Still only a standard DVD player and toying with making the switch...but my decision is not really based on the superior picture/sound that the BR offers but on the extras. Like the Star Wars BR.So I have a bunch of questions...

- Are studios adding more content and deleted scenes to Blu Ray as a means to drive you to buying the more expensive product?

- When films comes in a 3 pack of Blu Ray, DVD and digital download...is the DVD the same DVD that you'd buy if you just bought the DVD by itself? And if so, why?

- Has the Blu Ray format killed the two disk DVD option. Seems like a film like Captain America would (like The Incredible Hulk) be offered as a DVD two pack with lots of extras on the second disk. But Captain America seems to be available as just a single DVD

-- How do DVD only people buy their DVDs...do they buy the Blu Ray pack with the standard DVD knowing that some day they'll upgrade and don't want to buy twice?

Thanks!

Just guessing here, but I suspect most of the Blu questions can be answered in the actual Blu forum. About the only question I can talk about is how people buy their DVDs. Personally, I don't go out of my way for combo packs. If they're the only way I can get the DVD, I'll bite, otherwise I don't bother. Ther are many folks out there sold on the idea that they can somehow "futureproof" their purchase, so they're the real target audience for this. Me? I learned a long time ago that there's no such thing as futureproof when you're dealing with technology. If I can't use it today, I don't waste the money on it. If I need it later, it'll always be cheaper.

- that's debatable, but I think they more or less feel that anyone who cares enough about special features has already upgraded to the superior format.

- why not?

- Isn't this the same question as #1?

- depends on the person & pricing I'd guess. If it's the same price, or close, why not get the combo pack.

My answers:
1. As Eddie W said, it is debatable. Some titles have extras only available on blue ray, some only on dvd. soem extras on existing dvd editions arent ported over to their blue ray counterpart some are. Some extras are only available through BDlive. In that case, I dont consider those as extras, as they may or may not be available when one may go to download them.

2. Common sense would say that the dvd included in a blue ray version would be the same. Why press two different dvds? But I am not sure that is actually the case.

3. I think for the most part blue ray has essentially killed the deluxe dvd market. Companies seem to want to sell the higher priced blue ray option, so they seem to be forcing anyone that wants deluxe editions to go that route. Soem tiems dvd versions are not available, or are delayed. Star Wars isnt available on dvd at the moment, and Pirates of teh Caribbean 4 isnt out for a little bit yet on dvd.

4. I honestly dont know. I got a blue ray player, and buy mostly blue rays now. I usually opt for the combo packs when available as i dont have a portable blu ray player yet. before I got a blue ray player, I was buying combo packs because I knew I was going to go HD before too long.

Obviously all this onyl applies to titles that are available in both formats. But to be honest, the only straight dvd only titles I ahve bought have been tv titles that arent available yet in blue ray.

Depends. Sometimes, there is quite a bit of content that is exclusive to blu-ray. In others, the blu-ray will have less content than its DVD counterpart.

Generally, yes. However, the DVD that came with "Kick Ass" had no extra content, whereas (I believe) the standalone DVD release had a commentary and a few other items. There might be more like this.

This seems to be a trend. DVD is sort of becoming the new VHS.

I don't know. I'd wager that the typical DVD consumer probably wouldn't buy a blu-ray package unless they were planning on upgrading in the near future.

Generally speaking, yes.

I think it's a little bare-bonesier but I don't buy a lot of DVD these days. Warner often puts the digital copy of the DVD as well so not much room for features.

Pretty much.

I know some people do if the price is the same or less or really close, like when Inception came out. Seems like most big releases over the last few months have had the combos priced substantially higher than the DVDs, though, which has saved me from impulse-buying stuff I don't really need.

It depends on the company. I've noticed that Universal and Disney tend to include the DVD that would be sold seperately, while other companies (Warner Brothers comes to mind) it's a bare-bones DVD like what would be considered a 'rental' copy.

Forgot about the rental copies. It still seems that it would be more cost effective to press one dvd version of the film, rather than one with extras and one without.

Not if you're trying to encourage people to buy rather than rent.

True. The question then becomes how much of a selling factor are extras to the common man.

Turns out Captain America is bare bones when it comes in the Blu-Ray combo pack.