I’m an absolute Disney freak. My wife and I got engaged and honeymooned at Walt Disney World. I own all of the 2-disc Platinum Edition DVDs. You’ll see me review DVD releases other critics won’t touch (like Pocahontas). Disney represents a large part of my childhood and my little piece of heaven on Earth. So it frustrates me to no end to see Disney continue to straggle behind the technology curve.

This week Disney announced they will be offering their movies for download via CinemaNow, a move that in itself is behind many other studios, who made similar announcements in April. The same day that Disney releases a movie to DVD, that movie will be available on the internet for download, for a price of course. This is a good thing, no?

No.

The downloads will only be playable on computer devices, up to three “portable devices” to be specific. However, they will not be playable on a standard, household DVD player. The movie can be burned to DVD as an archive, but will remain in a data format not playable by DVD players.

So, for not much cheaper than the DVD price, you can get a version of the film that you can’t watch on your home theatre, unless you are set up to connect your PC to your television, which most consumers aren’t ready to do.

This move by the Mouse House is being challenged by many voices. The ability to download movies is a step in the right direction, but not being able to play those downloads on a standard DVD makes this a worthless move. Why would anyone pay almost as much as a DVD for less versatility?