Posted Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 06:00 AM PST by Mike Attebery
Returning to the idea they tried back during the HD-DVD days, Universal Home Video has decided to once again create combo packs that feature a standard DVD copy as well as a high definition Blu-ray disc.
Though not an entirely uncommon practice for new releases, Universal has announced their first DVD/Blu-ray bundles for older ‘catalog’ films. The two-packs will be released on January 5th, and will include the films '8 Mile,' 'Dawn of the Dead,' 'Doom,' 'End of Days,' 'Jarhead,' 'Street Fighter: Extreme Edition' (this is the Jean-Claude Van Damme "film" of the game, not the excellent Sonny Chiba flick), 'The Last Starfighter' and 'The Rundown.'
While Universal has already offered all of these films on DVD and many of them as Blu-ray discs, the combination offering is a way to offload old product while simultaneously hooking the customer on the latest and greatest.
The appeal of the packages seems a bit limited, as owners of DVDs don’t need the Blu-ray discs and Blu-ray owners may have no use for the DVD copies. For those with multiple viewing rooms that sport a Blu-ray player in one and a DVD player or game system in the other, this could be a fantastic deal.
Universal’s new bundle deals come just in time for post holiday shopping where many consumers will undoubtedly be looking for a great deal on movies to watch on their newly acquired Blu-ray players, PlayStation 3s and Blu-ray integrated computers.
This should also be seen as a move by Universal to cement Blu-ray as the only supported format. Sources are reporting that once these combo packs are in stores retailers will no longer have the option to order the DVD version of the film separately.
Source: Video business
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