Warner reintegrates HD DVD faithful with Red2Blu trade-in program
By Richard Lawler 
posted Apr 22nd 2009 10:28AM
posted Apr 22nd 2009 10:28AM
[Via DVDTown]
posted Apr 22nd 2009 10:28AM
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
oooo...what if we keep the disc, lose the cover, pay the $5 and sell the bluray when it comes. Money making opportunity!
$12/bluray disc for old titles? kidding me?
No its one price for the S&H... so if you have more than one disc, it'd be worth it... If you dont, then i'd say its not worth it...
The shipping is per order - so $5/Blu-ray + $7 shipping for entire order. Not a bad gesture on Warner's part. Offer also comes with a $15 off $50 coupon at wbshop.com. Very tempting, particularly for movies with improved audio transfers and/or features.
@Tim
I'm going to check to make sure, but AFAIK, none of the titles listed are technical upgrades when swapping HD DVD to Blu-Ray. I doubt I'll max it out, but I might swap out some of my titles.
ugh...only offered to people in the US
Canadians and the rest of the world get shafted, again.
open up some of your own movie studio's then. you can shaft the rest of the world!
Just placed my order for 19 new Blu Ray titles (1 was the Matrix Trilogy for $14.95 and another was Planet Earth for $9.95). Total: $120.64 ($6.95 shipping and $4.64 tax). Not a bad deal at all since most of those I had not planned on replacing on Blu Ray for $20+ but for about $5.75 per Blu Ray, it's well worth it in my opinion.
I already replaced a couple on Blu Ray (like Batman Begins), but I'll get another copy to either eBay or sell to a friend for $10 and try and recoup some of the costs as well :)
Does anyone have the list of the Warner Bros movies that qualify for this? Or is it literally anything they released on HD-DVD?
http://www.red2blu.com/products.html
Yes, nice gesture from Warner...but no thanks. I've been perfectly happy buying HD DVDs like Inside Man and Traffic for under 10 bucks, shipping included. Boy, it's a good thing my dual-format player doesn't know the format is dead. Otherwise, it may refuse to play the discs! : )
$15 for Blade Runner? It's only $25 on Amazon. The $5 deal is pretty good though, especially if you buy a bunch to save on shipping.
"It usually takes 4-5 weeks to complete the entire transaction."
Ha, that's ridiculous.
How could anyone cope without box sleeves for that length of time?
Warner has the list on their website. Apparently those that bought the Matrix Trilogy boxset can only swap the first Matrix movie, while those that bought the collection can swap the entire set.
You'll have to pry my HD DVDs from my cold dead hands!!!
Except for the fact that they don't ask for the HD DVD.
quite the evolved sense of humor you have there!
very cool, i think i got a couple titles i can use this on from Warners. though... i'd like to see this from other studios as well.
I had a question. When they send the blu-ray discs to you, does it come in a blu-ray case with sleeve for the movie? or is it just the disc?
it only comes with the disc, no cover art :(
that killed it for me..
I have an older Xbox 360 with no HDMI hookups, so it will be nice sending in my old HD DVD covers so that I can finally take advantage of the HD codecs I can get through Blu Ray. I'm sending in my monstrosity of case for Harry Potter 1-5. Hopefully the send me back individual movies instead of another suitcase that doesn't fit my rack. This was a gift by the way...
You have to wonder if this is problem of conscience. They are doing this because they feel kinda bad for killing HD DVD after taking the bribe from Sony and Disney. Thanks but no thanks. I'm still buying HD DVDs. Screw BluRay...
I think it's more that Blu-ray shows no signs whatsoever of taking off, and killing HD DVD had the opposite effect of what was intended - HD media sales (Blu-ray disc sales) are approximately the same today as they were a year ago (Blu-ray + HD DVD sales) and show few signs of growing.
This is an attempt to get those who have already expressed an interest in HD media but who felt screwed by the killing of HD DVD to come into the fold. It's probably not going to have much effect. I'm really waiting for the Mea Culpa, and the studios to work on a truly universal, trouble free, 21st Century way for people to buy HD content.
problem of conscience?
These are corporations not people. They make money out of the deal, clear some inventory but still probably don't care much if you take them up on their offer.
Blu Ray sales are growing, but good job coming up with worthless assumptions. I loved HD DVD too, but move on. http://news.cnet.com/blu-ray-sales-nearly-double-from-a-year-ago/
Unless your link's source reveals some massive increase that occurred in the last month and a half (why? What's changed), then the metric EHD has been using shows that Blu-ray sales are about 1/3 higher than they were this year.
http://www.engadgethd.com/tag/VideoScan/
Given the fact Blu-ray seems to be disappearing off of the map at the moment (it's been a while I've heard anyone I know even mention the format), it's pretty safe to say sales are stagnant. Blu-ray has "grown" only insofar as it's taken most of the HD DVD people. Few new HD users are chosing the format, despite predictions of astronomical sales increases last year from those pointing out the effects of Digital TV.
Face it, you may love Blu-ray, but you're fooling yourself if you think it's anything but a dying format.
Sounds like a pretty decent deal. So when will Paramount and Universal do the same?
5 bucks for swapping cover art for a Blu-Ray? Good deal, guess here goes my stand on not buying any BluRays (have 2 players and a netflix sub, but don't own a single disc)
Will they replace the ones that they gave away for free? Also, it might make sense to go to http://search.half.ebay.com/hd_W0QQmZmoviesQQqueryZhd and buy more hddvd's just to send in the sleeves and upc's for bluray versions for $5.
I just can't see myself dropping $130 bucks while not adding a single new movie to my collection. How much extra space is your HD DVD player taking up in your rack? We might have moved on from Blu-Ray by the time your player gives out, but if it does - scoop up an XBOX add-on for $20 on Ebay.
I have 2 Toshiba's HD-A35's, a Toshiba HD-A30, A Toshiba HD-A3 and the Xbox HD DVD drive. basically I have Backup HD DVD players. If I can get most of my movies changed over to Blu-Ray since I'm using them also for cheap, why not. I've gotten a lot of HD DVD's for CHEAP and switching them to Blu-Ray still makes them cheap. If I can get a lot of it swapped to Blu-Ray I can just Sell all my HD DVD players. Besides I don't know anyone with a HD DVD player these days, just Blu-Ray. I still think HD DVD was the better, cheaper format, but the war is long over with. The worse format WON!
So far I have 18 on that list, but with The 3 Matrix Boxset, Planet Earth, Blade Runner, and the Ocean's 11, 12, 13 Box set costing a bit more, I'm Up to about $120. Not a bad deal, and I still get to keep my disc's, so it's not like I can't play them while I'm waiting for the Blu-Ray copy's. I hope I can do the same thing with my other HD DVD's!!!
i was gonna do this, until i saw the crappy list.
only 1 of my hd dvd's makes it in the list.
totally not worth it until they update the list.
:-\
Did you click on 'View All'? Please name your many Warner discs not included in that list.
Charlie and the Chocolate factory wasnt on the list
Dave
Why don't I see planet earth, although people are listing it in their comments?