Hello,
I'm new, I hope that isn't a problem if I write in English, because the translator Italian-German isn't accurate... :(

I once bought some digibook and slipcase on Amazon.it but didn't like the service: damaged edition, dents and worn-out paper in the angles.
Now, I would like to buy some Koch Mediabook from Germany, what is your experience with Amazon.de?
Thank you and have a nice day! ;)

Hi Alessandro,

welcome to the board!

Usually purchases on Amazon.de arrive very well packed, so I'm surprised reading about your bad experience. Did you maybe buy the damaged items from a third-party reseller? Sometimes their listings are so well integrated into the Amazon page you have to look very carefully to find out whether you buy from Amazon directly or the marketplace. Of course I don't want to rule out the possibility of bad luck. Probably it was just a bad product they sent out, it happens from time to time. With Amazon it shouldn't be a problem to ask for a replacement.

On to your question: As long as you buy the mediabook from Amazon directly, I guess you're fine. For the very reasons I laid out above. Also, mediabooks are usually sturdier than slipcase and sealed, so they should survive the trip to Italy without being damaged.
Another hint: In another forum I read people tick the "gift option" when ordering from Amazon(.de). Supposedly the item is then put in yet another box, thus offering even better protection. I can't tell whether this really works, I've never done it myself. So far, I couldn't complain about their packaging.

Feel free to post any additional questions. Happy to help!

Johannes

Hi Johannes,
thank you for the welcome.
My experience was with Amazon.it, I bought two Warner digibooks and the plastic wrap was consumed in the angles so the cover was worn-out (the color of the paper was white in the angles instead black).
I usually buy on physical shops in Italy, buy I see that German is bringing out very interesting editions.
I think mediabook is similar to digibook, isn't it?
The gift option is a good hint but I have to buy 4-5 blu-rays and I don't see an option for multiple items...

Ciao Alessandro

Ooops, I misread. Sorry about that. But doesn't Amazon.it offer as good a customers' service as "our" Amazon over here? You should be able to have damaged copies replaced effortlessly.

I think Digibooks are pretty much the same as Mediabooks, but there're more qualified people around here to answer that specific question. ;)

Some items cannot be gift-wrapped, but this usually applies to large products. Blu-Rays (in any form of boxing) shouldn't be a problem, actually. If you order more than one movie, however, you should be fine without taking the "gift route". They'll use a bigger shipping box with adequate filling materials.

Johannes

Hey and welcome here!

As schneijo already said, amazon.de is always pretty well packed. I never experienced any problems and if I would, one can easily return those. I had to return something once, because of production failures, and it was an oversized package, and I could return it without any costs - simply ask for a return on the page and you get a label to print out and stick on the package and off you go. However, I could imagine, that if you order from abroad, you could pay extra shipping. But then, I never had any shipping damages, and a production failure is also pretty rare with blu-rays.


Regarding Mediabooks: There is no official definition of what a mediabook actually is and what it's not, which in my opinion is bad, because mediabooks became pretty famous and nowadays everybody want's to sell mediabooks which sometimes lead into strange, bad quality items. In general, mediabooks are a special high quality form of a digibook. They came up in the transition time from DVD to Blu-ray and therefore most mediabooks have two trays (front and back) with the same movie on blu-ray and DVD. To me this is one defining characteristic, so I would say anything with only one tray is not a mediabook. However many movie labels nowadays don't include a DVD anymore but add something different, like the soundtrack an audiobook, or a different bonus movie on blu-ray (e.g. a feature-length documentary, or another movie by the same regisseur, etc.). Another defining characteristic (in my opinion) is the size. Mediabooks are generally DVD-sized, while blu-ray digibooks have blu-ray size.

And then, as I said, it is a high quality release, i.e. it has high built-quality, normally it is thick cardboard hardcover, sometimes with some texture structure on it, sometimes with a leather-like structure, there are a few that have glow-in-the-dark covers. All of them have a big booklet part - at least 18 pages, mostly somewhere arround 20, sometimes even as far as 42 pages (and then there are of course also special mediabooks, like the I Frankenstein, or Sin City, which include whole comic books and are thick as hell). They are (as far as I know) always a limited run, sometimes stricktly limited to a certain number of copies, sometimes also numbered individually, and often there is more than one edition, with different cover artworks to choose from. Some include other gimmicks, such as limitation cards, stickers, a fold-out poster, etc.

However this last paragraph varies, and not all are doing everything. Good examples for mediabooks are releases by labels like '84 Entertainment, Capelight, NSM or Birnenblatt.

However there are also bad examples, mostly those come by the major labels - they bring something out, sell it as mediabook but the quality is inferior, and sometimes a total joke. Most of the times these are digibooks; which is why I am so unhappy if people use these words wrongly - even collectors often do, and especially since there is this hype around mediabooks, a lot of people try to sell simple digibooks as mediabooks, which I think is not okey.

As you might guess, I am pretty passionate about them, they where one reason for me to switch from DVD to blu-ray - I think they are one of the best ways to release movies.

I've included some pictures, from all the labels I've mentioned above, to give you a feel for what to expect. The last movie (Riddick) is one of these bad examples. This was sold as mediabook, but in my eyes is even inferior to a standard amaray release.

I hope this clears thinks up a bit. And best of luck with your German editions :) :thumb: Be warned though: When not buying mediabooks, releases in Germany are sometimes worse than in other EU countries. E.g. German collectors tend to buy steelbooks in Italy because you often get embossed Steelbooks while we don't.

Yes, Amazon.it has a good service, I don't know what is their policies for international shipping.
I contacted the customer service and said it's not possibile to gift wrap for multiple blu-ray in single order, so I have to order without it.

Thank you for the explanation, in Italy, Mediabook doesn't exist as format.
How is the quality of NSM Records and Koch products?
I don't purchase steelbooks but there are many Italian collectors that buy only those; the embossed-debossed effects are sometimes really well done, but I really don't like the market tendency to sell only reissues of the same movie one, two, thee, four times... only for the package and no interest for the movie itself.
So, in Italy the releases of old movies are scarce and for some movie they reprint for the fifth time...:(

However, there are some good digibooks from Warner and Universal, like the 100th anniversary; I have some of these.
I prefer card on metal, that's why I don't like steelbook format.

So, don't you experience white corners on mediabooks? The photos you post seem perfect to me, all purchased from Amazon?

You're welcome! As far as I know, it doesn't exist anywhere else with the exception of Germany and Austria.

NSM Records has a pretty similar standard over their product range, which is in pretty good, but compared to others, there are better. The Cardboard they use is not as sturdy as e.g. Capelight, they always use a matt cover Artwork (no embossings/debossings, structuring, etc.), their booklet size and quality of text varies (there are bookelts that have hardly any text and only 16 pages, then again others with great texts and 24 pages). Also, the Booklet is always stapled and glued in directly to the cardboard, as exposed to using an inner lining that provied a flexible holding strip to witch it can be stapled or sewed onto.

And even the extras on the disks vary greatly. Day Watch/Nightwatch for example only has trailers and nothing else, while The Hound of Baskerville has an audio commentary, actors notebook, a documentary on Hammer Studios, picture gallery, trailers, and even a radio play (and that is still not all the extras included).

However, their runs are pretty limited, such as 222 copies, or 500 copies and they often offer more than one cover version to choose from. Also, as far as I know there has never been a re-release, so once they are sold they are pretty expensive to get.

But to be fair: this is critizising on a really high level. In general NSM does a great work it has great quality and you wouldn't wast your money if you get something from them; it is only that some others do a even better job (Capelight and Birnenblatt, for example).

Koch Media on the other hand has a huge difference in quality. There are releases that come in extremly well designed and beautiful high quality releases, as well as others that are pretty simple and cheap. While NSM does only mediabooks, Koch Media has the whole range of packaging, from amaray to steel, to digipacks and even mediabooks. Some of their releases is said to be limited (e.g. I have some Dario Argento movies that are said to be limited), but they also do re-releases (my Dario Argento set is a second edition, the first was limited as well, the second however has a better quality, but completly identical insides).

So here it depends highly on the release you are interested in. What they may lack in outside quality however often pays out when it comes to the inner values: The all include a bunch of highly interesting extras, especially made audio commentaries (unfortunately thos are only available in German), a lot of interviews, featurettes, documentaries, trailer, alternative versions, etc. pp. Really some extraordinary stuff. I especially fell in love with their Mario Bava Collection which is a DigiPack release, that is of extremely high quality, looks absolutely georgeous and has great extras.


Haha, I started out the same way. However, cardboard releases are pretty rare and I absolutly hate the amaray packing (which is why for a long time I stuck with my DVDs), and also cardboard packings are much more expensive, so in the end, I bought more and more steelbooks, wherever I wanted to have a movie that wasn't released as paper edition.

Meanwhile I started appreciating Steelbooks. My favorite packing nowadays is the Fullslip packings (Filmarena, Steelarchive, Kimchi, Mantalab etc.), which combines nice looking steelbooks with a georgeous paper slip ;)

Funny that you ask: Up to now I did not. However, I put all my Mediabooks into protective sleeves, to reduce wearing effects when taking them in and out the shelf. But even if I wouldn't, most of the mediabooks have extremely high quality. However, just some days ago I got a mediabook by Capelight from Amazon that had white corners right from the box, inside the shrinkwrap. The cover artwork also appears a bit more fragile than what I am used to.

I get most of my movies from Amazon, yes. However, Amazon does not offer all the movies that are released here, and this is especially true for mediabooks. There are some specialized movie online stores I use - in the past I used Megastore Palast (but I had a bad experience recently so I will probably prefere different places), I made extremly good experiences with pretz-media an Austrian movie reseller, and for my 18+ movies I use bmv-medien. I am pretty sure that pretz-media ships internationally, at least EU, I am not sure about bmv-medien and Megastore Palast. But I prefer Amazon, because of the free shipping in Germany.

By the way, if you are interested, there is a forum section here, where people can show their collections. I use it myself, and some of the editions I talked about you can see there in great detail (however, you first need to validate that you are at least 18 years of age - I forgot how to do that, but someone here can surely help if you need assistance):

• Koch Mediabooks - my latest Dario Argento Mediabook and a list of links to posts with the other three Dario Argento movies by Koch Media
  

• A Koch Media Digipack with Fullslip pretty bad quality example
  

• Mario Bava Collection #1 and #2 one of the best quality releases by Koch Media
  

• NSM Hound of Baskerville
  

• NSM Nightwatch and Daywatch
  

• Capelight Mediabook with white corners: You can see them on the left hand side on top and bottom - they are small but they are visible; annoying :(

Strange is that the second edition is better than the first press...
For example, now I'd want to buy the Western Legenden from Koch Media that are on sale, my concern is if they are digibook or not because second press is always an amaray and Amazon product information isn't precise.
I have many blu-ray amarays, I collect only blu-ray because dvd movies seems to my like VHS. :D I also hate dvd amaray packaging because is very poor quality.

Thanks for the links, I'll take a look at.

Small update: I haven't access on that links...

Hi Pygospa,
surfing on German blu-ray forum I've found "keepcase" for blu-ray.
This is the first time I ear this type of case, do you have some examples?
Is it similar to amaray?
Thanks