HD DVD to BLU RAY exchange program from Warners

[Techman]

I don't know how many people around here got caught in the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray disc war and went HD-DVD and got burned. But if anyone here was an early adopter of the technology and did go the HD route, you may find this helpful.

Warners have decided to make good for their customers and are offering to send out a BLU-RAY version to anyone who purchased HD-DVD versions of Warner movies. All the information you need is here: http://www.dvdfile.com/views/article/warner-offers-free-blu-ray-discs-to-hd-dvd-owners-75653

Don't really know if this is useful for anyone here but if it is, maybe you can build up your Blu-ray collection and save a few bucks to spend on a lovely lady! Could even be worth finding some HD-DVDs in the bargain bin somewhere, or used discs at your local video rental place, and swapping them over for Blu-Ray.

Techman

 

[ocean]

Hi Techman, you are exploring this subj therefore ou probably got f*cked by
HD-DVD. I was going to buy a hd-dvd (to attach to the xbox, but at teh last minute thought maybe I should wait until the dust settles.


lucky mee.

 

[Techman]

Hi Techman, you are exploring this subj therefore ou probably got f*cked by
HD-DVD. I was going to buy a hd-dvd (to attach to the xbox, but at teh last minute thought maybe I should wait until the dust settles.


lucky mee.

Nope. Haven't made the jump to high def yet. Just came across the info on a DVD site I check for reviews and thought it might be helpful to post it here. You made a good decision by waiting though.

I'm still pissed off that Sony won the high def war though. But I guess it's only fair since they lost the betamax vs VHS war. Beta was the superior format but VHS won due to Sony's stupid licensing strategy. This time they had the inferior product initially, but won through marketing and licensing. It's funny that no matter who wins, it always seems to be the best promotion rather than the best product that wins out.

 

[master_bates]

I wont go blu ray until they stop coming out with new regular dvd's

 

[Doc Holliday]

I was going to buy a hd-dvd (to attach to the xbox, but at teh last minute thought maybe I should wait until the dust settles.

There have been all kinds of rumours circulating that Microsoft would be coming out with a blu ray player for the XBox 360 within the last year. Other than the blu ray player, i don't see much of an advantage that the PS3 has over the XBox 360 & i'm surprised Microsoft hasn't jumped at the chance to capitalize on this:

http://news.cnet.com/microsoft-has-xbox-360-blu-ray-drives-ready-to-go/

 

[JustBob]

Because of high priced 1st generation standalone players, a lot of people (who aren't even gamers) bought a PS3 simply because it could read Blu-ray discs. It was (relatively) cheap and easily upgradable to new profiles. With the price of standalone Blu-ray players coming down, Microsoft are too late.

The outcome of the Betamax vs VHS war was decided by consumers.
The outcome of the HD-DVD vs Blu-ray war was decided in boardrooms.

 

[Doc Holliday]

For the rest of this month, HMV is offering anyone to bring in ANY used dvd & they'll give you a $7 discount off selected FOX & MGM blu ray titles. If you now own (or are planning to) a blu ray player & have some lousy old dvd disks lying around, i think it's a great deal.

http://www3.hmv.ca/hmvca/images/special/contests/eng-may4-09.html

 

[Techman]

Because of high priced 1st generation standalone players, a lot of people (who aren't even gamers) bought a PS3 simply because it could read Blu-ray discs. It was (relatively) cheap and easily upgradable to new profiles. With the price of standalone Blu-ray players coming down, Microsoft are too late.

The outcome of the Betamax vs VHS war was decided by consumers.
The outcome of the HD-DVD vs Blu-ray war was decided in boardrooms.

Actually the outcome of the Beta/VHS war was decided in Sony's boardroom by their decision not to allow other manufacturers to put Beta machines on the market by charging insane licensing fees for the technology. Then VHS came along and were just about giving away their licence to anyone interested in putting out a VHS machine. Next thing you know there are low cost VHS machines from just about every electronics company hitting the marketplace. Sony could do nothing but stand and watch while their superior technology was overwhelmed by superior volume.

But right now I won't buy a blu-ray player until the prices of the movies drop to the same as regular DVD.

 

[johnmbot]

But right now I won't buy a blu-ray player until the prices of the movies drop to the same as regular DVD.

it's slowly getting closer. yesterday in future shop i noticed some blu-ray movies priced only $5 more than the same-titled standard definition version. also, older titles are as low as $14.99.

hd vs. blu-ray came down to quantity of current & future content. both formats had big electronic companies behind them, but blu-ray had all the major content publishers (read: movie studios). "what good is a light bulb w/out electricity."

 

[Techman]

At least this time around it was only some early adopters that got burned. Most people will be satisfied with their existing DVD collection for a number of years to come. Even once a HD display has been purchased, regular DVDs still look fine when using an up-converting DVD player which can be purchased for around 50 bucks.

What pisses me off is that some companies are already double dipping, releasing a so called special edition, in Blu-ray releases when there are still so many back catalog titles yet to be released.

There are still many things preventing me from jumping into the Blu-ray arena...overpriced movies and players, slow load times, firmware updates, wired internet connection for certain special features, etc... It will be a while yet before I spend my money. In fact I will probably put a Blu-ray drive in my next PC before buying a standalone player.

 

[master_bates]

Has anyone here or know anyone that got burned by buying laser discs when

they first arrived?

A cousin and old boss of mine did thinking they would be ahead of the game

 

[G1GBallday]

Has anyone here or know anyone that got burned by buying laser discs when

they first arrived?

A cousin and old boss of mine did thinking they would be ahead of the game

I still have a working (I presume, haven't touched it in years) Sony MDP-333 which is close to 20 years old. This "Multi Disc Player" plays CD, LD, and the little know CDV format which could hold 20min of audio + 5min of video. I only have one CDV which was included in a David Bowie boxed set called "Sound and Vision". The picture it produced was about like a good Betamax recording.

As far as getting burned by the format, I've never felt that way because I knew that since it was a non-recordable format it was doomed to fail in the mass market versus Beta or VHS. The technology however was far ahead of anything else at the time. For example my unit has S-video and optical audio outputs, two features that were unheard of on VCRs of that era. Laser discs were also the first media to include multi-channel sound like Dolby Digital and DTS. Lastly, the picture quality was way better than tape thanks to a horizontal resolution of 420 lines which was nearly double the 240 lines VCRs output.

 

[Techman]

Laserdiscs actually have better image quality than DVDs. Unfortunately they were ahead of their time and were too expensive for the market at the time.

And don't forget the vinyl video discs, from RCA I believe, that were on the market that were actually read by a stylus like an LP record.

 

[mack]

Laserdiscs actually have better image quality than DVDs. Unfortunately they were ahead of their time and were too expensive for the market at the time.

And don't forget the vinyl video discs, from RCA I believe, that were on the market that were actually read by a stylus like an LP record.

Yes and no. LD's had better image quality in theory, but an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 dvd will blow an LD away on any modern display.

Ah yes, that RCA format was bonkers. CED it was. Easily scratched and often prone to skipping, in spite of the fact that the user never had a way to touch the physical disc. I had that format back in the day.