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.
Well, I guess the HD DVD format is not obsolete yet. It will be obsolete when every HD DVD player dies and no-one wants to pay to fix them. At that point the HD DVDs will go next to your 45 collection or become very expensive coasters.
Reviewing the old HD DVD/DVD Combos did bring up an interesting question though. Why didn’t Sony ever market Blu-ray Disc/DVD Combos? Too expensive? Or did they figure no-one would ever flip the Blu-ray disc over to play it in standard-definition? I would love to see some stats on how many HD DVD combo discs were actually played on the DVD side.
Thought I would pass along the pricing on some of the HD DVDs. A few are less expensive than DVDs, so maybe worth picking up. Transformers (Two-Disc Special Edition) [HD DVD] – $19.95, American Gangster (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) – $17.95, Batman Begins [HD DVD] – $16.49, The Italian Job [HD DVD] – $10.95, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow [HD DVD] – $9.95, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider [HD DVD] – $9.95.
BTW I’m spending $6 on my HD DVDs.
Having watched the CE & movie industry openly talking about killing off DVD early and how they conspired to kill HD DVD why would anyone take a chance on Blu-ray lasting the distance?
I reckon the smart money is on buying a very cheap HD DVD player & a nice little collection of high def movies (with even a spare player in case of breakdowns or accidents it’s relative pennies compared to any credible Blu-ray option) and wait this out to see what happens.
Downloads are clearly set to grow enormously whatever happens
(even Sony have 1 system for PS3 owners and another for Bravia HD TV owners coming).
In addition HD TV services just grow & grow with high def video on demand and convenient DVRs ensuring that Blu-ray cannot simply be ‘the next DVD’ as that market fragmented long ago.
@ mcm
You can’t have a Blu-ray version of the combo or ‘Twin Disc’ because the rights to everything DVD are held by the DVD Forum.
There are no technical reasons why Blu-ray cannot do them.
It’s just, after the way the Blu-ray gang treated the DVD Forum in this whole little format war, that it’ll be a cold day in hell before the DVD Forum ever even dream of handing over those ‘crown jewels’ to the BDA.
Why didn’t Sony ever market Blu-ray Disc/DVD Combos? Too expensive? Or did they figure no-one would ever flip the Blu-ray disc over to play it in standard-definition?
Because it combs are not technically feasible to do with blu-ray.