Hollywood annoys me, again.

I love movies, all kinds of them. I love them enough that I buy a lot of DVDs, and now I buy blu-ray discs, too. But I hate that blu-ray often costs so much more than a regular DVD. And now Hollywood seems on the way to making things even worse.

It’s not bad enough that they are already including a very much unwanted (by me) digital copy disc in most blu-ray packages, basically charging me even more for something I don’t want. Now they’re offering only a single option for the Up blu-ray package, which is a 4-disc package including a digital copy and a regular DVD. WTF? And this is compared to the only DVD option, which is apparently a single-disc version.

Why is there no single-disc blu-ray option? Or even better, a two-disc version that includes all the extras, but not the other formats? Why must I pay a fortune for a package that includes two additional formats of the movie that I don’t want? It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t paying for those extra discs, but I certainly am. The blu-ray package retails for $45.99, while the dvd retails for $29.99. Yes, those prices ARE absurd. Street price isn’t quite as bad, $31.99 and $16.99 respectively, at Amazon.com. But WHY do I have to pay $15 more to get the blu-ray version with all that extra crap? Why can’t I get a beautiful blu-ray for just $21.99, which is the more common $5 price premium over DVD?

People who buy blu-ray right now already pay more, so they’re apparently considered purchasers of “luxury” items, and they’re now being offered only the “luxury” package. The price differential between blu-ray and regular DVDs in the past had already put me off of buying quite a number of blu-ray discs, opting for the cheaper version instead. This kind of thing will only ensure that this continues. And that sucks, because I really enjoyed Up in the theater, and really wanted a nice high-def version for my library.

Please note: I recognize that for some people, such as those that have kids and who travel a lot, these extra discs really fit the bill, as they allow for a parent to watch the blu-ray, let the kids watch the DVD on their player, and allow for a traveler to use the digital copy. But I don’t want those, and should be offered a package that doesn’t include them.

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