Re: cost of DVD's

$ (therndo2@gmu.edu)
Wed, 5 Mar 2003 15:00:30 -0800 (PST)

I spoke with a sales rep at Films for Humanities about this right when
they started offering DVD's. I was told that Films is converting VHS's
to the DVD-R format on a title by title basis. The increased price
reflects staff time for conversion and is more expensive for the first
copy converted. I was also told that the price should come down once
multiple copies of a title are converted. But, you should know that
Films is only offering basic conversions without chapter encoding.

Tom

Thomas E. Herndon
Multimedia and Interdisciplinary Programs Librarian
Johnson Center Library
George Mason University
703-993-9047
703-993-9063 (fax)

----- Original Message -----
From: "VENTURA, GERIE" <GVENTURA@highline.edu>
Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2003 3:25 pm
Subject: cost of DVD's

> I'm probably violating email etiquette by doing this, and I'm
> sorry if it's someone on this list, but I think the issue is
> interesting.
> A librarian at our library forwarded this email (below) to me from
> another listserv. It brings up yet another interesting aspect in
> relation to DVD's, which I notice is a frequent topic of
> discussion lately.
>
> We are attempting to "up" our purchases in the DVD format.
>
> Have a great day.
>
> Gerie Ventura
> Highline Community College Library, Media Services
> Des Moines, WA
> e-mail: gventura@highline.edu
>
>
>
> "I had a very strained conversation at ALA Midwinter with two reps
> from Films
> for the Humanities. As one of the most popular vendors of educational
> videos, they are at the top of our list when it comes to selecting
> titles.However, they have recently decided to charge an additional
> fee for the DVD
> format of any of their VHS titles. I asked for an explanation and
> got a very
> defensive vice president of sales practically in my face. She told
> me that
> there are digital licensing issues, hence the added fee.
>
> I noticed in Baker and Taylor today that there is no difference in the
> charge for the VHS format vs. the DVD format for many popular
> videos--some
> of them feature films, others produced by Kultur, for example,
> that are
> older films being re-released. They don't seem to have an issue
> wherein they
> add an extra cost."
>
>