Should WB and the BDA give HD DVD owners a "peace offering" to welcome them to Blu? (1 Viewer)

Lots of HD DVD collectors at HTF have expressed, understandably, their frustration with Warner's recent decision given the potential obselescence of their HD collection and hardware given the money they've invested. And this is true even for many who also see the advantage of the industry finally having a viable single-HD format. Even though HD DVD players will continue working for some time, and nothing is going to stop those 5" discs from putting out the great 1080p picture they did before January 4th, it's understandable that an avid HD DVD collector would have some discontented emotions over Warner's decision, *especially* given Warner's public comments just a few weeks prior suggesting that they had no plans to change their format-neutral course, and given their hard-push for software sales of *both* formats this Christmas season.

I hope that describes fairly what some HD DVD owners might be feeling.

Some HTF members have already suggested that a "peace offering" of some sort fromm the BDA, such as a credit towards a BD player purchase or trade-in for HD DVD titles, would be fair given that HD DVD consumers have been handed a raw deal. I agree, and if the BDA is willing to pay Warner a nice sum to seal their BD-deal, why not offer the same courtesy to the folks ACTUALLY resonsible for HD disc media becoming a viable product in the market place: The consumers - specifically a large portion of the consumers who've already taken a great risk in helping establish a market for HD software on HD DVD, and invested their hard-earned cash to prove it.

Bill Hunt has this to say and I agree with him:


Folks, we've rallyed and made a difference before. It was HTF fans that Got Warner to embrace OAR for "family films", and the influence we've had here has gone much further than that one case study. What say you? express yourself here. Tell Warner and the BDA that a very practical way to smooth over hard feelings with an sizeable group of their HD-disc buying consumer market would be to extend a peace-offering to make switching over to blu less painful. I'd suggest to Warner and the BDA that the "pay off" to HD DVD consumers is a very, VERY profitable long-term investment: You've got a large group of early-adoptors who are avid disc-purchases and know the advantage of buying HD software over standard DVD. Those individuals will spend MUCH MUCH MORE over the next 10 years on Blu-ray Discs than the cost of a free Blu-ray player to help the transition today. And those consumsers have friends and family, who they might just convince to invest in HD disc media as well.

Warner stated publically that improving adoption and HD disc sales was one of their guiding factors in their decision to help create a single-format solution. Ok then, how about starting with your own loyal consumer base who've already put their money on the line to buy your product?

What do you think?

I don't think it'll happen but it'd certainly be a decent thing to do. Obviously, they aren't going to replace the massive collections that some people have but if they are willing to give away 5 or 10 discs to people buying hardware, it would be a nice peace offering to offer a similar number of titles through a trade-in program of some sort to people.

Peace Offering? great idea! I would love to see it come in the form of a royalty price break given to Toshiba so they can manufacture high quality/low priced HD DVD/Bd Combo players.

I have not only a sizable HD DVD collection I don't plan on replacing with similar Bds- but some of the discs are Imports of titles I don't expect to see showing up on Bd until the fomrat becomes the all dominant new optical standard...which I actually don't see happening as long as studios continue to release DVDs year in and year out. And if they ever did show up as imports on Bd...likely they would be region restricted (as they were on DVD).

I feel bad for the thousands of new owners that Warner just burned- if they think that HDMs can prosper in the climate they helped create, by all means offer some kind of incentive to the hesitant consumers who are probably thinking "fool me once..."

Exactly.

I'm going to have to be ABSOLUTELY in LOVE with another Warner movie before I buy it.


None of this blind buy, kinda liked it crap.


Effers.......


Anyways...

Heck yeah, how about $50 bucks off of a PS3 with the UPC of my families A30?

At the least they should provide a trade in credit towards a Blu-ray player for all of the people who just purchased a HD DVD player for Christmas. A lot of those people have got to be feeling pretty burned right now. They stand to lose a lot of money in the form of lost software sales if they don't do something for that segment of purchasers. After all, people who feel ripped off aren't about to run out and buy hardware and software from organizations that are perceived as causing their misery.

What's really funny is that most people that have bought a HD DVD probably never heard of Bill Hunt nor have any inclination of the intensity of this format war on the internet in which a peace offering has to be mention by Hunt in his article.

that's the big "Duh!" that Warner can't possibly have escaped realizing.

The tens of thousands of people that just bought into HD DVD in the last couple of months are the segment just past the hardcore early adopters that will buy anything.
These people bought on price and features- and the feature was to be able to play HDMs. I don't think the majority here were concerned that it played one specific format over the other. The point was it played High Definition discs.

After being informed now that their recent purchase has had a huge part of its functionality seriously curtailed- how many are then going to rush out and drop another few hundred on a Blu-ray player?
How many are going to drop that after coming to the conclusion that based on their modest display sizes and wide viewing distances- that HD wasn't all that much anyway?

The BDA has a hard row to hoe here. Not only do they have to overcome widespread apathy from the vast majority- now they have to overcome some measure of outright resentment...from tens of thousands of HD interested, non-fanboy, consumers.

Paul,

what would you suggest that the BDA (and WB?) do to help mend the bridge with HD DVD enthusiast consumers? $300 towards a BD player purchase? Disc-exchange?

I like the idea a lot. I have a PS3 and am personally glad that Blu will move forward, and I do feel badly for those who have an investment in HD-DVD that they feel has been diminished.

I don't however subscribe to the notion that Warner screwed anyone, and Warner is the bad guy in all of this. History will show that they were pivotal in eliminating a format that a fledgling market cannot support.

For the record, I would say exactly the same thing if it were HD-DVD that prevailed - I made sure that my investment in Blu was not wasted by getting a PS3, which Sony would absolutely NEVER stop producing Blu discs for, no matter what. But, I digress.

Great idea to offer something which hopefully would not be prone to abuse by non HD-DVD owners.

I dont see it happening at all, but I'll take advantage of whatever comes of it.

I'd take a credit towards a BluRay player purchase as long as I don't have to trade in my HD-A1 to get it.

I wouldn't mind in-store trade-ins of Warners HD DVDs for their BD counterparts at major retailers (like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc). It'd be a big headache for the retailers, but it would bring in customers, and generate some good will and perhaps some customer loyalty to the retailer and studio in the long run.

The caveat is that if you trade in an opened HD DVD title, you get an opened BD title in return (to ward off returns without proper receipts).

Also, warn customers that the BD title might not always have all the same features and functionality of the HD DVD, and if that's an issue, they don't have to trade in the title and should keep the HD DVD if the features are more important than getting the BD counterpart.

If the onhand stock is lacking, provide customers with forms to fill out with the SKU/title that customers want to trade in, and that gives the retailers an idea of how much stock they need for the trade-in program on a monthly basis for a specific trade-in window, like 6 months or so.

Yeah, any mechanism where you had to trade in your player would be completely silly, since for the average consumer with only one player, that really would doom their entire HD collection to obsolescence. But some sort of plan to exchange your dual-format titles for a rebate on the Blu-Ray version wouldn't be so bad. I don't see anything of the sort happening, though.

And David, I really, truly mean no offense when I say this, as I know I'll be looking to you as a huge resource in the days ahead, but how many "Now that Blu-Ray has won..." threads are you planning on starting? Since the announcement on Friday, you've averaged over two a day.

And then, when Warner Bros. reverses its decision next April? What then?

I mean, which studio do you trust?
And why?


Cees

This trade-in idea stinks of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Rather than having early adopters junk their existing HD DVD collection, how about an incentive for buying a combo player? I think this would cause a lot less hassle.

I don't see this happening.

And what's more, it's much more likely they would provide incentives and rebates to people who haven't adopted either format yet. Those are the people they're worried about, not current HD DVD owners. It's likely their mindset would be, "Well where else will HD DVD owners go? Back to DVD?"

Right or wrong, I just don't see it happening.

I'll have flying bacon along with my swapped-out discs.

I'm still waiting for RCA to exchange my CED discs for Laserdiscs. :rolleyes

Yup, just to pi$$ off the BDA and attempt to make the format sink. Given the number of people who believe that an upconverting DVD player over HDMI is "good enough", this could succeed. HDM is actually in a very fragile place right now, and the BDA needs to do everything in their power not to irritate those who have already made the leap.

Well, since Friday, there's been a lot to talk about.