Unlike the six-movie Star Wars saga on Blu-ray, Disney is throwing in a free digital copy when you buy The Force Awakens on disc.

The Force Awakens is finally coming to Blu-ray and DVD on Wednesday, hitting Australia's physical shelves two weeks after it landed in iTunes, Google Play, Dendy Direct and the other digital stores.

The $25 digital HD download is $5 cheaper than the Blu-ray disc, but in return fans who hold out for the disc can enjoy the best of both worlds with Disney throwing in a digital download for free.

The Star Wars franchise was a long-time digital holdout – the first six movies were only released as digital downloads for the first time last year. These days you'll find the six-movie high-def bundle for sale in the iTunes store for $120, which is more expensive than the $99 six-movie Blu-ray box set.

These movies are still not available to rent online, or in subscription services like Netflix, you're expected to buy them.

The six-movie Blu-ray collection was originally released in 2011, but even when Disney reissued this box set just before The Force Awakens hit the cinemas it refused to include digital download codes. In countries like Australia where you're permitted to rip your music discs but not your movie discs, we're expected to pay twice if we want to watch those movies on disc and on our handheld gadgets.

Thankfully with The Force Awakens Disney has snubbed the lacklustre UltraViolet digital download format which is a big of hurt in Australia and lost one of its champions in EzyFlix. Instead the latest instalment in the Star Wars saga on disc comes with "Digital Copy Plus", which gives you the choice of downloading the movie from the iTunes Store or Google Play.

If you buy the movie on DVD you're only entitled to an SD digital download.

Apples throws in a few iTunes Extras special features if you buy the HD movie from the iTunes Store rather than redeem the free code supplied with the The Force Awakens Blu-ray disc. Most of those special features will also be on the disc but they usually reserve something minor for online-only so they can claim "exclusive content".

If you're planning to watch The Force Awakens in your lounge room then it's worth investing a few extra dollars in the disc, which is going to look better on a big screen than the digital download.

There's more to picture quality than simply resolution – if you've got a big television and an eye for detail you'll appreciate the difference, especially in the dimly lit scenes.

Have you been waiting for the latest instalment in the Star Wars saga to reach your lounge room? How will you watch it?

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