Warner Bros. is making it easy (and cheap) for you to upgrade your old DVDs to Blu-ray Disc with their DVD2Blu trade-in program. Most Blu-ray Disc titles will run you $4.95, with a few priced a bit more at $6.95. Among the 91 titles presently offered are Gran Torino, The Departed, Deliverance, The Golden Compass, and Full Metal Jacket. Full Story
Universal Studios Home Entertainment officially announced a date for the first “flipper” discs, containing high-def Blu-ray content on one side and standard DVD content on the other side. What’s cool is the disc can be used in any Blu-ray or DVD player simply by flipping the disc. Full Story
Responses flew out over the web yesterday after the Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Toshiba would produce a Blu-ray Disc player and possibly Blu-ray recorder by year’s end. But is this any surprise? I’m only surprised it took so long. Full Story
Well, actually just the cover art. Warner Bros. will take those HD DVD cover art sheets with UPC codes in exchange for Blu-ray Discs. Warner Bros. launched Red2Blu, an exchange program which allows you to upgrade your antiquated HD DVDs to Blu-ray Discs for only $4.95 each plus $6.95 flat rate shipping and handling. Full Story
Believe it or not Amazon is still suggesting HD DVD purchases to customers on their mailing list who have bought HD DVD products before. I received an email this morning recommending I Am Legend (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) along with 8 other titles that included American Gangster and Batman Begins.
They must have a huge stock of HD DVDs because the titles they suggested are all from the Amazon stash. What’s interesting is the new releases are still priced like a format that isn’t obsolete. I Am Legend is priced at $24.95, 31-percent off the retail price of $35.99 but still up there. Full Story
Paramount Pictures, who in the Fall of 2007 surprised high-def soothsayers with their announcement to go exclusive with former rival disc format HD DVD, is now getting set to release Blu-ray exclusive titles — this according a Reuters article published today. Full Story
Blu-ray may have won the high definition disc format war, but that doesn’t mean clear sailing for the format. Emerging DVD player upscaling technologies, along with downloadable HD and VOD, are giving Blu-ray plenty of competition. Full Story
The final update for the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on player is now available. Users will be asked to automatically download the update the next time they are watching an HD DVD movie and logged into Xbox Live. Full Story
Best Buy will be rewarding customers who purchased HD DVD players any time before February 23, 2008 with a $50 gift card. In addition, regardless of where you purchased your HD DVD player, you can trade in your HD DVD player and movies in exchange for store credit.
Microsoft will not pursue developing a Blu-ray player (whether add-on or internal) for its popular high definition gaming console, the Xbox 360. Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360 told Reuters, “Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience.” Full Story
Future Shop of Canada is offering a donation program where you bring your HD DVD into any Future Shop and get $100 towards an LG or Samsung Blu-ray / HD DVD combo player. The donated HD DVD player will be given to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada to use for after-school and evening programs. Full Story
Virgin Megastore (all U.S. locations) will be selling off their remaining HD DVD stock starting March 4th through the end of April or when the stock runs out. This information comes from a website posting by a Virgin store manager. Full Story
We are going to look back and realize what a foolish war this has been. Fanboys, mainly coming from the Blu-ray said, go on and on about how much better their disc is and about how HD DVD buyers are losers. While HD DVD peeps were probably not the early adopters, and perceptively “not as cool”, they are only guilty of wanting a cheap way into high definition. Full Story
Here is an actual letter to a Netflix subscriber. They are going completely Blu-ray. Looks like HD DVD is on it’s way to a slow and painful death.
Dear …,
You’re receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.
While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.
Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don’t worry, we will contact you before this happens.
-The Netflix Team
- Limited Time
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