Packaging

[irascian]

One of the things that really annoyed me when DVD launched was the different packaging used - Warners titles were a nightmare to stack with the other Amray-case based titles. The problem persists with seemingly every TV series changing its mind half way through a run, redesigning the packaging so the stuff looks crap on the shelf.

My first HD-DVDs arrived today and the packaging is both good and bad.

Good: smaller and slimmer than DVDs - when you're already struggling to house 2000 DVDs anything that reduces the size is a good thing

Bad: the cases look much nastier and cheaper than those big glossy photo's they use in the photo shots for most web sites.

Now the US forums are reporting that Universal have changed the packaging on their newer discs (allegedly they now match Blu-Ray in all except colour where before they had nice little feet that meant despite the slimness they stood up properly on a shelf).

They've changed the casing format already?

What is it with these companies that they can't decide on a format and stick with it. Drives me nuts. Some idiots in a marketing department somewhere decides they have to keep changing something to justify their job - and the consumers suffer. Make your mind up already and stick with it. Jeez!

[Tempest]

Problem is these days eveything is about cost.
If they can take something that's nice, change it so it's cheap and nasty, but save 1p on each one they'll do it.
They will only see 1p x 1,000,000,000 units made per year and think of that.

Unless of course it's a PREMIUM product, where you are selling on the overall perceived quality of the item, rather than it's raw functionality.

Perfume, Top end cars, top end HiFi.

It does make me cross though when you pay £16 (example) and get a shoddy case in your example) for 1p or even 10p difference at the manufacturing stage.

Perhaps these is a market for a GOOD QUALITY 3rd party case that costs a bit more but is made to a standard and not down to a price.

Manufacturers often spoil products for silly reasons.
Very often, cheap componants in TV's.

My neighbour used to be a repair technician on the road for Currys, and there was always runs of TV's with problems which caused loads of them to fail for reasons like they used a 5p resistor rather than a 10p one on a £600 set.

But I'm veering off the point a bit :)