I wouldn’t necessarily blame the act of placing a DVD copy with the Blu-ray copy for this. This probably costs them a few cents - nothing that would affect the price in any noticeable way.
The real issue would be a marketing issue: some “genius” decided that they could sell the extra DVD as a great new feature, worth say $10, even if it costs them nothing. That is all very good and well, but if they don’t offer a cheaper Blu-ray only option then they are pricing themselves out of the market.
Actually I feel that way about purchasing movies in general. I have a Blu-ray player and have not bought a single title. If it is available on Blu-ray, Netflix typically has it on Blu-ray, and there is just no cost comparison between purchasing and renting through Netflix, even for things that I want to watch over and over.
I’ve been to the site linked to by the OP (www.digitalbits.com) - and I cannot for the life of me find a single instance of “The DVD bundled with the Blu-ray + digital copy”. It’s a really horrible website, so I may be missing something.
Over on amazon.com’s bluray section, I’m looking at their top 10:
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Two-Disc Edition + Digital Copy) - no DVD.
Star Trek (Three-Disc +Digital Copy) - no DVD.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection - no DVD.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Two-Disc Special Edition) - no DVD.
The Wizard of Oz (70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition with Digital Copy) - no DVD.
The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) - no DVD.
An American Werewolf in London (Full Moon Edition) - no DVD.
Star Trek The Original Series - no DVD. 9. Up (4 Disc Combo Pack with Digital Copy and DVD).
Gladiator Bluray - no DVD.
So the only one packaging it with the DVD is Up, which makes sense, because it gives your kids a copy to play in the play room, or in the minivan, etc. Other than that, I have ZERO idea what he’s talking about. A trip to Best Buy or Target will back that up.
I guess you didn’t see the Night at The Museum II Blu-ray+DVD+Digital copy.
Also the Star Trek is being bundled with a digital copy making this a behemoth 3 disk set for what was barely a 2 hr movie. They made a simple DVD of this, why not a simple 1 disc blu-ray too?
There’s also that Jim Carey Grinch movie which if you want on Blu-ray (not me personally) you also have to buy the DVD version - no solo blu-ray there either.
Unless these items were being sold for the same price as a solo blu-ray (which they’re not) I see this as a forced upsell. And yeah, yeah, yeah I know no one is forced to buy anything.
I imagine that not everyone has a DVD burner nor the aptitude to feel confident burning their own movies whereas the cost of including a DVD in nominal to the distributor. We’re talking less-than-tech-savvy people who just want to by a copy of that there Museum movie for the kids.
Which is a pre-order. They promote the big ticket items before they release a barebones version. Why don’t we wait until it’s actually released before bitching about it, hmm?
It’s not that easy to do. A DVD copy has certain folders that a DVD player can interpret and play. The digital copy is really meant for play on a PC and won’t necessarily play on a DVD player. For example, my *Dark Knight *digital copy was a WMV file that is foreign to most DVD players. With some effort it is possible to convert the digital copy into a bona fide DVD version, but even if you do that the quality won’t be the same if you watch it on a big TV.
You’re missing my point. Regardless of how low you can finally find a Blu-ray/DVD/digital copy, it would still be lower if it were only the blu-ray. No one gives anything away, you are paying for the other media. I feel a plain blu-ray version ought to be available along with all the other versions. Many times this is so, but many times not, and it just so happens that a bunch of movies I wanted have been bundled - hence my outrage.