The Warner Bros. Home Entertainment division announced today the launch of DVD2Blu.com, a site for consumers to upgrade their current WB DVDs to Blu-ray for a fee.
The DVD2Blu program currently offers an Blu-ray upgrade on 55 of the WB’s home entertainment DVDs for the price of $7.95 to $9.95.
To get the Blu-ray version, visit the site and select the movie(s) you want to trade in (there’s a limit of 1 DVD per title; up to 25 titles per order) and then mail the DVD disc (without case) with special pre-paid postage to WB’s processing center. In 4-5 weeks, you’ll receive that title in Blu-ray. If you spend more than $25 on your order, you’ll get free shipping (otherwise, it’s regularly $4.95 per order).
Some of the films up for swap are Pan’s Labyrinth, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and Superman II: Richard Donner Cut. Check out the site for all the available titles.
I think this is a pretty good idea, since I know a lot of people who don’t want to make the jump to Blu-ray because they don’t want to have to re-buy everything on the typically higher-priced Blu-ray editions when they already own the DVD. Paying under $10 is a good deal for a Blu-ray disc. The only problem I have with this system (as far as I can tell) is the wait time. You have to have a lot of patience in this day and age to wait over a month for a movie you already owned AND paid to get again (and possibly paid shipping on). It’d be different if the upgrade was free, but even for this small fee it’s too long a wait (in my opinion).
By the way, if you’re curious what WB does with the DVDs you send them, the company will recycling them. The intellectual property will be fully destroyed and all of the physical components are reused or recycled.
The Warner Bros. Home Entertainment division announced today the launch of 
Thanks for the info on stuff like this, it’s much appreciated. – The first problem I see with the program, there are not that many eligible titles! Not much of a deal, if I can’t even include the Harry Potter series. Rock on!
Comment by BriStylee311 — November 18, 2009 @ 6:25 am
I visited WarnerBros.com website to see what this was about but gave up because it was so sluggish (too much java or flash content? I dunno). Anyway, I don’t have BluRay and may (or may not) buy into it this holiday season but I like where WB is headed. Certainly seems like they’re trying to make the transition easier by cutting down on the expense and redundancy that we suffer as consumers. My question is this: what about those movies that’re packaged as DVD + BluRay + Digital Copy? I don’t know that WB offers movies like that but I’ve seen movies like that for sale. By returning my regular DVD for a BluRay disc, am I going to lose out? I’ll use “UP” for example (even though it’s not a WB release. I can buy “UP” online for $20 and it comes with DVD, BluRay + Digital Copy. If I already owned the DVD only and wanted to upgrade, I’d have to mail in my DVD, pay $8-10 more, and wait a month and a half to receive a BluRay version. Essentially, I’m paying 50% more and getting less (I gave up my DVD and may not get the Digital Copy). I think WB is headed in the right direction but current implementation leaves me wondering…
Comment by PAUL — November 18, 2009 @ 10:12 am
IT STINKS!
Comment by PHiL — November 18, 2009 @ 10:56 am
@Paul
I was wondering about the Digital Copy issue myself. From what I can tell, older movies, let’s say “The Shining,” don’t come with a digital copy. It seems like only the new titles — so “The Dark Knight” does have it. The titles on WB’s list appear to be older ones, so I don’t think they have digital copies.
But yeah, I agree with you on this. This is my biggest issue with Blu-ray (that and how long it takes a damn disc to load). If I already own it, why would I want to buy it again? If I want to trade it in, why would I want to trade it for a version that I can only watch in 1 player (my own Blu-ray) and not in my computer or another DVD player?
What would put this new system over the top and get me to trade in all my DVDs would be that you get the Blu-ray along with a digital copy, like you suggest.
Comment by Empress Eve — November 18, 2009 @ 12:39 pm
Why would anyone want that?? Blu-ray sucks!!!! Outdated already when it arrived.. bring back HD-DVD.
Comment by kal-el — November 19, 2009 @ 4:53 am