What to do with recently purchased HD DVDs?
 

Maybe the HD war isn't over, but it's not looking pretty. I imagine I'm not alone in trying to decide what to do with recent purchases and how best to handle them.
I have an order coming from bestbuy.com with 5 HD DVDs. If I decide not to keep them, can I return the order to a B&M BB, or do I need to return them by mail to the dot.com side of the comany?

You can return them to the store w/ the included receipt.

But that said, I'm keeping mine, they still work just fine.

Thanks for the info.
I'm still on the fence since I already have a dozen and half other titles that aren't going anywhere.

Ya know, I was just about to list my HD titles on ebay but I stopped myself. I don't want to do it. I am keeping them and my sub $100 dollar player. I can always buy a Blu player down the line.

Plus, I can always give the HD player to my folks who could give a rats ass about HD or Blu Ray.

My thoughts exactly! Five years down the road, I don't mind having 20 HD DVDs along with my 100 Blu-Ray discs.

However, since I saw Harry Potter 1-4 were still on the Blu-Ray B1G1 sale on Amazon, and my HD DVDs were still wrapped, I went ahead and bought them (without a BD player) and will be posting my sealed HP HD DVD's on eBay tomorrow.

If you still have a player, the only real reason to return the stuff is because either you didn't get a great deal or you can get a blu-ray edition right now. Otherwise, keep the movies and enjoy them. It may be a while before you see some of these titles on Blu-Ray.

The HP's, I agree on. Those are my only WB titles except for Ocean's 11 which I don't want to have to rebuy the whole box (on Blu) just for that title.

I'm probably going to put some of mine here on the FS forum. Matrix, Bourne, I'll keep because they aren't on BD.

Watching and keeping the movies. Nothing wrong with them.

TV sets have to go after I've watched them. I'll rebuy them on Blu-Ray when they hit really low prices. I want them all on the same format. I like consistancy with the TV stuff. (I have Heroes, Smallville 5/6, and Sopranos Season 6 Part 1.

You should watch them because you bought movies not HD-DVDs.

If you can return them to the store that is the best bet besides just keeping them. Right now so many people have dumped their used HD DVDs on Ebay and Half.com the value of them has bottomed out. I thought I could easily get $10 each for the HD DVDs I am replacing, but it is not appearing so easy. I sold a couple yesterday on Half for $15, but I've had to drop the prices on the rest several times and have sold nothing else. Looks like word is out and selling HD DVDs is going to be tough now.

Keep, watch, and enjoy of course. I'm surprised by some of the panic, I assumed most people on here still own laserdiscs and VHS. I guess there's a lot more "technology" people than "movie" people around. If a movie is only available on HD-DVD, that's how I will own it. I'll continue to buy exclusive titles as long as the studios churn them out. Hell, if a movie I wanted was only available on UMD, I'd buy that.

If anyone is certain they don't want their HD DVDs, I am starting an "HD DVD reclamation service." Basically, you mail the HD DVD discs to me and in return, you get peace of mind that you don't own any discs on that format. ;)

No shit! :lol:

rotfl

I think people are worried that if BD becomes mainstream, the BDA will push the panic button alerting the hounds to come to your home and destory your HD-DVD collection. -rolleyes-


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1342/...4454c5a9c9.jpg

Can I be your VP in that company? I'll happily take any HD DVDs off people's hands.

I was in the same boat as the OP. I ordered 5 discs from BB's B3G2 sale, then tried to cancel it only to find out they had shipped. But you know what? With my $25 gc and the 2 free titles I ended up paying about $12 per disc, which is less than what it would cost for me to buy the SD versions of the same titles. I'm paying for movies, not a format, so I'll keep my titles and be satisfied.

What to do with recently purchased XBox 360 games?

What to do with recently purchased Blu-ray discs?

What to do with recently purchased Wii games?

When laserdisc died, I decided to hold onto the 120 or so titles that I owned. I have only watched 1, the original Return of the Jedi with the Ewok song, in the past 5 years ... I should have dumped it when I could have. I could have made a killing selling the original, unedited Star Wars movies, but most aren't worth the material they are made out of now. The only laserdisc title that I still treasure is my widescreen version of The Shadow (which NEVER made it to DVD ... damn Universal), but of course, I have not watch it in a long time.

I have learned from my mistakes. Although I have no regrets purchasing movies on HD-DVD, no use holding onto something that will get a double (or triple) dip on an HD format in the coming years.

For ones I bought from Best Buy, I am tempted to return them (even though they were combo titles).

I really want to return the HP movies I bought from Amazon, but I don't want to pay for shipping.

If you cant break even or return to the store, you might as well wait it out for a couple weeks. Prices could stablize on some items. And Toshiba could pull a rabbit out of their hat. They have invested huge sums of money in this.

Q: What to do with recently purchased HD DVDs?

A: Watch them.

:)

Keep 'em. Even if HD DVD dies soon, it'll still be cool to have.

I'm sure some of us will still be posting here 5 years from now talking about HD-DVD like some now talk about their Laserdisc collection...

:up:

It took forever for something to come along to replace my Criterion of Close Encounters and Blade Runner. I'm betting there are quite a few movies Warner never updates on Blu-ray to match the HD DVD versions. I will always have a small collection of HD DVDs and laserdiscs.

What is the point of rebuying the same titles on Blu-ray?

I'm keeping my 150+ HD's and still buying them

I fully understand that HD-DVDs can still be watched on my HD-DVD player, that they won't explode and whatnot, but I just think it's impractical to keep the discs for the long term, especially when most, if not all, the HD-DVD titles will be released on Blu-ray sooner of later.

Two or three years from now, I imagine I will have BD players in several rooms in the house. Replacing my HD-DVDs with Blu-rays would let me watch them where I please, maybe even bring it over to a friend's house to watch. I wouldn't be chained to my one HD-DVD player.

Now, I don't have a lot of HD-DVDs to begin with - just twenty - and I won't be running out to buy Blu-rays until I get a BD player, which could be a while. For the time being, I plan on selling off my HD-DVDs while the going prices are still decent. I have plenty of DVDs to keep me occupied for a long time, and they all look great upconverted on my A2, which I will be keeping for that very purpose.

In my case I'm only doing it for titles that are equal on both formats and that I can buy at or under $10 because I know I can probably get $10 for the HD DVD.

My HD DVD collection is still small at around 70 discs and if BD will be my focus going forward I would rather have as many discs as possible in that format.

As posted above I may end up with BD players in every room if they become cheap enough, but may only have one player to watch my small HD DVD collection on.

That said if there ends up being an HD DVD fire sale at some point this may all become moot. I will buy this like crazy if they get blown out at $5 or less.

Your mistake is to not watch your movies that you like and own. I'm not sure you've learned anything. You haven't even identified the mistake.

I still watch my THX box set (<--note my wild assumption you know what that means) a couple times a year. LD is alive and well for movies that DVD ignored.

Of course, it's really not the same kind of situation for HDDVD. One, it isn't dead yet. Two, it has only been around for a few months, not 20+ years. Three, there aren't really that many movies.

Keep them and watch them, the war isnt completley over. and your HD-DVD player still gonna work after WB went Bluray.

My problem here is not desire but time. I love movies, but I have little time to watch them. I like to have options when I do get the chance, so I have always had a large unwatched DVD pile ... and likewise, I now have 20 HD-DVDs, only 1 of which I have opened. Not sure that 20 HD-DVD movies warrants dropping extra cash for combo players for years to come.


Yes, I am very familiar what that means ... in fact, I still have a sealed 2nd copy of it. To add to it, I dropped an extra $1k on a Receiver, after I started buying DVDs, to get one with the special AC-3 input (if you know what THAT means). :) In order to continue to accomodate my Laserdisc players on newer receivers, I have had to buy additional special equipment to handle AC-3 ... so in a way, I am still paying for Laserdiscs, almost a decade later.


Agreed. These are very different situations, and although it may not be an apples to apples comparison, I believe there is still information that is relevant. My friends still give me crap about how I used to tout how much better Laserdisc was than DVD and how Laserdiscs would still be around for a long time.

Is it possible that combo players could become the norm? If the Blu-Ray and HD camps do make a deal to stick to one format now and divide up the royalties, wouldn't it be in their best interest to make sure any new Blu-Ray players can also play HD discs? Would it be any more expensive in the manufacturing process to make Blu-Ray players backwards compatible with HD-DVD the same way both types of players are now backwards compatible to DVD? I would guess it would be cheaper for the companies to make sure all people migrating from HD-DVD to Blu-Ray players can still play their HD-DVDs rather than institute some kind of exchange program to swap those HD-DVDs for Blu-Rays. Combo players being the norm would also keep the value of all the HD-DVD media that's currently on the market from collapsing too far or too fast which should keep retailers who have inventories of them happier too.

Why would they care about the few of us who bought HD DVDs when they're trying to sell HD on Blu-ray to the masses? We're small potatoes. Personally, I'd think that it would be great if they did,but business is business. They are going to do what makes them the most cash, which usually doesn't include playing nice with those who picked the wrong door.

It would definitely be ideal for combo players to become the norm, but I can't see that happening because of the amount of time it would take for combo players to become the standard. I fear that by then, BD would have such a large hold of the HDM market that it would be pointless for manufacturers to include HD-DVD functionality into the players.

Retailers prefer one format, studios prefer one format, and consumers prefer one format. I think that if Warner had gone red, the chances of combo players becoming the norm would be much greater, but now, the momentum is all on Blu-ray. Why would manufacturers bother with HD-DVD now other than to appease HD-DVD owners (such as myself) who already own HD-DVD players?

I'll give you $50 for the player and a couple of your HD-DVD movies.

I can use a nice upconvertor for SD-Movies.

Totally agree! You already have the player and the discs so go ahead and enjoy what you have!

Watch them!

I for one can't wait as I never had money when Laserdisc was out :D

If you sell or dump your HD-DVD's then the terrorists have won!

I personally still LOVE my HD-DVD's and will watch them until my 360 dies. (which isn't great odds, i know) But my next purchase will be a dual player like that Samsung. :)