The disc versions of several recent movies come with a welcome bonus: a digital copy of the movie. You get one with the Blu-ray version of Inglourious Basterds. For Star Trek, both the DVD and Blu-ray versions include a digital copy.
In what must represent a marketing coup for Apple, these digital copy transfers typically work via iTunes. To access the digital copy, you insert the special disc into your computer’s DVD drive and double-click the icon that appears. This transfers you to a “Gift Certificate” page for the movie in the iTunes Store. Enter your unique authorization code (printed on a sheet included with the package) and the movie downloads to your iTunes library. You’re now ready to enjoy the movie on your computer, iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. Overall, this can be a great deal. At current prices, I got both the Blu-ray and digital versions of Inglourious Basterds for just a few bucks more than the digital version alone.
There is a potential fly in this ointment however. At least for the Blu-ray version of Star Trek, numerous purchasers have reported that, when they attempted to redeem the authorization code, a message appeared saying that the code had already been used and could not be used again. One theory, as yet unconfirmed, is that these codes were somehow “stolen” and posted to a torrent file. Whatever the cause, a representative of Deluxe Digital Studios (posting to an Apple Discussions thread) assures customers that “if they contact support via the website, they will receive a new code for their digital copy of Star Trek for iTunes or Windows Media.”