Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"You are receiving this e-mail due to your purchase of an HD DVD player from Amazon.com before February 23, 2008. As you may know, manufacture of HD DVD players ceased February 23, 2008, and major studios in the U.S. have ceased production of HD DVDs. In recognition of this development, Amazon.com is providing all customers who purchased qualifying HD DVD players a credit for $50 off any products sold by Amazon.com for each HD DVD player unit purchased from us prior to February 23, 2008, up to a limit of 10 per customer, or a maximum credit of $500 per customer."



I'd heard about this a few weeks ago, but doubted it was legit because I had never received said e-mail. After seeing it reported a few other places, I called Amazon, and sure enough, it is legit and despite the fact that I had never received the e-mail the credit had automatically been applied to my account. I've got to say, this is pretty cool on Amazon's part as well as the other retailers that are doing similar promotions. Do I wish HD DVD had won out? Sure. But I knew going in that it might not be the winner and accepted the risk in making the purchase. Certainly it was not Amazon's fault it did not win, so a big kudos to them for going above and beyond to satisfy their customers.

"Online video rental company Netflix Inc said on Monday it would exclusively stock Blu-ray high-definition DVDs after a decision by some the world's biggest movie studios in favor of the Sony Corp developed format. Netflix has stocked DVDs using both Blu-ray and the competing HD DVD format developed by Toshiba Corp since they first came on the market in early 2006. Four out of six major Hollywood studios have recently decided to publish high-definition DVDs only using Blu-ray. Netflix said that with such a clear signal from the industry, it will only buy Blu-ray discs going forward and will phase out stock of HD DVD by about the end of the year."

Hmm, I wonder whether this happened because there weren't enough takers for the HD DVD format. Given Netflix is the leader in movie rentals, I wonder if this really signals the demise of HD DVD. I know Microsoft has backed this format very strongly and the XBox 360 (which has support for HD DVD) has been doing very well. So I wonder whether this also signals that not enough people are using the XBox 360 has a high definition media extender?