They’re obviously not doing that. They raised the price and people pay it.
It’s like when CD’s were competing with albums. CD’s are actually cheaper to produce than albums. But companies found out that because of the higher quality sound, people expected to pay a higher price for them. And the companies were happy to act on that expectation.
I’m pretty sure it can be physically done, as dual layer DVD/CDs exist. But it would likely be rather more expensive than just having two disks.
And I have yet to see a movie that did not have a DVD release of some kind, even if only available bundled with a Blu-ray. (My sister gets a lot of her movies from people giving her the DVD copy. Her TV’s small enough and far enough away that she can’t notice the difference.)
Yeah, but even though for the most part record companies **are **greedy, money-grubbing scum there was the initial retooling from manufacturing vinyl to making compact discs that had to be paid for. And the technology to manufacture CDs is an order of magnitude more expensive to build & maintain than for vinyl. All told they had to have spent billions for the conversion and they certainly passed the expense on. But, as an audiophile, I find it hard to argue with those facts. Just as most manufactured goods have gotten significantly better compared to 30+ years ago, I felt that CDs and CD players were most certainly worth the (continued) extra expense.
The question is - with a price difference of what, a dollar or three, is the sweet spot?
I look on Amazon, and the list price for Les Miserables (the 2012 movie) and the list is $29.95 for DVD, $34.95 for BR+DVD(plus digital).
So the question is - how would you price a BR-only copy to outsell a combo pack? How much lower would it have to be before some people say “BR only is worth it” and yet you don’t turn off the people who still need the DVD also?
I admit it could be a bit of a chicken-and-egg; sell only the combo, and combo sales outstrip BR-only. Maybe it’s a pure money-grab. Maybe people actually want it. If people were turned off by the only choice being “five bucks and we throw in the DVD” then sales would be down.
you’ll know BR has really arrived when the DVD becomes the specialty item and that the only way to get a DVD is the combo pack.
Assuming it ever arrives. The latest CES was pushing quad-resolution (4 times the pixels of HD). Of course, BR did not allow for that format, and the question for the next few years is how to deliver content. The trouble is that sharp upconverted DVD is probably good enough for 90% of video conent.