Amazon begins to advise customers of Warner's Blu-exclu move

[TheRealBob]

I posted this in the Nielsen thread, but it fits better here:

I'm not sure what Amazon's motivation for putting that up. I'd assume the usual motivation, to increase sales ("buy 'em while you can!"), but...

I think this could have a devastating impact on HD DVD sales on Amazon. If an HD DVD supporter clicks the link to see if there are any bargains, they are going to be struck at the tons of big-name titles being removed from the format (Matrix, Harry Potter, 300, Blade Runner, Batman Begins, Planet Earth, etc., etc., etc.). If news hasn't reached them yet that HD DVD is a dead format, they'll know it now for sure.

Which is why I keep saying the numbers are going to move fast in a Blu direction (with a small amount of up-and-down movement as is always the case with stats like these). Every day there are more and more people finding out what's going on and vowing to never buy HD DVD again. Those people are moving out of the red stats permanently, so the shifts are going to be permanent.

[ezcobar411]

I'm happy to see Amazon is doing this. I wish that CC and BB would have the decency to do the same.

[TheRealBob]

While this is good news, it's interesting to note that the problem people have been complaining about for months is still there. For Blu-ray titles, Amazon serves up this notice:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This disc is a high-definition disc and is compatible only with Blu-ray players. It will not play on a standard DVD player. Click here to see our selection of Blu-ray players.

For HD DVD players...nothing. Apparently it's just not that important to advise people that HD DVD discs won't play in their DVD player.

On the other hand...

For Blu-ray titles Amazon throws in this note as well:

Check out the Blu-ray Store to find everything you need to go Blu.

No mention of the HD DVD store for HD DVD titles. If you go to both areas, the Blu-ray store seems to have more thought put into, with a prominent section on how to get started with Blu-ray. The HD DVD store is mostly just "here's the HD DVD junk we're selling".

[sssick]

Thats very good news.

Planet Earth is a Warner title?

[TheRealBob]

Originally Posted by sssick

Thats very good news.

Planet Earth is a Warner title?

It's a BBC title distributed by Warner. The BBC has announced that their "current plans" (the universal code for "we're not really going to tell you anything about our future plans") are to support both formats. I imagine they'll have to find another distributor for HD DVD. I suspect that it will end up being a theoretical question only.

[bkbluray]

Originally Posted by TheRealBob

It's a BBC title distributed by Warner. The BBC has announced that their "current plans" (the universal code for "we're not really going to tell you anything about our future plans") are to support both formats. I imagine they'll have to find another distributor for HD DVD. I suspect that it will end up being a theoretical question only.

Yeah, probably BBC will drop HD-DVD or at least announce it shortly after Warner discontinues support. They have to notice numbers like 85:15 and 83:17. Those can't be ignored so easily.

[haushausman]

Wow. That's awesome.. and to think I thought Amazon was trying to mislead consumers when they didn't not advertise Blu-ray in their Home Theater Forum 101 section.

[little_boy_blu]

Cool.. glad to see them being a responsible retailer.

I just realized that warner has 156 titles for HD-DVD.. I now fully see the scope of Warner leaving the red camp after browsing thru all of them. There are some really great titles. Great for Bluray!

[Living Near Shamu]

Like the gigantic monster from Family Guy says : Good Good

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by TheRealBob

I'm not sure what Amazon's motivation for putting that up. I'd assume the usual motivation, to increase sales ("buy 'em while you can!"), but...

I agree with that. I don't see this as something showing integrity from Amazon, because if their goal was to inform their customers for the customer's own good then this warning should be on the HD-A3 page. But I don't see it there. I think their motivation is the old, "You better buy these now before they are gone."

Back when the eproductwars.com site listed the stock numbers I noticed that stocks would go from high levels for an item to "Only 3 left - Buy now" kind of things, then later go back to almost the same stock levels they were at before. I remember one that kept jumping down to the 3, 2, 1, or 1 left, but in between the stock would show in the hundreds and slowly going down. This wasn't an item like the Wii that would have been selling those huge numbers in a matter of a few hours either. I'm guessing this is one of the reasons that Amazon stopped giving people access to their stock numbers, since it gave a strong indicator of dirty tricks at times.

I do think it will help Blu-ray, but just that Amazon didn't do it to help Blu-ray or out of the goodness of their hearts.

--Darin