[toef]

Well there was a story going around a few weeks ago about studios using bare-bones editions of movies for rental stores.

According to user reports, some studios are now manufacturing separate Blu-ray Discs for rental which are lacking most of the special features included in the BD retail version of the titles in question. This tactic started early this year with DVD and allegedly is now being expanded to Blu-ray as well.

Most titles devoid of extras come from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, such as 'I Love You, Beth Cooper' (which on the retail BD includes over half an hour of additional content) or 'My Life in Ruins'. But Warner Home Video is apparently also testing this approach: the rental version of 'Orphan' reportedly lacks bonus materials present on the retail version, such as an alternate ending.

In March, Fox first started creating separate rental and retail versions for the DVD releases of 'Marley & Me' and 'Slumdog Millionaire', as reported by Video Business. However, at the time Blu-ray rental copies of those two titles weren't affected (except for the lack of a bundled digital copy and/or DVD).

At the time, Fox justified the new strategy in a statement that said: “We have developed product variations to feed different consumer consumption models and behaviors. For rental customers, we're delivering a theatrical experience in the home while promoting upcoming releases; for retail [or sell-through] customers, we're offering a premium product that expands the entertainment experience of that particular property to further enhance ownership.”

Note that this is not the same situation as when a movie that is released on Blu-ray on a two-disc set gets only disc one rented out (e.g., 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'). In those cases, some rental companies such as Netflix offer the extras disc separately for rental as well.

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3684