Sad stuff (why the PE HD DVD is doing so well on Amazon)

[stockstar1138]

By Tewfik Benredjeb "Tewfik" (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews
I had to return the HD DVD because i don't have a HD DVD Player.I reordered Planet earth's DVD with no problem.I received my credit.The service was fast and good.Thank you.This was my 1st order thru Amazon.com and it would'nt be the last.

By Justin M. Griffin - See all my reviews
I am mainly writing this out of disgust for the stupidity of some people. This is an excellent program with some of the best HD visuals you will see currently on the market. For those of you stupid enough to not understand that you must have an HD player to play an HD DVD...well... go back to your caves and get a clue! It has noting to do with the show so why would you give an excellent program a bad review because you are to stupid to buy the right format...hey I got a bunch of VHS tapes if you wanna try those on your DVD player...

By Elaine E. Paasch - See all my reviews
Real rating is a minus 30! I was unable to access the DVD on ANY player! I took it to Best Buy, and they said it will not work in any player they have in stock and are unable to program any player to play the DVD. It was a total waste of money and a horrible experience with Amazon because they will not help in any way to correct the problem.

By Charles A. Jacques "Tony" (S.C.) - See all my reviews
I Purchased the HD DVD to finf out that it would not work in my DVD Player. I could not return It because it was opened but not used. How are you supose to know it a thing works if you don't open it. So your return is not worth a dime! I ored the regular DVD and Found that all one needs is DVD one. The outher four DVD Has the same things as on the first DVD.

By Dwight F. Entwistle (satellite beach, florida United States) - See all my reviews
I ORDERED THIS ITEM WITH GREAT ENTHUSIASM. MUCH TO MY SURPRISE, MY DVD PLAYER COULD NOT PLAY AND IT AND I WAS ADVISED TO CONTACT THE MANUFACTURER FOR "FIRMWARE OR SOFTWARE" UPDATES. THE MANUFACTURER WAS OF NO HELP AT ALL BECAUSE, AS IT TURNED OUT, THEY DO NOT MAKE THE NECESSARY HARDWARE. SO FAR, I HAVE HAD TO BUY A NEW "BLUE LASER" DVD PLAYER AT A COST OF $500 (AND AT THAT I AM BETTING ON HD DVD AS OPPOSED TO BLU RAY) PLUS A $138 REMOTE TO PLAY THE HD DVD WITH MY EXIXTING HD TV AND MY CURRENT $600 AV RECEIVER SO I WON'T HAVE TO SPENT $800 OR MORE FOR A MORE ADVANCED AV RECEIVER. OF COURSE I COULD HAVE RETURNED THE PLANET EARTH DVD SET AND GOTTEN A REGULAR RED LASER SET FOR POSTAGE COST, BUT I WAS CURIOUS ABOUT THE "NEWEST" TECHNOLOGY. WHAT'S NEXT? ALL THIS IS JUST VENTING! THANKS FOR LISTENING. POINT: I DO FEEL YOU SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED A CAVEAT SOMETHING LIKE "THIS HD DVD SET WILL NOT PLAY ON YOUR CURRENT DVD PLAYER. PERIOD!!" YOU WOULD BE CORRECT 99.9+% OF THE TIME.

By T. Shelton - See all my reviews
I thought since I have a high def TV that this would work but apparently you have to have a high def DVD player to play this dvd. I couldn't use or play this so I had to return it. I will be buying the regular dvd though.

By Francesca Matterhorn "skeptic" (WA) - See all my reviews
Thanks to Amazon's pathetic scheme, I now own an HD DVD format piece of plastic. It was very deceiving of them to have the HD formatted DVD as the first choice in a search on this series. So I'm out almost $80 because I took the plastic off... I now know that an HD DVD is not only a different format, but is being compared to laserdiscs, so don't bother buying this version of Planet Earth or an HD DVD player for that matter.

By Jeffery C. Ottesen "Jeff" (Juneau, AK) - See all my reviews
I've given the Planet Earth DVD 5 stars because the cable broadcast of the work is so compelling. I can only wait to actually see it in High Definition. Alas, that is the rest of this story.

Owning a shiny new HD TV (Sony Bravia) and a tenured DVD player I opted to purchase the HD version of the Planet Earth series. Here is where I made my mistake (and Amazon too!)

I did not understand that only HD DVD players can play a HD DVD. Your ordinary DVD player simply can't read the new technology on the HD DVD. Period.

OK, it does say so, in the very fine print on the back of the DVD case. Why with 10X reading glasses I might have even noticed. But no where on the ordering process on teh Amazon web site is this requirement brought to my attention.

Sure, snicker, you video-philes who are early adopters and know this implicitly. But trust me, I have talked to at least a dozen people who like me didn't have a clue. And not one person I have discussed this with was aware of the DVD shortcoming with HD DVD format.

[rmatt]

Proves that marketing a new format with name recognition of standard DVDs would backfire miserably.

[assur191]

This is truly hilarious. I have to keep reminding myself that J6P really exists.

[GreenMotion]

You guys are scaring me!. I ordered this set as well .... are you guys telling me it will not work on my laserdisc player??????

[dgator783]

By Elaine E. Paasch - See all my reviews
Real rating is a minus 30! I was unable to access the DVD on ANY player! I took it to Best Buy, and they said it will not work in any player they have in stock and are unable to program any player to play the DVD. It was a total waste of money and a horrible experience with Amazon because they will not help in any way to correct the problem.

WHat a dumbass! and Im not suprised about the best buy expierence....those folks dont know about anything

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by dgator783

By Elaine E. Paasch - See all my reviews
I took it to Best Buy, and they said it will not work in any player they have in stock and are unable to program any player to play the DVD.
WHat a dumbass! and Im not suprised about the best buy expierence....those folks dont know about anything

your so right. Don't tell me Best Buy didn't have at least one hd dvd player in stock. The idiot probably put it in 12 dvd players, pressing all these different buttons, LOOKING smart, not even knowing it was an hd dvd.

[The Don]

....wow...

[Gremal]

I wouldn't be too quick to blame consumers for this. Purely based on the name, it seems reasonable enough to assume you can enjoy an HD-DVD if you have a DVD player and an HDTV. This is what happens when you use "DVD" in the name of a format that is incompatible with pretty much the entire installed base of DVD players.

The doods behind HD-DVD are not the brightest bulbs in the box.

[rmatt]

Funny thing is... all of these PO'd people who are stuck with a PE HDDVD are not going to buy an HDDVD player like Amazon and Toshiba had hoped.

If I remember this right from my marketing classes... Making customers angry is not a good way to make them buy your product. Wait, that wasn't marketing class, I learned that in the 1st grade.

[Blu As Hell]

This does happen more than you know. I was just talking to a friend of mine one day and he had stated that he almost bought "Miami Vice" on HD DVD because he thought since he has a HDTV that it would have better PQ, but opted to get the standard DVD because it costs about 15 dollars less. I told him he could have played it on his player because it's a combo disc but HD DVD side would be absolutely useless to him because he doesn't have an HD DVD player and paying 30 dollars for a disc with a side you can't use would be ridiculous. So he went out and bought a PS3, and a new 1080p Bravia and buys Blu-Rays now. (Of couse after I showed him the greatness that is Blu-Ray. ) But it is truly sad that this is how it goes because people are getting stuck with an 80 dollar set of discs they can't use.

[Gremal]

Whenever I go through the BD sections in Fry's or Target, inevitably some DVD shoppers are looking at the HD-DVD section nearby. Often the high prices scare them away, but they clearly don't realize it's a format that they can't use.

[stockstar1138]

i don't even get the point of those "combo" discs.

[Blu As Hell]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

i don't even get the point of those "combo" discs.

Exactly. Even if I owned a HD DVD player, why the hell would I want a combo disc?! If you have a player would you even look at the DVD side of the disc?! God knows I wouldn't.

[NutsAboutPS3]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

i don't even get the point of those "combo" discs.

The point is that when someone who doesn't own an hd-dvd player buys one by mistake, they'll still be able to play the disc they've bought. They might even end up with quite a few of them before they realise they're only watching normal dvds and need a new player to watch them in high def. So then of course the obvious thing for them to do next is to buy an hd-dvd player.

[Jonalan34]

Sad thing is they rushed to make purchase but they did not read the fine print on Amazon.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This disc is a high-definition DVD and is compatible only with HD DVD players such as the Toshiba HD-A2. It will not play on a standard DVD player. For more information, see our HD DVD buying guide.

Same thing for Blu-ray, it would statement like this:

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.

Both formats, some have stick said only on Blu-ray player or HD DVD only. But not enough stick, not all of them have this stick as warning or notice as I see it on Blu-ray with shine blue stick while HD DVD have cheap red stick, less attention will be caught than you can notice shine blue stick on Blu-ray.

There are many uneducation people who do not know about new formats, and they can misunderstand and think it is HD DVD and it can play on DVD player. For me, I am not dumb enough because I know that it wont be work on dvd player because package are different from regular dvd. But it would not help people who never heard about it and can take it wrong by thinking it will work on DVD. Blu-ray have different name and show shine blue that help some people notice more than HD DVD.

I call it uneducaiton and without warning, put it on front of dvd page on amazon, which can cause people rush to buy it without notice that it is for HD dVD player only not dvd.

It is going be some problem for HD DVD due to how they teach us that it can play both, that cause people misunderstand it because it is about combo formats with selections title can be play on both dvd player and hd dvd player. They did education about it, that what damage their strategy most. Which is a booklet of new format and explain how it work, which sometime include in HD DVD disc box. It did show HD DVD/ DVD combo on it, that can cause people misunderstand the statement.

Blu-ray did not do that in their strategy. It does not show dvd, only Blu-ray and explain how it work in the booklet that some movies include it.

[jorg]

same thing happens with poeple i know that get the hd dvd add on happened to my friend bought add on and about 6 blu-rays lmao

[cruzzer cruz]

This is hilarious, beyond hilarious. I love it when ignorant people (though not their fault) get stuck with products that are useless to them. Except when it's me. But it has yet to be

I don't know, personally, the name HD-DVD never sounded cool enough. It never sounded like a big enough improvement over standard DVD. It just kind of sounds like an upgrade. Blu-ray sounds like the wave of the future or something. Something that will someday end wars and come become self aware like Skynet or something. But that's just me.

[bferr1]

I'm surprised no one has said this yet, so allow me: "This is GREAT news for Blu-Ray!"

[Texitura]

This explains why the title is selling so well. Looks like one guy bought a new player so he could play the damn thing. Wonder what he'll think when the whole format goes tits up in six months.

[jctash]

It doesn't surprise me. Bluray clearsly labels the case with an obvious blue and HD DVD tries to blend it in with their brown that is common in dvd cases.