.Avery Blog

.NET and everything nice

PDC DVD

”If you didn’t make it to the PDC you can buy a DVD with WMVs and PowerPoint slides of the sessions. Unfortunately the DVD doesn’t come cheap – you’ll have to pay $499 USD. If you were at the PDC you can buy the DVD for $199 USD.”

[Andrej Budja]

This does not make any sense to me, this thing should cost about $20. I could even stomach $50, but $500 is ridiculous. What's next? Charging for SDKs? This is information that Microsoft wants to get to the developers, it is a good thing for Microsoft if more people know about this stuff, so why the cost? Actually I would suggest that they send this DVD to every MSDN Magazine Subscriber, MSDN Subscriber, and mail them like AOL disks... Get this info out there, blanket the developer community. (This is right up your alley Scoble, help us out)

-James

Posted: Oct 31 2003, 10:20 PM by jamesavery | with 10 comment(s)
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Comments

Doug Thews said:

I've gotta agree. $500 for a DVD review after the fact is pretty bad. It's just like getting notes to a class you haven't attended. While you may get the content, you're not privvy to the substance of the sessions. It's certainly worth more than the discount that's being given (from the conference versus the DVD).

Is there anything on the DVD that prohibits it from being posted as an Internet source? If not, then I suggest a group of individuals pool their money, but one copy, and put it up "electronically" for their members to share.
# October 31, 2003 11:26 PM

Ron Green said:

20 dollars my ass.
I'd be willing to pay shipping and handling.
# October 31, 2003 11:31 PM

TrackBack said:

# November 1, 2003 12:41 AM

The Jeff said:

If they were going to give away the DVDs for that price why would anyone attend PDC?

The Jeff
# November 1, 2003 1:03 AM

Robert McLaws said:

It's a DVD of the video recordings of every single session. You have any idea how much it cost to do that? Then have it edited, converted to WMV, and mass produced on DVDs? I agree they should be cheaper, but not free, and not $20.
# November 1, 2003 1:56 AM

SBC said:

I think right now MS needs Longhorn+ converts and to get the "knowledge" out there & pre-empt any doubts over future products or from the competition. I recall over two years ago, MS pushing .NET - they were free and all over the place. Almost as bad as those darn AOL disks! But it paid off - .NET skeptics were converted. At least ship the PDC DVD with all MSDN subscriptions (including the MSDN magazine). Regarding costs - with profits in the billions, they can afford to give out these DVDs.
I wonder what Mr. Scoble has to say about this one.
# November 1, 2003 6:50 AM

James Avery said:

I don't anyone would not go to the conference just because a DVD was coming out. The movie theaters do pretty well, even though everyone knows it is coming out on DVD.

In response to the cost, I can't believe that they would not have taped the sessions anyway... and Microsoft is not trying to make money selling DVDs, or selling magazines, they want to build developer relationships so they can sell software. I am sure it would be worth it to Microsoft in the long run to give out the DVDs much cheaper.

-James
# November 1, 2003 10:38 AM

Benjamin Mitchell said:

The question I've got is whether they will put the content of the DVD onto the web, like they did with TechEd US 2003 [1]. Scoble has said they wouldn't [2] but in the end given they are producing the DVD, I think it would make sense to Microsoft to get further value from this investment by using it to educate and even wider developer group.

I guess it's just a balance: I'd be annoyed if I paid $500 for the DVD and then found it was out later on the web. Perhaps as you say, it's about timing: I'll pay to see the movie in the cinema even though I know it's coming out on DVD later because I want the advantage of knowing about it now.

The slides are already available on the web so I wouldn't be surprised if the videos eventually make it up there as well.

[1] - http://microsoft.sitestream.com/
[2] - http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2003/09/07.html#a4531
# November 2, 2003 9:03 AM

Mel Grubb said:

This would certainly be an opportunity for MS to exercise their DRM implementation, since at $500, there will be plenty of developers out there on the lookout for a rip of this one.

$500 is just ludicrous for what is essentially a very long infomercial. Agreed it's an infomercial that we WANT to see, but it's still essentially MS advertising. Asking the public to pay for your company's propaganda is about as stupid an idea as I've ever heard.
# November 3, 2003 8:48 AM

無修正裏DVD販売ドンキー said:

dvd shopping site @ japan

# December 9, 2008 12:41 AM
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