I’d hoped this was just a single regrettable incident, but nope: Engadget HD reports that a number of people who bought the Blu-ray edition of Warner’s “Harry Potter” five-movie gift set are opening the package to discover that the disc of
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is, in fact, an HD DVD platter.
Oh, bother.
Now, the reverse doesn’t appear to be happening to HD DVD buyers — they’re getting all five films in the promised format — and there doesn’t seem to be anything to this other than a simple assembly error. But the Blu-ray people are probably fuming right now, and I don’t blame them; of all the discs to get wrong, it had to be the newest movie,the one anyone who’d splash out on this box would probably be dying to spin up first the second-last film in the series, which is probably less of a big deal than it might have been. (I’m an idiot, but that’s what I get for posting after a night withough sleep.)
Anyway. It’s just a mistake, and as soon as Warner provides exchange information, I’ll put it up here for anyone who’s been affected. (Check your discs before you panic, though, as only some BD sets seem to have the HD “Phoenix” “Goblet”.)
Still, it does make an argument for those combo players, doesn’t it?
My Blu-ray set has the BD PHOENIX, but I actually have two spares of PHOENIX on Blu-ray anyway. ‘Tis a curiously decadent life we sometimes lead.
This is a serious issue in more ways than one, though, because even if you’re an HD-DVD capable Blu-ray owner, the PHOENIX HD-DVD has no HiDef supps! (The BD’s are all 1080p.) And people wonder why I went with Blu-ray.
But the HD DVD version has the “in-movie experience”, which is pretty nifty, all things considered. It kinda balances out the BD’s other advantage, which is the inclusion of some TV special that had to be left off the HD DVD for space considerations …
… kinda …
Well, the Blu-ray does contain the 65-minute bulk of the IME content (i.e., the “focus points”) minus only the trivia track and pop-up interruptions Dumbledore’s Army.