage of the DVD or BD formats' respective capacities for presentation. More often than not, this seems to hold hands with the sort of premium release including booklets and a disc of extra features; these things I am more ambivalent about. Last edited by dewlwieldthedarpachief on Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:39 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Northlander
 Posts: 911 |
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Caveats for some of the questions:
- Which do you prefer to buy? Bluray, as long as the show is worth it. For instance, a popcorn/bubblegum series with average art and animation would be good enough on DVD, while I would have preferred favorites on Bluray. In other words, it depends on the show, plus the following.... - Can you play Bluray? Yes, but since I'm European, said Blurays have to be compatible with Region B. A surprising lot of anime actually has this compatibility. Not everything is, however, so I have to check before I put in the order. - Which anime do you buy on DVD or Bluray? Any of my favorites are usually bought immediately on launch, regardless of asking price. I'm often willing to take a chance on shows I'm unsure of if they go under special deals or such, though. - What are your favorite extras for a premium set? When it comes to interviews, I would rather have seen more of voice actors and creators talking with each other, like they did with the Aria extras. I chose staff interviews (alongside artbooks and previously unseen OAVs) because I loved the "I'm sorry, Venice" segment from the Aria series, even if they also included the voice actors. That's why I'd rather see a "interview with the whole staff" extra instead of separating them. - Some premium sets are only available from select online retailers. How do you feel about this? As long as they ship internationally, I don't really care too much about that. - Which of the following online stores do you buy non-import anime from? But... but... ALL anime I buy are imports. That includes US releases. Or European (UK) ones, for that matter. - In order to watch streaming anime online from a legal source, what are the *must have* features. I tagged "must be free" despite having a premium account on Crunchy. Basically, the ad-supported free stream is a fair option. Premium members gets premium features (better video quality, no ads, the personal satisfaction of knowing you are supporting legal alternatives) while the kids and teenagers who aren't exactly rife with finances gets to watch the free version if they really want to watch a show. (Decent video quality, the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting legal alternatives through the annoyance of having to suffer some ads from time to time.) |
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Almaz
Posts: 134 |
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I will buy the BD if the price difference is not much more, the video quality is better, and the show is worth seeing in HD. There are some shows that no amount of pretty it up or better audio will make it worth it to me to pay more for the BD. I like the BD/DVD combo packs. I can watch the shows on my laptop, and the Bluray at home on my PS3. I will buy the DVD only if there is no BD version of the show. If the BD version ever does come out later, I am extremely unlikely to purchase it.
I also buy "a lot" of DVD/BDs; however, I do have limits (which have grown lately.) I am not one to spend tons of money on a series. At that point, my other "hobbies" (gaming and computers will get more attention.) I buy things on sale or used. I will pay more for my favorites but not an arm and a leg. NISA premium pricing is probably the upper limit for me. If there is a good quality artbook and CD soundtrack, I could justify paying more. The pricing Aniplex put on Madoka Magica is too stiff for my taste. I will have to watch the series to see if I want it for that price. Of course, there is no legal streaming of Madoka Magica that I know of. I am disappointed in not seeing a cheaper version of Garden of Sinners. Way too much money for a series. I know some "dedicated" fans will pay that much; however, I will just go play Disgaea or Batman. The anime industry not only competes with the "pirates" but with other media entrainment, too. I guess if they want to go that that far over in pricing... I will retire my fandom. I have been passing on series more often because they are not even worth purchasing . I will watch them on Funimation, Crunchyroll, etc. There are many series I want to buy from Funimation, but they cannot seem to get those series out. Quite of few shows on Crunchyroll I would buy the DVDs for, but there are no one licensing them. Aniplex seems to have "Honneamise" fever with pricing making me go, "meh." I bought Durarara from Aniplex through the Right Stuf. I thought that was a good price point for an anime series. On the video streaming, any legal website would have to be compared to Crunchyroll (the paid service.) I like the 720P streaming. I know it is not Bluray quality HD; however, it is the best legal streaming site. Not to mention, there are many hidden gems Crunchyroll picks up. Nico Nico bites. No full screen. An video interface only a mother would like. Audio is poor, at best. The shows do not stream at times, and there is no easy way to contact them. When Fate Stay Night started simulcasting on Cruchyroll. I was extremely happy. Even free, Nico Nico is not worth messing with. I rather watch the shows on Funimaton or Hulu. Of course, Crunchyroll is the preferred site. Unless someone is going to pay some money to upgrade Nico Nico, it is a site of last resort for me. I have an extremely dislike for that site. I really wish more shows are shared with multiple sites. It is not that the idea of the Japanese streaming the shows is a bad idea. Nico Nico is currently a bad implementation of it. |
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al505
Posts: 25 |
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I refuse to buy BluRay as I think that that medium will go the way of VHS tapes and 8-tracks. Streaming and digital copy is the way to go in the future and I will not spend a dime replacing my DvD collection with BluRay. If it's only available as a combo pack, I will buy it reluctantly but only if it's a "must have."
...and I am 35+. |
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