Should Studios Offer "DVD-to-Blu Ray" Trade-In Program?

I like how Disney is offering coupons off the Blu-ray if you already own the DVD on some titles.

Warner does with select titles: http://www.dvd2blu.com/ and Todd already mentioned Disney: http://www.disneyupgrade2blu.com/

I neither see it happening nor do I think I would take advantage of it but for a handful of titles.

There are older shows that have already been remastered from 35mm film that could definitely take advantage of the HD format (e.g., Perry Mason, Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke), as well as some 60's amd 70's shows (e.g., Mission Impossible, Hawaii Five-O) that all look great on DVD.  But there are so many more that either never were good enough for HD or would cost too much to get there to probably make back the cost. So why put in the effort. So out of my collection of around 300 seasons I can see maybe 20-30% that could probably even qualify.

As for the $10 to upgrade, I can see that as a benefit to the consumer but I hardly see where the studio would do that since I don't think it offers them the profit margin they would be looking for. If the studio did it, I personally think it would be more like $10 off on a $40 purchase. While studios want consumers to transition they don't want it to come with minimal profits, but instead they want to milk the consumer like they are used to doing. And what would the studio do with all the disks traded in? They don't want them so they would have to destroy them.

For me anyways, the one's I have that would be worthy of the treatment are already good enough, while those of lessor quality don't merit the transition. The Star Trek TOS series and maybe a few others are the only one's I would even consider at a $10 upgrade fee. But since I don't think they would be that generous, my guess is I wouldn't participate in whatever plan a studio might come up with.

Just my take, and the fact that my collection is 70% pre-70's. And I do have a BR player.

Selling us a new Blu-Ray set for $10 might please us, but I don't see any benefit for the studio, that would hardly cover their expenses. We wern't promised anything when we bought DVD sets anymore than we were promised anything when VHS tape gave way to DVD. When a new format come out you have to decide how much it is worth to you to upgrade your collection. I also own well over 200 boxed sets, and I don't invision upgrading any of them.

In a word.  No.  Simply because with the vast majority of such programs the "upgrade" or "trade-in" often costs more than a new copy purchased from a discount seller.

He is right, the answerer is going to be a big fat no. Remember when the VHS was replaced by the DVD? No one got a trade in. The exact same thing is going to happen here. I know it is a pain, especially when you have tons of DVD's.

The studios' only interest in enticing people to convert to Blu-ray is so that they can sell them discs.  If they give those discs away, or at a price that they cannot profit from, the benefit to them is nil (unless the studio is Sony, which sells Blu-ray hardware and makes a royalty on all Blu-ray hardware and software sold).  Furthermore, if they offered this upgrade directly to the consumer (probably the only way such a thing could be achieved), they would be cutting out the retailers they rely on for sales.  If Target (for one) knew that (for instance) Warner Bros. was circumventing them to basically give away Blu-ray upgrades of (let's say) "Friends" to all of the most likely purchasers of that set, why would they stock it at all?

 

There's simply nothing in it for them to do this.

But as Todd and Adam mentioned before, at least two studios (and not Sony) already have DVD-to-Blu-ray upgrade/trade-in programs.