The heyday of the powerful home video or DVD has been replaced in recent times by the streaming mode. These days, many consumers prefer to access the movies they want on a one-off basis through a subscription rather than owning them outright. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t buy physical movies anymore. Even though 4K Blu-ray players and the discs they require are still quite expensive, you can still get some solid, affordable deals around town for physical media, especially the humble DVD.
Blu-rays and their 4K counterparts frequently go on sale, but there’s no denying that DVDs are the cheaper option. A quick search on Amazon and you’ll see that classic and modern movies tend to be much cheaper on DVD. There are several reasons for this, the biggest being the literal quality of the print. DVDs max out at around 480p, while Blu-rays use Full HD resolution and 4K Blu-rays opt for 4K resolution. So while we love the extra features and bonus content on these discs, DVDs have declined in popularity significantly in recent years thanks to high-fidelity alternatives. However, there is still a lot of backlog that studios and manufacturers want to sell quickly at low prices.
Supply, demand and storage of DVDs
Although the quality of the DVD content may go some way to understanding the lower price, the question remains: why do companies print DVDs and charge so little for them? The key here is supply and demand. Since DVDs aren’t the most popular movie format, there simply aren’t many people buying the available copies, and the laws of supply and demand then drive those prices down.
While there is no straight, simple answer to why all DVDs are generally cheaper, there are several reasons why the deal keeps coming. Some experts speculate that there may already be an oversized inventory of DVDs that companies want to sell at a discount in order to sell them off, rather than throwing them away or returning them to warehouses. Likewise, DVD supply chains are already mature and profitable, so it doesn’t cost very much to produce a DVD. This helps justify the lower price.
A final consideration is storage. Manufacturers don’t want to destroy DVDs, but they also don’t want to store them indefinitely. This means bigger discounts, special promotions and much more. Storage is also a downstream consideration, as consumers no longer want physical media to take up as much space in their home. (Even PlayStation is ditching physical games for an all-digital future.) With the prevalence and convenience of streaming services and digital downloads, consumers are likely willing to pay a little more for these so they don’t have to store stacks of plastic cases indefinitely.
