Circuit City: Trade your HD DVD player for Blu-ray
While not publicized, Circuit City has extended the return limit for HD DVD players when you trade it for a Blu-ray Disc player. Players bought withing 90 days of the Toshiba announcement will receive a full credit towards a new Blu-ray player from another company (sorry, Toshiba).
While this doesn’t get you a free Blu-ray player, it is nice that this large retailer has shown mercy on the late HD DVD adopters. If you trade in a Toshiba HD-A3, for instance, and pick up a Sony BDP-S300, you can expect to pay another $250. Do make sure you include all accessories in the original box to be eligible, so I hope you didn’t throw it out like I’m prone to.
Reported by Gizmodo
Who is going to do this though? I would think that anyone with these players is also sitting on a bunch of HD DVDs. Nothing like shelling out another 250 bucks and then buying the same movies again in another format. The “savings” dry up pretty quick.
Then in a few months, when profile 2.0 hits then every one can throw another hissyfit. I doubt Circuit City will take the Blu-rays back.
On a side note on Amazon they keep “reccomending” HD DVD movies for me even though I have never purchased a player or a disc LOL.
You don’t have to have a BD2.0 player to play BD2.0 movies.
Well if a person purchased an HD DVD player from Circuit City within the last 90 days, chances are their HD DVD title collection isn’t that big. In that case, this certainly is a nice option for those people.
“You don’t have to have a BD2.0 player to play BD2.0 movies.”
I know. It’s just that the “new features” won’t work. You can bet your monster cables that the Bluray discs wwill have large type spouting about PIP and then you can get a magnafying glass out and read that you need a 2.0 profile player. A lot of folks will not know what the heck is wrong etc and others that are in the dark will then discover that they can’t “upgrade” their 1.x players.
“Well if a person purchased an HD DVD player from Circuit City within the last 90 days, chances are their HD DVD title collection isn’t that big. In that case, this certainly is a nice option for those people.”
It’s the ONLY option, but at least they have one. Having said that, I’m sure numbers were run and reletively few players flew off the shelves after the Christmas rush.
Let’s say they have only 10 discs (not that many if you just got a player and have a big screen to enjoy them on) they have to decide whether to toss them and eat the loss, then shell out another 250 for a player that will soon be obsolete 2.0 is better (I guess) then turn round and re-buy the dissks for 20 bucks a pop. I really don’t know what I would do. I think I would wait for 2.0 players and not get f8cked again.
But that’s just me. Some folks have money to burn.
BD Profile 1.1 = BonusView aka PIP capabilities.
BD Profile 2.0 = BD-Live aka online connectivity and features.
This isn’t a big deal. When you put Resident Evil: Apocalypse in a BD1.0 player you do not even see the BD1.1 features on the menu. You don’t even realize the feature doesn’t work because you can’t see it on the menu.
I imagine it will work the same with BD2.0 features.
I think this is actually a good move for Blu-ray because they can now have different levels so you don’t have to pay extra for BD2.0 features (more memory and ethernet) if you don’t intend on using that.
My bad I didn’t think 1.1 did PIP. I just read at a couple sites that you can also get a gift card, instead of rolling over and purchasing a Blu-ray player, when you dump your HD DVD. If this is the case, this would be the thing to do. Then wait a while for profile 2.0 to come out. Probabaly a 1.1 player would be much cheaper by then and you could choose.
Sony’s new BDP-S350 (out in a month or two) is the same price as the current BDP-S300 and is a BD1.1 player which is “BD-Live ready.” This means you provide a 1GB flash drive and Sony provides a firmware upgrade and you’re set for BD2.0.
I would not reccomend buying a Bluray player this year for several reasons. My feeling is that Toshiba saw that this HD optical is a money pit that will never upset the DVD market in a meaningful way. This tech is too far ahead of the curve, where 720p seems to be the sweet spot.
Simply stated 1080p is not needed for many years, or may never come to typical homes, due to viewing requirements. Lump on to that the BD+ etc- this market is very very niche to say the least. Bluray is expensive to produce and does not dovetail with the typical American home. I would suppose overseas it’s the same story. At least in trhe US a lot of people have “McMansions” with home theater rooms.
To really enjoy 1080p you are going to neeed at least a 50 inch screen-62+ is better. Not many folks have the square footage to accomadate such a display. If they do, they are probably happy with upscaling DVD players and 1080i sports broadcasts etc.
I would takle the HD DVD back to the store, get a gift card to use however I saw fit and if I were to wait for a new player of some sort, I would wait for the Oppo
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cd-dvd-player-product-reviews/dvd-players/oppo-digital-dv-983h-dvd-player—a-secrets-dvd-benchmark-review.html
Play all your inexpensive DVDs in very acceprtable fashion and not have to risk being the new “Laser disc” victim.
I disagree. The difference in picture between DVD and Blu-ray on my low-end Sony 720p RPTV is quite obvious. When I watch a DVD it is distracting because I think something is wrong with my TV so I end up messing with settings only to remember it’s just a DVD and they suck comparatively.
We just heard last week that over 50% of the TVs they sold last year were 1080p sets. They’ve discontinued most of their 720p sets and those that remain are 32″ and smaller – not ideal movie watching, or even football watching sizes.
I don’t know why you are so opposed to Blu-ray, but it’s definitely something I encourage people to get if they want to take advantage of their HDTV.
The “BD-Live ready” Blu-ray players from Sony are definitely an interesting concept and I commend Sony for making these players available.
Steve covered the new players here: http://wesleytech.com/sony-announces-two-new-blu-ray-players/563/
” When I watch a DVD it is distracting because I think something is wrong with my TV, so I end up messing with settings ”
Sounds like there is. Stop messing with the controls and get a better TV. 😉 DVDs look great on my TV. I can read Barney Fifes badge when I use my Oppo. It says Mayberry Deputy Sheriff.