Digital Home Thoughts: Hybrid Discs Help Bridge the Gap To HD-DVD

“Delivering on a promise made months ago, Warner Home Video has announced the first hybrid disc to feature high-definition (HD) DVD content on one side and standard DVD content on the other. Warner senior vp market management Steve Nickerson said several weeks ago that Warner would be releasing a series of "hybrid" discs to ease the transition from standard to high-def DVD. ‘Purchasing a disc now in this format gives consumers the greatest flexibility in viewing options,’ he said. ‘If they own an HD-DVD player, they'll get all the benefits of HD-DVD. If they're considering a future purchase of an HD-DVD player, they can still enjoy the movie (on their existing DVD player) until they upgrade.’”

I think this is actually a pretty smart idea. Transitioning from one media format to a newer, better one can be a painful process (just ask me how many VHS tapes I still have – a lot, and how often I watch them – never). With this dual format, I can buy a disk, watch it now, and then when I get an HD-DVD drive (assuming they win the format war, but that’s another story) I can watch it in glorious HD. Plus, I think it will make people a lot more likely to upgrade if they have a bunch of these dual-discs lying around. Now, if only we could get then to pick some better movies (besides Goodfellas, which is awesome).