What's With the New DVD Re-Packaging? (1 Viewer)

[WilliamG]

I confess that I haven't been to Best Buy in a while, but during a trip there last week, I noticed movies such as Cast Away and Planet of the Apes in a new cardboard sleeve. I'm sure there are others, but what's going on with this? Surely there are no differences in the DVD's - or are there?
Is this just yet another "fleecing of America"? :frowning:

(Sorry if this has been covered earlier. If it has, please post a link to that thread.)

William

 

[Britton]

Cast Away and POTA were 2-disc sets that went OOP and were re-issued as 1-disc versions without the 2nd disc of extras. Best Buy has come out with exclusive versions of the original 2-disc sets but now they are in cardboard sleeves as you saw. On October 14th, these movies and others will be available in their 2-disc configurations in all stores.

 

[Keith Paynter]

Repackaging in one form or another is the lifeblood of home video, although with VHS usually it just means the cover art is redesigned and the content remains the same. The proliferation of cheap DVD players at retailers like Wal-Mart (et al) put the product in the hands of "the great unwashed" , or "J6P" several years after core adopters were able to buy DVD movies.

Many of the catalogue titles available today were almost twice as expensive before the current proliferation. It's cheap marketing for Fox to take its 2-disc special editions and make them available in a slimmed down single edition. They've done it with several titles.