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

[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.

[DrinkMore]

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.

Might want to put down whatever your smoking or drinking and think about what you just said. Why on earth would ANY company do this? Please explain this to me. So, you go buy a computer and 3 months later it is out dated and replaced by a new model. Same with a car, you buy a new one, it is out dated because a new model is put out that looks different. You want a credit from them too? Feel jipped? Upset? Yeah well - it happens every day with people.

Thankfully the world is FULL of INFORMATION that can be had with a little research. Most people can find out what is coming out next, what might be happening and the like. It was CLEAR from the begining that HD-DVD was headed down hill. Everyone knew what the better format was.

EVERYONE knew that this was NEW TECHNOLOGY and with that fact - they knew they were TAKING A CHANCE that one day - one of them would be null and void.

So, now - you want someone else to pay you because you made the wrong choice? It's Warners fault that they are no longer going to support HD-DVD and you are upset and want money to go to the right format?? So tell me again - did your player stop working? Did your movies self detonate and destroy themselves so you can no longer watch them?

Nope. Still there. Just a studio is NO LONGER supporting that format - a fact that EVERYONE knew could and would happen eventually. Did you hear of ANY Blu-Ray supporter asking that Toshiba pay them because Para***** went red? Nope.

So, please - don't start another thread. It would be unecessary.

[DaViD Boulet]

Drinkmore,

I'm not the one who needs to put down anything I'm drinking.

This is a very special situation: a company (Warner) has been producing two competing products and promoting them both... actively. Then they not only pull the plug on one format in their own production houses, but in so doing the effectively kill the format completely, and instantly their decision leave many of THEIR OWN customers out in the cold... customers who are the very CORE high-definition disc collectors that will help drive their future sales.

Seems that some sort of action to make the transition less painful would be one of the best investments that the company could make.

Did you hear of ANY Blu-Ray supporter asking that Toshiba pay them because Para***** went red? Nope.

That's because Paramount's actions didn't kill the BD Format. It just prolonged the war a little longer.

Warner just KILLED HD DVD, and rendered the whole-sale collections of its HD DVD consumers obsolete in one fell blow.

Big difference. It should be obvious.

[eva-01]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

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.

Woah there, $300, that's a lot of money there to give away, maybe a $50-$100 would be a bit more reasonable or 25-50% off Blu-rays when HD DVDs are returned - that would be a little more realistic. And for even more kudos, you could recycle all those HD DVDs into something more useful

[monkyman]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Drinkmore,

I'm not the one who needs to put down anything I'm drinking.

This is a very special situation: a company (Warner) has been producing two competing products and promoting them both... actively. Then they not only pull the plug on one format in their own production houses, but in so doing the effectively kill the format completely, and instantly their decision leave many of THEIR OWN customers out in the cold... customers who are the very CORE high-definition disc collectors that will help drive their future sales.

Seems that some sort of action to make the transition less painful would be one of the best investments that the company could make.



That's because Paramount's actions didn't kill the BD Format. It just prolonged the war a little longer.

Warner just KILLED HD DVD, and rendered the whole-sale collections of its HD DVD consumers obsolete in one fell blow.

Big difference. It should be obvious.

I don't mind that I paid $500 for my BD player, then the price dropped to to $300 a few months later, but to give some one a better deal just because they picked the wrong format would piss off long time supporters.

WE supported this format, THEY were against it. Now reward them????

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Drinkmore,

I'm not the one who needs to put down anything I'm drinking.

This is a very special situation: a company (Warner) has been producing two competing products and promoting them both... actively. Then they not only pull the plug on one format in their own production houses, but in so doing the effectively kill the format completely, and instantly their decision leave many of THEIR OWN customers out in the cold... customers who are the very CORE high-definition disc collectors that will help drive their future sales.

Seems that some sort of action to make the transition less painful would be one of the best investments that the company could make.



That's because Paramount's actions didn't kill the BD Format. It just prolonged the war a little longer.

Warner just KILLED HD DVD, and rendered the whole-sale collections of its HD DVD consumers obsolete in one fell blow.

Big difference. It should be obvious.

Then you need to put down whatever your smoking

I can't believe your actually serious. Lol. You want the BDA/Warner to "pay" consumers to ease their transition over to the winning format? Have you lost your mind???

1 - NOBODY forced ANYONE to buy into HD-DVD. NOBODY. Not Warners, not Toshiba, not ANYONE.

2 - When a new format comes out - it is WELL KNOWN one of them WILL LOSE. Need I remind you of BETA vs VHS?

3 - When a new format comes out and your an EARLY ADOPTER - you assume risks. You assume that the format you have chose might become obsolete.

4 - It is guaranteed that ONE format WILL LOSE. One format WILL BECOME OBSOLETE. Period.


Dude - you are at the wrong site for spinning the kind of shit your spinning.

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by monkyman

I don't mind that I paid $500 for my BD player, then the price dropped to to $300 a few months later, but to give some one a better deal just because they picked the wrong format would piss off long time supporters.

WE supported this format, THEY were against it. Now reward them????

Yeah, I was one of those people that bought a PS3 at the high price, literally a month before Sony decided to lower the price 100 bux. I was upset, but did I think anything beyond that? No. It's technology. Shit goes up, shit goes down, shit goes obsolete. Get over it.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Drinkmore,

I'm not the one who needs to put down anything I'm drinking.

This is a very special situation: a company (Warner) has been producing two competing products and promoting them both... actively. Then they not only pull the plug on one format in their own production houses, but in so doing the effectively kill the format completely, and instantly their decision leave many of THEIR OWN customers out in the cold... customers who are the very CORE high-definition disc collectors that will help drive their future sales.

Seems that some sort of action to make the transition less painful would be one of the best investments that the company could make.



That's because Paramount's actions didn't kill the BD Format. It just prolonged the war a little longer.

Warner just KILLED HD DVD, and rendered the whole-sale collections of its HD DVD consumers obsolete in one fell blow.

Big difference. It should be obvious.

Such is life in a format war Dave!

I wouldn't mind (or I should say I wouldn't be completely offended) if Warner offered some type of rebate/exchange for the BD version of it's HD DVD titles, but I most certainly do not think that this should be expected of them in any way.

If WB thinks that this would make the most sense for them from a business standpoint (including customer relations) I am sure that they will consider it.

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.

[JohnGalt]

Originally Posted by monkyman

WE supported this format, THEY were against it. Now reward them????

It would make sense only if it were a token gesture and done in such a way as to foster a greater competitve advantage for Blu. Say a $50 gift certificate to the Sony store for an HD-DVD player dropped off / shipped in. That sort of offer would reduce the competition's installed base and tie the redemption to an in-house retail outlet where margins, and likely prices, are higher. Warner or other studios could do the same with, say, $5-7 off coupons in exchange for HD-DVDs. Those sorts of things could make competitve sense depending on implementation costs.

[monkyman]

Originally Posted by DrinkMore

Yeah, I was one of those people that bought a PS3 at the high price, literally a month before Sony decided to lower the price 100 bux. I was upset, but did I think anything beyond that? No. It's technology. Shit goes up, shit goes down, shit goes obsolete. Get over it.

Dude, maybe you better put the pipe down and re-read my post.

I DON'T Mind that the price went down. GET OVER IT!!!!!

[DrinkMore]

Reminds me of one of those parents that likes to blame everyone else but themselves for their childs demise.

[Esox50]

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. And to all those HD DVD idiots/zealots who are mad at the BDA...perhaps their anger is misplaced and should be with Toshiba and M$.

I've been saying for almost 1.5 years...Toshiba with their fire sale prices brought people into an "early adopter" format war, people who had no business being in it.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

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.

Whoa. I missed this part.

This is absurd. Ridiculous. Retarded.

I would be pretty pissed if they even considered doing anything remotely close to this. $300 towards a BD player? Are you kidding me?

I simply cannot understand the logic/reasoning. Seriously, you are telling these HD DVD supporters that, despite the fact that they wanted BD to fail, it's ok because we are going to buy you a BD player anyway! People who supported BD from the start are the suckers, because they paid the most money to begin with (I paid well over $1000 for my Pioneer Elite BD player), but we aren't going to give them shit!

A token gesture might be fine (such as credit for trading in WB titles on HD DVD for the BD counterpart) but to pay $300 for a player is beyond ludicrous.

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

Whoa. I missed this part.

This is absurd. Ridiculous. Retarded.

I would be pretty pissed if they even considered doing anything remotely close to this. $300 towards a BD player? Are you kidding me?

I simply cannot understand the logic/reasoning. Seriously, you are telling these HD DVD supporters that, despite the fact that they wanted BD to fail, it's ok because we are going to buy you a BD player anyway! People who supported BD from the start are the suckers, because they paid the most money to begin with (I paid well over $1000 for my Pioneer Elite BD player), but we aren't going to give them shit!

A token gesture might be fine (such as credit for trading in WB titles on HD DVD for the BD counterpart) but to pay $300 for a player is beyond ludicrous.

Yeah, that's only 30 MILLION dollars if 100,000 people are served. Insane.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

I simply cannot understand the logic/reasoning.

Same logic as the people who want the government to bail them out of adjustable rate mortgages.

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

A token gesture might be fine (such as credit for trading in WB titles on HD DVD for the BD counterpart) but to pay $300 for a player is beyond ludicrous.

Agreed. It should be up to WB though. I have no problem if they want to send them a coupon for $5 or $10 or something off Batman Begins on Blu-Ray when it's released (hopefully in a BD optimized encode, right Max!!! I'm still fired up about that possiblility!!! ).

[Jeff®]

Plus, how would Warner (as they geared up to pass out these $300 discounts on hardware) distinguish between dual format owners who might have previously purchased Warner HD DVDs, but are capable of switching to Warner BDs, and those who only bought HD DVD hardware and Warner software? Should the dual format owners get a $300 discount on a new BD player too because they can produce a receipt for an HD DVD?

Warner did absolutely nothing wrong. In fact they did the industry (and all customers of either format) a huge favor by making this decision now rather than later.

Warner customers (of HD DVDs) got to enjoy the movies that they purchased. They got their money's worth. They got what they paid for. Their discs still work. Everyone who purchased hardware during this format war should have known what they were getting into; there was a risk involved.

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

Whoa. I missed this part.

This is absurd. Ridiculous. Retarded.

I would be pretty pissed if they even considered doing anything remotely close to this. $300 towards a BD player? Are you kidding me?

I simply cannot understand the logic/reasoning. Seriously, you are telling these HD DVD supporters that, despite the fact that they wanted BD to fail, it's ok because we are going to buy you a BD player anyway! People who supported BD from the start are the suckers, because they paid the most money to begin with (I paid well over $1000 for my Pioneer Elite BD player), but we aren't going to give them shit!

A token gesture might be fine (such as credit for trading in WB titles on HD DVD for the BD counterpart) but to pay $300 for a player is beyond ludicrous.

[jdc115]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Drinkmore,

I'm not the one who needs to put down anything I'm drinking.

This is a very special situation: a company (Warner) has been producing two competing products and promoting them both... actively. Then they not only pull the plug on one format in their own production houses, but in so doing the effectively kill the format completely, and instantly their decision leave many of THEIR OWN customers out in the cold... customers who are the very CORE high-definition disc collectors that will help drive their future sales.

Seems that some sort of action to make the transition less painful would be one of the best investments that the company could make.



That's because Paramount's actions didn't kill the BD Format. It just prolonged the war a little longer.

Warner just KILLED HD DVD, and rendered the whole-sale collections of its HD DVD consumers obsolete in one fell blow.

Big difference. It should be obvious.

David,

I think it is a good idea. It could be quite expensive on the hardware front, but I think the idea is good for the studios to help as they probably left many customers quite pissed off (look how many felt about Paramount). Warner to give free trade-ins for anybody holding a HD-DVD for the same titled Blu-ray would be good for customer service and help them bring HD-DVD customers to Blu-ray.

People here seem quite certain that this outcome was obvious to all and that HD-DVD holders got what they deserve but I think this is a little short-sighted. Probably nobody other then a few really understand all the work that went in to get us to where we are. Quite possibly HD-DVD could have won out due to politics reasons and Blu-ray would have been on the losing end. So I don't fault people that bought into HD-DVD as they have probably had very valid reasons to do so (they liked some of the interactive features they had, their favorite movies were released in that format, etc). So I don't think they should be written off as they got what they deserve, what ever reasonable incentives that can be done to get them on board to Blu will help speed up the adoption process that much quicker. Lets not alienate future BD customers.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

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.

Offered to anyone providing a proof of purchase of an HD DVD player (100K @ $98)? What about the ones that will sell for under $100 on eBay in coming months?

I think a disc exchange system is probably a more reasonable thing to suggest. The software is the investment. The hardware was destined to be replaced eventually anyway.

Gary

[Chris Beveridge]

I'm trying to remember my history.

Did such olive branches get extended during VHS/Betamax, or more recently, DVD/Divx?

As stated, all HD DVD players are fully functional DVD players as well, so there's no real loss there. Simply some HD DVDs that won't be useful in the transition to Blu-ray.

[coolmilo]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Seems that some sort of action to make the transition less painful would be one of the best investments that the company could make.

Warner just KILLED HD DVD, and rendered the whole-sale collections of its HD DVD consumers obsolete in one fell blow.

Big difference. It should be obvious.

HD DVD is not dead yet although it seems unlikely that HD DVD will last beyond 2008. But until Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart drop HD DVD and until Universal and Paramount/Dreamworks go neutral or BD exclusive, HD DVD will continue to survive. It's really up to the big boys to determine how much longer this silly format war will last.

Hopefully there will be some incentives to welcome or intice the HD DVD folks over to Blu-ray (we don 't want them to give up on HDM altogether and start buying DVD again). But this could be something that the BDA and HD DVD groups could work out and help Toshiba save face (last effort).