This isn’t friendly to libraries either – most libraries aren’t circulating Blu-Ray. Especially at our small library, few patrons have Blu-Ray and there’s no demand. We’re still trying to explain to people why we aren’t buying VHS anymore! Plus, while Blu-Ray does last longer than regular discs I’ve been told, once it’s scratched it’s dead and we, the library, are stuck. You can’t charge a patron for a scratched and ruined disc when it’s circ’d multiple times and they can’t be cleaned and repaired like DVDs.

Digital copies confuse us and our patrons. Can they all download? Should we take it out? But then we’ve got to amend the cataloging record. Gah.

It’s bad enough that Disney dumps their overpriced dvds back into the vault so we can’t replace damaged movies – now even the ones that are available are a pain.

My sympathies to the librarians out there as well. *winces at the thought of the confusion…*

I’m a Blue-Ray owner, won the player in a radio trivia contest at a local eating place.:) Yet I really don’t see the need for the different extras, since the better picture and sound quality are enough extra for me.

I do use the digital copies frequently actually though, as long as they are Itunes compatible. I have an Ipod Touch and frequently make long drives, and the ability to take a couple of movies along to watch is really nice.

The digital copies come with a code that allow you to download the movie once from Itunes.

I worked at a local library for a little bit, and they were actually throwing them away unused. When they found out my interest they actually let me have them which was nice. I store them on one of those terrabyte external HDs. (that library has started carrying a handful of Blue-Ray movies, not much demand yet though beyond me)

I probably need to see UP, but when I see the commercials the character design it just puts me off. The characters look like big blobs with no bone structure, but Pixar has such a good track record that I need to try it.

Here’s another aspect of Disney’s DVD strategy that’s really annoying me: They’re making rental discs with no extras. We watched UP and my daughter (who had seen it in the theater with Mom) wondered where the theatrical short was. Plus, the rental disc starts out with an annoying ad (pimping the Blu-Ray disc) that refers to extras on the DVD (like “Dug’s Special Mission”) THAT AREN’T THERE!!! Arrrrrgh!

Oh, it gets even worse. The rental disc has no closed captions or subtitles.

Let me just repeat that: The rental disc has no closed captions or subtitles.

And apparently this was completely intentional on Disney’s part; according to what I’ve heard second-hand, Disney removed that because they viewed it as a bonus feature.

Shame, really. I actually wanted to watch the movie, but it’s pointless if I’m going to have to keep going back and rewinding to make out what was said…

(Thankfully, I did find out that a local rental store has a retail DVD, and those are captioned. I’ve just got to wait for it to be returned. But still… no captioning on the rental?! Are you trying to encourage hard-of-hearing folks to boycott you? Particularly on a movie in which the protagonist wears a hearing aid?!)

Note to Disney: Cloaed captioning and multi-language subtitles are basic accessibility features! They are not to be viewed as extras.

By any media company anywhere.

I don’t have Blu-Ray, don’t want it, and only recently bought a TV where the difference would even be visible. Like Johanna, I am insulted by Disney’s ham-fisted attempts to make me spend $200 on a new player so I can have the privilage of spending $10 more on discs. I early-adopted Laser Disk because of the promise of wonderful extras, and was disappointed. Even waiting a few years on DVD technology I still feel ripped off. Why would I believe that Blu-Ray is going to suddenly make it all right?

That being said, I have no problem with Disney, Wal-Mart, whomever trying to influence the market. That’s their choice. And our choice as consumers to go along, resist, ignore, or whatever we want. Except:

“Disney doesn’t list full contents on the back cover”.

Except we aren’t being allowed to make an informed choice. Just as in the early days of DVD when they wouldn’t say if the disk was Widescreen, Full Screen, or Pan-and-Scan, I have no way of telling what I am getting until after I buy it and play it. (And can’t return it, because everyone assumes you are only returning recorded media because you made your own copy.) And this cuts both ways: Since I don’t know how little I am really getting on the cheap copy in the store, the “full” copy doesn’t seem as impressive, so why pay so much? All they engender is more ill-will, not faith in the coming technology.

Oh, also, regarding the rental version?

I originally got it via Netflix, but decided to check stores around town to see if they had a retail copy.

The DVD case at Blockbuster has the ‘SDH’ icon indicating the presence of subtitles, and mentions having two extra short films.

The disc in said DVD case? Same one I got through Netflix. So it’s false advertising as well.

For what it’s worth, the idea behind the digital copy is accessibility for your kids. When you travel, you can put the movie on an laptop, iPod, or Zune and watch it without having to spend money to buy an in-car entertainment system. I think it’s actually a nice extra for a kids movie.

@Johanna: Heh, I’m the one who tipped Consumerist, and that’s my LJ post they quoted. :)

“Just as in the early days of DVD when they wouldn’t say if the disk was Widescreen, Full Screen, or Pan-and-Scan, I have no way of telling what I am getting until after I buy it and play it.”

What? When I check the back of DVDs that I bought back when the format was new? They all say the screen format. Some of them have, in giant letters across the front of the box, “Widescreen Edition”.

“Like Johanna, I am insulted by Disney’s ham-fisted attempts to make me spend $200 on a new player so I can have the privilage of spending $10 more on discs.”

A. It’s pretty easy to get new Blu-Ray discs for under $20.
B. Blu-Ray players are costing less than $200 at this point.
C. The studios are trying to encourage people to switch to the presentation that makes their product look the best. And like it or not? That is Blu-Ray. I get that folks don’t like the push behind Blu-Ray, but honestly, I find it far more off-putting that people act like this is some deep conspiracy to force them to do things… I once had a guy tell me widescreen movies were just the movie companies ways of forcing people to buy new TVs. And frankly, I can’t see a difference between that guy nd the regular anti-blu rants I see on the web.

I get that not everyone has a Hi-def TV, so Disney and other studios start releasing Blu-Rays with DVDs at no extra cost, but they are villains for doing so? It’s unfair? I get there is frustration with the lack of special features on standard def copies…but a selling point of DVD was you now got stuff VHS was not offering… VHS could have included behind the scenes documentaries…heck, I remember VHS sets that had a second tape that included the movie with audio commentaries. But most of the time, studios did not add any of the special features to VHS, even thoufh it was possible to include them on the same tape. Was it a scam back then? Why is it different now?

I rather hate ranting like this, because I fear it comes across as I don’t like or respect Johanna, but I do…I really appreciate her thoughts on comics and movies. But I feel like the Blu-ray reaction is…well, a bit over the top. And everytime it comes up people complain about wierd things like “ads promoting Blu-Ray” playing on their DVDs…is that really that big of an affront? It’s like complaining about seeing ads for newer and fancier TVs you do not own while watching your favorite show.

“I don’t know about full/widescreen in the past, but they aren’t listing all of the special features, which makes it hard to compare when they’re putting out such non-obviously different packages.”

True…but that is not really related to Blu-Ray… that goes back to the earliest days of DVD where they would often include the phrase “and much more!” Plus, for a long time, they would list interactive menus as a special feature. Um? Really studios? I sure would be pissed if my DVD contained non-interactive menus. :)

And it is also worth noting that there were instances where the DVD has more features than the Blu-Ray. I ended up buying the standard def version of the Departed,because it had more documentaries. Knocked Up, Robocop and plenty of others had more on the standard def than on the Blu-Ray. So, it’s not always in the cuter Blu-Ray’s favor. ;)

“Blu-Rays aren’t all that different from DVD to the average consumer (not the videophile), so the argument isn’t a direct match.”

I would actually disagree. I am not a videophile in the sense of someone who sees minute differences as big. I can’t tell a difference between a mp3, CD or record track. It’s music and I like it or I don’t. My parents are in their sixties, they saw a huuuuge difference in the picture of a blu-ray and a DVD. Same for my friends (okay, a few are videophiles). But anytime I have friends over to watch a movie in Blu-Ray? They notice the picture difference right away. So, it is a pretty big leap from DVD to Blu. :)

“As for the ads, my only gripe there is the ones you can’t skip (which are usually for other DVDs, not tech), because that also makes me feel abused as a customer, since they’re trying to force material in front of my eyes while removing my choice to watch it.”

Yeah. I agree that I want the option to jump past ads. I don’t mind the first time, but boy, if I am working my way through a season of a TV series? I do not want to sit through the same batch of trailers everytime I put the disc in. I can totally sympathize there.

If you guys were in Minnesota, you’d be welcome to come to my apartment and check out some movies and extras. :)

I am not sure why they leave stuff off of Blu-Ray, one of the big pushes is how much space is on a Blu-Ray…between 25-50 gigabytes (compare that to standard DVD’s 4-8). But the Kevin Smith films on Blu-Ray lack extras-which were a big selling point of the original DVD releases(exceptions are his most recent films-Clerks 2 & Zack and Miri).

Sounds like a plan! :)

[...] To promote Up coming out on DVD last week, the publicity group sent this set of images [...]

My hat’s off to the Carlsons for saying what needed to be said. It will be a cold day in South America before I explore a jungle of editions again or purchase another Pixar DVD. Disney is as full of hot air as the balloons in this film, so perhaps we need a few vicious dogs to bite their buttock. As far as I’m concerned, Disney can stick it UP their …..

Bob writes:

“It will be a cold day in South America before I explore a jungle of editions again or purchase another Pixar DVD.”

…and that cold day will be years and years and years before, right?

Carolyn Kormann, in “Retreat of Andean Glaciers Foretells Global Water Woes,” Yale Environment 360, 09 Apr 2009, writes:

“Bolivia accounts for a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it will soon be paying a disproportionately high price for a major consequence of global warming: the rapid loss of glaciers and a subsequent decline in vital water supplies.

“Earlier this year, the World Bank released yet another in a seemingly endless stream of reports by global institutions and universities chronicling the melting of the world’s cryosphere, or ice zone. This latest report concerned the glaciers in the Andes and revealed the following: Bolivia’s famed Chacaltaya glacier has lost 80 percent of its surface area since 1982, and Peruvian glaciers have lost more than one-fifth of their mass in the past 35 years, reducing by 12 percent the water flow to the country’s coastal region, home to 60 percent of Peru’s population…”

[...] Up on DVD [...]

[...] including my three favorites: Up, Ratatouille, and Wall-E, as well as the fan- and kid-favorite Cars and the latest released, Toy [...]