CapRockBrewingCo.

Didn't take me long to decide:

Blu-ray Item Price
Batman Begins (BD) $4.95
Casablanca, Ultimate Collector's Edition (BD) $4.95
Deliverance (BD) $4.95
Eyes Wide Shut: Special Edition (BD) $4.95
Ocean's Eleven (2001), Twelve & Thirteen Giftset (BD) $9.95
Last Samurai, The (BD) $4.95
Goodfellas (BD) $4.95
Scanner Darkly, A (BD) $4.95
Departed, The (BD) $4.95
Searchers, The (BD) $4.95
Superman II: Richard Donner Cut, The (BD) $4.95
Superman, The Movie (BD) $4.95
Subtotal $64.40
Tax $2.85
Shipping $6.95
Total $74.20

Gizmo

No. You get Casablanca in a normal Blu-ray case. No extra junk.

kevin75

while this is a good deal, i wish they would've done this a year ago before i got rid of my hd-dvd's.

g

Its probably easier now because the majority of titles are older catalogue titles that are probably overstocked in blu now.

Big Worms

And I would guess only a small amount of people actually still own HD-DVDs.

kenbenobi

I don't think that is true at all...

videoguy

oh great. now for those of us who still intend to collect cheap hd-dvds, we'll have a thousand coverless discs on ebay for cheap and not much else! I'm kind of bummed about it. I guess it's great for those of you who spent 20 bucks on each hd-dvd you bought, but now it just kind of helps further destroy the remaining hd-dvds in existence.

Manzana

To me this is the key point which few people mention. I don't have any great desire or need to exchange HD-DVD to Blu-Ray, but when my HD-DVD players die, I don't want to be forced to buy a used one (which may also die soon) off eBay or pay $150 to get it repaired when the HD-DVD players brand new cost me about $80 each. Basically, I hate repair shops (they almost always charge too much) and I hate eBay (never bought a single thing off eBay and hope I never have to).

I'd be surprised if other studios do this trade-in, so even if I do this I'll still have a load of Universal and Paramount HD-DVDs.

kk725

My thoughts exactly...

Manzana

I've tried trading in a few HD-DVDs at FYE, and they always tell me $1 or they have too many in inventory, so as far as I can tell the HD-DVD trade-in value is already destroyed at least at the retail level. I suppose HD-DVD prices are better on eBay, but I don't look at eBay. My last laugh was taking in a brand new, unopened Blade Runner 5 disc HD-DVD set to FYE and being told $1. I thought to myself I'd rather drive my car over it than give it to them for $1 so they can turn around and sell it for $20 (or whatever they sell it for).

Besides, we already know that the HD-DVDs that show up on eBay won't be coverless. They'll all have full color printouts of the scanned covers that look genuine until you examine them carefully.

Manzana

Spaceknight and kk725,

What places are left where you can buy HD-DVDs cheap enough to exchange to Blu-Ray to save money? All that comes to mind are a couple of dealers on Amazon (traderbora, closeoutmovies) and Inetvideo when they rarely have free shipping. So maybe $4 or $5 for a HD-DVD plus $5 to upgrade puts you at $10 for a Blu-Ray plus some effort. Considering it isn't that hard to find these titles on Blu-Ray for $15 or less, I wouldn't waste my time for a $5 savings.

What I am bummed about is that I ordered 6 Blu-Rays from the WBshop.com including one upgrade of The Searchers because I always got mad that I could never access the menus no matter which Toshiba HD-DVD firmware I loaded. So that order shipped yesterday where I end up paying $8.51 for it, and today I could've gotten it for $4.95 in this upgrade.

kk725

I totally would! Besides, there were a couple of titles on there with a much-better-than-$5 difference. From iNetVideo, I grabbed:

Casablanca: $8.25 + R2B $5.95 = $14.20 vs. $40 on WBShop.com for the Ultimate Collector's Edition, which is what they upgrade you to. $25+ difference!
Happy Feet: $4.25 + R2B $5.95 = $10.20 vs. $22 on WBShop.com. $12 difference!
The Ultimate Matrix Collection: $26.50 + R2B $15.95 = $42.45 vs. $80 on WBShop.com for the Ultimate Collector's Edition, which is what they upgrade you to. $37+ difference, almost half the price!

I also got Syriana from Amazon, and will be saving over $10 on the R2B trade for that. It's definitely not worth it for all the titles because you have to hunt down the good prices, and then bother with sending them off to Warner, but there are definitely some good trades to be had without having already owned the HD-DVDs.

They show just a regular BD case when you click "Add to Upgrade", but it says "Casablanca: Ultimate Collector's Edition" below. Didn't see a regular version in their shop... a good trade, either way.

Ianscloset

Well I bite the bullet and decided that I am going to replace ALL of my HD-DVD's... Just put in my first order for 25:

2001: A Space Odyssey: Special Edition - $4.95
300 - $4.95
Alexander Revisited: (Unrated) Final Cut, The - $4.95
Aviator, The - $4.95
Batman Begins - $4.95
Beerfest (Unrated) - $4.95
Blood Diamond - $4.95
Blazing Saddles: 30th Anniversary Special Edition - $4.95
Clockwork Orange, A: Special Edition - $4.95
Constantine - $4.95
Departed, The: Special Edition - $4.95
Eyes Wide Shut - $4.95
Fountain, The - $4.95
Full Metal Jacket: Deluxe Edition - $4.95
Goodfellas - $4.95
Lady In The Water - $4.95
Last Samurai, The - $4.95
Pan's Labyrinth - $4.95
Road Warrior, The - $4.95
Scanner Darkly, A - $4.95
Shining, The: Special Edition - $4.95
Swordfish - $4.95
TMNT - $4.95
Training Day - $4.95
Troy Director's Cut (Unrated) - $4.95
Total: $123.75 + $6.95 (Shipping) + $5.50 (Tax) = 136.20 or $5.45 per disc.

I am going to put the remaining HD-DVD's on there (A couple of Boxsets) and just ship it to my parents house. I know its kind of dumb spending extra money but I know I will regret it later down the line!

abintra

People calling WB about Casablanca have stated that WB is offering a 1 disc version of Casablanca and not the UE so don't expect to get that.

There are a couple of Amazon sellers with Happy Feet and Syriana for about $12 shipped currently (think those can be found around that price point from time to time). The Blu-ray version of Happy Feet also omits the TrueHD audio track.

The Reaper

Not interested at all. My HD DVDs are fine just the way they are.

GenPion

I'm surprised so many people are so excited by this "deal". It's a decent trade off for a few titles and I may "upgrade" a few -- but mostly, all I can think is "What's wrong with my HD DVD's? The fact that it's a dead format?" Because other than that aspect I see no major point in this overall if you have a good 1080p HD DVD player and the right equipment to get the best sound out of either format. I mean, I want the Ultimate Matrix set for The Animatrix in HD and the Harry Potter films and Batman Begins on Blu-ray so that they match. So as lame as I sorta feel even considering it, I may go this route. For everything else it seems like I'd be wasting money. And no way am I going to spend $5 for Lady in the Water on Blu-ray when it lacks Dolby TrueHD audio. Or even consider ditching my HD DVD's with titles like Forbidden Planet remaining unavailable on Blu-ray. That may not amount to much for some but to me it makes a huge difference.

Someday though I can see myself wanting more of these on Bu-ray. Which is why I'm considering this option on at least a few of the titles offered.

kk725

Thanks for the clarification on Casablanca. Probably for the best as I don't know what I would have done with all the extra stuff. And I don't mind the omission of TrueHD with Happy Feet, I'm not real picky about that sort of thing.

Ianscloset

As much as I love HD-DVD (R.I.P.)... I am switching over as many of my copies as possible because I an OCD and want to make sure that I can have whats best looking for my shelf... and I am always worried that one of these days my A35 is going to die, and I will be screwed.

Basically, it will be a weight off my mind.

lewisb73

In some cases, I will make out better by upgrading to Blu-Ray... Planet Earth? Sold HD-dvd with reprinted artwork for 20, upgrade for only 10?... SOLD!!!... Same thing with Matrix, where I sell for more than the upgrade, and in the Matrix set's case... the Animatrix is in 1080p now... I make out pretty well from the titles Ive decided to upgrade

Manzana

In the Slickdeals parallel thread to this, I noticed some discussion whether Inetvideo's bilingual covers will qualify for this upgrade offer. I haven't checked to see if I have any Warner bilingual covers, but it would be a worry if I do.

I don't suppose anyone has talked to a Warner rep. for clarification on this to find out, for instance, that the UPC matching is all that matters?

Is there an easy way to verify if a bilingual cover has the same UPC as the UPC on "the official US release"?

Nugent

I wound up with two copies of the Oceans Trilogy. One US version and one of the bi-lingual versions. The UPC codes are definitely different.

videoguy

How can you hate ebay if you've never bought anything off of it? All you have to do is look for an auction with a decent and full description that matches what you are looking for! I've bought a ton of things and only one or two auctions have gone sour.

videoguy

[QUOTE=

Besides, we already know that the HD-DVDs that show up on eBay won't be coverless. They'll all have full color printouts of the scanned covers that look genuine until you examine them carefully.[/QUOTE]

I don't think so. How many people do you think are actually going to take the time to do that, to spend the time to scan it nice, print it nice, and cut it out perfectly to fit in the case?

Nah, they will show up on ebay as is.

blokhed

Shoot, I hadn't thought of that. I ordered new copies of Casablanca and Ultimate Matrix from Inetvideo yesterday with the intention of upgrading them. I hope they come with US UPCs.

BrandonJF

Me too. I even re-bought almost everything on Blu-Ray already. The only WB HD-DVD I have left is Smallville Season 5, since it hasn't made it to Blu-Ray yet.

If only Universal would jump on this bandwagon.