Amazon takes 50% off 150 HD DVDs

by Darren Murph posted Feb 14th 2008 at 2:07PM

Amazon, everyone's favorite place to find discounted high-definition titles of late, has pulled out (almost) all of the stops in its latest offer. A full 150 HD DVD flicks are now available at 50-percent off, and there doesn't seem to be any major limits / restrictions, either. So, what's it to you? Stocking up, or staying away?

[Thanks, MikeUF]

Filed under: Industry, HD DVD

Tags: amazon, deal, deals, hd dvd, HdDvd, sale

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Highest Ranked

spwhittle @ Feb 14th 2008 2:16PM

Stocking up. They'll look good on my shelves next to my Betamax tapes and New Coke cans.

Highest Ranked

John B @ Feb 14th 2008 2:35PM

Okay ... add spwhittle to the already-long "sore winner" list ...

Neutral

kcmurphy88 @ Feb 14th 2008 5:00PM

They're selling more blu-rays for less in the 3-for-2 offer. What does that mean?

Highly Ranked

David S @ Feb 14th 2008 5:12PM

@kcmurphy88

There's also a HD DVD B2G1 Free sale. Most of the movies in the 50% off deal are also in this. I'm getting 9 HD DVDs but only paying for 6.

Neutral

andy @ Feb 14th 2008 2:16PM

FIRESALE!@!!! BLU ftw. suxxors.sss

Probably not, but as an HDDVD owner, I have no doubt that this is an inventory reduction attempt.

I may buy a couple that I want.

When we hit firesale, I'll buy them all. For reference, that's under 10/title.

Highly Ranked

andy @ Feb 14th 2008 2:19PM

Also, that's apparently 50% off MSRP. At 20 bucks each, that sure isn't objectively cheap yet.

It's an enticement to buy a couple that have been restricted from sales, but certainly not enough to "stock up" on the ones that have previously been on sale.

Neutral

anon @ Feb 14th 2008 2:31PM

Agreed. This isn't as good of a deal as a BOGO, but still better than paying full price. For the moves I still want anyway. Amazon also has a sale of Blu-ray's. Buy 2, get one free. I think these sale prices should be the regular price. I know that's a while away, though...

Highly Ranked

hmurchison @ Feb 14th 2008 2:27PM

I'll buy some gems. I've always wondered why people thought just because a format didn't make it the media wasn't good. I've never had a consolidated library across one format. Tapes/CD, VHS/DVD co-existed fine for years. The movie isn't going to look any better on Blu-ray so I may as well take advantage of significant price savings.

Highest Ranked

MadMike @ Feb 14th 2008 2:30PM

Well I do have an HD-DVD player and even if HD-DVD dies completely (which I doubt it will, it may find a niche market to stay somewhat alive), I'll still have a player that plays them and plays them at awesome quality. So while the price is right, hell yeah.

Neutral

Luis @ Feb 14th 2008 3:33PM

If any HD player would find a niche market, it would be Blu Ray. At the higher cost, higher end players (Pioneer elite, Harmon Kardon, Denon, Sony), Blu Ray looks to be the smaller market than HD DVD would ever be. HD DVD was geared to be the replacement for DVD, they wanted it to be in everyones house. Its starting to look like HD content is going to be a sub market for home video. I think it makes sense. There are still many homes that do not have an HD source or playback equipment. Many don't plan to buy this gear either, because they can't afford it, or don't see the difference.

Now that HD DVD looks to be on the way out, the market can focus on DVD and Blu Ray for HD content. Hopefully HD downloads will fill in that middle ground.

Highly Ranked

Xyzzy @ Feb 14th 2008 2:44PM

This 50% off sale is hardly a firesale. As was pointed out, it's 50% off of MSRP, which is only a buck or two lower than Amazon regularly sells the movies for. Compared to a BOGO, this deal kinda sucks. :(

And BD has been having just as many deals recently, so...

DeepDiscountDVD.com has a better sale anyway:
http://slickdeals.net/?permadeal=11638#direct_deal_11638

Lowest Ranked

Nfinity @ Feb 14th 2008 2:33PM

Of course, Amazon has IN ADDITION to the 50% of 150 titles... they have another sale:

B2G1 .. about 130 HD DVD titles:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&docId=1000196251&plpage=1

Deep Discount also has MASSIVE sale on HD DVDs.. $12-$16 prices on most titles:
http://www.deepdiscount.com/DVD---Universal-Hi-Def-Sale_stcVVcatId476505VVviewcat.htm

Come on Blu Engadget boys REPORT!!!!!!! Get that groove on.. HD DVD is taking OFF!

Neutral

borland502 (SDF - Macross Ring) @ Feb 14th 2008 3:21PM

"HD DVD is taking OFF!"

Of the many hyperboles you employ, none confuse me more than your persistent belief in the above. How do you simultaneously rebuke Blu for "nail in the coffin" statements when you are forever saying that HD DVD is "about to win" or "taking off"?

HD DVD has been cheaper since inception, but that has not convinced the majority of consumers to adopt it. And for the past few months it can't even manage to convince the "non-PS3 kiddies" (to quote TT) to buy more HD DVD stand-alones.

Say that HD DVD isn't dead yet, because it really isn't right now. But it's been losing in SW for more than a year and now it's lagging in standalone HW sales (PS3 notwithstanding). So you might want to hold that victory parade until HD DVD, y'know, at least appears like a winner. Not getting outsold 99.9999:1 is not winning sir. Regardless of what you think the market "should be" you have to see what is actually there.

Neutral

EQC @ Feb 14th 2008 3:25PM

"HD DVD is taking OFF!"

To be grammatically clear, "taking off" would usually imply a big increase in sales. If that was your intent, you wrote it as though it was fact, when really it's only your speculation as to what will happen as a result of the *actual* news, which is the existence of a sale (one mentioned in the article, a couple more mentioned by you). The only thing that is factually being "taken off" in this case is a few dollars from the price...

In a couple weeks, when the sales numbers for this week come out, then there'll be a way to actually make a judgment about the type of success you seem to imply. Maybe HD-DVD will sell more than BluRay this week...maybe it won't. Based on a year-long history of sales ratios, though, there's some doubt to be legitimately cast as to whether an HD-DVD price reduction will significantly increase media sales of the format at this point...

Neutral

justLaughing @ Feb 14th 2008 3:28PM

To: Nfinity

"...HD DVD is taking OFF!"

Kind of like Evel Knievel's jump over the Snake River Canyon.

You are so funny.

Neutral

JimC @ Feb 14th 2008 3:42PM

Ok Baghdad Bob, whatever you say....

Highly Ranked

XDragon @ Feb 14th 2008 3:42PM

Nfinity - HD-DVD taking off?
Wow are you going to be surprised when you realize that retailers are reducing their stock on HD-DVD to play it on the safe side as things look so bad for the format. I'm not saying they will dump HD-DVD any time soon, but its in their best interests to have low inventory because they don't know when Toshiba will make it official. After Toshiba throws in the towel, retailers will have to have a fire sale and lose money to clear out inventory.

Neutral

RockinOscar @ Feb 14th 2008 3:54PM

wait a second? you cold buy 2 HD DVD for less than $20 and get the Ultimate matric collection for free? could you check that out for me?

Neutral

anon @ Feb 14th 2008 4:31PM

Right from the link that a few people posted to the sale on Amazon:
"The promotional discount will be applied at checkout to the title of lesser cost"
So no, Matrix would be paid for, the cheapest would be free. Uness the other 2 you buy are more than The Matrix

Neutral

Flame Thrower @ Feb 14th 2008 8:51PM

Nfinity, I can see why the PR effort of HD-DVD is so poor, you guys are wasting too much time on Engadget.

On the other end, I couldn't make some of that up.

Neutral

DeadPlasmaCell @ Feb 14th 2008 2:36PM

Wont be "stocking up" but I'll pick up a handfull. Awesome deal. They also have a Buy 2 get 1 free deal goin on as well (And Blu-Ray).

Neutral

Luis @ Feb 14th 2008 3:34PM

yeah, and most of those selections suck.

Highly Ranked

wreckedchevy @ Feb 14th 2008 2:36PM

hell yea, that is if it's still going after i get band of brothers paid for (ouch)

Low Ranked

Larry @ Feb 14th 2008 2:39PM

Warner U-Turn:

http://www.dvdtown.com/news/will-warner-bros-re-stock-old-hd-dvds-we-asked-them/5234

Highly Ranked

JimC @ Feb 14th 2008 3:47PM

U-Turn, lol. It is not a U-turn at all. Get some reading comprehension skills before you hurt yourself celebrating....

Highest Ranked

eugene @ Feb 14th 2008 2:45PM

50% off of MSRP is nothing, I'll be waiting for the 10dollar sales... though, there isn't much left in the HD-DVD catalogue that i'd want... though, that director's cut of Zodiac looks mighty tempting.

Highly Ranked

eric @ Feb 14th 2008 2:46PM

bought 4 from amazon and 8 from deepdiscount dvd... brings me up to 180 HD DVD titles... so many good deals too hard to pass up...

Highly Ranked

Slyrunks @ Feb 14th 2008 2:52PM

Look, other than the fact that it's HDM, why the hell is it so expensive. HD DVD and Blu-ray disc aren't that much more expensive then DVDs to make. If these movie studios would charge 25% more over DVDs (like $25) instead of 100% or double, they would get more sales.

Neutral

Nate the Prophet @ Feb 14th 2008 3:03PM

Come on people, of course it's a fire sale--or rather a last-ditch effort to generate sales.

However, if Blu-ray was smarter, they would be having BOGO sales everywhere as well just to keep them down and drive the final nail in HD-DVD's coffin.

Lowest Ranked

Nfinity @ Feb 14th 2008 3:11PM

Their steam kind of runs out when they spend a billion dollars in deals to prevent HD DVD sales..

You know it's like in those action movies where the bad guy keeps hitting the good guys, and the good guy is ALMOST knocked out but he still hangs in there, but the bad guy is completely out of steam since he was punching so hard and finally he losses the steam and the good guy says "MY TURN".. and then rips his head off to save the day.

That's what we are about to start seeing.. HD DVD is doing "MY TURN".. or as would Jean Claude Van Damme say in Lionheart "WRONG BET!"

Highest Ranked

Paul @ Feb 14th 2008 3:13PM

Oh Nfinity, bless your heart. You always brighten my day.

Low Ranked

Nfinity @ Feb 14th 2008 3:19PM

Van Damme AS HD DVD in LIONHEART!!!!

The whole bet is on Blu-Ray Lionheart, everybody bet on Blu..

.. WRONG BET.. yeah!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT9L_3yIfkI

Highly Ranked

EQC @ Feb 14th 2008 3:51PM

Is it actually a known fact that the BDA made payoffs to get Warner? I think we know for certain that HD DVD paid off two studios some months ago. While Warner claimed that they weren't bought off by Blu-ray, we can't always just believe businesses. On the other hand, I haven't seen a credible news source confirming a buy-out, and we can't just believe HD DVD fan speculations either. Anybody have a decent, credible link indicating whether the BDA did actually make a buy-out as Nfinity suggests?

Further, AFAIK, the only two companies really fighting for HD DVD right now are Toshiba and Microsoft. Toshiba's really the only manufacturer building hardware (though others have slapped their logo on Toshiba's designs), and Microsoft has a stake in the software/interactivity side. Nobody else has any stake in the fight, as nobody else has a reasonable connection to HD DVD hardware production. On the other hand, the BDA is a very large coalition of companies. Even if you only count those who have produced Blu-ray players, you've got at least Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, and Sharp...but the overall BDA is huge. LG makes a combo player (and computer drives), so I won't count them either way.

Why, then, Nfinity, is the buy-out supposedly made by the BDA so exhaustive to this large group...while HD DVD's earlier buy-outs and current priced-below-cost players are nothing to worry about? Why is HD DVD's financial model, in your opinion, sustainable, while Blu-ray's is not?

Really, to use your analogy, it looks like Toshiba's below-cost players kept them from gaining any HD DVD manufacturing allies, and combined with their earlier pay-outs, they've now exhausted themselves financially and are the "bad guy" who fought hard but is now sitting on the ropes, all winded and helpless.

Neutral

Flame Thrower @ Feb 14th 2008 8:26PM

Nfinity has become boring, which is the WORST mistake you can make whether it is in PR or trolling.

Neutral

Keith @ Feb 14th 2008 3:15PM

Way too little. FAR too late.

Neutral

JayHDDVD @ Feb 14th 2008 3:18PM

I will be staying away.

No desire to put anymore money into a dead format like I did in the past.

The BD B2G1 on the other hand, i'll be looking at those.

Neutral

Nate the Prophet @ Feb 14th 2008 3:32PM

I love Nfinity, always makes me smile :)

I am sorry that HD-DVD lost, in a way, because the cheaper hardware would initially be a good thing. But they were stupid and didn't play their hand until the game was already over--had they started selling $100 players in July...well this would be another sort of article altogether. As it is, Best Buy and Amazon are now in their 2nd strait week (or is it 3rd?) of 1/2 off or BOGO sales on HD-DVDs and they still can't manage to outsell Blu-ray. I think that in 5 years we'll all be happy that Blu-ray won because the future of cheap computer storage is clearly Blu. 200GB of backup data on a $5 piece of plastic...can't wait!

Now if I had an HD-DVD player, I'd be happily eating up these sales. Who cares if the format "wins" long term if you have a nice player and 60 good movies! Just buy a Blu-ray or PS3 this Christmas and call it good. Laserdiscs were very cool, and even though they didn't catch on the people I knew who had them still enjoyed them until they broke (or as STILL enjoying them now--and my father-in-law still has a working BetaMax player!).

Neutral

1stGreg @ Feb 14th 2008 3:17PM

Blu-Ray -has- a B2G1 going on at Amazon.
It just wasn't reported by Engadget to my knowledge :)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_6333342_2?ie=UTF8&docId=1000196201&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo&pf_rd_r=1TFFYTZJZMX3Q0HDV9ZH&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=363263601&pf_rd_i=B000W9DSVW&tag=blurayforum-20

And the firesale promotion for HD DVD is hardly a news, Amazon has been trying to sell all they could for the past two weeks with various promos, for little results.

Neutral

Jeff @ Feb 14th 2008 3:48PM

For those who have an HD-DVD player/drive, it certainly makes sense to buy the (few) titles titles that are still HD-DVD exclusive. Although, at some point they'll likely be available on Blu, how long will that take?

Neutral

Luis @ Feb 14th 2008 3:44PM

To those HD DVD supporters out there-Public perception is stronger than anything. When Warner announced they were going Blu right before CES, that made a lot of media proclaim Blu Ray the winner. With that out in the airwaves and print press, the average consumer reads that as HD DVD is dead, and not to even bother with it. So no matter what you think, its already too late.

HD DVD was dubbed the peoples format, but the people, they wanted DVD. Sure the players were cheap, but the movies were not cheaper to match. I think that sticker shock on DVD tuesday scared people away from buying more movies, and in turn scared people from buying the players, even at that amazing price point. So HD DVD got hit on those two fronts.

The other area that killed HD DVD was the high end home theater enthusiast. When you walk into someone's home theater, do you see a Toshiba DVD player? or some chinese knock off? No, you see a Pioneer, or Onkyo, Denon, Harmon Kardon, Sony and even Samsung. The people who are looking for the best picture quality and sound don't get there gear at Wal Mart for 149.99, they go to Magnolia or a Best Buy or specialty shops. Its a status thing. The HDM market is looking to become not the replacement to DVD but a smaller piece of that pie. I think it works out for everyone that way.

Neutral

HD Tom @ Feb 14th 2008 3:46PM

When they are $5-$7, I'm in!

I'm still waiting for my five free ones from my November purchase. Emailed them and they said "due to overwhelming demand, it is taking longer than expected."

They better not screw me on this, just because they are about to give up (which I'm sure they are)!

Neutral

DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 14th 2008 4:20PM

That's another problem with HD DVD's marketing. You would think they would make more of an effort to meet the demand on those free movies... 3 months wait is ridiculous. They should be hiring some pimple faced kids to stuff these free movie orders and get them out the door quickly.

Anyhow, it's too late for them now. And before the flame torches are lit, I imagine BD free movie offers take just as long, but I don't know since I don't have a BD player (yet).

Neutral

andy @ Feb 14th 2008 4:24PM

I got mine on the 100 dollar walmart sale, and sent in the form a week and a half later.

I got the movies two days ago.

AND, unlike what I hear about Sony, I got exactly the ones that I checked the box for. 3 were combos.

They're coming. Just hold on a bit longer I suppose. But rest assured that they are indeed coming.

Neutral

anon @ Feb 14th 2008 4:35PM

When I got my PS3, they switched out Italian Job with Into the Blue (woo-hoo...), but I suspect that has to do with Paramount going red around that time.
And does everyone not see the response from Toshiba? "due to overwhelming demand, it is taking longer than expected." That says something for how HD DVD likes to stick around and keep pushing out that "last nail". Such a stupid comment...

Highly Ranked

Myself @ Feb 14th 2008 5:54PM

I mailed in my rebate form in the end of October and just got my movies yesterday. It took about three and a half months but they came. I am about to mail out the next rebate for my new A3 purchase. I wonder how long that will take.

Neutral

cheese head @ Feb 14th 2008 3:47PM

I rent HD DVD and Buy/Rent Blu-ray. But now with the Netflix change I won't be renting them much longer either.

Highly Ranked

Mr Stevo @ Feb 14th 2008 3:54PM

Tempting, very tempting. But, I don't even own the player. Plenty of Blu-rays in my library already. I'd let my fellow movie watchers in the Red camp enjoy their deals. Enjoy.

Highly Ranked

SAMe @ Feb 14th 2008 4:02PM

I'll be all over it when it hits 75% off. Been feeding my PS3 a lot lately. My
HD- A20 is jealous. But it knows it won't eat until I get him some food dirt cheap.

Neutral

Nate the Prophet @ Feb 14th 2008 4:06PM

I have over 20 Blu-rays and have averaged about $10.50 per movie, not paying for that $15 for any of them. I have a mix of newer and older (300, Casino Royale, first 4 Harry Potter movies, etc.). Most of those were from Amazon BOGOs.

If you are patient and know where to look, you can get HD movies really cheaply. I plan to get quite a few on the next good BOGO sale.

Neutral

andy @ Feb 14th 2008 4:28PM

nate just proclaimed yet another final nail in the HDDVD coffin.

Yet, here you are talking about the *next* blu-ray bogo.

Here's a clue-pon. When HDDVD is fully done, as you proclaim, there will be no more bogo's. Period.

When you can't find BRD under 25/each, that's how you'll know the final final nail has been driven.

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