Can't quite decide yet whether to make the leap to Blu-ray while your standard DVD player is working perfectly well and typical DVD imaging on an HD screen is nothing to sneer at? Warner Brothers might help you put that decision on hold for now with plans to offer all its titles in the new year as DVD/Blu-ray combo discs.
Thus, consumers can start building their Blu-ray library well before they actually go out and purchase Blu-ray players.
The combo-pack approach will allow current Blu-ray consumers to see their movie/TV content in 1080p (assuming they have a 1080p-cable TV set), and permit Blu-ray holdouts to view the standard DVD version on their DVD player. (While Blu-ray players are backwards-compatible to play standard DVDs, Blu-ray content can only be viewed on Blu-ray players, of course.)
Actually, the studio's new combo packs starting in late winter will carry three versions of the same title—a Blu-ray version, a DVD version, and a digital copy for PCs, laptops and some smartphones.
Another innovation to be launched soon by Warner Brothers will be intuitive Blu-ray "double features" that will pair titles that logically fit together (notably sequels) such as the Clint Eastwood films "Dirty Harry" / "Magnum Force," Billy Crystal's "Analyze This" / "Analyze That," and the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedies "Grumpy Old Men" / Grumpier Old Men."
