HD DVD Fire Sale Thread

[admin]

Universal has repriced all their HD DVDs in the US. $11.95 for all HD DVDs, $16.95 for all combos. Even new releases such as American Gangster, Eastern Promises and Elizabeth: The Golden Age have been included as part of the re-pricing. More information here:

http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2008/03/04/the-hd-dvd-fire-sale-part-ii/

The prices may not be as good as the Australian sales, but they're still pretty good. For example, the 2-Disc edition of American Gangster is $19.99, but the HD DVD and DVD Combo version (which has the DVD version one one side, albeit only the single disc edition) is $3 less. If you don't need the second disc, then the HD DVD Combo version is obviously better value even for those without HD DVD players.

The noise around forums is that there's not a lot of stock left for some titles, and so, there may never be a true fire sale like here in Australia (ie. all titles under $8 or something).

[drfsupercenter]

Now just a question... are all these Paramount and Universal titles that are going on clearance as HD-DVD going to be re-released in Blu-Ray? Or should I buy loads of them now for when I do eventually get a HDTV in the future?

[admin]

If you don't have a HD DVD player and don't get one now, I think it's probably best to skip the sales, as it might be hard to find a player in the future. If you can buy a player for cheap now and if there are lots of movies you want, then it might be worth it, especially if you're on the market for an upscaling DVD player anyway (HD DVD player prices are approaching the same levels as normal upscaling players). But you will always run the risk of your player breaking down and not being able to buy a new player to play your discs. Many people are buying multiple players, but this is an expensive solution to avoid problems in the future unless you really need those extra players (one for the bedroom, one for the lounge, one for the study ...).

Here in Australia, you can get a player for under $US 90 and the Xbox 360 add-on drive (which works on PCs as well) for $40 as a backup drive. I originally had the Xbox 360 add-on drive and then later got a standalone, so I have my backup player. And with titles going for less than $8, it's easy for me to make the decision to buy as many titles as I can (but only the ones I want), and it's also easy for people to decide whether to jump into HD DVD now (or never).

All of these titles will eventually make their way onto Blu-ray, but they will be at their regular prices ($19.99 to $27.99). There will be sales, so you can still pick up some bargains on Blu-ray (in my last Blu-ray buy-one-get-one-free sale, the average price I paid was $12 per movie). I think that regular prices will drop to $11 to $16 in about 2 years time for older release titles on Blu-ray anyway.

For the Australian prices, I don't think they will ever be repeated on Blu-ray, since it's rare for us to even see such prices on DVDs. For example, The Kingdom on DVD is selling at $29.95 here, but I got the HD DVD version for $9. Regular "discounted" Blu-ray pricing is at $39.95, down from the RRP of $49.95!!

[Chewy]

With such a low attach rate for blu-ray, do you think prices for the new releases can ever be competetive with sd dvd's, unless sales pick up drastically?

I see a long hard row to hoe for BR in the next few years before they break even.
Maybe if there had been a more significant quality difference or better hd tv's and standalone sd players didn't do as good a job of upconverting?

[drfsupercenter]

Can the Xbox 360 addon be used as a standalone player when attached to the computer? If so, I'd just go with one of those...

Or I could get a HD/Blu-Ray combo player, if they still sell them.

But I'm not actually IN the market right now, I just don't want titles like The Matrix to be gone forever in HD once HD DVD stops being sold. Some movies I really like are on HD DVD, that's why I was asking.

[admin]

With such a low attach rate for blu-ray, do you think prices for the new releases can ever be competetive with sd dvd's, unless sales pick up drastically?

I see a long hard row to hoe for BR in the next few years before they break even.
Maybe if there had been a more significant quality difference or better hd tv's and standalone sd players didn't do as good a job of upconverting?

I think these are all issues. The problem is that studios want to sell Blu-ray as a more expensive replacement for DVDs, since profit margins are decreasing too rapidly for the SD format. So perhaps, for the next year or so, the studios will be happy for Blu-ray to play second fiddle to DVD, to make money from those that want the best no matter what the cost. I think it will be years (if ever) before Blu-ray can truly replace DVDs, in pricing and other ways.

Can the Xbox 360 addon be used as a standalone player when attached to the computer? If so, I'd just go with one of those...

Or I could get a HD/Blu-Ray combo player, if they still sell them.

But I'm not actually IN the market right now, I just don't want titles like The Matrix to be gone forever in HD once HD DVD stops being sold. Some movies I really like are on HD DVD, that's why I was asking.

The 360 add-on drive is just an external HD DVD/DVD reader drive that you plug in through USB. Your computer still needs the required CPU/GPU to decode HD movies, and of course, PowerDVD Ultra as the player. The hardware is here (any post 8600 GTS from NVIDIA, and post X1950 card from ATI will accelerate Blu-ray/HD DVD playback), but the software (PDVDU) is a bit lacking in terms of stability and compatibility. The 360 drive is really the cheapest way to get a HD DVD reader drive for your PC. Dual format drives may be a better idea for the future, but they are expensive now - getting a 360 drive + a Blu-ray combo (Blu-ray reader + DVD writer) drive is cheaper than getting a dual format drive. For Blu-ray/HD DVD PC requirements, have a look at this guide:

http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/PC_Blu-ray_HD_DVD_Ready_page2.html

If you're worried that movies on HD DVD will simply disappear from HD, you shouldn't - they will make their way onto Blu-ray eventually, but it's mainly the price at the moment that's appealing about HD DVD.

BTW: Amazon has just upped Universal HD DVD prices by $3 each. Looks like they saw the sale become too popular and wanted to make a bit more profit. I think prices will come down again.

[drfsupercenter]

Is there any word as to when The Matrix trilogy will be on Blu-Ray?

So, you're saying it would make sense to just wait and get Blu-Ray stuff? As I said before, I don't need anything soon, but in a few years I will probably get HD stuff and want to make sure I don't wind up searching eBay for the then-obsolete HD DVDs.

[admin]

Warner has already announced that they will release The Matrix Trilogy on Blu-ray, but has not set a date yet. They say it will be released sometime this year, but that's what they said in March last year too:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/08/warners-2008-blu-ray-release-plan/

Unless you are willing to spend several hundred dollars now and get potentially obsolete equipment, I think it's best to wait. I'm pretty sure all HD DVD titles will get released on Blu-ray eventually, so there's no need to buy them now to ensure you have HD versions of titles.

This is why I wrote in a blog entry the other day that existing HD DVD owners are lucky because they have no choice but to take part in the sales to increase their collection and improve the usefulness of their HD DVD player. They don't have to make a decision whether to buy into HD DVD or not, which is a very hard decision right now. On one hand, you could save a lot of money by getting HD movies that will probably not improve by the time they are released on Blu-ray. On the other hand, you could be wasting a lot of money buying into a dead format.

[toomanycats]

If the players don't play the upconverted video thru the components jacks I wouldn't bother, even as an upconverting dvd player, as you could get an upscaling DVD player without all the extra baggage. The NeuNeu HVD2985 will play upscaled thru component output and does not require HDCP.

[admin]

Yeah, there are a few "illegal" players out there that can do upscaling through component or even DVI without HDCP (I have one of them!). Unfortunately, all well known brands like Pioneer or Oppo cannot, since otherwise they would get into a lot of trouble with the authorities.

[admin]

I may have just sourced a copy of Planet Earth for under $USD 17:

http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/3471

I hope I wasn't too late, since nobody knows how much stock there is available

The price for the Blu-ray version on the same website is $USD 87

[Chewy]

I saw some of that on SD, that would be worth watching in high def

[BR7]

I may have just sourced a copy of Planet Earth for under $USD 17:

That's a damn good deal,the lowest I seen it was $27 on the discovery site. So far I have been paying around $15 for Blu-rays.The most I have spent was $48 for the Resident Evil Trilogy and $30 for Close Encounters of the Third Kind,Weeds Season 2 and Blade Runner

[admin]

It's been a best seller on HD DVD and Blu-ray for some time now, so I hope I can get my order fulfiled.

Unfortunately, there are already hundreds of orders in (which is strange, because it was nearly midnight here when the link first became available), and it's very likely many people ordered more than one copy which means a lot of people (me included) might miss out. My guess is my order is around the 100th, so I hope people before me didn't order on average more than one copy, and that the store has more than just 100 copies to sell.

On the other hand, if this store does it, then it could mean other stores will do it too, so there's still a chance I can pick it up from elsewhere if this order doesn't come through.

After this, it will be Star Trek: Season 1 that might go on sale. The word is that the distributors of both box sets asked stores to send back stock of these items, so all the stock is still somewhere sitting in a warehouse just waiting to be discounted ...

[admin]

That's a damn good deal,the lowest I seen it was $27 on the discovery site. So far I have been paying around $15 for Blu-rays.The most I have spent was $48 for the Resident Evil Trilogy and $30 for Close Encounters of the Third Kind,Weeds Season 2 and Blade Runner

The Discovery channel version is the cut down one (50 minutes less footage), with poorer picture quality (which is a real shame, because this show is all about the visuals, and the original BBC version is 5-star demo quality), and with Sigourney Weaver replacing the original British David Attenborough narration. There is more extra features on the US version though. The reviews for the original BBC version and the US version here:

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/planetearth.html

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/983/planetearth_us.html

Luckily, we get the original BBC version here in Australia, so it's a bargain at $40, let alone $17. With that said, the US HD DVD version is sold out at the Discovery store anyway, because even the inferior version is still a fantastic package at under $30.