Warner offers HD-DVD to Blu-ray program

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22 Apr 09 18:26 by Jared Newman in category Uncategorized To news archive

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For those who chose poorly in the high definition video wars and haven’t liquidated their dead HD-DVD library, Warner Bros has a solution.

In exchange for the cover art from your HD-DVDs, plus a fee, the company will send a new Blu-ray disc; Warner Bros doesn’t even want the HD-DVD media itself. The "Red2Blu" service costs $4.95 per disc, plus $6.95 shipping and handling in the continental US or $8.95 in Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico.

There are 128 HD DVD titles that Warner Bros will accept, and you can only get the same Blu-ray disc in return, so don’t expect to get saved from owning a bad movie. Up to 25 HD-DVD movies may be upgraded per household. The entire transaction takes four to five weeks.

With the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray wars long settled, it seems a little late to be offering the service, but it’s better now than never. And you can see the motivation on Warner Bros’ part in the marketing copy: They want stragglers to get started on a Blu-ray library in hopes of getting more ~$30 per disc sales down the line.

It would be really nice if other studios participated, but I’m not counting on it. After all, they can reap the benefits of new Blu-ray customers even if Warner Bros. does the legwork.

11 Comments

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 23 Apr 09 09:47

I used to think that Warner was the greediest of them all. So where is the catch?

psychoace: Posts: 351; Posted on: 23 Apr 09 16:21

They still make a profit off of double dipping. They know you bought the HD-DVD for an absurd profit now they milking another couple bucks out of you per disc in this case. It probably only cost them 2 bucks to package them if your even getting the full package. I have 5 movies that I'm going to change that will cost me 30 bucks (one's a 3 pack of movies) at 5 bucks each that is 3 dollar profit. Times that by 5 and you have 15 dollars worth of profit that you would never get because who would double dip on this stuff?

Crabbyappleton: Posts: 5756; Posted on: 23 Apr 09 16:49

In about a year, Warner will be offer a program for exchanging Blu-rays for DVDs ...

TRIPLE DIP!!!

vikampion: Posts: 160; Posted on: 23 Apr 09 17:52

LOL at Crabby.

Also, I wonder if they are sending you a brand new BR in the retail package or if they are just sending you the disc in a sleeve?

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 23 Apr 09 17:56

That's like putting your whole mouth in the disc tray..

Crabbyappleton: Posts: 5756; Posted on: 23 Apr 09 18:21

LOL! I bet you watched Mythbusters last night!!!

Some Random Guy: Posts: 546; Posted on: 23 Apr 09 18:40

I could understand wanting to exchange the titles in order to future-proof your collection, but "upgrading" is an interesting choice of words for Warner to use to describe the exchange. In some cases, it's a downgrade.

kukdgooz: Posts: 2; Posted on: 23 Apr 09 23:04

I still have some Beta tapes. Should I throw them out?

nopcbs: Posts: 2; Posted on: 24 Apr 09 03:56

Warner can take their offer and shove it...well, you know the rest.

psychoace: Posts: 351; Posted on: 24 Apr 09 15:33

Thank's for being so awesomely specific there with your explination. Why is this offer bad? Do you want them to give you the movie for free even though you made the mistake of picking the wrong format? They don't have to do this but they are being nice enough to offer us the option (yeah they are also piggybacking a small profit on the back but they are a buisness it's what they do). So why should they shove it?

BitRate: Posts: 410; Posted on: 29 Apr 09 06:03

Will Universal do the same ? I doubt it as they were HD DVD exclusive at one time. They should instead fix their TV on DVD releases by actually including subtitles! Are you listening Universal ??

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