Warner Introduces a Trade-In Program
by Pravin on April 22nd, 2009 in news.
In the months after Toshiba shut down HD DVD, some prominent retailers came forward to offer trade-ins or store credits as a way to ease the pain. Some of these promotions were aimed at transitioning customers to Blu-ray, and many people, myself included, simply used our store credits to buy newly discounted HD DVD movies or something else that we might really want at those stores.
Trade-in programs for HD DVD discs, where you could trade them in for Blu-ray versions of the same, were also offered, but there were still hundreds of movies that were only out on HD DVD and were not appearing on Blu-ray any time soon, so this was not a useful proposition.
A year later, that disparity has been diminished and most HD DVD titles are now available in the surviving format. The only obstacle is that Blu-ray movies are still on the expensive side (as HD DVD titles would also have been), and the prospect of building a library is daunting, if you already built up a library on HD DVD in the first place. Plus, many HD DVD owners have grown accustomed to paying only about $5 per movie from all these closeout sales.
Warner’s newly launched Red2Blu site, may help make a dent in that transition to Blu-ray. Knowing that HD DVD owners are mighty happy with paying $5 for movies nowadays, Warner is charging $4.95 per Warner HD DVD title that you want to trade-in for the Blu-ray equivalent. You can trade in up to 25 movies, all for a flat shipping fee of $6.95 ($8.95 in Alaska, Hawaii & Puerto Rico). A $15 off $50 coupon on Blu-ray purchases is also part of the deal. This offer is currently only available in the US.
You don’t have to mail in your discs, only the cover art from their HD DVD case — which must be intact and include the UPC code. This means you can keep your HD DVD library (and possibly sell those discs for a few bucks – but lack of cover art definitely reduces some value).
There’s plenty more information at Warner’s site: http://Red2Blu.com.
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
My HDDVDS work fine and I think I’ll keep them.
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Scratch that last one pravin. I realize we get to keep the actual discs, but then i have a bunch of discs with no artwork. Say I have 12 HDDVDS that are warner. I would pay 66.35 for 12 blu rays. That’s a great deal, but I’ve already spent the money on the HD DVDS, they work perfectly fine, then i’d have two discs of the same thing, and I’m out $66.35. Not gonna happen.
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
This is just a piss poor attempt by Warner to get more money out of HD DVD owners. Screw em.
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Over my cold dead body.
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:48 am
I heard about this news yesterday from the other camp’s website. By reading Warner’s FAQ, and doing some thinking, this is actually not a bad idea. As a matter of fact, it is a great deal. Not only you can keep your HD DVD discs, you can have the BD version for less than five bucks. I could care less on the inserts if the mere trade-off is a brand new BD version of the HD DVD movie you already have. I will scan the inserts first and print a copy so I can have a something to put in those HD DVD covers and then ship it out to Warner. Too bad I do not have that much Warner HD DVD movies to trade in to take advantage of it but hey, I’m going to do it.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:22 am
Yeah, but what is the point exactly for those who want to keep their HD DVDs? I can see this being a good deal for those who would like to jump the bandwagon and sell their HD movies, but whats the point if you plan on keeping your HD DVDs? In fact some of Warner’s HD DVDs such as 300 and T3 have more special features and most Warner titles are the exact encodes as their HD DVD counter parts. You are basically paying $5 for a Blu case.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 am
I too learned of the Red2Blu Program from Blu-ray.com. To me this sounds great. A new disc for $4.95 plus the shipping, not too bad. As many have asked, “Why pay for a second movie”, what if your HDDVD machine stops working. Then what will you do with all of those movies. That $66.35 doesn’t sound so bad after all. Oh yeah, you can photo copy the cover art (In Color).
PS: The PS3 is still the best. Panasonic’s new 60 BD works really nice too.
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I’ll say this again, as I’ve said it before, maybe I’m just lucky but I’ve never had a dvd player just crap out on me for no apparent reason. I’ve never liked the “what if you’re hddvd player stops working” argument for not buying cheap new hd dvds, and keeping my old ones. To me, if you’re planning on keeping your hddvds, this deal is still wasting money. If you already have hd dvds that work, and and hd dvd player that works, why buy the movie again on blu ray? No matter how cheap it is. If the only argument is to back up your collection in case your hddvd player breaks, then I guess I’ll just say I don’t understand that frame of mind. I try not to have the thought of “what if all of my electronics break” on my mind all day. Then I’d have two computers, two tvs, two ps3s, two hddvd players, two scanners etc. I’ve got better things to worry about.
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I actually really like this idea, as some Warner HD-DVDs are improperly mastered so they can only do 60fps playback (no 24fps option); the Blu-ray versions work fine at 24fps. There’s also the fact that new Blu-ray releases almost all have lossless audio, where older HD-DVD releases may not have.
Unfortunately, I keep my movies in a large binder, so I’ve probably recycled my front covers. Too bad for me. :¬/
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Raptor007
The New Blu-ray releases aren’t available on HD-DVD, lossless or otherwise, so I don’t understand this analogy. Most of the titles Warner have listed on their exchange list are identical to their Blu-ray counterparts. I also don’t know why you’re having problems with 24fps playback. This would likely be a problem with your HD-DVD player NOT the actual disc. All Warner HD titles, whether Blu or HD-DVD, were mastered at 1080p/24fps and should playback in this manner if you have a display that can accept 24fps playback.
Patrick,
I agree. I love the “If my player dies tomorrow” argument. Even if it did, how hard would it actually be to snag another player off ebay? My Toshiba A2 has given me no problems, hell, I’m even considering an XA2 to replace it if I can find one cheap enough.
April 24th, 2009 at 12:40 am
The new blu strategy is really comical…. Trick people who are already enjoying a kick ass picture and sound… and getting it at a quarter of the price of the blu option.. is quite frankly making a huge dent in blu console and disk sales. There are undoubtedly thousands upon thousands of new HDDVD adopters that have jumped on and snapped up the hardware and software of a so called dead format…. not only because of the horrid and seemingly unending business suicide that the sony camp and there freinds are perpetrating against themselves but because they are smart shoppers and have watched this game play out for years. They have read the non partisan reviews of people who own blu and hddvd players that say hands down oldschool dvd upconversion on HDDVD players cant be touched by blu ray… and they understand easily that blu has a vested interest in making old dvds look as different in quality to blu rays as possible. The fact that hddvd in a form is still alive and well in china… blu cant get any traction there because its TOO DAMN OVERPRICED. The chinese know how cheaply these units are made and will NEVER bear the downright rediculous and monopolistic pricing policies of blu ray. We should follow suit and do the same. Now im no blu ray basher… the formats are EQUAL… no one is in ANY MEANINGFUL OR VISUALLY PERCEIVABLE WAY SUPERIOR TO THE OTHER. The slightly higher data rate of blu ray cannot even be displayed by the average tv and lets face it… who the hell knows EVEN ONE PERSON THAT DOES NOT MAKE SIX FIGURES THAT HAS A 120Hz 1080P 60INCH PLASMA….. AND YES I SAID CANNOT MAKE SIX FIGURES AND HAVE THE TV… okay enough with the caps… the advancements they [blu] have made beyond the final HDDVD standard simply are only enjoyable by the same people who were able to afford 50 inch tvs in 2002…. hddvd and blu ray players imported from japan when they were not in the north america or european market yet… basically its useless technology that just freaks people out a frys and other stores and makes them say damn im glad my movies dont look that fake.., KEEP YOUR HDDVD’s. Keep them untill blu and sony and all their friends recognize that we are in a suck ass recession… and a contracting economy.. and they really need to let their MSRP’s… not special discounts…. but MSRP’s on the whole damn product family hardware and software needs about 38% of the price bloat and monopoly asshole decision making cut out of its knees…. PS3′S INCLUDED…. $150 price drop on both models of PS3 right now….. RIGHT NOW… you want us to buy blu…. make it affordable…. you want us to buy it now….. then make it actually and permanently affordable right fracking NOW!!!!! now if you excuse me im heading over to tradrbora and im gonna get 5 MORE MOVIES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE DAMN BLU RAY LOL…. Peace
April 24th, 2009 at 7:36 am
The fact of the matter is, this promo is not for everyone, its optional if you would like to have a BD copy of your existing Warner HD DVDs for a mere $4.95 which is a damn good deal. Where can you find these BD movies for this kind of price? This deal is for those who are neutral to the format war, have both format players and/or would like to take advantage of the promo for future BD player purchase. Remember, you are not trading your HD DVD movies, they only want the cover inserts. You can keep your HD DVD movie discs. There is now such argumentative about having “what if you’re hddvd player stops working”. Remember, this is an out-of-production technology, like Betamax. Yes there are still stuff going on on ebay selling hddvd players but do you really would like to trust used ones from sellers that you don’t know despite of how high their seller reputation is? Unless you are buying brand new which is almost the same price as they were selling when they were in retail then yes go buy one. Keeping hddvd movies seems to be reasonable if you are a true avid hddvd collector. But time can only tell on how long hddvd players and movies will be around (just like Betamax). You really cannot compare hddvd players lifespan to other electronics like tvs, computers, etc Yes, they are also electronics but different in so many ways. As I have mentioned, it is unfortunate that hddvd players are obsolete and it is only a matter of time that these used hddvd players floating around will last. By then, who knows what technology will emerge but for the time being, why not reap the benefits of having a great BD deal to trade cover inserts for a mere $4.95.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Its great to see that Warner is admitting some responsibility for their previous decisions (beyond management reconstruction). I will be eager to see if Paramount and Universal will also follow suit with similar exchange programs of their own.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:22 am
I think “what if something happened and you couldn’t watch your HD DVDs any more?” is probably what some people mean to say when they ask, “what would happen if your HD DVD player breaks?”
They can’t think of a good scenario at the time, so they ask you to imagine that the player breaks.
I’m pretty sure that most of the HD DVD collectors who have been increasing their collections in the past year probably already have back-up playback methods.
The usual reason that we can’t keep using older technology on future devices is because those later devices use some new kinds of connectors or otherwise prevent us from using the old gadgets. For example, many ancient video game systems relied on RF antenna connectors to hook up to TVs, and those kinds of connectors aren’t present on modern HDTVs and monitors.
In the case of computer peripherals and software, it’s possible that later operating systems no longer have programs to use the old media formats. This doesn’t apply to your HD DVD player because it’s a self-contained system. It may apply if you are using a home-theater PC.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I bought my movies at movietronix.
April 24th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I would just like this question answered in a straightforward manner so I can understand the other side…
Why would you want two copies of the same movie, both in HD format, both the same quality? If you already spent the money on one version, why spend another 4.95 plus shipping on the other version?
I have a ps3, and an hddvd player, both blu ray movies and hd dvd movies….and have absolutely no desire to spend the money on the same movie again. I can understanding buying a dvd if you have the vhs version of a movie. I understand buying a cd if you have the tape of the same album…but I honestly don’t understand the logic in this. Someone please lay it out for me, and if the only thing you have is to backup your collection, then I don’t want to hear that because it’s not logical and you’re wasting money.
re: ogscorpion
1. Keeping HD DVDS makes sense for anyone who has bought them and has a player still works, not just for avid collectors. I’m a collector of stuff, but i wouldn’t call myself an avid collector of a single format. I’m also done building my collection. There are no other hddvd movies out there that I desire owning. I didn’t just buy any hddvd ever made, I bought all the movies I like. However, I spent the money on these, and I’m going watch them until it doesn’t make sense anymore or they stop working. It doesn’t make sense to me if you decide to just ditch hd dvd and buy all the same stuff again in blu ray, the formats are too similar to do that.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Here is an easy counter to the whole ”what if your HD player break?” Simple, it breaks then I have to either buy a new HD player or decide whether to go to Blu-ray or not. They will soon stop making DVD players in a few years, so what about my huge DVD collection? And believe or not in twenty years they will stop making Blu-ray players. So I can redirect the question as what will you do with your Blu-ray movies when YOUR player breaks in a few years when they stop making them? (VHS, Betmax, Cassette, etc…).
April 24th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
@Dan: Sure they’ll stop making DVD players, but I don’t think Blu-ray players will ever stop playing DVDs. We may move on to yet another format (hopefully big flash drives with HD-DVD/Blu-ray quality or better), but I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon. As long as we’re using the same optical disc form factor, I think the DVD collection is safe.
April 24th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
@R.C.: You’ve probably got a Toshiba HD-DVD player, which is capable of auto-detecting 24fps content in improperly-flagged material. I have the Samsung HD-DVD/Blu-ray combo player, which adheres strictly to the flags stored in the media. Warner has quite a few discs where these flags force my player into 60fps mode, even though it is capable of 24fps from HD-DVD.
I’m not sure where you get the idea that Blu-ray re-releases are the exact same as their HD-DVD counterparts. Yes the video encode is identical, but if the Blu-ray release is more recent, it probably has lossless audio (TrueHD or DTS-MA) where the HD-DVD version may have only had DD+. In Warner’s case, most HD-DVD releases already had TrueHD, but that’s not the case for Universal and Paramount.
Here are a few examples:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1932/serenity.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1175/transformers2007.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1572/u571.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1774/jarhead.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1975/doom.html
Even if the quality is exactly the same, $5 more to have both copies is a helluva deal, especially considering the HD-DVD copy may also have been only $5 if you bought it recently. Even people without an HD-DVD player could take advantage of this, getting new Blu-rays for just $10. ;¬)
And maybe you intend to keep two players, but I don’t (hence the combo player). If my combo player dies, my next player might be Blu-ray only, and it’d be great to get these movies ported over for cheap.
April 26th, 2009 at 12:14 am
The only way this would be remotely a good deal is if Warner Brothers offered a one for one trade at Best Buy, Fry’s, and other stores like that. Otherwise, it’s just a ripoff.
April 28th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Lets see, shell out more money for the exact same thing that you already have….. hmmmm…. ummmmm…. NO.
April 28th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I’m waiting this one out right now……
It doesn’t make sense for me as I have more HD DVD players (2 + XBox Drive) than BD players (1 + BD-Rom drive). There may be a slight upgrade in sound on some disc, but for the most part I always listen in DD+ as I have an older reciever with no immediate plans to upgrade (in other words.. I’ll wait for it to die before I buy a new one).
This just sounds like a creative way for WB to make some more dough off the consumers who went RED instead of BLUE. My guess is that WB is making $3-4 dollars off each one of these upgrades, so this would be easy money for them if they could do 500k units.
May 14th, 2009 at 7:25 am
You’re all nuts.
I’m trading in all 23 of the WB HD-DVDs I have. Then they’re going to be gifted to my family and friends that have Blu-ray players or sold on ebay. If you were so inclined, you could probably make a hell of a lot of money trading red covers for blu discs and reselling the blu discs.
Think of it this way: if someone told you that you could make about $10 per HD-DVD by making a color copy of the cover art and giving them the original, would you do it?
May 14th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Naw, I have a job
May 14th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
I don’t get it. What is this, some kind of new religion? Dou you have to die for your HD DVD. Why you guys make such a big deal and take it so personally that your favorite format bacame obsolete? You are all still fighting the format war. Guess what? The war is over… a long time ago. “They’re just doing it to get your money”. I guess then that toshiba sold their hd dvds to donate all the money and end hunger. I believe this is a good deal.
Sooner or later we’ll all have to get us a Blue-Ray player. And you will have to buy your favorite movies once again. If my player dies in a couple of years, it would make no sense to spend $75 on a used hddvd player to play the limited number of titles that I own (or will ever own), when most probably in a couple of years BR players will be around $150 and new titles will be coming every week.
So getting my favorite titles on BR for $5 and save them for when I need them, its a good call. You only loose the insert, you’ll get to keep your beloved hd dvd disc to watch it over and over again. I don’t get why people would think this is such a bad idea.
PS. Be carefull when handling your discs. Should they fall or get scratched and become unplayable, you’ll feel bad when you find yourself at WalMart paying $20 for a Blue-Ray copy of your favorite movie.
May 14th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
IRivera: Mind your own business on the right forum because this is not it.
May 14th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
I’ll just say it again, because I never got an answer last time:
Why would you want two copies of the same movie, both in HD format, both the same quality? If you already spent the money on one version, why spend another 4.95 plus shipping on the other version?
I don’t know about everyone else but I could care less about any sort of “war”, I’m not fighting anything, I own a ps3, I buy blu ray movies, I’m not sitting here being pissed about HDDVD loosing, I really don’t care. However, I spent money on my HDDVDS, they work fine, why would I spend more money on the same movie and the same quality HD picture?
I sort of get CorrND’s response, that he’ll just gift or sell the Blurays. That’s the most straightforward answer to my original question. Ok, good plan, but I have better things to worry about, and I dont have the time to be printing out fake covers for my HDDVDS, and selling blu ray’s on ebay (I dont know anyone else who has a Blu Ray player to gift them).
But please people, just because someone disagrees with this trade in, doesn’t mean they’re sitting and crying over their failed HDDVDS. Like I said, its not because Im against Bluray that I won’t trade in my HDDVDS, its because there is nothing wrong with them, I don’t need two of the same HD movie, and I don’t have the time to worry about making a few extra bucks by selling them on Ebay. It’s not like I have 300 WB HDDVDS and I can make some sort of killing. I have 10.
May 15th, 2009 at 6:32 am
At Patrick:
There is really no such straight answer to your question. Each person has their own reasons why they would like to keep both formats or not. It’s just a matter of choice. I, too, have both formats. It does not have to make sense to you if some of their answers doesn’t. Hell, I could also sell it too or use it as a backup copy? WHO FREAKIN’ CARES!? It’s not your money, it’s theirs. It’s their choice, not yours. Whatever their reason is for double dipping, that’s their business. To each his own as they say.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
IRivera. It’s not about not getting it! It’s not about not letting go. I won a kick ass Blu-Ray player, I have a Blu-Ray movie collection. I just can not afford this “deal” that they are offering. If you want to send me the money for all 20 HD DVDs that I have so I can get them in Blu-Ray, please do. But chances are that you can use that money to buy something worth buying instead of giving it away. It’s no different here. If I’m going to spend that amount of money, I rather buy new released Blu-Ray movies instead of spending it in movies I already have, regardless of them being $20. You said that if my HD DVD gets scratched and unplayable that I will have to fork out $20 bucks to get the same movie in Blu-Ray. What? Are Blu-Rays scratch resistant? Is there some miracle that cause Blu-Rays to never get scratched. If my HD DVD or Blu-Rays get scratched I’ll deal with that when the time comes. Otherwise, I am not spending money in movies I already have when I can buy two new releases of movies I really want.
May 20th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Ralphs in West Hills, CA is selling their clearance bin at 50% off, that includes HD DVDs. They don’t have that many left, but I got Balls of Fury for 3.50. Don’t know if other Ralph’s in the area have the same deal.
June 18th, 2009 at 2:44 am
For anyone in the uk still after cheap hd-dvds Gamestation are selling all titles they have for £1.99. I still miss new hd-dvd releases but still enjoy looking on the internet and in some stores for titles i dont have , I could never part with my hd-dvds
June 26th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Bunch of geniuses not to take advantage of the trade-in program. Especially 2 years down the road when all your players die. I did it happily and await the other studios to do the same. No artwork? Try cdcovers.cc retards….
June 29th, 2009 at 5:56 am
At Codeman:
Thank you for sharing the website cdcovers.cc. That will definitely help me to replace my HD DVD covers.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Codeman.
Do whatever you want with your money. I do what I want with mine.
Oh, and by the time my HD DVD drive fails in a couple of years, I’m pretty sure that the next HD format will be out by then. Besides, in a couple of years, Blu-ray prices will drop just like DVD prices did for non-new releases. So buying the same movies in Blu-ray at that time won’t be a big deal… That’s “IF” my HD DVD player breaks. IF!!!
June 30th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I have to agree with codeman… and as you can see by going to your neighborhood walmart… the blu camp is beginnig to fall in line with my suggestion from earlier in this thread…
walmart has a blu ray player for 129 and that is its permanent regular price.. i understand all the stupid blu-ball suckers out there that got raped when they bought in early on the players and disks. you have to make yourselves feel like winners when the real winners are those of us who buy in later.. at normal non insane prices. blu is doing so bad that they are letting wally world dump the albeit cheap and bottom of the barrel.. but it play the damn blu disks in 1080p… who gives a hoot about perfect audio.. they will give you kick ass picture and sound without you having to give up half your damn paycheck for the cost of simply viewing the first movie.. and not just that but walmart is selling 20 dollar 2 movie blu ray bundles as well. the fact is there is no longer any justification for the rediculous pricing of these dedicated single purpose computers.. they are being mass produced at rock bottom prices. and so are the disks.. sony and the blu consortium are bleeding red ink so fast that they finally are seeing the light.., cause they hear the pipes a calling.. and finally have realized that the insane prices just aint gonna work. In a year all of us hddvders are gonna look really intelligent for getting burned only once by our chosen format. instead of getting mule sausage up our asses again by buying into blu too fast. Stay calm kids.. keep going to frys and best buy ogling the damn badass but very cgi look of 240Hz tvs playing 1080p thriller. Waiting will pay off in mad quantity when we can pay 200 bucks and have more blu rays then we can remember. all thanks to those who realize that the bandwagon fire aint quite quit smoldering yet.. stay safe kids and dont do anything you dont feel comfortable with… no matter how the blu loyals try to make you feel like a dinosaur watching extinct movies on extinct hardware. My movies work fine. and btw my HD-A30 crapped out after one year… did some research and found a used HD-A2 and the thing is kickin ass like bush.. i dont forsee it or my movies ceasing to function before blu ray players are disposable and the disks are like 10 bucks each. have fun and be thankful for what you have… not scornful for what you dont…
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I am not worried if my HD-DVD Player fails. When the fire sales went on I stocked up on A-35 players. I will probably still have brand new ununsed players before I even go through 2. My original HD-A2 is 2 years old and still kicking, and that gets used quite a bit as it is in the bedroom, the A35s in the theater room get used often but not as much as the A2, but as i noted I have over a dozen spares that didn’t cost me more than $50 a player.
July 13th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Me thinks Codeman is not all that familiar with computer code. (Perhaps some other kind of code) But, as a computer programmer I would say that being a Coder, had a lot to do with my choosing HD-DVD originally, as a programmer I really like having a specification, but hey, that’s just me. And actual hardware specs and requirements are supefluous if your SONY and don’t give a crap about the consumers you abandon with substandard first gen blu players which cannot play certain blu content and cannot be upgraded, or updated to allow playing of said content. And he has the audacity to call us retards? what a buffoon, anyway, still buying at firesale prices and yes I agree wholeheartedly with BulMastiff, I will buy blu-ray when/if the prices come down, maybe. For now I’ll use the tecnology that provideds the EXACT same experience in most cases, (except my web enabled content always worked). (Yes poor us, saddled with the obsolete 1080P picture with True HD lossless sound, I certainly wish ?I had paid more for it!,…. um ,… NOT!)
July 13th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
The blu consortium is frikkin skrewed.. i found a magnavox… really a rebranded funai but who cares at wally world for 98 bucks.. on saturday i had to buy that box… and on sunday i took that bitch back… the reason.. no reasonable priced recent movies. If the price was reasonable.. between 10 to 16 dollars.. it was some older titles that were not even shot in high def.. so being on bluray wouldnt even make a difference. I stand by my reasoning and agreement with Juve in my previous post.. i accidentally put codeman but codeman is full of crap.. I was gung ho and everything like hell yeah i can finally get some new movies in high def.. but to my dismay even half price books couldnt help me on the ridiculous prices.. i was like sonofabitch dude its just a phucking movie.. its not like the hot chicks in the movie are gonna jump out of the screen and bless your bratwurst with a deep french kiss.. its just a damn movie.. if they dont get that through their thick ass skulls it will be the new laserdisk if its not already.. laserdisk was doomed from the beginning because it was a slightly better analog picture than vhs and betamax…. and arguably betamax PQ was better than laserdisk… but with that said… people are compressing 13GB mkv blu ray rips to exactly 8.5 GB isos preformatted in autoplay bluray format and burning to 8.5 GB dvds… and believe it or not the videos are playing in 1080p glory on standard blu ray players.. because blu ray was and always will be unnecessary technology.. i mean damn we had 9 gb dvds.. how damn hard was it to just have dvd players with a laser diode in the top and bottom reading simultaneously… or better yet sequentially .. layer one and two on the bottom side and layer 3 and 4 on top… that would have given us 18 fracking gigs of storage.. and 98% of the blu ray titles out there.. even the most special feature rich.. are only 12 to 16 gigs with all data included… there was no need for hddvd or blu ray… the reality is the profiteering dumbasses on both sides of the isle should have used what we had already… just hype up the existing dvd player designs with a new video processor and faster data pipeline and voila… the same damn effect on screen… 1080i or 1080p with lossless audio.. nuff said.. both sides were just pandering to hollywoodys desire to put the digital genie back in the bottle as fast as possible because even the hottest movies would no longer move off the shelf until they dropped to 19.98 for widescreen and 14.98 for bullcrap cutoff screen versions… well my two cents in the pool… i just could not do it… i could not swallow that jagged ass price pill…. gonna buy 3 movies that i would actually want and ive bought the player over again… frack sony … the consortium and blu as a format.. it will be eclipsed in my opinion in 2 years if not less… thats why the mass media giants are so desperate for google and the like to not be able to buy a fat ass chunk of the analog white space… because ubiquitous ultra high speed low latency broadband to the masses at unbelievably low prices would ensue.. and immediately following that would be a flood of streaming and permanent ownership digital high def download web sites would pop up hosted in countries that just dont give a rats ass about what the mpaa has to say and they would either have to get with the program like the music barons were forced to or become financially irrelevant…
July 14th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Just for fun went to Tradebora at amazon, MallRats, ahhhh cannot beleive we can actually still find these discs lol. lovin it.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
BullMastiff,
Right on!!!!
You know what else is screwed up about Blu-Ray??
I hated hearing all these Blu-Ray fans brag about the storage capacity of these discs. But studios are still releasing 2 disc special edition Blu-Ray movies to charge people more when all the content can be stored into one double layer Blu-Ray disc.
What a waste of “technology.”
July 16th, 2009 at 5:45 am
Look at you guys, talking about the pot calling the kettle black. Geez.
July 16th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Yep look at us stuck with our ‘backwards and obsolete’ 1080P picture with lossless True HD sound at 5 bucks a pop.
geez.
Meanwhile I picked up about 10 movies at Tradebora under 60 bucks with shipping, lol.
Loving it.
July 16th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Whats funny is that all of you guys are on a website that has not had Pravin post any news since April. Its July! I do understand the deals and great video/audio qualities of the HD players, but come on. Stop procrasitinating and get current.
You can now find movies for $10 on blu-ray and a few studios are releasing newer titles for less since they are making so many.
The Panasonic 80 player is by far better than any HD player every was. Not to mention the slow load times of the later.
July 16th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
damn BullMastiff, if bluray has one key advantage, its being able to fit your paragraphs on just one disk.
So you suggest a new type of dvd, where you would need a new player (to read both sides of the disk), and need new disks (cause of the different config of layers)… and then say we don’t need HD-DVD or Bluray cause we need to buy new players and disks for them? wtf?
I truly look forward to the day when we can stream BD/HDDVD quality AV across the net with no data caps. but even then, I would still like to store my stuff locally, because i don’t like relying on the internet for stuff. and with all the DRM and stuff they would put in it, I can guarantee it would be easier to move a disk from place to place, player to player, than a virtual file.
the other big thing is compatibillity, with a physical disk, the industry is less likely to change the format of the movie as regularly. if it was just digital downloads, there would be countless different formats, changing all the time. so if you think the BD spec fiasco is bad, digital downloads would be alot worse.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Look, I am not going in to the format war here to brag on who has the biggest kahuna. That is sooo 2006, 2007 and early 2008. I do own both format and enjoy both of them. Yes I do tend to buy bargain HDDVD movies and also take advantage of new BluRay releases so yes, I benefit from both. But what I hate on this thread is the ridiculous “ping pong” syndrome of some boyish fanboyisms on each side of the camp that still brags about who’s better and what. Give it up! Both deliver what we all want: HIGH DEFINITION and BETTER SOUND. Regardless if one does have lossless TrueHD, DTS HD, etc. etc. Who freakin’ cares????? What matters is that you have your own, you are enjoying it, done. Who cares what the others got, that’s their business.
Just stop the whining and crying and just enjoy your toys ok kids?
July 20th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Currently,
Enjoying a PC loaded with HD content as well as HD DVD, Direct TV and Netflix, All fed through a 7.1 surround system embedded in my walls and displaying on a 65 inch High Def Television.
Toys are good.
BLu Ray is simply still over-charging.
After Sony bankrupts, I’ll get some blu rays.
July 21st, 2009 at 1:52 am
Jeremy,
You are missing the point and are making the assumption that we only own one format. I own 2 HD DVD players and 2 Blu-ray players. I take advantage of any deal I can get on both formats. Is that wrong?
I didn’t go out of my way to buy HD DVD, I already owned them when Toshiba threw in the towel. I also already owned a Blu-ray player at the time. I have purchase yet another Blu-ray player since.
I shop at sites like Amazon, Deepdiscount, and iNetVideo to get the best deals on either format. I praise both HD DVD and Blu-ray for delivering HD to TV sets that were around for a while with no HD content to play.
I saved myself 40 bucks just for purchasing the Ultimate Matrix on HD DVD instead of Blu-ray. Why is that wrong? On the other hand I forked out 70 bucks for Band of Brothers on Blu-ray. Why buy it in regular 480P DVD when I can see this in its full splendor in high def. Had it been available in HD DVD… I would of bough it in that format, but it wasn’t, so I got it in Blu-ray.
Just the facts.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Juve you forgot to mention that Jeremy was also berating us for posting in this page , you know, the same one he is posting on…..
um,…. right then.
July 28th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I owned both formats before the war was over. I just received my trade in discs. I’m curious why there’s not much mentioned about making a legal digital backup of these discs in the future.
I’m only basing my opinion from memory but last time I checked internal PC drives that support HD DVD are slowly running out of stock.
I know there is plenty of support for ripping HD DVD discs as a backup but I’m not sure how I will distribute my digital media in the future or what hardware and software I’ll use to create it.
I currently use a media center PC and an Apple TV to distribute the CDs and DVDs I’ve backed up digitally. I’m not sure what type of Media Bridge or hardware I’ll use later on but I’m sure it will eventually support things like 2160p and newer audio formats.
When the software is released that lets me rip content in a format that lets me use the latest hardware I think that there will be more support for bluray and hardly any for HD DVD. Why not take advantage of the price now? Sure by that time the discs will probably be the same price or less but why wait?
I guess my experience in the home automation industry and seeing lighting and power surges taking out equipment makes me more skeptical about how long a piece of gear lasts.
I thought it might be nice to have the discs to take with me once I have a bluray player in the laptop I travel with or once I purchase a cheap player for my bedroom. Or maybe even take to a friend’s house to watch.
It sounds like a few people here bought an HD DVD player for every TV in their homes including the bathrooms with a few backups to spare. I didn’t realize how many people supported HD DVD technology so strongly.
I wonder if I should sell my minidisc and laserdisc players on eBay. Any takers?
I also have a lot of DVD Audio discs and SACDs but I’m not willing to let go of those. Someday we’ll have lossless audio downloads for just about every song out there, someday.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:57 am
Wow Blu ray must be tanking hardcore out there, Band of Brothers on Blu Ray is selling for , like 40 bucks, Maybe I’ll get blu soon, not yet tho, I’m still watching my Japanese import Hd DVD of Band of Brothers, of course I have to beleive that is one of the few HD DVD’s that costs more than a Blu ray counterpart! Ya know if they had a spec when they released, or were’nt so stupidly expensive, or didn’t abandon their early adopters with incompatable hardware, or, you know, cared a little bit about their customers, and maybe weren’t named sony, I might have picked up blu ray ……