Warner Red to Blu DVD trade

[Dean McManis]

Warner Brothers announced a program to allow early adopters of the now defunct HD-DVD movie format to trade their old titles in for brand new Blu-ray versions of their favorite movies. Consumers will have to mail their cover art sleeves from the HD-DVD cases to Warner Brothers. The offer is limited to one copy per movie and up to 25 discs per household.

Warner Brothers is also charging $4.95 per traded disc as well as a $6.95 shipping / handling fee. Consumers will be able to keep their old HD-DVD discs as well. The replacement Blu-ray discs will take approximately 4 to 5 weeks to reach consumer hands. Warner Bros. registered a new site for the program: http://red2blu.com/

After going through the process, it's clear that there is just one $6.95 fee for shipping all of the new Blu Ray DVDs.

Here was the info on the website for final checkout:

Step 2: For each Blu-ray in your order, please send the same title HD-DVD cover art sleeve to our processing center
Tip: the cover art sleeve is the insert that serves as the front and back cover of your HD-DVD.
This must be intact and include the UPC.


How to Submit Your Cover Art
1. Remove the cover art from the HD-DVD cases. Make sure to remove the whole paper sleeve including the UPC on the back cover. Put the cover art in an envelope
Tip: the further you open the case, the easier it is to remove the cover art

2. A PDF shipping label (pre-addressed, prepaid postage) will be attached to your order confirmation email.
This label includes a barcode that identifies your order. Print the label and tape it to your envelope. If you do not use the label, still send it in the envelope with the cover art
Tip: if you cannot open the PDF label, go to http://get.adobe.com/reader

3. Drop in a US Postal Service mailbox. You will receive a confirmation email when the envelope reaches our processing center.

Oh and I traded in a few box sets as well, and the exchange prices were either $9.95 for a few of them, to $14.95 for larger sets like Harry Potter.

:T

[Chris D]

Wait, is this for real?

No kidding?

Wow, I'll have to go check that out!!!! :T

[1oldguy]

I think this is great for the people who have spent hard earned dollars on movies.
I only bought blue ray as I had a feeling the format would win.Now if I could only do as well when picking out numbers for the lotto.

[Dean McManis]

Yeah I got my e-mail confirmation from them for six single HD-DVD movies, and the Matrix and Harry Potter box sets. The total cost was $70.87 including shipping and taxes, plus the best part is that I only have to mail them the original DVD cover sleeves (meaning that I still get to keep the HD-DVD discs and boxes as backup movies).

[Chris D]

Sweet... I don't remember which of my HD-DVD's are WB, but I kept all of them, and haven't re-bought any on BD yet, so it looks like I'll have some new BD's coming my way, now! Hmmm.... Transformers was Paramount, so that won't work. Will have to check my others.

[Dean McManis]

Looking through my HD-DVD collection (which is only like 50 discs total), I was surprised to find that most of them are Universal, and the rest are split between Paramount and Warner, with a few being Dreamworks and Disney.

Outside of this deal I have not re-bought any of my HD-DVD movies on Blu-Ray before.
Mostly this is because the Blu-Ray DVDs are relatively overpriced, and in contrast often I've been able to get most of my HD-DVD movies for LESS than standard DVDs on sale. 8)

One thing that has happened for me recently is that I pretty much do not buy regular DVDs anymore. For new movies I'm renting the Blu-Ray versions, and there is something unfulfilling about paying $15 for a new DVD that's not high definition.

Not that I'm ready to spend $25+ on a Blu-Ray version of the movie either (with a few exceptions), but I'm having a tough time just catching up on seeing the programs and movies that I've recorded via Direct TV (most of which are in HD currently).

[David Meek]

Woohoo!!! :dancenana:

Thanks for the heads-up Dean! Now to go find out how many of my HD's are Warner....

[PewterTA]

So they want to make even more money off of us???

I still have my HD player and it works perfectly fine, so why do I need to spend $5 to move it to blu-ray when blu-ray won't even be around all that long?

I think it's great if you got rid of your HD player (mind you)...then again, why did you get rid of it and keep the movies?

It would mean I'd have to spend about another $100- $150 for movies I already have, JUST to get them to blu-ray... I don't think that's worth it when I already have them on HD-DVD...???

[Ovation]

I concur. In fact, I just bought 6 more HD DVDs (four for 2.99, one for 3.99 and one for 4.99) last week. The 130$ or so it would cost me to get BD replacements can go for something I don't already have. It's great that WB is giving people a chance to do this if they want to, but I'm quite happy with my two HD DVD players (I still use a 19 year old CD player in my living room system--I don't expect both HD DVD players to fail simultaneously) and my 150 or so HD DVD titles.

[David Meek]

I'm giving my HD player to my son (who will benefit from the low HD disc prices) so this is great for me.

[sikoniko]

I had thrown away the boxes for 'Oceans' and 'The matrix', which they request for the trade-in. They said they are working on a way around this because many people did the same...

[Dean McManis]

There were several HD-DVD movies that I did not "trade-in" because the HD-DVD picture quality still looks great, and I'm probably not going to be watching those DVDs enough to justify any added expense.

But I do have more than one place that I show HD movies at home, and I anticipate separating movie sets and having the Blu-Ray player in my main home theater, and the HD-DVD player in my other HT.

So since I'm actually not having to give up the HD-DVD discs for this deal, it means that in essence I'm buying an extra set of high def discs for a only few bucks each to get that added convenience. :T

[littlesaint]

I had thrown away the boxes for 'Oceans' and 'The matrix', which they request for the trade-in. They said they are working on a way around this because many people did the same...

They told me the sleeve for Matrix Revolutions from the set will suffice. Not sure about Oceans.

[David Meek]

I'm only going to get two movies exchanged. I'd already replaced all my Warner titles except for 300 and The Last Samurai. All the rest are Universals and Paramounts.

[Chris D]

Just set up my exchange tonight. I counted, and out of 24 HD-DVD's I had, (I strongly favored Blu-Ray from the beginning) only 4 were WB. And of those, I only actually bought one--the Matrix Trilogy. The other 3 were either gifts or promotions, like my Harry Potter: OOTP that was one of the free discs I got for buying my HD-DVD player. (the other movies are "300" and "V for Vendetta")

Would be cool to get the same exchange with the other HD-DVD manufacturers, I have some good ones. So, some interesting notes about my exchange:

- I'm going to do all 4. If nothing else, I'll get brand new movies that I can sell, and make a buck.

- I got charged $8.95 for shipping, not $6.95. Oh well.

- Somebody actually bought me the complete Matrix collection on BD, this Christmas, but I'm going to exchange it anyway and maybe sell it or something

- Interesting to note that I actually had the Matrix TRILOGY on HD-DVD, and NOT the complete collection, which I still own on SD-DVD. I figured I didn't need to re-buy the non-movie stuff again, like the Animatrix, when it came in SD anyway in the new set.

- But when you set up the Matrix collection exchange, it is the same price whether you previously had just the trilogy or the complete collection on HD-DVD. And it looks like they send you the full complete Matrix collection on BD. So I guess I lucked out!

- For the Matrix trilogy, the instructions tell me to just mail in the case cover for "Matrix Revolutions" and not the others.

Good find! Come on, Universal and Paramount, do the same thing!

[David Meek]

Come on, Universal and Paramount, do the same thing!

Now that would be nice! :-y

[Chris D]

I got my new BD's this week, in original shrinkwrapping. Nice! :T