They (the retailers) had to cut the cord at some point. If they push into April, why not May? Then June....etc.

My impression has been Paramount cut these titles precisely because the retailers wanted HD DVD out of stores by the end of March. What B&M store would still want to be marketing new titles for a dead format 2 months after the official death of the format?

I will say that in the absence of any import or domestic BD on the horizon, I would have liked to buy TWWB and Cloverfield on HD DVD.

While I think the DVD packaging for TWBB is pretty awful, and has scratched every disc I've come across, I'd love to see some kind of mini-LP (mini-laserdisc?) style packaging that does away with plastic cases for video.

There's a LOT of unnecessary wasted space with those oversized packages, considering how small the discs themselves are.

The packages for TWBB, An Inconvenient Truth and Evan Almighty look cheap, fragile and generally crappy. There's no reason a hard-cardboard, well-designed smaller sleeve couldn't be marketed, and now that everyone with a half-decent DVD library is already running out of space, this is the perfect time to introduce them.

As long as packaging can be redone in an aesthetically pleasing manner which also provide adequate protection for the disc(s), I don't care if they do away with plastic. But most attempts at alternative packaging so far have been lacking.

How is the 2 disc TWBB version? That case looks a bit better then the 1 disc.

I went with the 1-disc for $15 - nothing of interest on disc 2.

precisely, as usual a bd fanboy reads waaaay too much into any post remotely suggestive of HD DVD support. All i'm saying is why not sell a few thousand HD DVDs now and then let them disappear like the rest of them while you make the transition to blu ray.

And I would imagine many of those stores that have discontinued carrying HD would not have were a few dozen releases still coming.

Ahh nothing spruces up a thread like calling people fanboys. :rolleyes:

As noted many times before, B&M stores are notoriously stingy with shelf space when they think/know a product won't be selling. Given the primary supporter (Toshiba) had already pulled the plug on the format, I don't believe for one second retailers would still be looking to give shelf space to a product that won't even have hardware in stores anymore.

It would have been nice if they could have at least made the aforementioned in progress HD DVD's available online at places like Amazon or even direct, but Paramount and Universal apparently decided it wasn't worth it to do so.

You are reading way too much into peoples posts. And you are posting like you are HD DVD fanboy defensive whether you are or not, just like you think others are.

Simple answer is that VERY few B&M stores still sell HD DVD (players or software). And the profit of putting one out now is next to nill.

You really don't think There Will Be Blood, Bee Movie and Sweeney Todd would not have outsold 90% of all Blu-rays ever released up to this point?

NOW, yes. but what if they had said "we regret toshiba's decision, but in the interests of our faithful consumers we will fill out our announced schedule of HD DVD releases through June 2008 while we prepare to make the transition to blu-ray by the fall."

or something to that effect. What i'm saying is that of course b&ms are ditching hd with nothing new coming...but they wouldn't be if the planned releases were to continue into may or june - which would have made them some money, and made a lot of us very happy while we wait for the transition. My apologies for the fanboy comment, but it certainly appears as though those rejoicing in the demise of HD can't even allow that going ahead with announced releases like TWWB would have been good for everyone - they could have moved the 5,000 they probably already had pressed easily. And blu-ray owners would know to wait until the fall so it's not like those hd sales would cut in much to the eventual blu ray release, which is no one knows how far out yet.

No, I don't.

If they came out early March that's one thing. But you're talking about two months for the death of HD DVD news to reach anyone interested, along with virtually no hardware in stores. Bee Movie *might* have had a shot at good numbers, but neither TWWB or Sweeney Todd IMO would have done big numbers.

If the format war was still on and there was heavy press for these titles, they could have done well. But if all these titles had come out under the current state of things, I think they would have sold poorly. Atonement doesn't seem to have done too well, and I can't imagine TWWB or Sweeney Todd would have had more success.

I guess my point was that 90% of Blu-ray titles probably sell in the low thousands, and I think movies like Bee Movie and There Will Be Blood would have sold more than that. I don't think it was a fluke that Beowulf sold well and topped all blu-rays for a couple weeks, even after HD-DVDs death. There are many of us who have both formats that want to watch good movies in the best possible presentation.

Wow. Talk about a derailed thread... I thought the days of HD DVD pulling threads off topic were numbered. Guess they're going to linger longer than the format itself. :(

:thumbsup:

I don't see it as being derailed; discussing what Paramount and Universal could've/should've done at this point seems like a fairly natural progression considering that there's no actual info about their future plans.

For what it's worth, I wholly agree with the thoughts that they were foolish to can the last handful of HD-DVD titles. It isn't as though owners of the format died off when Toshiba pulled the plug; we still want movies! Limited runs of There Will Be Blood, Sweeney Todd, Cloverfield and Bee Movie -- all of which were apparently all but done anyway -- could've resulted in a nice coup for them as a company, but Paramount's never come off as the smartest of groups, with their "all or nothing" mindset.

The Blu versions of these movies will likely see pretty low sales once they're half-heartedly released months from now, no matter how good of a job they do on the content of the discs. Ah well.

Really? Cause if you bought your HD DVD at Walmart you can return it no questions asked (or trade-in at Best Buy). Sounds like the pool of potential purchasers of those aborted titles got a lot smaller.

Undoubtedly so. As I've said in previous posts in this thread, every day Paramount delays a day-and-date release of a Blu-ray title reduces the sales potential of that title. As stated by many, the revenue that would have gone into purchasing HDM versions of new releases went to the SD release or simply evaporated when no HDM version was available (specifically sited Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood)...

I hate to admit this but I'm one of the few who bought the standard disc edition of Sweeney Todd (if not for the tix to 'The Ruins')... and I'll more than likely purchase the import UK edition for the rumoured commentary track for 'Sweeney' - that is if Paramount doesn't make some sort of annoucement within the next few weeks.

The Trade-In values at BB are simply insulting. $35 for hardware? :hscratch:

I definitely would've purchased Todd and Cloverfield if they were released on HD. Hopefully, we don't get any initial half-assed BD releases that will shortly be followed by some "Bigger, Better, Uncut" Ultra Edition in the near future.

I hope you include me in your final sentence there. As I have stated in the thread, I would have bought the three aforementioned titles on HD DVD in absence of any Blu-Ray alternatives on the horizon.

I did buy Into The Wild, Things We Lost In The Fire and Beowulf - all released after the "death knell", because like you, I want the best possible presentation. What I think about how the April titles would have sold has no bearing on my personal purchasing decisions. I buy what I want when I want it.

Let's not forget titles like Beowulf, ITW and TWLITF saw discounts within their first week of release at Amazon. Beowulf wound up on sale very quickly at B&M stores as well - that surely helped its numbers. Beowulf also has broader appeal than TWWB or Sweeney Todd IMO.

Every time I see the DVD in store I pick it up to look at it. I really want the title, but I am going to stick it out for the import BD next month.

I had to cave on There Will Be Blood though. I watched it this weekend and liked it more than my theatrical viewing. Unfortunately many scenes reminded me it wasn't HD. It was good for DVD though.

These studios have been burned, and likely lost considerable money.

Given that highdef sales are niche to say the least (low thousands volume sold, even for a "popular" title) they may sit back and wait for marketshare to increase before jumping back in.

And who could blame them?

[QUOTE=rfduncan]Really? Cause if you bought your HD DVD at Walmart you can return it no questions asked (or trade-in at Best Buy). Sounds like the pool of potential purchasers of those aborted titles got a lot smaller./QUOTE]

Sure, some people returned their players or eBayed them. BUT, have you noticed we have not seen weekly hardware sales numbers since the death of HD DVD? Convenient, eh? You gotta wonder where all those stacks of brand new (and even open boxed HD DVD players) went. Sure, some people bought a spare or two just in case, but for some, its a cheap player that can now play cheap HD software.

[QUOTE=GizmoDVD]which is precisely how i got mine. i would not own any hd hardware or software were it not for the "death" of hd dvd - as I couldn't really afford it. but the firesale on players coupled with a lot of great deals on hd dvds means i now have 50 titles to enjoy in HD that will tide me over for a long while.

I'm glad you feel that way considering that you've pretty much started and completed your HD library in one fell swoop. I can see your argument, but I think if you couldn't afford to get into HDM, waiting to invest in a format that at least isn't going extinct makes more sense that investing in one that is already buried in the long run.

I agree. If I had waited until the war was over, I would have invested in the winner. Getting HD DVD bargains is fine, but the number of movies to choose from is limited and won't grow.

Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones 4, Wall-E, Hellboy 2, and others are all coming to BD. I would definitely want to be sure I had a BD player when those arrive.