I actually am interested in the DVD sets because I am always interested in "making of" featurettes, even for movies I didn't particularly enjoy. The process of filmmaking is very entertaining to me, and I understand that at the DVD sets have lots of those sorts of extras as well as additional scenes.

I do think you're correct, and that the movies were made for the same audience that loves the books and the focus of the books. I can easily see myself being a fan of the extras for a series of films like this. I'd much rather know about how a battle sequence was created than watch it as part of a story.

This seems to be much more literally a filmed book than a stand-alone series of movies, so it interests me from that perspective--again, a reason that I might enjoy the DVDs more than the movies themselves.