GameStop no longer taking HD DVD trades, possibly not taking 360 HD DVD drive either
By Nilay Patel 
posted Feb 19th 2008 9:02PM
posted Feb 19th 2008 9:02PM
[Thanks, Mark]
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This should be expected, happened with all dead consoles too.
what no one seems to realize is both formats are dead.
HD-DVD/Blu-ray are the Zip-disk of Optical Media:
5 1/4 -> 3.5 -> Zip = CD -> DVD -> HD/Blu
It's overpriced and there's already cheaper and more efficient alternatives. I'm sure it will find it's niche that will keep it alive for a little while (Like Zips in the graphics industry), but this round was over before it started. Too many cheaper and easy to use digital distribution methods exist already - On demand TV, Set-top boxes, Media Centre PCs with bittorrent, itunes....
So suppose I make a movie with my home camcorder (HD), and I want to give it to all my friends. Am I supposed to purchase lots and lots of flash drives? Am I supposed to use my basic DSL connection for a streaming server?
Optical disks will be relevant for a while.
You forget that Joe Sixpack doesn't have the time to set up a TVersity Media server, organize files on his computer, set up a ftp server, get invited to a private bittorrent tracker, or search trough the internet for places to buy things - he just wants to watch Live Free or Die Hard on his big screen tv, and the best way for him to do that is go to Best Buy, or wherever else he bought the TV, and get a Blu-ray disk.
Your normal ordinary regular people are still going to do what they always have, which is take the path of least resistance.
Blu Ray discs are like $.65 they are going to be extremely useful in everyday computing in the up coming years, and Blu Ray yields a picture and sound quality that ip/qam can not match (~50mbps). It doesn't mean much when you're watching on a 32" tv with stereo speakers, but with 65" 1080p DLP sets dipping below $1700 everyday users will soon be able to tell see the difference.
I'm not saying optical discs wn't be relevant, but the average joe won't care that bluray disks are a little better than dvds.
the fact is,
1. DVDs are "good enough" (especially for the average joe), like 3.5" floppies were.
2. People just finished re-buying everything on DVD after a complete jump in quality from VHS. The difference isn't THAT dramatic between DVD and BR.
3. No one's going to drop 600+ for a new BRD player.
4. There's not pirated BRD's at pacific mall yet.
5. There's not alot of porn for BRD. Porn saved the DVD...
most people i know that aren't techies still don't even know what blu-ray is, and those who do, don't really know anything about it other than the hype about it. Outside of techies and videophiles, I doubt too many people really care.
@phrozunsun
you are either living on cloud 9 or blind if you think there is no difference between HD and DVD!!
@ phrozunsun
Dude you really need to stop praying to the direct download god. You support DD with sources like itunes and comcast on-demand but you a missing a huge flaw currently with DD called compression. I know providers claim to have true HD quality but it's not an original source or loseless. BR and HD DVD offer loseless formats.
The people who care about this stuff are not the just the tech savvy, but the average joe who is upgrading to their new Kmart or Walmart HDTV. Plus, Walmart's muscle is going to help phase out all other formats much like how Comcast is using their cable muscle to FORCE people to change from analog to digital.
HD vs SD is very noticeable, so it's not a "little" improvement like you say.
First, Porn didn't kill betamax, that's a myth; and the business the adult entertainment industry does with videos is relatively small compared to the film and television industries.
Second, Blu-ray is still a developing technology, but it's nothing like a zip disk. It's a complete case of apples to oranges. We're talking about a consumer video format, BRD's viability as a data storage format is secondary to it. Furthermore, Iomega's ZIP format was successful until flash and rewritable CDs came out. So really, BRD is part of the portable data storage progression from the floppy, to the quasi-floppy(of which ZIP was the most popular), to flash and rewritable disk media.
Third, since Blu-ray has won among early adopters, it has been christened as the HD media standard moving into the next generation, and you will start seeing it get much further assimilated into the home theater market.
Not a big surprise.
Hopefully the price drops really low... i mean deadly low... we have a few in stock, and i know they arn't going to sell...
Nice photoshop w/ the BIG album cover!
yeah props who'd a thunk it
my first thought was
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Great pic! I actually feel better about owning a HD DVD add on just from the laughs I've been getting on all these articles.
Its like the Death of HD DVD is a bigger deal than than the actual death of HD DVD... if you know what I mean (and if you do, you're probably avoiding writing a paper)
Oh man, forget the article I LOVE the pic. I think we definitely need to find out who the photoshop guy engadget has on payroll is because he def. brightens up my day..lol
yeah really! whoever he is he doesnt get paid enough. so clever!
same thing goes with the guy who makes the funny google logos for holidays.
I see TT hasn't made an appearance here yet!!
Him and Nifty stopped getting paid by the HDDVD camp.
Yeah probably...LOL!!
That pic is friggin' awesome!! :-)
haha, nice picture guys.
FINALY BETAMAX HAS HAD IT'S REVENGE!!!
Betamax... as well as memory stick, digital walkman, and just about every other proprietary crap Sony has tried to shove down consumers' throats.
At least PS3 does everything in bluetooth and USB instead of proprietary formats like that other company.
Ah yes... because everyone else's home theater AV equipment recognizes bluetooth rather than IR for remote control ops. Way to go Sony... I wonder how long its going to take to get a universal bluetooth remote.
@Ben
At least my hardware has proprietary wireless communication that's WAY more efficient than Bluetooth, giving my controllers the best battery life of any current gen console, even WITH vibration!
;)
-Taylor
For some reason my friend's 360 controllers disconnect all the time when he's playing halo online. Might have something to do with living in a dorm with a lot of wi-fi interference.
this hype is complete bull. who gives a rats arse
Engadget has gone Gansta. West Side ... GameStop's decision kind of sucks though. I wanted to play around with the Xbox add-on and a few movies just to mess around with it once prices were low enough to justify the purchase of a defunct video format. But, I think it may have more to do with the rumor that GameStop is going to stop carrying video material in their stores and concentrate only in games sales, than just HD-DVD's demise. Also, they probably realize that too many people would come in and trade-in their movies for store credit. Now, the question is, and Engadget didn't mention it, is GameStop accepting trade-ins with SD-DVD and/or Blu-ray. If the answer is no, then they're getting out of the dvd sales business.
FYI, Biggie is East Coast my friend. =)
Eric, see now you're going to start the East Coast - West Coast nonsense. Then the shootouts start. You're right though, I forgot Biggie was from NYC. But, saying "East Side" sounds kind of silly though. So, I had to go for "West Siiiide." Wurd !!!
R.I.P. 2pac!
Remember, Sides != Coast.
That does raise the question, why is it always the West Side?
It seems everwhere I go, the East Side gets the reputation as the rich pretentious ass holes, and the west side gets the reputation of the down home thugs.
There's a West Side of the East Coast and a East Side of the West Coast. Sides and Coasts ain't da same, dogs
on another not it'd be cool if the license plate said "BLU"
Yeah probably!!! LOL
Wow... The Engadget staff forgot to take their meds today. Can we say OCD???? When will your HD-DVD coverage become obsolete? That's what users want to know!!! Persoanlly, I cannot wait for the firesales!!! After which, I will build up my blu-ray collection with their over-priced, inferior product.
When you are trying to make snide remarks please make sure that you don't use the spelling of a 5 year old.
As a general rule, one punctuation mark at the end of every sentence is enough.
Nice pic !!
Dear engadget,
Stop posting about bluray and HDDVD. People kept saying this would happen soo friggin much that it became true. repeating HD-DVD faliures will not make blu ray any better.
Yours truly,
Angry reader.
Poor boy, add some sugar to those sour grapes :)
Awww... at least your iPhone is still significant... oh wait...
Wow
People are soo materialistic. I hope they know everything they own will always become obsolete. The only thing that doesnt is your imagination. Go out and use your mind for a bit.
(comming from a casual x360 & psp gamer)
Bitter much? Two posts in a row about how angry you are... that's intense.
Obviously you have a 360 HD DVD and/or standalone player and it is soon to be six feet under. My condolences, but no need to generalize the human race as materialistic as well as knock Engadget. Remember, you can always skip over any post!
-jb
No i dont have a 360 hd-dvd. Its just that people get soo excited to spend more money on more useless things. Seriously my analog tv is just fine. I dont mind people buying useless expensive crap (their money not mine) but what bugs me is the fact that people keep bringing these things up like its some kind of wonderful life changing experience.
Ali bheta, go cry now to mummy. hd-dvd is dead mashAllah
Well if I die before something becomes obsolete, than I beat the system!
And in Heaven HD-DVD and Betamax are bestest of friends =)
I might actually invest in the 360 add-on if the price is low enough. $30 or $40 would just about be a selling point for me. Still works, right?
No, the death of HD-DVD means that all HD-DVD devices are now totally inoperable and all of your disks will self-destruct at the end of this message.
That was said more as a rhetorical device, actually...but thanks for clarifying.
Man I had no idea the second the format war was over all of the losing formats discs suddenly stop working.
Dear Engadget your running the HD DVD stories into the ground. Is it a slow news day? I am not really looking forward to 20 more posts about the death of HD DVD. It can't die if you keep bringing it back to life just to put it down again.
So long as each new story had an equally witty photoshop job attached to it, I could handle them.
Those things are awesome ;)
true dat
ALRIGHT! More posts about HD DVD! Just when I thought I wasn't getting enough! THANKS ENGADGET!
good god engadget... is warner MAKING you run so much 'hddvd is dead' crap or do you just really like sony's bulge?
I can see them not taking the HD Add-on back. Here's the thing. If you have a standalone HDDVD player its not trash. You can still use it to play DVD's. However, with the Xbox Add-On it useless because the xbox itself can play regular DVD's.
The add-on upscales dvd's
Did they mention GameStop? Friends don't let friends shop at GameStop!
The Bloods ain't gonna take this lose to the Crips laying down...
Saw a table full of XBOX 360 HD-DVD drives on sale at Best Buy about 10 days ago...and I LOLed.
Why sale the disc and equipment you have for .20 cents on the dollar? Especially if you have the 360 add on. Might as well keep it and watch the movies that you have when you want. I know I won't be rebuying any of my HD DVD movies in Blu Ray if I already own the HD DVD. Sony would love for consumers to be that idiotic. Don't be a fool, selling at this point will not make you enough back to make you feel better. Just absorb the loss and move on like a big boy (or girl).
Peace
I like the HD-DVD is dead posts. Rub it in the face of all those HD-DVD-is-better-morons
I bet $hitStop won't mind SELLING you an HD DVD add-on. Seriously, those people are the scum of this Earth.
Yes a company sure is evil for selling product in a store, yessir indeed. Man those greedy bastards and their pompous retail business expecting to sell things! Good thing we have upstanding free thinkers like yourself to put dollar signs in a company name and be so original too!
Hey Engadget, I'm pretty sure the horse stopped moving a few posts ago....feel free to stop swinging.
Okay. It's official. HD-DVD news has jumped the shark. I'm tired of hearing about it.
First, Porn didn't kill betamax, that's a myth; and the business the adult entertainment industry does with videos is relatively small compared to the film and television industries.
Second, Blu-ray is still a developing technology, but it's nothing like a zip disk. It's a complete case of apples to oranges. We're talking about a consumer video format, BRD's viability as a data storage format is secondary to it. Furthermore, Iomega's ZIP format was successful until flash and rewritable CDs came out. So really, BRD is part of the portable data storage progression from the floppy, to the quasi-floppy(of which ZIP was the most popular), to flash and rewritable disk media.
Third, since Blu-ray has won among early adopters, it has been christened as the HD media standard moving into the next generation, and you will start seeing it get much further assimilated into the home theater market.
First, Porn didn't kill betamax, that's a myth; and the business the adult entertainment industry does with videos is relatively small compared to the film and television industries.
Second, Blu-ray is still a developing technology, but it's nothing like a zip disk. It's a complete case of apples to oranges. We're talking about a consumer video format, BRD's viability as a data storage format is secondary to it. Furthermore, Iomega's ZIP format was successful until flash and rewritable CDs came out. So really, BRD is part of the portable data storage progression from the floppy, to the quasi-floppy(of which ZIP was the most popular), to flash and rewritable disk media.
Third, since Blu-ray has won among early adopters, it has been christened as the HD media standard moving into the next generation, and you will start seeing it get much further assimilated into the home theater market.
sorry, was meant as a reply
Don't worry guys, you'll be able to sell them on Ebay in 10 years for three times the price you paid for them today.
(guess how I got rid of our Beta. :D)
And I still vote that Blu-Ray is the stupidest name for a consumer video format, ever.
But whatever, I'll get a player when the price is decent and the range more extensive.
I think engadget has especially been acting blu-ray fanboyish these days.
We get it, BluRay WON, but what's with all the comments and fun being poked at HD-DVD?
Why do we need 5 pages of "OMG HD-DVD TEH SUXORZ". Or are you guys getting paid to do that?
(I'm a BluRay user myself)
Think I can get the Xbox drive, season 1 of Heroes, and Transformers on HD-DVD for $50? This is probably a great time to buy in, if there's a few HD-DVD's already out that you want.