So Much For The 3 Week Delay, Invasion HD DVD On The Shelf At Best Buy
Posted by Tyler Pruitt on January 30, 2008
Filed Under: Format War, HD DVD, Retailers, Studios
Even though Warner had planned a 3 week delay on the HD DVD version of ‘Invasion,’ it seems Best Buy and several other retailers didn’t get the memo. We didn’t pick it up since $34.99 is highway robbery for a title like this. We do wonder why on earth Warner would ship the HD DVD version to retailers at the same time as the Blu-ray. We would expect this to get worked out by the time ‘I Am Legend’ hits store shelves.
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If this goof happens with “The Assassination of Jesse James” I am most definitely going to pick that up.
If they make that mistake with I am Legend, I’m gonna take my car and drive all the way around bay area just to get one.
So when does this site change its domain to bluraycentral.com?
Chuck,
Are you implying this post is anti-HD DVD?
If this movie was any good I might actually care.
It seems to me that many HD-DVD fans are picking it up just so they can Warner didnt delay it.
I will pick up Assassination of Jesse James, I Am Legend and Michael Clayton though and we’ll see if those get a delay or not.
If Warner is serious about the delay then they will make it so they wont ship until later. If that ends up being the case, I think many retailers will not bother carrying the HD-DVD version, which is probably what Warner wants.
Chuck, you should probably brush up on your reading comprehension.
This article is most definitely pro-HD DVD.
I’m not sure exactly how the timelines work but it’s possible this one was already shipped or in the process of shipping to retailers when they announced their decision?
just seen it at my local bestbuy as well but as with most new releases it’s just not worth 34.99 to me have to wait for a bogo or something before i pick it up… same with i am legend can’t wait to watch it in hd but i’m not going to pay that kind of money for it… it’s just a movie… most people don’t spend that much on there dvd players no wonder hidef is a niche market
Hopefully not – I would enjoy picking up I Am Legend at the same time my Blu Counterparts do. The $35 price would deter me though, unless there was a great deal going on …
Not just Best Buy… I went to my local Hastings Entertainment last night, and there it was for $26.99 next to the blu-ray version.. so I picked it up even though I hear it sucks..
And I’m sure that next week we’ll see a post about how the blu-ray versions of new Warner titles are selling much better than the HD DVD ones.
Question: How do you benefit from a delay on HD DVD titles?
This site seems to get great pleasure posting anti-hd-dvd news and delights at all pro-BR news. Some have posted that the A3 clearance at CC was a mistake yet I would never know this reading this site. A piece of advice, IF this site is intending to be neutral then you have to watch your editorial tone. You come off being very pro-BR. It’s not much of a format war if you’re coming off like propaganda for one side.
So are all the pictures people have taken of A3 clearance price tags some kinds of fakes? Or some kind of accident? It is unfortunate perhaps that there is little to celebrate in HD DVD land at the moment, but I can assure you that I am the only ‘pro-BD’ writer on the site.
Victor,
Please, re-read this article. If you do, I’m sure you’ll find that it is indeed pro-HD DVD.
As for this site being pro-BD or pro-HD DVD, there too you are wrong. We report the news, and on occasion rumors, but we can only report what we hear and see, and right now, there is far more “news” about Blu-ray than there is about HD DVD.
If there were more good news, believe me when I say that I would be all over it. Moving forward, hopefully there will be. Until then, please refrain from labeling us a pro-Blu-ray site when that could not be further from the truth, and while you’re at it, why not browse through our archives to see for yourself that we are indeed neutral.
Thanks.
Chuck & Victor, as someone said you should improve your reading comprehension.
This site reports both HD-DVD news and Blu-ray ditto rather neutrally. The fact that most good news are Blu-ray nowadays is not exactly their problem.
And as for the posts by readers, well, wake up, globally Blu-ray has far more supporters than HD-DVD so it should come as no surprise that the Blu-ray posts might dominate.
For the original article, I think it is a shame if Warner doesn’t stick to the original plan. I really think they should simply have dropped HD-DVD straight after the announcement and make the end of the war come as quickly as possible.
I guess it is legal BS that stops this
Dave,
you only have to look a little harder and you will find reports that the clearance was a pricing error and that people have since discovered that it has been corrected. You are following up on this story, correct? This has been confirmed by a source with CC, correct?
As for my opinion that I think this site has been pro-BR in it’s editorial, I’m sticking with it and if you care about this appearance then you should at least take that under advisement and not be so defensive. Why don’t you take a poll and see if Chuck and Vic are the only ones who think this way?
Victor,
If someone was attacking you, wouldn’t you be defensive?
You’re undermining our ability to present our readers with the facts surrounding the format war — effectively saying that we are no good at our jobs. And you wonder why we’re getting up in arms?
You can stick to your “guns” all you want, and we will take it under advisement that all of two people on the internet share your sentiments. No poll needed at this time, thanks.
Should you need further proof that we are not leaning to any one side, how about the fact that we are not following the trend and declaring HD DVD dead like all of the other drones across the internet?
Wait a minute, could it be that some of us are HD DVD supporters, and not Blu-ray supporters? *gasp*
Forgive me, I’m blowing your mind.
I love the elementary school “brush up on your reading comprehension” comments guys. Way to show your readers your level of intelligence by insulting the commenter instead of telling us why you believe the article is “pro HD-DVD”.
I fail to see how dogging Warner for releasing the HD-DVD at the same time as the blu-ray, and scoffing at the price of a COMBO disc that only costs $5 more than the blu-ray only version is pro HD-DVD.
If you guys don’t think you have any blu-ray bias, I welcome you to post a legitimate poll on the front page that asks what visitors think. If you really think there’s only two people who detect bias, you should have a pretty lopsided poll then.
Either way I’m done with this site. I can just read Engadget’s news on the Engadget site. No need to come here to read the blu-ray biased re-posts of it. Also no need to have a biased writer come on and insult me rather than defend his article. Enjoy the $0.00001 you made off of me from your google ad.
And for the record, I am neutral. I own both formats and equal amounts of titles for them both.
Vic: Actually the the CC article was Tyler’s, so I am not following up on anything.
As for background, I have both formats but strongly prefer Blu-ray these days based on my user experience and preferences. Tyler has both also and at least used to side with HD DVD. James iirc doesn’t even have Blu-ray at this time.
Perhaps ironically Tyler asked me to contribute to add more Blu leaning since when he was writing he was often accused of HD DVD bias. None the less you are entitled to believe whatever you choose.
In reality though I don’t think the whole format war thing is really worth getting overly upset about. I contribute here and in the discussions because I find it fun follow what is going on. I don’t think this site will ‘change the world’ and so spin is not really necessary. I just observe and report what I see going on…
That is my personal feeling, not necessarily the site’s ‘official stance’.
Chuck, good that you are done with this site. Just stop posting then if you dislike it so much.
For me, this site is as neutral as it can be. It’s not exactly their fault that the winds are blowing against HD-DVD (with storm force) right now.
The visitors as you call them already post what they think. Just read the posts.
But of course the fact that globally there is a huge “advantage” for Blu-ray might “bias” the visitors posts a wee bit. Not that you would recognize that of course.
what’s really funny is he thinks this site is to biased towards blu so he’s going to engadget??? that place is bluer than papa smurf… I to have felt this site leaning more blu than it used to but stopping and thinking about it i think it’s just the continous amount of bad news for red that’s making everyone seem to be blue biased
Thanks for the words of support. In many ways the site is almost like the format war with myself posting primarily for Blu-ray readers and James for HD DVD and Tyler for both.
Yet somehow we manage to get along.
In fact I generally commend those who comment here for keeping it rational and not getting into brawling, etc. For a lot of this stuff, it just is what it is. And for the most part I try to report what it is and let the reader decide what it means. Sometimes I throw in some opinion – it is hard not to…
Sorry to see you go, Chuck.
Just in case anyone cares, here’s the proof that Circuit City is still behind HD DVD.
http://news.punchjump.com/article.php?id=5485
Kris: I like how they use the word ‘inadvertent’ – I kinda wonder what they mean by that. How does one mark HD DVD players as Clearance ‘inadvertently’? They didn’t intend to mark the players as $100 on clearance – it just happened?
I do like the article though – it shows both that some CC stores had the player marked as clearance (as was widely reported), and that it is not corporate policy…
I said that I detect a bias and all of a sudden attacks on my reading comprehension ensue. Ok, I guess I missed the show of love and support in this statement.
“We do wonder why on earth Warner would ship the HD DVD version to retailers at the same time as the Blu-ray. We would expect this to get worked out by the time ‘I Am Legend’ hits store shelves.”
To me this comes off as almost disappointed that the title was not delayed as the retailer “didn’t get the memo”. Perhaps this is sarcasm but with stories appearing on this site that CC was dropping HD-DVD, which was quickly repudiated in reports around the net and now officially from CC, this just comes off as piling on the bad news, whether true or not.
Dave,
I work in corporate retail and “inadvertent” things happen ALL THE TIME. Just today I approved a price markup on a sku that had been incorporated into a markdown cycle accidentally. These things happen when you deal with 1,000’s of sku’s and try to run businesses using exception reports.
Victor,
I was just pointing out how it was dumb of Warner to
ship the HD DVD at the same time as the Blu-ray, and
expect retailers not to mess up the whole thing. I was as excited as everyone else to see the HD DVD sitting there, now only if it was a better movie….
It’s funny to think that a simple “!” in the title could have significantly effected how people read into the article, hehe.
Victor: I guess I could see that – I recall it was Circuit City that was supposed to have a BoGo on specific titles but the system marked them all at specific price points as BoGo (much to our joy). It is all very interesting – makes me wonder if it was not an accident but was actually sabotage!? Some disgruntled employee…? Anyways, it was what it was I guess…
It’s pretty easy to “accidentally” mis mark things in the computer – most of the time the person doing that is not into the products, and doesn’t know too much about things other than a SKU/inventory number.
Just out of curiosity.
Why hasn’t the CC-Clearance story been retracted or explained further now that new information has come to light?.
“Circuit City to back HD DVD; clearance ‘inadvertent’”
Victor,
Working on that post… we just got a hold of the confirming picture.