Universal to offer Blu-ray and DVD films on one "flipper" disc

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Matthew DeCarlo

Matthew DeCarlo

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Universal Studios Home Entertainment introduced a "groundbreaking" dual-format disc today. The studio will offer some of its films on "flipper" discs that contain both DVD and Blu-ray media.

Universal is aiming its combo discs at folks who plan to upgrade to Blu-ray in the future, but have yet to take the plunge -- essentially "future-proofing" their collections. "The flipper disc offers an easy way for viewers to convert to Blu-ray now or any time in the future," said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

The combo discs will launch in the US on January 19, with films including The Bourne Trilogy. The Bourne films have a BD-59 disc specification, seemingly combining a 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray side with a 9GB dual-layer DVD surface.

No price has been disclosed, but it is probably safe to assume the discs will cost in the vicinity or upward of a standard Blu-ray film. If that is true, flipper discs may be too pricey for the "ideal" consumer, who has likely avoided Blu-ray and the HD-scene in the interest of saving money.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/37185-universal-to-offer-blu-ray-and-dvd-films-on-one-flipper-disc.html

 
I guess its a good idea in theory just skeptical about the price. If you do not have a blu-ray player or a high definition TV to play it on then maybe you should save some money to buy one. But perhaps the discs are not much more then a standard Blu-ray disc, then i can see this being a great product. Either way i think this is neat.
 
seems like a clever way to try to get DVD users to upgrade to Blu-ray since they could use the DVD now and play it on a Blu-ray player in the future.
 
This is a great idea, have both formats on a single disc. Maybe this could be what it takes for people who have not gone HD yet to start preparing for it.
 
I like the idea, but if they are more than even a Blu-ray, and people are still on the fence about whether they want a Blu-ray player or not, I don't seem them buying the disc
 
The arguments for the price are valid...but it also stands that if the only version of the released movie comes on the "flipper" then that's is what the buyer must buy.

I understand the Bourne series isn't part of this, however in 6 months, they may release a 'new' movie (say Couples Retreat, or the newest season of 'the office'), and only do that release on the one disc. Thus forcing the DVD buyer to purchase the "flipper"
 
Great idea and bold move..provided that prices are fair...
And could be a motivation for users to switch to Blu-ray players as well...
 
I think this is a stupid marketing scheme. A case of too little too late. This kind of thing should have been launched at least two years ago. A better 'upgrade path' would be to offer rebates, trade-in programs, or something similar for dvd owners.
 
Groundbreaking? Am I crazy or did HD DVD not offer this very same thing before it was killed off?
 
I agree this is a really good idea. But of course price is going to be the determining factor of whether or not this will be successful. If they can keep the price as close as possible to the current blu-ray price then this may catch on.
 
As others have mentioned, the pricing will determine success or not. Blu-Ray's are dropping in price like crazy. Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target have been offering a slew of titles over the last few weeks at less than $10 a pop. If that's the case with these, then I'll be a success. I know on more than one occasion I wanted to bring a movie over to watch with friends, but they didn't have a blu-ray player available. If I'd had one of these flipper DVD's, it wouldn't have been a problem.
 
I think this is a great idea and will help blue-ray adoption. Although it remains to be seen in my mind weather blue-ray will be adopted fast enough that one of the online streaming delivery methods doesn't over take it.
 
this could help give that push people need to get blue-ray players and upgrade there tv's its a plus if you have family that want to borrow it and they only have a dvd player or maybe only a blue-ray player. if the price is right then they should sell well.
 
LOL. HD-DVD already had this before it died. Mind you the discs were more expensive but still.
 
I really like the idea tho if you have a blue ray player the "other" quality is most likely unacceptable lol but like others are saying price is a concern to.
 
Universal Studios Home Entertainment introduced a "groundbreaking" dual-format disc today. The studio will offer some of its films on "flipper" discs that contain both DVD and Blu-ray media.
Click to expand...

Hardly ground breaking as they already tried this trick with HD-DVD and failed.
 
Hardly ground breaking as they already tried this trick with HD-DVD and failed.
Click to expand...
Oh, I agree all right, but to be fair, 'groundbreaking' was in quotes in the article. :) I think it was meant with a little bit of sarcasm.
 
I wonder if Netflix will adopt these flipper discs. Would be nice to get rid of the blu-ray premium they charge if these discs catch on.
 
People who already have a large stack of DVDs aren't going to see any value in this. If they made a blu-ray player that could play DVDs it would be far more significant. Also, I think a lot of people don't want to upgrade to Blu-ray until the disc prices come down, so why would they pay more to "future proof" their DVD purchase? Really, the prices of Blu-ray disks should come down and then if you repurchase a movie you already own on DVD it would probably be cheaper at that time then buying these disks now (cheaper to buy both the original DVD and in the future the Blu-ray version).
I think a lot of people can't tell the difference between and upscaled DVD and a Blu-ray, so they won't be concerned about future proofing, their only concern is price.
If they made all future DVDs only available in this format people would just buy less.
 
Even though HD DVD had already done this, this is in my opinion a good thing. Though it might be cheaper just to buy the dvd and the Blu-ray player seperatly, or to buy a combo pack including one DVD and on Blu-ray.
 
I do not think this idea will atract more people into blue ray, people wont be willing to pay more for one of this movies and I don't think they will eally understand why they would have to, we still have to give some time to this technology to get to the masses, just today I found a 15-year-old who didn't know what a blue ray was, and like him lots of people do not really understand this technology, it is just a matter of time until everybody changes to blue ray, or maybe digital downloads haha, we will see.
 
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