IamLegend

I have "tried to sell some HD dvds on Amazon that I don't want-I have had three purchasers in less then a month complain that their dvd won't play in any of their players"...they all absolutely don't even know what HD is or was.
Needless to say this is a total hassle...I don't even think a lot of people read descriptions and if they did I would have no sales at this rate lol.
Anyone want to buy some HD's that play in HD only players?

jjcool

Could be that HD-DVD's have been out of the spotlight for months. Everything now is Blue Ray. And HD has become such a generic term nowadays. My guess is people think that HD-DVD simply means high definition dvd, which now is Blue Ray.

Doctorossi

And furthermore, HD DVD didn't fail; it was murdered.

LickTheABCs

Yes. You solved it. That's why it failed...

mhg83

what hd dvd do you have left?

DthRdrX

What's that qoute from Frank on Everybody Loves Raymond?

"Great man, shot in the back by one of his own men."

Spiky

Maybe it has something to do with you calling them "HD".

kefrank

No kidding.

Gizmo

HD DVD
Blu-ray

No - and no e.

Doctorossi

I think it's a losing battle, Gizmo.

Try telling anyone the channel layout is pronounced "five-and-one", not "five-point-one", and see how far it gets you.

munch

I sold an HD DVD on Amazon, and the woman wanted a refund because it wouldn't play in her DVD player. I wouldn't give her a refund, so she gave me 1/5 stars.

Yakuza Bengoshi

I used to sell copies of several PAL DVDs on Amazon and ran into buyers that couldn't bother to read the descriptions all the time with one particular DVD -- Matewan.

Even using bold warnings and then sending a followup email on every order asking the buyers to confirm that they could play PAL discs didn't help on that title since some people wouldn't read the emails either. I eventually just gave up on trying to sell that particular title.

Maxflier

You learn something new every day, I never even knew that. Although it seems kinda dumb, if you want people to say "five-and-one", then it should say 5&1. People say "five-point-one" because that is exactly what is written.
And for the record, people complaining about others writing Blue-Ray is a lot more annoying than the actual misspelling IMO.

Brian Shannon

A format failed because of all of the reasons listed here and many more.

When the consumer is confused, they do not buy. The electronics industry and the entertainment industry both share the blame for this entire debacle. The hangover continues to hamper the one format remaining.

And the confusion will continue to reign supreme. I saw a HTIB the other day and splashed all over the front of the box in big letters was "plays all formats". As I read down through the list, it did not play HD-DVD, BLU-RAY, SACD or DVD audio. It did however play all types of dvd's, dvd-r, divx, mp3 blah blah blah.

The average person picks that up and returns it after trying out the "new" format.

And I have no sympathy for any business that promotes product like that when they fail.

Doctorossi

Yeah, you can't really blame anyone who's familiar with the term from places like Best Buy, etc. for not knowing that, can you? This is why the people who say "five-point-one" today number in the millions (and include many in the associated industries) and the people who say "five-and-one" are probably just a handful. I wouldn't be surprised if guys like Joe Kane don't even say it "correctly" any more.

I agree. And, again, can you really blame anyone who's not a hardcore devotee for this oversight? I don't know about you, but I'm not familiar with the color "blu" in any other capacity.

Nice avatar, BTW.

Maxflier

Thanks
And good point, not everyone hangs around message boards devoted to this stuff. If the average person has just been hearing about Blu-Ray then of course he is going to spell it with an e. And of course he will then have several people jump his case about something so trivial.

Doctorossi

Well, to be fair, every time someone spells "Blu-ray" incorrectly, a child starves to death. It's a worthy transgression to police.

bunkaroo

I just had a an Amazon buyer complain to me they couldn't play the Fearless combo I sold them. It played fine on my A20 at the time. I'm going through the whole "check your firmware and give me your model number" jazz, but this is exactly why I hated combos. They work here, don't work there, etc.

runner001

so what HD DVDs do you have left?

Adam Tyner

I can honestly say I've never heard "five and one" spoken like that. Even the directors, sound designers, etc. on DVD/Blu-ray extras always seem to say "five point one". I did a Google search, and I can't even seem to find any record of this argument elsewhere. I mean, it makes sense, and I'm not saying you're wrong, but if "five and one" was in use, it seems to have faded away.

Then again, I remember an argument in the DVD forum about how to pronounce aspect ratios. For something like "2.39:1", I say "two three nine to one". I know that's not how to specify a decimal, but since there aren't any film aspect ratios that put the decimal point anywhere else, I think it's okay...that anyone who'd know what I'm talking about knows where it'd go.

"Two dot three nine to one" was a pretty common response, though, and one person even argued in favor of "two dot three nine colon one".

kefrank

For what it's worth, no one in this thread complained. They corrected someone on the mistake, but that's it. I don't see anything wrong with correcting someone as long as it's done without condescension or malice.

Doctorossi

Yeah, it didn't last terribly long. As you might imagine, the coinage predated very many commercial theatres (to say nothing of homes) yet having these systems. I clearly remember, though, more than one technical article in Widescreen Review going to the trouble of explaining the pronunciation of this naming convention for fear of anyone ignorantly saying "five-point-one" or "five-dot-one". Whoops! I guess it takes a bit stronger defense than some of those guys can muster.

That's how I say it, too, and with the same reasoning. Or, sometimes I'll shorthand it even more and say something like "I saw that last night- it's one-eight-five."

ali_b

[QUOTE=Doctorossi;9178448]Can't you just say widescreen, euro-widescreen and 'scope, rather than pronouncing a load of numbers?

[edit] - forgot academy!

Doctorossi

I suppose I could, but I often find myself in discussions that involve the finer degrees of these numbers.

I mean, how are you supposed to continue the ages-old 2.05:1 vs. 2.20:1 70mm theatrical exhibition ratio debate until you've worn everyone down to a fine powder unless you get specific about numbers, right?

"Euro-widescreen" is a new one to me and gives me another example: is "Euro-widescreen" 1.66:1 or 1.75:1?

Adam Tyner

I've heard "European flat" used to mean 1.66:1.

Assuming you're using "widescreen" to mean 1.85:1, I believe "Academy flat" is the correct term there, with the similarly labeled "Academy standard" referring to 1.37:1.