U.S. HD DVD fans that passed up Best Buy's offer of
$3 per disc, or just those who stocked up on cheap movies after the format gave up the fight have another option coming from Warner Bros. Send in the cover art sleeve (keep the disc) including UPC from your
HD DVD case (plus $4.95 per movie and $6.95 / $8.95 per order S&H) and it will send you back a brand new Blu-ray copy. There's a few other restrictions, like 1 copy per movie and 25 different movies per household, but the biggest decision is likely to be whether giving up your precious
I Am Legend sleeve is worth the trade, hit up Red2Blu.com for all the details and necessary forms. It seems to us like a decent offer to make HD DVD owners whole, we'd be surprised if Paramount and Universal came through with similar plans.
[Via
DVDTown]
posted Apr 22nd 2009 10:28AM
And why shouldn't they? Pretty easy way to double-dip a few extra bucks of the same product.
If I were a conspiracy theorist I'd think they intentionally caused format wars to do this.
I'm surprised Circuit City doesn't try to double-dip with their DIVX discs.
Oh, wait.
All conspiracies aside, if they did this with SD dvds I would be tempted to upgrade much of my current dvd collection.
... or you could just download them in 1080p and sell your HD DVDs - stick it to the man, as it were
So let me make sure I am getting this straight. I can ship back my sleve for an HD DVD and $11.90-$13.90, and they send me a Blue Ray version of the movie?
Hmm... Does not seem that good of a deal to me. I will just wait for the sales where I can get Blue Ray for $12-15. Luckily I never bought any HD DVD anyway.
It's Blu-ray NOT Blue Ray
Note that it says "$6.95 / $8.95 per order S&H". Depending on how many movies you do at once, your total per movie gets smaller the more you buy/swap.
Depends on how many you send in. If you were to max out the offer and send in 25 movies, it would be $5.29 - $5.31 per movie, which is probably a better deal than you'd get in stores for a while.
(Assuming that the 25 movies count as 1 order.)
I'm pretty sure it's "Blu-ray" not "Blue Ray."
It probably doesn't seem like a good deal because you don't any HD DVD movies. For those that are stuck with a dead format, it is a great way to migrate your collection. Besides your argument assumes you are returning just 1 movie, in which case this is a bad deal. However, if you return the maximum amount of allowed discs you are only paying $.28 per title for shipping or $5.23 per disc. (If you live in the continental US). This isn't bad considering you get to keep the original HD DVD.
Now, with copyright law the way it is - I wonder if you are legally allowed to resell the HD DVD?
Get it right or Eiffel 65 will sue!
This is a great deal! You get to keep the movies (don't have to hassle with copying .. not even worth getting a HD-DVD reader to rip the copies) and then get Blu-ray versions for $5! The shipping cost is nothing if you get more than five at a time..
For less than $81 and some sleeves my brother is getting 18 blu-rays. Granted that includes the Harry Potter box set ($15 upgrade nets you all 5 movies). Oh yeah, and they even cover the cost of sending in the sleeves. The best part is I kept my movies and we just made copies of the sleeves before we sent them in. It's a win win. At least it is since I'm still happy with hd dvd and felt no need to replace them just so I could play them on my ps3 rather then on my hd-a30.
I'd rather have the HD-DVD format return once again.
I concur doctor!!
BRING BACK THE RED!! it was total pwnership...
Same here....
I've never really messed with HD DVD, but why would it be better than Blu-Ray, when it doesn't hold as much data?
I still have both. Tinu, can you tell me why one is better than the other?
Just go to Fry's. They have SO much HD-DVD on the shelves still you'd think the format is going strong
Both formats are capable of storing video in Full HD (1080p) and sound in Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio, yet one is smaller in capacity than the other. How is this possible?
Compression. Blu-ray content is MPEG-2 while HD-DVD content is MPEG-4.
I prefer HD-DVD with its superior space efficiency. Doing less with more is the name of the game.
(Of course, please correct me if I am wrong.)
You are. Early on, Blu-ray did indeed use MPEG-2 but they've switched over to VC-1, H.264 and other variants of MPEG-4 a long time ago. How it's possible is that Blu-ray discs end up either being half-empty or full of crap that no one ever uses.
As for why HD DVD is better than Blu-ray: to date, the cheapest next-gen optical media players were HD DVD and if you didn't get hibryd discs (having both DVD and HD DVD on one disc), the HD DVD movies were cheaper. It was cheaper and did the same thing just as well - that's called being better in my books.
It's true that the first-generation Blu-ray discs used MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1 (basically a DVD with a 1080p resolution). To demonstrate Blu-ray's capacity, Sony introduced PCM 5.1 for lossless audio. But they quickly worked to match HD DVD's VC1 and Lossless Audio Codecs (Dolby True-HD and DTS-MA).
HD DVD supported MPEG-2, VC1 (used the since it gave a nice PQ to size ratio, important when the disc size is only 15GB or 30GB), and H.264 for video and Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True-HD, and DTS-MA (only on Pan's Labyrinth, I think).
By the end of HD DVD's life, Blu-ray was updated to support the same above codecs but started to use H.264 (often called AVC) for most discs. Most Warner Bros discs that moved from HD DVD to Blu-ray are VC1 (no re-encoding needed, just master the movie for the disc format).
Blu-ray would have eventually surpassed HD DVD since it had greater capacity and supported the same formats. If Sony & Co. had their act together at the beginning, then no one would be arguing HD DVD vs. Blu-ray. Unfortunately, Blu-ray won by winning over Warner Bros not by improving the format. We had to wait another year for Blu-ray to equal HD DVD's interactive capabilities.
@Mikw: Actually, Blu-ray won by (a) initial support of virtually all major studios (with one exception and some waverers) and (b) inclusion in PlayStation 3, which gave it an instant user-base vastly higher than HD-DVD. Warner's decision was just long-delayed acceptance of the inevitable. Most observers saw from the beginning that studio support topped by the game console's user base meant game over for HD-DVD.
It's certainly unfortunate that Blu-ray was a bit rushed and there were initial problems with the mastering software and/or odd decisions that led to things like MPEG-2 usage and some really crappy quality in initial release. But most people think it's even more unfortunate that the HD-DVD folks persisted with an obviously doomed format. Well done to Warner for making it as painless as reasonable though...
@Mark: The main reason HD-DVD players were cheaper initially is that Toshiba subsidised them heavily. Most of the Blu-ray players (except PS3 of course) weren't subsidised. The processing power required is the same and Blu-ray drive cost wasn't spectacularly higher even then. (Of course drive cost has dropped like a stone since.)
BD discs were genuinely slightly more expensive, however, because producing them required new plants. There's nothing wrong with this technology though and in the end, the cost should drop to the same as DVD. (I'm not sure it ever was enough to explain any difference in cover price - this is probably more because the HD-DVD promoters needed to keep a cost advantage as their only selling point.)
To put it another way the slight relative expensiveness of Blu-ray didn't actually indicate anything wrong with the technology. Not that there was anything wrong with HD-DVD technology either - it was a bit less advanced, which was both an advantage (because it could be produced on existing production lines) and a disadvantage (because the capacity was lower).
[Note: I own neither a Blu-ray nor an HD-DVD player; and yes I've been saying the same all along. :) I'm kind of hoping either Apple will add Blu-ray support to their OS, or somebody will crack Blu-ray and we can have an unofficial player, then I'd be more inclined to get a drive... I'm not going to bother to get a standalone player. Maybe if Sony release a slimline PS3...]
micas_pi,
Do you realize that the disks are not the same? And that is what gave Blu-Ray the larger capacity?
You seem to argue that compression gave Blu-Ray more capacity. Wrong. The blank Blu-Ray disk has more capacity than the blank HD-DVD.
I thought there were differences in the optics and the lasers too but the article seems to say there was no difference in the laser.
http://editorials.teamxbox.com/xbox/1496/The-Blue-Laser-Wars-Episode-I-HD-DVD/p1/
http://editorials.teamxbox.com/xbox/1504/The-Blue-Laser-Wars-Episode-II-Bluray-Disc/p1/
http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/19/blu-ray-vs-hd-dvd-state-of-the-s-union-s-division/
It's a nice offer, but I'm not going to take advantage of it. I still have two HD DVD players that work just fine.
so europe gets the shaft, correct?
This makes me, and my wife, happy as I can replace her Harry Potter box set with the BluRay versions, as well as swap out a few others (including Casablanca, where the BluRay is consistently over $40). It's costing me $42 to exchange 9 movies for the BR versions, and if Universal would do the same, I could then donate my HD-DVD player and the old movies to a friend who doesn't want to pay for a BR player yet, and it lets me free up an HDMI input on my receiver.
That sounds like a very good deal for those that have HD-DVD's. For only $5 you get a new shinny Blu-ray version. The $8 shipping is nothing cause that only works out to just a few cents when you order a bunch of Blu-Ray's. It's an even better deal for those that bought the discounted HD-DVD's.
So how exactly do those of us with the Harry Potter collector's edition set take advantage of this offer? Discs are packaged in fake little cardboard and plastic replica schoolbooks. I'm sure they gave the same special treatment to many of their other collectors' editions as well. And did they re-issue titles with BD-LIVE content comparable to what was exclusively on the HD-DVD versions?
If you don't like the deal, then don't do it. You're the one who decided to buy HD-DVD in the first place.
Gee, thanks for jumping up my shit, dude.
Only reason I have Harry Potter in HD-DVD is because it has more features than the Blu-ray edition.
If you think I bought into HD-DVD, my original PS3/80 and ~200 Blu-rays say otherwise.
FYI - Each of the weird HD-Boxed sets has instructions on how to exchange them. I have the Harry Potter boxed set and went through the order process and it told me that all I had to do was send in the Year One purple case. I think that case is unique to the set, so that's proof enough.
From what I understand, on the combo discs you just go to their product page and pop it in your cart. The graphic switches to the blu-ray equivalent. I didn't check them all out, but they are all there, and a blu-ray set can be traded.
to Tony C,
Sorry, but I was unaware of any major difference between the Blu-ray and HD-DVD versions. But... I still think it's a good deal. No heart feelings. Take Care.
THIS JUST IN: BitTorrent is still free. and not locked to one device like HD-DVD/Blu-Ray, iTunes, etc....
....and they wonder why thye can't beat piracy....maybe, (and i know, it's a long shot here, but maybe), it's because they offer a less convenient and versatile product at a higher cost.
Your an idiot. Your comparing a Blu-ray movie to bit-torrent dvd rips/cams and other irrelevant crap? Seriously? Perhaps your the one that is clueless. Let me help you - Blu-ray movie = 25 gig discs and 50 gig discs filled with full 1080p goodness, 7.1/TrueHD sound, etc etc. Need I say more?
Go download 50 gig movies 6 times a week and see how long your connection stays active :D
How do you not have a higher cost than free?
'Warner now pays you to watch their movies!'
Digital distribution may be a better option, but arguing that stealing is better because it is cheaper is dumb.
"Your an idiot"
What a great example of irony.
Also, Disc capacity != movie size.
to be clear, I'm not saying stealing because it's cheaper is right - I'm just using that as a frame of reference - not only do you lose the value of versatility, but you're actually paying to do it.
I'm sure if the studios offered something of equal or greater value (that is, a non-DRM'ed, easily cross-platform/device file) at a fair price that most people would opt for it over piracy.
Also, cayton says: Disc capacity != movie size. Infact, most of those discs aren't even half full. And there ARE codecs out for HD movies that give pretty decent quality that take up much less space
LMAO at "Your an idiot"...Irony at it's finest indeed.
RE: "Your an idiot"
To add the the irony, he corrected someone's spelling of Blu-ray, yet doesn't know his Your vs You're.
Me smells a Sony Fanboy!
BLUE RAY!
BLUE RAY!
BLUE RAY!
BLUE RAY!
BLUE RAY!
:P
Less convenient? On what planet is downloading a 7gb file more convenient than popping in a disc?
@RobtheBod
I didn't correct anyone. I just said it's Blu-ray NOT Blue Ray. If your going to go on a tangent about something, at least spell the something your going off on a tangent about - correctly.
As for Your/You're, I could care less. I am also not a fanboy by any stretch of the imagination. I just enjoy quality. :) - You're still an idiot. There, that better? :P
@ homi: In a world with fiber and RSS feeds. Not to mention if you're watching it on an iPod/PMP/Netbook a 700mb file is more than adequate.
@absolutc: The point is you sit there an try to correct people, yet you yourself made the same mistake. Some would find that funny. YOU'RE not only an idiot, but YOUR sense of humour is lacking.
I don't know if I'm doing this right but I just had to say something about the "Your an idiot" comments.
Whilst I don't necessarily agree with piracy (that's a whole other story) to say that bit torrent downloads are not the same quality and use up 50GB a pop is TOTALLY wrong. A 720p download is approx. 4.5 - 6.5GB and 1080p is roughly double. Also - I would question anyone who says that the quality is bad ... I have both running on a 180" screen (yes - you heard that right) and I cannot tell the difference!?
Now please feel free to rip me apart on both technical and grammatical errors!?!? ;o)
"Whilst I don't necessarily agree with piracy (that's a whole other story) to say that bit torrent downloads are not the same quality and use up 50GB a pop is TOTALLY wrong."
There are quality differences, but you sometimes have to look for them. I can usually spot some compression artifacts in most of those downloads though. Also, those downloads have most of the audio options ripped out (e.g. no lossless or alternate language tracks) and, of course, never contain any of the extras. But, yeah, the quality is generally pretty good.
@ Vidikron
I do believe you're right - IF you do go looking for them ... the first time I set-up the projector I tested it with a HD copy a Terminator 2 (not my favourite - just for testing) and I was on the phone to a friend saying "I'm a foot away from the wall and I can still make out the detail on Arnie's boots"
My friend, of course said that I needed to get out more!?
If you download a 1080p rip of most content (especially those movies idiotically released in 2.35:1) it's practically the same as blu ray quality at ~10 gigs. And yes, it is more convenient than a blu ray disc because a 3.5" hard drive is easier to carry around than 50 blu ray discs. Plus, if you have a good number of friends (shocking, I know), you can just have swap parties where you watch movies and everyone quadruples their collection. I don't buy blu ray discs because it's illegal to rip them for my personal use, and if I'm a criminal either way, well then...
you get 1080p image, but I doubt you get the loss less audio which is what I crave :p
granted if I was dloading it 1.4gig dvd rip would be nice (I find the 700mb ones are a bit blurry when played on the big screen).
@rezaudio 180" screen, nice, I wish I had a room big enough for one of those, got to settle for 150" T.T
Hell, go buy planet earth on HD-DVD for about $15 and then swap for 10... I don't think you can get a better deal than that...
Oh, and im all over this... i just messed with the site... its very easy to do... I hope the other studios can do it too... Kudos WB... you earned AWESOME points...
Who would do this? Its only a good deal if you sell your HDDVDs cheap on Amazon to me and keep the blu. Just make me a copy of that fancy cover before you shop it off.
Wo hoo cheaper movies for me.
People who own these HD DVDs and wanted to rebuy the titles on blu-ray. This would've saved me some cash with Batman Begins, Enter the Dragon & V for Vendetta. I'll still do Happyfeet and Matrix, and might pick up Casablanca as well.
Wohoo! Planet Earth is on the list although it is $10
Yeah, but which version of it will they accept, and which version do you get back?
In case you don't know what I'm referring to there were two US releases of them on HD-DVD. The first had the narration done by David Attenborough (UK broadcast version). The second release had the narration done by Sigourney Weaver (US broadcast version).
The box art shows the BBC logo so it's better be the Attenborough one. I think the other is put out exclusively by Discovery Channel.
I contacted them about the narrator of Planet Earth, and they said the Blu-Ray version is the one that is narrated by David Attenborough.
What if it's an HD-DVD/DVD Combo disc? Will they throw in a regular DVD in the Blu-ray case as well?
I was wondering the exact same thing as well. I bought alot of combos for the extra DVD version. I guess could always make a copy of the DVD, but its usually compressed. I've done that a few times. for no apparent reason of course.
I dunno, its tempting, but I've got 3 spare Xbox HD DVD players in anticipation of keeping the HD DVDs.
You don't send the discs back, so I'd bet against it.
You don't have to send them the HD-DVD, so does it really matter? You can still play the DVD side of the disc you keep.
Yea good point.
I just checked with 5 monies I have and the total price is $42. Includes the blade runner box set. So it's not too bad when compared to buying the bluray again but then again I am buying the movie twice and my HD-DVD player still works fine and I prefer it to the PS3.
So lemme get this straight... You can swap just "The Matrix" or the "Ultimate Matrix" boxset/collection, but if you bought the The Complete Matrix Trilogy HD-DVD boxset with just the 3 movies (not the Ultimate boxset) you're stuck with the 2nd and 3rd movie on HD-DVD.
Thanks Warner!
in regards to the ultimate matrix collection, i was bummed to see that you have to send the paper that was glued to the box, and not the sleeves from the movies themselves. I no longer have the paper with the box set UPC, they said they are checking with corporate to get resolution on this and to check back in a few days.
Those of you with Fry's Electronics could head there and buy their HD-DVD's for $5 each and then trade them in for BR. It would be a great, albeit slow, way to add to your BR collection.
This is interesting on WB's part, because I think I'm exactly the type of person they're aiming to grab with this promotion. I had recently bought an HDTV around Christmas of '07, and got an in-store credit at (now defunct) Circuit City, so I used it to pick up the HDDVD add-on for my 360 and a couple movies. I'm not usually an early adopter, but it was the only thing in that price range that seemed like a worthy edition to the living room.
Anyway, I bought up a bunch of movies, and loved it. But when HDDVD died, I was kindof on the fence as to whether to get a Blu-Ray player or not. I still am. Sure, the quality is great, but I'm buying into another format? And what about all my old discs? Would I really buy them again? Etc, etc...
But this has really got me thinking about picking up a player. For a little over $60, I can get all but 2 of my HDDVDs on Blu-Ray, while still keeping the originals. So there's the collection!
I'm still a bit torn, but I think I'll go ahead and get the movies, then check the sales for a player with good reviews.
With e3 around the corner, a ps3 price drop might finally be coming...
If you want to get into network video streaming or watching internet video on your HDTV and don't have any existing setup, get a PS3. It's an excellent deal... Unless you are going to use an old PC, most networked media players are $150-250 and decent Blu-ray players are around $200-300..
You can get the PS3 for $399 or less and it is an excellent upgradeable Blu-ray player and DVD upconverter, networked media player that can do 1080P H264 and Divx/Xvid files, and a good gaming machine..
Is there no chance of a similar scheme in the UK?
http://search.inetvideo.com/search?p=Q&lbc=inetvideo&uid=679155413&ts=custom&w=hd%20dvd&af=condition:new&isort=price&method=and&view=grid&format=subgenre
These guys still have some HD-DVDs for cheap... I just pick up 20 movies for about $3.75/ea after shipping. If other companies do offers like this, I end up with a NICE Blu-Ray collection for under $10/movie.
Hmmm, a few of those movies on the list, I want in Bluray... may have to look into finding them on HDDVD. :-) Then, I can still use them in my Xbox360 HDDVD player, portable on my laptop, or PC... and use the Blurays in my entertainment center.
some of those old titles BD is just $10-15 each, it's not worth the trouble plus fee
sorry, I'm still an HD DVD faithful. Call me a fanboi, I know HD DVD IS DEAD, but I will NEVER buy blu-ray. I fucking hate Sony with a passion and will not buy their shit. I wouldn't trade in my HD DVD'S for Blu-ray if they were paying me $10 a disk.
And you're telling us this why?
Do you want a cookie or something?
depends, are you offering any cookies and if so what kind?
Similarly, my high school chemistry teacher is holding onto his copy of Top Gun on LaserDisc forever.
Fuck VHS.
You could buy a non-Sony BR player. Sony is one of the key members, but the BDA != Sony.
@Stereodude: Sony murdered UniBroW's parents.
Sony owns about 1/3 of the Blu-ray IP. Holding them entirely responsible (for murdering your parents) is just slightly less than reasonable.
Hmm this is very interesting...I work at a Supermarket Photolab, and we just got in a shipment of $4.99 HDDVD/DVD combo movies...hmmm should I, or shouldn't I....
I thought this was a good deal at first, but I realized I can buy the 360 HD-DVD player new still at Frys for like $30 as a back up player. My 360 will always be connected, well until Xbox 720 releases and by then these movies will be in the Blu-Ray bargain-bin for $10. It will cost me $41 to "upgrade" (as much as a back up HD-DVD player), but really when I think about it.. it's just another ploy for Warner to get you to double-dip. If it was free shipping, it might be worth it.
I'll use it for my really expensive box sets since if it was purchased as a box set they give you a special price depending on the number of discs and the whole box set is only considered one movie. In the mean time I can still use the hd dvd as a backup if anything should happen to the new discs
I think I will do this. I had 10 on the list (5 are the HP box set). With the shipping it is about $4.66 per movie. Considering you are only giving up the sleeve and you still keep the movie, it seems like a good deal to me. I'm sure I could print something to stick into the HDDVD cases.
I just called the help # and I don't know if the lady did not understand me, but it sounds like you may not get a blu-ray case??? Maybe she means that you will get something similar....I asked the question 3 times and still did not get a clear answer.
She did tell me for sure that in the case of harry potter box set, you would not be getting that collectible "trunk" again.
I would certainly hope they send the blue plastic case. I would want my collection to look consistent.
Any one else want to call and see if you get a better answer? 1-866-276-6176
Does this include 300 that i got with the player? :) JK
Yes it does, why wouldn't it?
Yes it does. Why wouldn't it?
You wouldn't have to give up your I Am Legend sleeve because you would be getting it back with the Blu-Ray packaging.
Can anyone confirm that the shipping is per ORDER and not per DISC? The wording on the PDF is not exactly clear.
And how many discs can be included in the order? 25?
people still buy disks?
This is a fantastic deal for those of us who have moved on to the Bluray bandwagon. I have about 30 HD DVD discs and will be able to get a great upgrade deal on most of them! Win-win IMHO.
One additional note, just got done talking to customer service, it looks like that NO ONE has that "label" in the Ultimate Matrix Set that you are supposed to send in. They are looking at changing the requirments for this particular one. Stay tuned.
I also asked how long this promo was going to continue. She said until December, but they may pull it sooner (no way of knowing).
Ciao.
idea is good but not like this,why would i pay almost 15$.i just go to craigslist or ebay and get the movie for less.keep my fucken hddvd.
get the shipping free,not 7$ for a frickin disc..
stupid!
Hmm I am guessing this is only to people in the USA, good thing I am traveling there soon
Will have to photocopy my old sleeves and maybe sell the HD-DVDs when I get the sexy new blurays.
Pity there doesn't seem to be a 'matrix boxset' one, only 'ultimate matrix boxset'
"... we'd be surprised if Paramount and Universal came through with similar plans" -RL
Why would Paramount and Universal need to do this? They were not the ones to kill off the format.