Amazon's new Disc+ On Demand product allows you to "purchase select DVD and Blu-ray titles from Amazon.com… and receive an Amazon Video On Demand standard definition version as a gift with purchase." At present, only a small portion of Amazon's DVD titles (300 of 330,000) are available, but we can expect this number to increase over time.
NewTeeVee nails one of the key benefits, even if it's not one that Amazon will not be out front in promoting:
After all, this sounds like a great way to buy a holiday present for someone that you can enjoy yourself as well without having to explain the missing shrink-wrap plastic.
On a bigger picture level, products like the iPod and Kindle and On Demand are fundamentally changing the dynamic of content ownership, from physical commodity to access to electronic data.
And all of that means you can give the original Terminator to your cousin over the holidays and then access it on demand (albeit in standard def) for free. Bonus.
Now let the blogosphere pontificate:
* PC World: Amazon has unveiled a "limited time only" promotion called Disc+ On Demand that has the potential to change the way we consume media. Now when you purchase select DVD or Blu-ray discs, you can download a digital copy of your film for instant viewing via your Mac, PC, Roku, TiVo, and more. This promotion is the perfect way to get a little more out of the Christmas gifts you buy for others; you can watch the movies first.
* Mashable: The downsides: Disc+ on Demand is only available on a very limited number of titles right now, and Amazon is promoting it as a “limited time offer” — we fully expect that demand will be high, and that the service could (and should) become a permanent one.
* MediaMemo: Amazon (AMZN) gets a two-for-one out of this as well: The promotion will (the company hopes) goose disc sales, which are sputtering, while introducing shoppers to the company’s Web streaming offering, which most people don’t yet know about or use.
* Technologizer: Amazon is pitching the offer as a bonus for disc buyers that gives them immediate access to the movie they just purchased. But in some cases the DVD or Blu-Ray costs the same as purchasing the stand-alone streaming version–the Terminator is $9.99 on Blu-Ray or as an on-demand purchase. So you can also think of Disc+ on Demand as providing a nice, permanent copy of the movie you bought in on-demand form.
* TeleRead: You can buy online access to some Amazon titles when you buy the paper editions, last I knew, but not the actual e-files for the Kindle. For the future, let’s hope that could also include ePub files for other machines.
(this post originally appeared on Technorati)