Answered The AVF UHD disc loan service?

Wildkarrde

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As a community i believe the AVF one is the best i've been involved with, lots of honest and genuine members.
Been having a think about a disc rental system and whether it would work? Guys like myself like to watch movies but have no inclination to keep and re-watch or build a collection whilst other members do.
What if members could 'loan' others their discs with the receiver covering postage both ways? Something similar to 'LoveFilm' but an AVF one?
Benefits those who buy as their disc outlay is slowly returned with the postage being covered, £1.30 every time and should make the overall cost less.
Those who receive pay £2.60 to watch a UHD film where there is no service like this just now.

Now to join this club you would have to have made something like 5000 posts and be a member that others are familiar with to gain the trust of sending a disc. Of course that number could be tweaked slightly buy if you're an AVF regular then that's not a hard target to reach.

This is just an idea of my own back and not something that AVF is endorsing. Happy to discuss the finer points and if it's a flyer or simply not worth the risk or posts of 'don't be a tight a**'!

Thoughts?
 
A good but unfortunately illegal idea that I doubt AFV would endorse
Read the warning at the start of every disc
 
As a community i believe the AVF one is the best i've been involved with, lots of honest and genuine members.
Been having a think about a disc rental system and whether it would work? Guys like myself like to watch movies but have no inclination to keep and re-watch or build a collection whilst other members do.
What if members could 'loan' others their discs with the receiver covering postage both ways? Something similar to 'LoveFilm' but an AVF one?
Benefits those who buy as their disc outlay is slowly returned with the postage being covered, £1.30 every time and should make the overall cost less.
Those who receive pay £2.60 to watch a UHD film where there is no service like this just now.

Now to join this club you would have to have made something like 5000 posts and be a member that others are familiar with to gain the trust of sending a disc. Of course that number could be tweaked slightly buy if you're an AVF regular then that's not a hard target to reach.

This is just an idea of my own back and not something that AVF is endorsing. Happy to discuss the finer points and if it's a flyer or simply not worth the risk or posts of 'don't be a tight a**'!

Thoughts?
Good idea, but:
A lot of people already operate a de facto rental service by buying and selling or trading straight on again after a watch.

Is that suggested rental cost of £1.30 plus postage or including postage. If the latter the lender gets £0.08p per rental (minus time and costs to get to the P.O.). Might take quite a few rentals to reduce initial disc outlay by any degree. Is that enough to cover the risks and the greater depreciation of a rental copy vs watched once copy (sold at close to release date)?

Also I've only managed less than half of the suggested 5,000 posts in more than 11 years so that might be a bit high for many. Perhaps I can join in 2028...
 
A good but unfortunately illegal idea that I doubt AFV would endorse
Read the warning at the start of every disc

But you're my friend, can't friends loan discs to each other ;)

Good idea, but:
A lot of people already operate a de facto rental service by buying and selling or trading straight on again after a watch.

Is that suggested rental cost of £1.30 plus postage or including postage. If the latter the lender gets £0.08p per rental (minus time and costs to get to the P.O.). Might take quite a few rentals to reduce initial disc outlay by any degree. Is that enough to cover the risks and the greater depreciation of a rental copy vs watched once copy (sold at close to release date)?

Also I've only managed less than half of the suggested 5,000 posts in more than 11 years so that might be a bit high for many. Perhaps I can join in 2028...

Ahhh, didn't quite think that one through as the £1.30 (1st class post) that sender pays goes to RM. Silly me, would have to looked at.

It's a mooted idea, not without problems hence putting it out there. The post count was high for a reason and did say it could be tweaked.
Idea was for long term members who regularly contribute to offer this to minimise chance of fraud/deception.

Cheers for the input.
 
A good but unfortunately illegal idea that I doubt AFV would endorse
Read the warning at the start of every disc
As a rental service yes. But as a sell through service no. Some thoughts below.
A combination of the current almost rental watch once and sell, coupled with a specified price might fly as a legal 'rental' service.

A chain of say 10 buyers (i.e. renters) with perhaps a £0.50p to £1 less price to next in chain plus postage. Last in chain gets the disc cheapest if they want to keep it (or starts a new chain or sells it off). But to operate would perhaps need a guaranteed chain of buyers (renters) in place before starting the chain for a title.

However this would perhaps destroy the current UHD private sales market here. I don't mind taking a punt on a new release I haven't seen as I know I can usually sell it off with only a smallish overall loss if I don't like it. But competing against the AVF 'rental' service scenario above might mean there is no sell to market or a bigger loss in value for a one time watch. Unless I started a chain that is.
Avforums rental service: "All your UHD sales are belong to us" :)
 
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what if the disc goes awol, gets damaged, not returned, i like the idea but in practise could be a can of worms.
 
@doug56hl Not sure it would destroy the UHD Classifieds as you would need a certain criteria to even be able to loan a disc so those who didn't qualify couldn't take part therefore the classifieds would still be in place and unaffected.

@golden phoenix same way what would happen if it was a sale. Either it's sent recorded or POP is kept to enable a claim to be made and the sender would have to cover that cost. A risk yes, but no more that if you were selling and sending yourself.
Again, as it was limited to certain people i'd like to think trust is there, i'd hope anyway!

@Geoff_D completely your call if it ever came to fruition if you were willing to take part. Not sure how me taking a disc out of a case and putting it into my machine would damage your disc right enough?!
As above, would like to think that long term members know how to handle other peoples property.

Cheers.
 
@Geoff_D completely your call if it ever came to fruition if you were willing to take part. Not sure how me taking a disc out of a case and putting it into my machine would damage your disc right enough?!
The short journey from case to player is the one of the riskiest activities a poor UHD can get into...
Especially with some of the case hubs used now. I'm constantly worried I'm going to snap a disc with the amount of force some hubs need to prise a disc out of their clutches. Great for stopping rattlers in transit, not so good for day to day use.
 
@Geoff_D completely your call if it ever came to fruition if you were willing to take part. Not sure how me taking a disc out of a case and putting it into my machine would damage your disc right enough?!
As above, would like to think that long term members know how to handle other peoples property.

Cheers.
It's nice to think so but some people really don't give a crap as to how they treat discs. The 100GB UHDs in particular are more prone to scratch-related issues because there's more data crammed in on thinner layers, so even a nick that that looked quite inconspicuous could pose problems. With maybe 10 or 15 people handling x disc I'm just not confident that it'll be in the same condition at the end as it was at the beginning.
 
It's nice to think so but some people really don't give a crap as to how they treat discs. The 100GB UHDs in particular are more prone to scratch-related issues because there's more data crammed in on thinner layers, so even a nick that that looked quite inconspicuous could pose problems. With maybe 10 or 15 people handling x disc I'm just not confident that it'll be in the same condition at the end as it was at the beginning.

Fair enough i take your point on board.

Perhaps it wouldn't even be as much as what you think. I'd like to think that this may be a one off experience for someone.
Lets say for arguments sake i would like to watch Blade Runner in UHD. I post in the thread that i would like to watch and would someone care to borrow me it? With that you send me it and i send it back after viewing and no one else wants to see it.
Someone may post that they'd like to see Deepwater Horizon and someone else has it and are prepared to send it to that member and so on and so forth.

It's not fool proof, it's not without problems but may/could work as a community idea.....
 
I like the concept
Whichever way you want to dress it up it is still illegal
Put it this way I cant legally copy a disc I purchased and own outright onto a hard drive.
 
As a community i believe the AVF one is the best i've been involved with, lots of honest and genuine members.
Been having a think about a disc rental system and whether it would work? Guys like myself like to watch movies but have no inclination to keep and re-watch or build a collection whilst other members do.
What if members could 'loan' others their discs with the receiver covering postage both ways? Something similar to 'LoveFilm' but an AVF one?
Benefits those who buy as their disc outlay is slowly returned with the postage being covered, £1.30 every time and should make the overall cost less.
Those who receive pay £2.60 to watch a UHD film where there is no service like this just now.

Now to join this club you would have to have made something like 5000 posts and be a member that others are familiar with to gain the trust of sending a disc. Of course that number could be tweaked slightly buy if you're an AVF regular then that's not a hard target to reach.

This is just an idea of my own back and not something that AVF is endorsing. Happy to discuss the finer points and if it's a flyer or simply not worth the risk or posts of 'don't be a tight a**'!

Thoughts?
Thoughts?

WE! AS A COMMUNITY!

(Blazing Saddles) [emoji6]
 
Nice idea but impractical for many reasons . The main one ( For me ) that one is supporting the industry purchasing the physical disc format and as a forum it would go against the grain.
 
Technically, completely illegal, I'm afraid.
I like the concept
Whichever way you want to dress it up it is still illegal
Put it this way I cant legally copy a disc I purchased and own outright onto a hard drive.
Wildkarrde's revised plan (post #11) seems legal to me. It's just a variation on "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours" as practised in bike sheds thoughout the land when I were a youth (allegedly).
Harry Potter
 
It's just a variation on "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours" as practised in bike sheds thoughout the land when I were a youth (allegedly).
Yeah where's the harm but
That would now get you on the sex offenders register
 
Yeah where's the harm but
That would now get you on the sex offenders register
Probably not, if done at the usual age it's still done at. Normal behaviour seems to be the consensus at Mumsnet: I'll show you mine of you show me yours | Mumsnet Discussion

Anyways back to the topic. If party A has say Wonder Woman and wants to do a swap loan for say Blade Runner I can see little for the copyright holder to get uppitty about. Extending that you could have a new AVforums rating for swapsies generated by this type of loans. This would be in the tradition of barter swaps practised for thousands of years. Bartering In The Modern Day: How People Are Swapping Skills And Services ... For Free
Multi way (multi party) swaps are common and easily tracked digitally.

But I would probably be like Geoff_D in that the only way you're getting my UHD is out of my cold dead hands... :)
Except it seems in the case of Geoff, Blade Runner...;)
 
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Yes back on topic
A swapping / loan does seem a better solution than buying a disc and hoping to recoup the cost by renting
Like you and Geoff D I am OCD with keeping all my gear including my discs in pristine condition
I also agree with this point
The short journey from case to player is the one of the riskiest activities a poor UHD can get into...
Especially with some of the case hubs used now. I'm constantly worried I'm going to snap a disc with the amount of force some hubs need to prise a disc out of their clutches. Great for stopping rattlers in transit, not so good for day to day use.
I quite often get concerned about damaging my discs due to the grip on the hub
I only have 4 UHD discs mainly due to the ridiculous asking price
Followed by it being a hit or miss experience due to HDR limitations of my projector
Swapping could be a huge bonus in that regard.
Perhaps if there was a swapping forum library where you could see which discs members owned and which discs members intended buying preventing too much duplicate films
 
Nice idea but impractical for many reasons . The main one ( For me ) that one is supporting the industry purchasing the physical disc format and as a forum it would go against the grain.
Unfortunately the industry does not reciprocate and support those buying their products. Apart, of course, from Disney and their now defunct Disney Movie Rewards scheme which got me quite a few titles during the time it was operational.
 
Perhaps if there was a swapping forum library where you could see which discs members owned and which discs members intended buying preventing too much duplicate films
What we ideally need is the needz and offerz swaps projected from a crystal ring system as in Zardoz. Easy to sort out duplications then... :)

projection.jpg


That's tonight's movie viewing sorted :thumbsup:
 
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Wildkarrde's revised plan (post #11) seems legal to me. It's just a variation on "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours" as practised in bike sheds thoughout the land when I were a youth (allegedly).
Harry Potter

Yip that was the idea but it came across all wrong. It would be more of a lending service, giving a disc a loan to a well known and established member.
As i said lots of people like to have a collection so perhaps would be willing to allow another member a viewing of 'X' as it's just sitting on their shelf at that moment in time.

Obviously some people are a little anal with their stuff, something i hadn't considered, as i have helped members out with sending things in the past (a DVD/VHS combi recently) without nay such thought.

So i guess this will be a non runner but an interesting discussion!
 
Obviously some people are a little anal with their stuff, something i hadn't considered
Hardly surprising given some new release UHD prices, the skittishness of the players even with new out of the box discs and the probable need to do a rewatch when a loan gets back to make sure it still plays properly. Nice idea but potentially fraught with problems.
 
Hardly surprising given some new release UHD prices, the skittishness of the players even with new out of the box discs and the probably need to do a rewatch when a loan gets back to make sure it still plays properly. Nice idea but potentially fraught with problems.

See this is something that wouldn't even cross my mind. Maybe just my outlook on things and perhaps my faith in people and things being returned as how they left.
 
See this is something that wouldn't even cross my mind. Maybe just my outlook on things and perhaps my faith in people and things being returned as how they left.
It's not so much lack of faith in people but lack of faith in the technology....
Even handling everything with kid gloves some discs will just throw a sulk if you didn't give the proper incantantations to the UHD gods and will thereafter pause and skip as they feel like it :(
 
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