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Commentary: The New DVD vs Blu-ray ‘War’: What Gives?

Posted by Mark O. Estes on December 25th, 2009 - (1) Comments

The landscape of how we watch movies has changed in the last decade. In the late 1990s, DVDs and DVD players hit the marketplace hard and “forced” a lot of people to send their VHS/VCR players to that proverbial green pasture in the sky. I, for one, was one of those people eager to get rid of my endless VHS library for the glory that was special features, trailers, deleted scenes, etc that DVDs had to offer. When I got my first DVD player in 2000, I started off with about ten DVDs. Now my collection is nearing its three hundred fiftieth mark. In short, I am very proud of my DVD collection.

So when the new format wars hit with Blu ray vs. the HD-DVDs, I felt worried that DVDs were going to be the next VHS casualty and that all my had work on my collection was for naught, especially in the short time DVDs had been in our lives. But then I noticed that new format titles were few and far between. Plus you had to own a HDTV to really get the complete HD experience, which for me, would be a crap load of money for a college student to drop just to see a few specs of dirt disappear off of my favorite movies. So I happily collected more DVDs and let the new formats slug it out, but kept a watchful eye on the beatdown at hand. As everyone knows, Blu-ray came out in the end the victor and all was seemingly well in the kingdom of the format wars. There were people who had the HD experience and those who were happily chilling with the standard lifestyle of watching movies on DVD and everyone was happy.

But there is a storm cloud brewing again… And I don’t think too many people are noticing it.

Reports and statistics still show DVDs as the reigning champ in the home video market with sales growing this year, especially with all of the deals during Black Friday this holiday season. Plus, DVD players are becoming cheaper and cheaper to own and just about everybody in the world owns one. But within this calm reserve seems to be a sneaky counterattack being implemented by the Blu-ray faction to bring devoted DVD supporters into their fold. So what the hell am I talking about? Well let’s look at some of the upcoming and recent releases on DVD and Blu Ray.

First off, the upcoming DVD releases of The Final Destination and Jennifer’s Body will basically have only commentaries on the single standard discs, with The Final Destination throwing in some deleted scenes for good measure. There aren’t any plans for double disc versions of either film on DVD, but there might be a Target or Walmart exclusive, although I highly doubt it. But the Blu-Ray versions of these films will have a crap load of special features that could have easily went into a double disc version of the DVD release. For instance, The Final Destination Blu-ray disc will exclusively include two alternate endings, a making of featurette, visual storyboards and a preview of the anticipated remake of “A Nightmare On Elm Street“. It sounds like a standard 2-Disc DVD or single disc release, does it not? In short, the Blu-ray versions of these films trump their DVD brethren in every shape, way, and form. The average movie fan on a budget will be left out in the cold with these releases and other forthcoming DVDs due to this new way of luring people into adopting the Blu-ray format. Most people will say that I am whining because I don’t own a Blu-ray player, but I am actually calling foul.

Think about the recent release of LOST: The Complete Fifth Season On DVD and Blu-Ray. Both sets had the same exact special features except for that one big difference (that had tongues a-wagging and salivating), which was Lost University, a Blu-ray exclusive feature supported by the BD-Live technology. While I would be lying through my teeth if I said that I wasn’t jealous of everyone who owned a Blu-ray player at the moment that feature was announced, I understood the exclusion of Lost University from standard releases of LOST’s season five DVD set, because it made sense in a technological standpoint. DVDs couldn’t support the Lost University feature and that is as simple as it goes. The average DVD consumer still had all the other features to toy around with and discuss with fellow fans of the show. Plus, if you are paying close to $90 dollars for something like a DVD set, then I am a firm believer of getting a bang for your buck. So why can’t other releases follow the route that Buena Vista/ABC Studios did with the LOST Season Five DVDs and keep most of the features on a standard 2-Disc DVD as well as the Blu-ray release as well?

Now, the big blockbusters that were released on DVD this fall had several double discs editions. Star Trek, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen are a few select movies that had excellent features on their 2-Disc DVD releases. But one blockbuster that didn’t go that route was Terminator Salvation, which opted to release the Director’s Cut of the film exclusively on Blu-ray. While Target was the only store to sell an exclusive 2-Disc edition DVD to the masses, it is still a lost cause given that once Target runs out of that version of the DVD, they might be a little hard to find.

So what gives? Why should I have to shell out $17.99 to $25.99 (FYE) for a standard nearly barebones disc? Even if I owned a Blu-ray player, I would still find the practice ridiculous, because I’d still buy DVDs as gifts for people who would refuse to switch over to Blu-ray. Plus, wouldn’t studios lose money on ‘mediocre’ films like The Final Destination if  they put so much money into the Blu-ray release, which someone wouldn’t pay $29.99 for and would go with the standard DVD copy instead? I’m just asking.

While I have no qualms with Blu-ray discs (because when I get the dough to own a nice home entertainment system, I will get one), I don’t like the way the studios are shepherding us into buying a Blu-ray player (along with an HDTV and all the accessories) and I think someone should speak out on the issue now while it is still in it’s beginning stages.

My rant is over. What do you guys think? Can we live in a world were 2-Disc DVDs and Blu-rays discs can coexist? Or is Blu-ray slowly, but surely plotting to take over the world?