So if you follow me on Twitter, I'm sure you noticed that I got really upset on Tuesday when I went out purchase Tron: Legacy.
@Disney I fucking hate you. You only put Tron out on DVD in a single disc version with the ugly cover. I want 2 disc in DVD packaging. Asses
Ugh. You people have no idea how pissed I am that @Disney solely makes their Bluray cases looks pretty and doesn't care about DVD collectorsYeah, I was very upset. And I feel I have a right to be. If Twitter were to allow more than 140 characters, those rants would have been MUCH longer!
I've been collecting movies for over 3 years now. I want to say I started when I was in high school. My collection has gotten extreme; movies are just piled everywhere in my room. I'm very proud of my collection. I'm proud of the amount and I'm proud of the way it looks. All the cases are the same and look beautiful. I'd even buy a movie version based on it's case. For example, pictured are the covers for the Dark Knight DVDs. One is the single disc version, the other is the two-disc version. Which one looks better? Obviously the two-disc with the bike pictured on it is way more epic. So my purchases really depend on a lot of things.
When HDDVDs and Blu-ray discs came around, I was fine with it. I thought it was pointless, but as long as it didn't interrupt my collecting, I was fine with their presence. I'm not a high-def fan. I don't believe it's necessary unless you're watching a movie like Titanic, Avatar, Harry Potter, Pirates, or Lord of the Rings. Blu-ray eventually won the battle, which I was bummed about because I don't really understand what "blu-ray" means… at least HDDVD makes sense - High Definition DVD. So, whatever, they won… now we have Blu-rays and DVDs.
With blu-rays slowly (and very slowly) becoming popular, DVDs are like dirt cheap now (yay me) while they charge up to $30 for blu-rays. Still… I think it's pointless. Occasionally they'll release a special version where you can purchase both the blu-ray and DVD in one case (and sometimes throw in a bonus disc or digital copy). Clever. It's a smart way for companies to try get consumers to start purchasing blu-rays.
Now, companies (for the most part at this point, Disney) doesn't care about DVDs because they don't cost as much as blu-rays. If you get people to convert to blu-ray, you can charge them whatever you want because high definition is the "in" thing right now aside from 3D.
So this is where my problem comes in. Here's my story:
I loved Tron: Legacy. I thought it was an awesome, epic movie and I could wait to buy it on DVD. I already have the first one on DVD so obviously I need the second one. I go to Target (yeah, although I've been promoting it's boycott) to buy it and what I find makes me as DVD collector want to cry. Disney released a single-disc DVD version, a blu-ray + DVD version, and a blu-ray, DVD, 3D DVD, + digital copy version. The single-disc DVD version is in the regular DVD packaging that matches all the rest of my DVD cases, but it has the most ugly, generic cover in the world and that's it. Nothing special about it. The other two versions are in the blu-ray packaging which is shorter and thinner than a regular DVD case. The cover of the blu-ray versions matches the epic-ness of the movie. They even went all out to add that box cover to slide over the case.
This is when my heart breaks. I want a DVD version in the DVD-sized case, but I want the awesome cover that comes with the blu-ray versions. I would buy the blu-ray + DVD version if it was in a DVD-sized case. Disney has been releasing their "Diamond Editions" of their classic animated movies where they give you a blu-ray disc and a DVD disc in a single box. The best part about their Diamond Edition is that they release it in DVD packaging and blu-ray packaging. Everybody wins.
I'm really upset about this and I'm sure a lot of you find it stupid. But I'm really passionate about my DVDs. What I'm most nervous about is going down next week… Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I. Imagine this scenario… Harry Potter movies have been coming out since 2001 (before blu-rays and HDDVDs ever came about) and you've boughten each one in the Two-Disc Collector's Edition in the standard DVD packaging. Blu-rays are on the rise and DVDs are slowly becoming a minority. Up to this point, you've collected the six released Harry Potter movies in that style of packaging. 2 discs, DVD packaging. Part I is released and they only manufacture a single-disc version in DVD packaging with a generic cover and then a single-disc blu-ray version and a 2-disc blu-ray + DVD version. So now you must pick: single-disc DVD in generic, boring DVD packaging, or blu-ray version (when you don't even have a blu-ray player) in blu-ray packaging that doesn't match the rest of your movie collection. A nightmare.
We'll have to see what happens next week when Harry Potter: Part I is released. You'll be able to tell by my tweets if I got what I wanted. Wish me luck...
