About | Classic Rare & Collectible DVDs & Movies

My name is David Brady and I am the owner of rareandcollectibledvds.com. I have had a lifelong love of films of all genres. From Family to Westerns, Action / Adventure to Horror I have favourites in all genres but one genre I particularly enjoy is Film Noir. Many actors and actresses cut their teeth in Film Noir. The studios used it as their acting apprenticeship and it quickly became apparent who would make it and who would not.

With the advent of the development of Betamax and VHS, a revolution for home entertainment had arrived. Instead of going into the video library business a fortuitous meeting lead me to purchase a duplication business in 1988 and I have been in the business ever since. As this is an industry driven by technological change it has gone from Betamax / VHS to DVD to BlueRay. Downloading and streaming threaten to end DVD but it is largely a generational divide. The under 50 generation has embraced the streaming revolution but the over 50’s have stuck with DVD / BlueRay.

I am happily in the over 50 generation and as an avid collector of films I prefer to own a DVD but I am happy to provide a download service for those who choose this path.

IMPORTANT CHANGES IN DVD MANUFACTURE

The DVD industry is driven by technological change. A very quite development is taking place and is causing a lot of concern for some buyers. I am referring to MOD manufacturing

Simply put the DVD or BlueRay disc’s are burnt onto a DVD-R or BD-R. This is a process is called duplication. They are distinctive because of their blue face. The traditional method is called replication and has a silver face.

When replication was the dominant method of manufacture the myth that DVD-R were inferior and all DVD-R disc’s were Pirated was perpetuated as a convenient argument. Nothing was further from the truth but more on this later.

Replication relies on large scale production. Minimum runs of 1000 units are required to make a profit. This was fine when the video libraries were voracious in their appetite for product. DVD manufacturing plants were built at a staggering pace but around 2012 internet streaming began to become viable and this spelt the beginning of the end for video libraries and replicated DVD’s. Since 2015 DVD replication plants began to close down and the pace escalated at an alarming pace. A good example would be Singapore. It had 6 plants but by 2018 all had closed. This story is replicated in every country in the world.

The myth that a DVD-R disc is inferior is simply this, a myth. Replicated disc’s in their infancy were not all that great. Delamination was a problem between the two layers. Like replicated disc’s DVD-R did suffer early in it’s infancy from some dye problems but all that has been overcome. Technology advances at a very rapid pace and the early problems have been well and truly overcome Duplication grade DVD-R are very high quality with very good quality controlled. That said some below standard disc’s get through. It is below 2% which is about the same for replicated disc’s.

Why has MOD (manufacturing on demand) been quietly introduced? Why have all the major film studios, major and minor distributors embraced this method? The quick answer is a much higher profit margin can be made because the need to hold hug inventories is eliminated and this is a very big cost when you have to hold millions of DVD in expensive warehouses along with the staff needed to dispense the stock when orders come in. Add to this when sales do not go to forecast, disc’s have to be scrapped or dumped.

It was quietly introduced because the myth that DVD-R was inferior and the domain of the pirate had been pushed so hard and so successfully that a silent approach was taken. It may appear to be hypocritical to suddenly say everything has changed because we can now make more profit. After all if a major Hollywood studio like Warner decided to release all of their archived films on DVD-R not much could be said about it. They were quickly followed by ever other major studio as they all saw this as the answer to being able to release the vast catalogue of older films they had but could not release on a pressed disc due to minimum run numbers required. In 2018 the total number of DVD’s manufactured on DVD-R overtook pressed DVD’s for the first time.

Another myth which is only a myth is the longevity of DVD-R as opposed to a pressed DVD. Stored properly and given the appropriate care both are on a par. Because DVD-R is a consumer format as well as a commercial format many inferior brands have come onto the market. Resellers are always looking to source a cheaper product to get an edge on their competition. Without appearing to be biased about one country a lot of cheap low quality DVD-R disc’s have come out of China. Quality or QC is not the most important consideration in this country. DVD-R’s made in Japan, South Korea or Taiwan have an excellent record for both quality and QC. So if you compare apples to apples the DVD-R discs vs pressed DVD’s discs is really a non event.

If you are really in the technical stuff this is a good website to go too, to get a full understanding, http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm

Rareandcollectibledvds is predominately a distributor of rare to very rare titles that have very low sales volume. The only way we can make these titles available for sale is produce them is by manufacturing on demand.

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