Trevor

Ok, thanks. Just a disc from a German magazine. There are probably dozens if not hundreds of HDM magazine discs across the world, I'll avoid listing those.

wewantflair

This CSI disc in particular not promotional in any way, though...it's a full episode of CSI:NY and includes several pretty nifty extra features related to CSI, such as a tour of the CSI set.

I would love to see a list of these supposed magazine exclusives floating around.

Trevor

I'm just guessing really. The UK in particular seems to always have magazines with monthly discs. I thought I've seen at least one UK HD DVD mag. I imagined there were more than one monthly when you factor in all the other countries. But maybe I'm completely wrong.

lcnickell

NO- i think all will fall into the sub $5 range before x-mas

Paul_SD

given Paramounts track record on dvd, the studio-canal import of the 1976 King Kong will be the only way to own a high quality copy of that title for a very very long time...and even if S-C goes bd it may be region restricted the way its R2 dvd release was. Some of universals releases may be a long time in coming as well. Other imports like Serpico and Three Days of the condor will likely take many years as well, but their stars imply they should make it out at some point. KK , and maybe The Fog, are the ones I see being shut out of a high end R1 release for a very long time. in fact they are part of the reason I plan to stock up on spare hd dvd players when I get home in a few weeks.
so yes, I do think there are a handful of titles that will command 'collectible' prices soon and for a while to come. Like others have said, if its released on bd also then it's value on hd dvd is almost fully negagated.

Drexl

Well, what I meant is that if future copies are without the Cameron Crowe segment, the original HD DVD may be considered the only "complete" version since it contains the segment but does not have the audio dropouts.

dfriedland

I did notice that deepdiscountdvd has MANY of the HD-DVD's reduced to $12.20 already. Now I have to decide if I want to keep buying HD-DVD's or just go back to standard DVD until I can get a Blu-Ray player..... (I've heard that the PS3 is actually the best BR player out now...any comments?)

DVD Polizei

Many of us are buying HD DVDs now and will be moving to Blu-ray later down the road. $12.20 isn't bad, but in addition, a lot of us are waiting for Amazon BOGO sales, which should happen any day now. There are a lot of HD DVDs which are still around $20 a piece or more, not to mention box sets.

Silverscreenvid

Pretty soon, you will be able to pick up second hand HD-DVD's in bargain bins for a couple of bucks. In the 1990's you could still come across Betamax movies every now and then in pawn shops and used video sections, and the same thing will happen to HDDVD.

Anything that gets released on Blu Ray won't ever fetch much money, but any movies that don't get a Blu Ray release could go up in value considerably. Since pawn shops and the like don't keep track of that, you will be able to find some huge bargains and resale opportunities if you keep your eyes open.

Gizmo

Doubtful. Universal would rather have people paying $19.99/$24.99 for a copy of Bourne Identity on Blu-ray then $4.99 on clearance at Best Buy for the HD DVD version. All titles will hit a certain price (9.99-14.99), and if not sold, sent back to be destroyed. If too many people get wind you can buy 500+ HD DVD titles for $9.99, whats the point of picking up a Blu-ray player NOW? Why not wait a few years?

TheMovieman

Exactly. If I had a BD and HD DVD player, and I had a choice between paying $20 for a BD title and $5 for the other, why pay extra for something that's essentially the same quality?

Trevor

I don't think I agree with the last couple posts.

I don't think the industry cares at all what the incredibly small niche of HD DVD owners does w/ their discs or players, or for what amount stores sell them.

We're a non-factor. There are what, less than a million HD DVD players out there? And many of us with more than one? And many likely to be used only for upscaling.

The studios are not going to destroy HD DVD discs or factor HD DVD into any of their decision making.

Trevor

But how many people in the world have both? 500?

The studios aren't going to care about a few hundred thousand total HD DVDs being marked down and swapped around at low prices. It won't effect their BD pricing or strategies at all. IMO of course.

TheMovieman

That is true. And I do hope we'll see new HD DVDs for $5... lol

Oh, and I have no doubt that anything will effect pricing or strategies... Prices for Blu Ray discs will stay around $20-25 for some time until it becomes mainstream...

Gizmo

If you could get a $149 A35, which rivals any Blu-ray player available today at $400+, and 500 or so movies at $5-$10 a pop...why invest in a Blu-ray player now? You could build a HUGE HD Movie collecting for a fraction of the price of getting into Blu-ray. Sure, you won't get new releases, but if you're A35 upconverts DVDs...why not wait a while?

Now, with such a small base it won't affect Blu-ray at all...but still, very possible.

darkside

I don't see them all getting destroyed. I think stores will work to clear them out and believe me if I see them at the $5 price point I am stocking up. The only reason I swapped out some of my HD DVDs was the fact I was paying $10 for the BD during a B1G1 and selling the HD DVD for $10. Made sense to swap to the winning format. Now that Blu-ray prices are staying around $20 I have no incentive to buy many of them and will gladly get the HD DVD alternative if the price is cheap enough. I have two players so I'm not really worried about having something to play them on down the road.

Trevor

Not that anyone cares, but this conversation has caused my to think about my entire DVD and HDM buying strategy. Here's my philosophy in a nutshell.

Price is still the main factor for me, with portability being second.

I will continue to buy more SD than HDM, because I can average $5 a title with SD. And I can play it in anyone's home, office, and many vehicles.

But for $10, I'll often buy HDM over SD. I'll buy either HD DVD or BD, but given the choice I'll obviously choose BD. HD DVD is dead and is only going to be in a fraction of 1% of households. BD at least has a chance to someday be found in a countable percentage of households, offices, and vehicles. I'd rather my discs not be locked into just my living room.

So I'd probably pay a few dollars more for a BD over a HD DVD.

But I'll never pay $20 a disc, $10 or so will stay my pricepoint.

darkside

I feel the same way. I will make an occasion exception for a must have movie, but honestly only 4-5 of those seem to be on the schedule right now for the year. I paid less than $10 a disc all last year during the format war so the genie is out of the bottle. I'm not going to turn around in 2008 and pay $20+ a disc. I will wait for as long as it takes to find them cheap. All of my new purchases in 2008 have been for standard DVDs. Why would I pay $25 for a BD movie when I only paid $30 for the entire Charlie Chan Vol 4 box set? Now that GameStop will stop selling used BDs for B2G2 free and the Amazon B1G1 deals are over it seems more and more like BD will be mostly a rental format for me going forward.

Gizmo

Sadly, Agree. With HD DVD dead, there is no reason for the BOGO on Blu-ray to continue, and the past few weeks/months have proven that to be true. I won't pay $20 for a catalog title that I might watch once. Not going to happen.

conehead433

Starting Monday GameStop will be selling all DVDs including HD DVD and Blu-Ray at buy 2 get 4 free. I saw this in a post at SD and it seemed to be legit. Apparently GameSpot wants to be completely out of the DVD business. Not sure it will do me any good as my nearest GameSpot is ~40 miles away. I may drive down anyway since there are 3 stores in town there. I may also stop in a Hollywood Video to see what they have. I had called yesterday and the clerk didn't think that they ever rented HD DVDs. But what do they know- heh.

darkside

The B2G4 is definitely true for many of the Gamestop stores. I had a couple of managers confirm it. I don't know if its 100% of the stores, but it sounds like most of the ones around me are clearing them out. There is one store in particular that always seems to have HD DVDs and BDs and I'm definitely hitting that one tomorrow to see if they have anything for the B2G4 sale.