Now I am not a Blu Ray owner nor do I plan to be but can someone please explain the logic behind these packs. If I was a Blu Ray owner I would want to buy Blu Rays not DVD's...So what are you supposed to do with a dvd thats basically useless if your watching Blu Ray??? Just does not seem to make any logical sense to me!

We use them in the car.

Personally, I'd rather have just one or the other, but I can see why they might do it. I think one of the reasons is to try to get people that don't have a Blu-Ray player yet to buy the Blu-Ray assuming you will get a player down the road while still having the DVD to watch for now. Another reason is that a person may have a Blu-Ray player at home, but when traveling, only have something that plays DVDs, so it is convenient to have both.

The car is a great example of where to use them.

Not every household has a blu-ray player in every room. Some families may like the option of watching the BR in one room, or the DVD in another, like a bedroom for example.

I'm not a BR owner myself, but I'll probably be buying Kick-Ass this week in the BR/DVD combo pack. I can enjoy the DVD now, and have the BR on deck until a get a player.

We have a PS3 for the living room, but the playroom has a DVD player, as does the car and my wife's laptop (which we use in the bedroom sometimes).

I love them for all the reasons given already (Car, kid's room, etc.). Plus the combo packs make you upgrade ready if you don't have a BR player yet.

DVD players are everywhere, BD players are in select few places.

You're buying a movie in the first place because you want to watch it. Having both formats give you flexibility since you're bound to have access to more DVD players than BD players.

I think they are a great idea and should have come out with them from day 1 of Blu-ray.

It would have been a much better way to transition people from DVD to Blu-ray instead of creating another format war with DVD after HD-DVD, which is still going on now. Now add video on demand, the internet etc. to the competition.

The DVD is more versatile as it can be played everywhere including cars, portable players, spare rooms, Grandma's house and most computer drives still only have DVD not Blu-ray.

Most of them only increase the price by a couple bucks and I like the freedom of having the Blu-Ray for me to enjoy and the DVD for me to loan out to friends/family still using DVD.

wow I just wonder curious myself why with DVD/Blu-Ray combo and I see everybody been post explain and now I understand. Im been waiting to the chance myself grab for DVD/Blu-ray combo someday.

Personally, I'd rather have a digital copy than a DVD copy. We have a portable DVD player, but our traveling is just about non-existent these days. I love my iPod, however, and having video content on that thing is very handy. The one thing I would love to see is the inclusion of supplemental features available for download. I'm more likely to make time for a 10-15 minute behind-the-scenes featurette sporadically than I am to load a disc just for the bonus content. With a disc, I feel obligated to watch most, or all, of the content to justify getting out the disc. If it was digital, I wouldn't think twice about just watching one clip here or there as I felt like it until I eventually got through it all.

They are mostly for people that don't have a BR player yet. Like buying a widescreen movie back before they had widescreen TVs.

No, as has been pointed out they are for people who don't have a Blu-ray player in every room, but have DVD players.
This really makes my head hurt. Most of us bought widescreen DVDs (and even widescreen LaserDisc and maybe even VHS) because we want to see movies the way they are intended to be seen. It had nothing to do with the shape of our TVs.

They mostly come out at night, mostly.

How is a DVD useless just because you own the Blu-ray?

I own several BDs where I also own the DVD, and the DVD gets played as often, or more often than the BD. The BD can be played in one room of my house, the DVD can be played in every other room, in the car, at work, at all my friend's homes, etc.

Sure, once BD players become as ubiquitous as DVD players this benefit of DVD will disappear, but as of right now, and at least a year going forward I imagine, give me the combo packs.

As long as it comes in a standard size case and doesn't increase the price, why would I be bothered with the extra benefit? I lend out the DVD instead of BR to friends as well (even if they have a BR player).

The format war would have been over in a month. I know I would have definitely bought them sooner if they had included a DVD. As it stands, I waited for the format war to sort itself out, and then I didn't even buy a player until last Christmas.

Including a standard DVD is useless to me (but since I'm obsessive I end up watching it anyways). It's fine if they include it, but I REFUSE to pay even a PENNY more for it. I'm pissed because I would've picked up both Kick-Ass and Diary of a Wimpy Kid this week, but they BOTH are available only as a combo pack, and I haven't found them anywhere for under $25.

You did know that several HD-DVDs were combo discs? Problem was they were overpriced, and most people resented having to pay $5 more for a standard-def disc they'd never use.

The only time it would come in handy for me is if I knew somebody who hadn't seen the movie and they wanted to watch it but they only had a DVD player. But I think the combo packs are great because not everybody has Blu-Ray players in all the rooms of their house, in the car, on their computer, etc. This is a great way for a family to buy a title and not having to worry about compatibility issues if somebody else wants to watch the movie other than in the living room.

Kick-Ass
$22.96 Walmart.com
$22.99 Amazon
$22.99 Best Buy.com

Can't help ya with Diary of a Wimpy Kid, though. I think $24.96 was the cheapest I could find.

These have probably been mentioned.. but for me I think this was a great idea.

1st. It allows those people who don't yet have blu to upgrade without buying the product twice.

2nd. Not everyone has more than one blu ray player.. or one that is portable. you can have the blu for home and the dvd for travel/or wherever else you want!

Keyword there: combo. I imagine that would have thrown off people confused enough already by the new format. Seeing that a separate DVD disc was included with the Bluray might have been able to push them over the edge.

I think my only complaint so far with the combo packs is that they don't seem to go down in price as fast as the single disc editions. Star Trek 3 disc is still well over $20.00, even online. No way should that movie still be priced that much after being out this long. I suspect Kick Ass will take it's time to get down below $20.00 as well. Regular Blu-Rays can be found quite often for $15.00 or less after a few months of being out.

I remember waiting over a year for the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country VHS to drop below $100.00. The times have certainly changed!