My fiance wants to get my this for Christmas (the 5-disc HD-DVD version). She's worried that if she orders online, she won't get it before christmas, but if she buys it at a b&m, they won't have any.

What should she do? Is amazon the safer route?

Oh cool! I was bummed you had to pay for the package and the toys to get the Workprint Edition. Really didn't want to spend an extra 25-30 dollars for disc 5. 54.99 is the SRP.. I'm sure it'll be cheaper than the briefcase once I get to the store.

Sold.

Is she buying you the briefcase HD DVD set, or just the digipak? The 5-disc digipak is not a limited edition, it's the standard HD DVD release, so it's much less likely to run out of stock, and if it does, it will probably be replenished rather quickly.

Looks like 4 discer for me. I have absolutely no use for trinkets that will just sit in my closet, as much as I'd like the 5th disc, mainly for the Final Cut making-of documentary. So, 30 extra dollars for 30 minutes and stupid trinket crap. Gee.

Disc 5 is not the documentary.. Disc 5 is the Workprint Edition of Bladerunner, which is supposedly radically different from the other cuts.

I am interested in this, but as someone mentioned earlier, just to receive the 5th disc on Best Buy's exclusive 5-disc set without briefcase costs more than twice the cost of the 4-disc set.

We should get together in groups, have most of us buy the 4-discer, let the most rabid fan buy the 5-discer and just lend out disc 5 so we can watch it. I'd like to see the Workprint Cut but don't know if it's worth 30 dollars for the one disc!

Just the regular 5-disc HD DVD i think. I don't have room for the briefcase.

According to the Digital Bits review it is not so much different at all.

That makes my decision much easier. 4-Discs for me!

I know that. I'm not talking about Dangerous Days, the big doc on disc 2, I'm talking about the 30-minute "From Workprint to Final Cut" which shows what went into the making of the Final Cut, which I would love to see, but is it worth $1/minute?

The digital bits says a bit more than that:

While it may not be drastic, it's still the version I want to see most. It sounds just different enough to see a few times.

The workprint also has a commentary by Paul Sammon, the author of FUTURE NOIR. And a documentary called All Our Variant Futures: From Workprint to Final Cut which shows behind the scenes footage from Cassidy and Ben Ford's sessions in fixing up the Final Cut.

I'm sure Best Buy will have the 5-disc digipack on sell for 35 dollars next week. Seems worth it to me.

Amazon has the blu ray version listed at $28 right now. For two movies, Blade Runner and the Documentary, that 's not bad at all.

I'll definitely jump on that one.

There is no exclusive, BB just has the wrong picture on their website for the Briefcase version. Amazon did the same thing a couple of months ago on their Briefcase, and only showing the DVD package. They fixed it a day or so after.

Was it necessary to have 5 discs on HD AND sd format? are you trying to tell me that they couldn't fit all that info on a couple discs on the hi def format, especially when HD discs have THAT much more room than sd discs?

Perceived value. People are retarded (though no one here) and will think "more discs = more content". A 2-disc HD set would have to have a sticker saying "same content less discs!" in order for these retards to get it - but that's still asking too much from them.

I was at dvdPlanet this morning buying the Bourne HD, and the sales person asked if I had an HD player - and I said "wait, you mean people have returned HD discs not knowing they need an HD player?" - he says yes - a lot of people. Most of them just think that if they have an HDTV, the discs would work - if these fucking retards can't understand this, how are they going to understand less discs could have the same content as more discs?

They're pretty much the same price. Amazon is listing the "briefcase" for $54.99, so you aren't saving anything aside from space.

Thank you very much for this informative post. I look forward to renting the Theatrical version and the "Final Cut".

According to TheDigitalBits.com, there is no Best Buy exclusive. You can't get the 5-disc edition on it's own.

Amazon, like Best Buy during the first days of release, mark the price CHEAPER than the SRP, so if the 5-disc non-briefcase is 54.99 SRP, then it should be even cheaper than that during the first week in release at Best Buy. My guess is it'll be around 40 bucks... cheaper than Amazon's price for the case and no waiting for godforsaken shipping times.

You guys are totally off on the 'SRP' for the set. It is NOT "$54" and I don't know how you could have thought that. Since it spelled out clearly on amazon.com.


List Price: $78.92
Price: $54.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $23.93 (30%)

Let's see if I got this straight (I skimmed through the detailed Digital Bits review)... if I'm wrong please say so.

The 5-disc HD-DVD and Blu-Ray editions will all have the same disc content (movies and extras) as the 5-disc SD-DVD edition, but the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have each version of the movie (3 out of 5 discs) in 1080p format. There is no picture quality comparison in the review... it just says the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray should be the same quality. The SD-DVD version is missing the 5th disc unless you buy the suitcase version, plus there's the suitcase versions of the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray... all of the Ultimate versions only add the suitcase and some non-disc-content extras.

For someone who only cares about disc content, the 5-disc HD-DVD or Blu-Ray editions seem like no-brainers. There is no advantage of HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray, so one should buy for the player he has?

$27.95 at Amazon (or a little less at FYE after MIR) are the cheapest places to buy the non-suitcase HD-DVD or Blu-Ray editions, correct?

The confusion about a Best Buy "exclusive" comes from the fact that bb.com has two listings for the Collector's Set on DVD:

First is this one for $99.99:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....oduct&id=20605

Then there's this one for $54.99:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....oduct&id=20605

Apparently some fan saw the second entry and reasoned that it was a non-briefcase edition. I'm not sure exactly how he reasoned it, since there's no product description; apparently he was going just by the picture. He reported this to digitalbits, which then repeated it as fact, at least until WB corrected them.

As it stands now, those two entries are likely for the same item. The $54.99 is not the SRP of the set, as it's clearly labeled as BB's price on the website and has no "list price," or SRP, next to it like other DVD entries on their site do.

There's no comparison at the moment. There's a comparison coming later of the picture quality of the HD versions. However, the HD discs are going to have the same transfer and same encode, so there will be no difference in video quality between the HD DVD and BD versions.

They're no brainers as long as you own a HD disc format. If not, it gets trickier, since the DVD group gets a 4-disc set or the Ultimate briefcase 5-disc set for considerably more.

The HD DVD will have DD+ tracks instead of the DD tracks on the BD. However, these will be at the same bitrate and shouldn't sound significantly different.

Amazon's the cheapest place at the moment. There's always a chance a better deal will come along, especially next week, when B&M stores will have these in their ads.

While the fan speculation may be wrong, it's not unreasonable. The second listing which clearly has the 5-disc artwork without briefcase, also has a different serial number and different price listing than the briefcase.. It also is listed as a standard-def DVD..

Best Buy may have messed this listing up, but the interpretation that it may be an exclusive non-briefcase 5-discer is kind of implied. If this isn't true, then it's a shame as that is the one I would get. I don't have an HD format and would love to have the Workprint Disc without having to shell out 30+ for some toys as well. If not, I will simply have to go with the very reasonably priced 4-disc set and borrow a friend's disc 5 to watch.

What's beyond me is why they didn't just follow the same pattern they did with HD: no 4-discer and both bare and briefcase 5-discers to choose from. I guess they're banking on people like me who may get tempted to spend a small fortune for one disc. Kind of lame. An extra 5-7 dollars would have been appropriate for one more disc.

So the R2 set came in today and it's freaking sweet. I think it's the same size as the Oldboy tin.
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/7331/p1020011uc4.jpg
http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/4483/p1020014jj7.jpg
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9769/p1020016vw1.jpg
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/4849/p1020018hd2.jpg
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/4025/p1020021uz5.jpg
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/4059/p1020022dj3.jpg

Time...to be envious.

The review at Digital Bits says the Dangerous Days doc is 214 minutes long. Could that be a typo? A 3 1/2 hour making-of seems too good to be true.

Can anyone else confirm the running time?