Warner Brothers has now announced that the soon to be released Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix DVD will contain two downloadable digital files. Video Business reports that
The latest Potter installment will allow DVD buyers to download the film to a PC or a portable device, making Warner the first studio to so marry physical media and downloads.
Jim Wuthrich, Warner senior VP of digital distribution, unveiled the development at Tuesday’s DVD Forum conference here, as he discussed the studio’s plans to meet what it sees as a growing consumer demand for digital content.
“You can buy the DVD and have the option of the digital copy,” said Wuthrich. “This future-proofs the format for consumers.”
As reported previously the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix DVD will be released here in High Definition and Standard DVD formats on December 11. The UK will see the arrival of the Potter DVDS a month earlier on November 12. Also WB will be releasing the previous Harry Potter films on High Definition DVDs and these discs, various gift sets, and the special DVD game are all available for pre-order in our Cauldron Shop.
One related note: Thanks to Pruneau from La Gazette du Sorcier who let us know the Order of the Phoenix DVD will be released in France on January 11, 2008.
UPDATE: Britta emailed to say the OotP DVD will be released in Germany on November 16t, and another reader emailed to say November 20 will bring the release of the DVD in Italy.
That makes it very easy to pirate the DVD, but I guess it’s going to end up happening anyway so they might as well give the fans more options.
I just have to say that they better change the date of release in the US to the same time as the UK, since this new download feature will make it ridiculously easy for US fans to get the DVD illegally a month earlier.
I agree with T_D_O the date difference will make it very easy for those who pirate DVD to make alot of money selling to us in the US. It might be wrong but it is done everyday.
The download feature wont neccessarily increase pirating as the copying of DVD’s is already easy enough for them – Besides the download file is not DVD transfer friendly whereas copying a DVD is. But I also agree the month difference is puzzling in terms of beating piracy. I wonder what is their logic with this decidion? Does anyone know? There must be a good reason…
Posted by Professor Potter on October 10, 2007, 05:46 PM
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Er… that sounds like they’re shooting themselves in the foot. Then again, it’s not like the current piracy precautions are doing anything to stop it, so why bother. At least legal owners will be able to download it and use it as they see fit without feeling like they’re doing something that they shouldn’t.
it´s good, then it will be easier fome to get hold of a and crapck the stupid protection they put on on thier stuff,it´s good that the EU has forbidden it too.
still it will save me some time from cracking the DMR protection and format it MP4 so i can view it free on mine ipod touch.
Like that take times, 40 min and i cann have it out for sharing on my torrent site.
thanks WB for making my life a little easier, and god bless me for not living in america and in the land of the free and where we still have inteligent laws that makes sence , Netherlands and sweden.
This particular move I think is a good one. It won’t make pirating any easier, because honestly it can’t get much easier than it is now. But for those of us who enjoy putting our legally paid for movies on our iPods, this makes it so we won’t have to resort to using limewire to get an iPod friendly version of the movie. Very smart.
However, I am still hoping the American release date will be changed, because the month long wait WILL result in this movie being pirated like there’s no tomorrow.
But I also agree the month difference is puzzling in terms of beating piracy. I wonder what is their logic with this decidion? Does anyone know? There must be a good reason…
I like to pretend that someone unfamiliar with the different date formats between the US and the UK saw “11/12” and got confused. And then the error just got passed along under the assumption that there was a good reason for it. But that’s just in my head. :)
I’d much rather have these two versions: One of the original film, and the other with all deleted material put back in, so we can chose either depending on which is better :)
This is just useless to me. I’m happy with just playing by putting the disc in my pc, and I don’t intend on owning an Ipod….
If a digital version is going to be available for download, will it
a, be available to all on the net ? and
b,are they going to suppy and gaurenttee “clean” downloads ?free from bugs adaware spyware viruses worms etc ?
He knew perfectly well whom he'd [i]like[/i] to ask, but working up the nerve was something else... Cho was a year older than he was; she was very pretty; she was a very good Quidditch player, and she was also very popular.
that’s a really great idea!