Hoping “April Showers” Means HD DVD Movie Sales
by Pravin on April 4th, 2008 in shopping.
It’s said that “April showers bring May flowers” which refers to springtime rain causing beautiful flowers to sprout the following month. Now that it’s rained on HD DVD’s parade, many HD DVD fans would like to see deals on movies sprouting up next.
Pricing on HD DVDs had come down significantly in February, even before Toshiba and partners announced their pullouts from the format. March was characterized by shoppers finding deals at Hollywood Video stores that were clearing their shelves of HD DVD titles, and later by Best Buy and Circuit City stores who, depending on your luck with the cashier and manager, might price-match and net some huge savings on titles.
For example, HD DVD fans at the AVS forum have been reporting varying amounts of success at visiting Circuit City stores and getting them to honor different flavors of an advertised 50% off sale on HD DVD titles. While 50% off the regular in-store price is not a horrible deal, 50% off their online price is much better. Unfortunately, Circuit City stores have varying policies and not everybody is able to come out a winner.
Many point out that even with the best discounting at Circuit City and Best Buy, the pricing is still consistently better online at Amazon, DeepDiscount and others, with the added bonus that you don’t have to drive from store to store looking for whatever is left, and then gambling that employees are going to ring up the deals at the maximum savings. On the other hand, there is a certain amount of fun in visiting stores to see what you can come home with that same day, so one shouldn’t begrudge people of their fun.
As the days and weeks go by, there’s usually a report here and there about Circuit City and Best Buy pulling all HD DVD titles from their shelves to return to their distributors. While it may not have happened at the stores in some people’s neighborhoods, the absence of HD DVD titles on shelves is inevitable and online merchants are likely to be the main way to get discs in the months ahead.
People also wonder what will happen to the discs that do get returned to distributors. Will they end up in the pool that the online stores like Amazon can draw upon? Will they find their way to liquidators who may dump the discs via stores on eBay or other sites? Or will these discs just go into a landfill?
My guess is that it will be the first two, long before the third option of the discs getting tossed away. In my almost weekly visits to GameStop, I’m amazed at the life that old and moldy PS2, Xbox, and GameCube titles have in the used games bins, as well as used DVDs. I am pretty sure that just about every HD DVD title (though not every single one) is likely to get circulated at some store somewhere. But just remember that your chance to get these discs brand-new will be greatly diminished by the end of summer, or maybe earlier.
If there’s a particular title that you’ve really been hankering for, then get it as soon as you can or else you risk never getting it at all, or possibly waiting a long time to enjoy it in high-definition in the future via Blu-ray or something else.
A few sites have been reporting that Amazon has put discs on a big sale of 60% off, but that’s actually old news. This is mostly the same pricing since exactly one month ago. Prices haven’t really changed much since late February at Amazon, DeepDiscount, Fry’s, Tower, and many others. For example, the following Paramount titles were $11.95 at Amazon last month, and they’re still $11.95 today:
And these Weinstein titles are still $9 from last month:
But it’s a different story overseas with stores like DvdCrave.com.au and EZDvd.com.au selling discs at larger discounts. I’m not sure if the additional shipping charges and exchange rates work out to maximum savings, but in a few cases, this may be the best way to get a title that’s hard to find from US vendors.
Here’s a quick set of links to the usual online destinations for HD DVD deals:
- Paramount for $9.99 and others on sale at Fry’s
- Many titles on sale at Tower
- Don’t forget DeepDiscount.com has lots of stuff
- HD DVD store at Amazon.com. By the way, they have a $5 off $50 sale with code DVD5BFHR if you pay with an Amazon credit card.
Here are some deals at Australian sites. At the current exchange rate, a movie for AUD $13 is just under US $11, but don’t forget to factor in shipping:
- EZYDVD.com.au in Australia has lots of titles at $10 and under
- DVDPacific.com has plenty under $12 and $15
- DVDCrave.com.au has many titles under $11
April 4th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I just picked up Unforgiven at Circuit City, it was actually cheaper than online, 12.50 before tax.
April 5th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Also in case anyone is interested, I preordered I Am Legend on HD DVD from Amazon.com for $18.99. It is a HD DVD/DVD combo disc and has everything the 2-Disc DVD has and is cheaper. Also in the UK i ordered 2 HD DVD movies that have not been released in the US, and will not. I got Terminator 2 and The Fog, with shipping was $32 USD. They also have alot of great deals on HD DVD’s we cant get here in the US like the Rambo movies and Total Recall.
April 5th, 2008 at 7:40 am
By the way, folks, the Circuit City procedure is this: Go in with a printout of their online pricing for the discs you’re interested in, and then ask if they will pricematch this first and then take the 50% off next (in case the online price was lower). This typically requires some sort of managerial approval, and a cashier willing to call upon the manager. People at the AVS forum are reporting mixed successs with this method, and the ones who have received cooperation at CC have walked away with movies for under $11 a piece, and sometimes cheaper than that.
April 5th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
the showers have come in a sprinkle really in canada. nothing seems to be discounted really here. amazon.ca really just went from 52% to 57% off on some title, which saves us mounties about a buck. the only real deal knock out ive seen was bestbuys clearance of some movies, which ran them down to $8 a title, i think they had only 20 or so titles at that right including, hot fuzz, eastern promises, pan’s labyrinths, etc. Hope ppl keep hunting for deals, cause im wanna know them too.
April 6th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
My Circuit City experience today was a bummer. I printed a couple of HD DVD movies from CC’s website and went to my local CC store to check their availability. Their are only about 30 HD DVDs and none of them are the ones that I liked. I noticed that the 50% off tag on the bin is gone so I inquire to one of the sales floor personnel and they say that it is no longer 50% off, they are now back to its regular price tags. If the movies that I want is in their bin, I would’ve negotiate and price match the one on their site that I printed out. Oh well, better luck next weekend.
April 7th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Good News:
Toshiba, MS, and Panasonic started a working commitee on DVD2 format, recreating HD-DVD experience on DVD!
At the same meeting, according to a summary posted on the Forum Web site, the committee approved the formation of a new working group (dubbed WG-12) “to study and specify network applications and related network specification of DVD Forum formats, make recommendations for better interoperability and functionality of network-connected DVD Forum specified devices and content and communicate on relevant recommendations with other standard creation organizations.”
What that means in non-Forum legalese, I’m told by sources familiar with the plans, is that the new working group will look for ways to incorporate some of the same next-gen functionality developed for HD DVD into a DVD 2.0 format, including the HDi interactive layer and the advanced network connectivity.
One of the co-chairs of WG-12 is Microsoft, which played a major role in developing those capabilities for HD DVD (the other co-chair is Panasonic).
DVD 2.0 Format Specification:
1. Video encoded in MPEG2 SD
2. HD available via Super Upconversion to 960p
3. HDi interactivity
4. Networking
5. Managed Copy
6. Fully backward compatible with existing DVD players.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
For real…. so they are still trying to not have Blu-Ray the next thing….. isn’t DVD just going to die out….. and isn’t Microsoft more into Digital downloads? I’m thinking this is a late April Fools man.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:11 am
I have an update regarding the news that Peter has presented. It’s less sensational that it sounds and was in the works since November 2007. Peter actually quoted from another article and has not heard directly himself what he’s cut-and-pasted above.
Read here: http://www.hddvd.com/go.php/some-hd-dvd-features-could-live-on/
April 8th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Ok sounds more real now after the new post, but still…. is DVD worth the time and money?