Should BDA carry the brunt of HD DVD's demise and give reparation to supporters?

[iceman]

I really hope Toshiba are big enough to admit their defeat and officially declare HD DVD dead within a near future. However, another scenario could be that they won't declare HD DVD dead ever -even though Universal and Paramount are releasing on BD- to keep confusion among new HD consumers, since Toshiba still makes money from DVDs. Then it's up to the big retailers to pull the plug on HD DVD. In either case, I hope the retailers realizes what's best for them and stop stocking HD DVD shortly after CES. The retailers won't make much money from digital downloads.

[Anthony P]

guy's think about it Warner paid to author and replicate the disks, except for the BS "it was last minute and they where going HD DVD" we all know they decided this a long time ago. If Warner would not have wanted to continue with the HD DVD sales they would not have released on HD DVD and would have made the announcement last year. They did an extremely nice thing by announcing their intention now and continuing to support HD DVD for 3 months.

[Pilam69]

This discussion doesn't belong here at all. I just slogged through 3 pages of crap to see if there was actually "insider" information here. C'mon guys.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

Well said Jeff! And I would be one of those dual format owners. I guess I should be entitled to $300.00 for another BD player!?

For your dear old Dad!!!

[akbungle]

DaViD Boulet- although I loved your cheer leading for WB I do think you are wrong about this. Lets look at it this way I bought a HD DVD player for the Universal and Paramount movies so when they switch over to BD should the BDA or either studio pay up to $300.00 for me to switch from a HD DVD player to another BD player?
It's just the cost of a format war.

[JasonS]

Originally Posted by Iceman

I really hope Toshiba are big enough to admit their defeat and officially declare HD DVD dead within a near future. However, another scenario could be that they won't declare HD DVD dead ever -even though Universal and Paramount are releasing on BD- to keep confusion among new HD consumers, since Toshiba still makes money from DVDs. Then it's up to the big retailers to pull the plug on HD DVD. In either case, I hope the retailers realizes what's best for them and stop stocking HD DVD shortly after CES. The retailers won't make much money from digital downloads.

Paramount has already proved their *****s for a payout. Worst case scenario, the BDA goes back to them with a bag of cash and gets them to go neutral or Blu exclusive. Retailers are already getting pissed off with this format war and I expect they'll start yanking the rug out from under HD DVD if they don't do it themselves within the next few months.

[DaViD Boulet]

They are going to be pissed no matter how you slice it. Up, down, left, right, sidways, upways, downways, anyways - nothing will change. They will still be bitter, unhappy and blah blah blah.

Actually, at HTF I have been AMAZED at how well many HD DVD collectors have taken the news... most of them appreciate the benefit of finally having a single unified HD disc format.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by darinp2

I posted elsewhere that I thought Sony should sponsor a disc exchange program where people could exchange Warner HD DVDs for BDs, but didn't get the Blu-ray case (allowing them to just sell it easily as the Blu-ray version). They could put the BDs in their HD DVD cases and they would still work in their Blu-ray players. And I figured Sony should do it as it would help sell Sony Blu-ray players and hopefully bring a sooner end to the war, not because I think any company is obligate to do this.

But, some are making the point that some of this stuff wouldn't be fair to Blu-ray only owners. I'm mostly interested in this stuff as it relates to ending the war (with Blu-ray the winners), but to try to keep things somewhat fair and help bring about the end, how about a special half the normal street price (or BOGO) sale for all Warner Blu-ray titles one week, which could be advertised with some special phrase, like "Warner Going Blue Sale"? That way it could help get the word out about Warner (and hammer the point home to those who had heard it) and give one path to the transition. Sure, people could complain that they don't want to buy the same movies again even if they are cheap, but too bad IMO. It would be a gesture to make things easier and move more people over sooner. Plus, anybody who hadn't gotten in yet could still take advantage of the sale. And since it would be a one time event, it hopefully wouldn't get people to expect half price on those titles all the time.

Of course, there are the issues with getting enough inventories and picking the right stores to have the sale, along with not all the titles being available on both formats, but I personally like the idea of having a special sale to address this issue.

And given that it is one of the best sellers, kind of a special title with a high price, and only BD25s, maybe a disc only exchange for Planet Earth HD DVDs to BDs would be a good idea at this point.

--Darin

This is much more reasonable than some other proposals I have seen, and is pretty consistent with what I mentioned in previous posts. This is more of a token gesture, yet certainly enough to make a difference and create good will and help promote adoption of BD.

Like I said, this should be treated as a business decision, and if WB and/or Sony believe that this will generate more profits in the long run through faster adoption, I am all for it....as long as they don't try to pass the cost on via higher software or hardware prices, and that might be a hard thing to not do.

[coolmilo]

[QUOTE=Iceman;479403] However, another scenario could be that they won't declare HD DVD dead ever QUOTE]

This is what I am most worried about at this point. For Toshiba to admit defeat would create many "window seat jobs" amongst the Toshiba HD DVD executives and so they may keep the product alive to protect their jobs.

[jdc115]

Ok, sorry for making the reference about them (HD-DVD owners) getting what they deserve. I guess it is pulled from the feeling I got reading the reaction of the news over a couple of days.

My thinking is not that the BDA should be offering any incentives but what any individual business does could be good for customer relations and have a pay off in them and be good for a faster adoption of Blu-ray.

Of course, the best goodwill would be for Toshiba itself to offer to support Blu and offer a transition to their customers.

But I also I would think it would be good for warner as they are basically stating now that they want HD-DVD to go away, that they they will swap out any HD-DVD release for the Blu-ray.

[Anthony P]

Yeah - ALL HD-DVD owners were CONNED into buying their players and their movies. Uh huh

who said All? like Rob said, he bought one to get Universal's movies.

But you don't think many (and all those HD DVD people who are *****ing) bought HD DVD by getting coned? some bought it because "BD 50 is sci fi" or "HD DVD looks and sounds better" or "BD is MPEG2" or "HD DVD is winning" or ............

There was a hell of a lot of pro HD DVD BS that has been posted in the past started by people intentionally to mislead and repeated by brainless twits.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by Esox50

For your dear old Dad!!!

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by jdc115

Ok, sorry for making the reference about them (HD-DVD owners) getting what they deserve. I guess it is pulled from the feeling I got reading the reaction of the news over a couple of days.

My thinking is not that the BDA should be offering any incentives but what any individual business does could be good for customer relations and have a pay off in them and be good for a faster adoption of Blu-ray.

Now you get it!

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

who said All? like Rob said, he bought one to get Universal's movies.

But you don't think many (and all those HD DVD people who are *****ing) bought HD DVD by getting coned? some bought it because "BD 50 is sci fi" or "HD DVD looks and sounds better" or "BD is MPEG2" or "HD DVD is winning" or ............

There was a hell of a lot of pro HD DVD BS that has been posted in the past started by people intentionally to mislead and repeated by brainless twits.

That is Warners problem how?

[Anthony P]

That is Warners problem how?

where did I say it was Warner's problem.

David said Warner should offer them an incentive to go BD (300$) to me that makes no sense what so ever. Now if Warner wanted (for example) to have an exchange program (send in HD DVD and I will give you a BD) or a coupon program (send in HD DVD and I will give you a 5$ coupon on Warner movies) or something else (send in your HD DVD and you can buy the BD wholesale), these would be gestures beyond the call of duty (and Like I said before, making their intensions clear 3 months before the end was extremely generous and they don't owe anyone anything more). But no matter how generous Warner (or anyone else will be) it won't help. The problem is that the reasonable people that could afford it don't need an incentive and the rest either could not really afford it in the first place or are so angry that they got conned into picking the loosing side and feel stupid.

PS I just realized this is the insider thread so is my last post on the topic

[richteer]

Originally Posted by jdc115

But I think it would be good for Warner to offer a swap out of media. There will be a lot of pissed customers and it is not in their interest to say, "Thanks for the HD-DVD sale but you got what you deserve, now go buy a copy in Blu." After all, they are stating they want the market to adopt Blu-ray so they are basically saying they want HD-DVD to die and they have many customers that bought HD-DVD from them.

I strongly disagree with this. Warner (nor anyone else) should "compensate" or otherwsie help HD DVD owners. Nor should they participate in an HD DVD for BD exchange. Unless, of course, they want to let us people who bought the bitrate starved HD DVD ports exchange them for all-new Blu-ray optimised encodes. But even that would be wrong.

[sj001]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

I may start a new thread on this (and started one at HTF), but insiders:

Any chance that the BDA/WB will offer an olive-branch to HD DVD consumers who've stood by Warner and invested money in a format Warner has just revoked? If the BDA were to offer a $300 credit towards a BD player, for instance, it would go a long way to gaining the loyalty and good-will of consumers who have ALREADY DEMONSTRATED they are HD DISC COLLECTORS.

That $300 will come back 100 fold over the next 5-10 years. I think it's important to help smooth the obvious frustration HD DVD consumers must be feeling right now, and make the transition to blu as painless as possible. These folks have invested $$$ in HD DVD and now is not the time to ignore their feelings after closing the lid on their format.

I see no reason at all for the BDA or Warner to do this. Why should either of them have to pay for all the bullcrap that the HD-DVD PG and M$ and their lackeys spun. I'd say to those people, suck it up and buy a BD player, was it really that hard to justify that $98 investment?

On another note, I paid $599 for my PS3 60GB, I knew what I was getting into when I bought it. I knew it would drop in price, and I knew there was the possibility of BD failing. I certainly WOULD NOT expect HD-DVD to foot the bill for me if I had to jump the other way.

[sj001]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

The bottom line for me, though, is everyone either knew or should have known that they were taking a chance buying into a format when there was a competing one. People need to take responsibility for their own choices and not rely on handouts/bailouts when those choices turn out to be wrong.

Amen to that brother! 100%

[richard lichtenfelt]

Owners of hd dvd are less important to promote than new adopters to hd.
The people who bought hd dvd are more likely to purchase blu-ray as they are already fans of hi-def, and aware of the benefits of hd over standard dvd.

Can we please let this topic drop as I and many others come here in hopes of CES news and our insiders are going to be stuck reading pages about incentive programs rather than reporting on what they've learned while attending the conference.

[treyw00]

when they (HD DVD) started doing combo discs wasn't one of their main points of selling was that... hey, if it doesn't work out and blu ray wins, atleast you can still play it in your dvd players...same concept with the players too...least you can have a spare...upconverting dvd player