What HD-DVD, Blu-ray disc, or D-Theater tape have you gotten lately? (Part 3)

Has anybody seen "The Ruins", on Blu-Ray (or DVD for that matter)? I saw a trailer for it on some other Blu-Ray. It seemed a bit interesting, like sort of a sci-fi, mystery sort of thing. But I've read reviews where it basically paints the thing as a run-of-the-mill horror flick with a cast of the sort of typical people cast in sort of B horror films.

I'd consider picking it up even if it's just a standard horror film, as it seemed to have a slightly visually intriguing premise. But I'd like to find it somewhere new or used for like $15 or less. $34.99 at Target or Circuit City ain't happening, and even $22.99 on Amazon seems too much for me on this one. I think Amazon had it dropped to $19.99 a little while back and I considered biting, but I decided to wait to see if it would pop up in any 2-for-1 or 3-for-2 sales. No such luck yet.

 

I think those BOGO sales are long gone.

The affluent format "won" so we've got affluent pricing now.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens at the end of this year. It was during the last holiday season that a lot of the BOGO sales took place. After HD-DVD dropped out, some said we'd see less of those sales, less price breaks, etc. Others claimed that that BOGO sales had less to do with competing formats and more to do with the holiday season. I haven't a clue what the motivations were. I would tend to believe it was both. My gut is that some if not most of it was driven by the format war.

In any event, I haven't see much in the way of BOGO sales in the last however many months. There have been a fair amount of "Buy Two Get the Third Free" sales or sales with a discount when multiple titles are purchased, but they have been limited in the number of titles, with many of the same titles popping up in sale after sale. Other general price drop sales have been sporadic and focused on a few titles. I've seen some flyers from the big box retailers that advertise "Buy Two get the Third Free" or "Buy Two and get $10 off", and the like, but with only like 5 or 10 titles on the list to pick from.

Even more puzzling is how we're still seeing titles dropped to a relatively "low" price of $20-$25 on Amazon, yet still get tagged at $34.95 at B&M retailers. When it's as cheap or nearly as cheap to buy two titles at regular price online as it is to get them on a BOGO sale at a B&M store, that's just puzzling.

 

I haven't seen it yet, I dropped it from my Blockbuster queue when I saw this lot of discs for sale, which works out to about $10 each and I will dump the couple I don't want. It is one I will watch soon. Right now I am watching "Battlestar Galactica" First Season on HD DVD. I hadn't ever seen an episode, never watched the original 25 years ago either. I am pleased after the first couple of hours, looks like pretty good science fiction.

"Casablanca" is coming to Blu-ray, only the fancy box set right now as far as I know.



Chris

 

Warner put out a statement about a month ago that promised to lower catalog prices this fall. I expect them to force some of the other's prices down. That's what they did in the early years of DVD.

 

Picked up Mummy Returns on blu at Walmart for 19.99. Plus there's a movie ticket for the new Mummy inside.

 

Everyone, head over to Amazon now. They're having a huge sale on blu ray discs. Some are 30% off and others are $19.95 or less.

 

I'd like to see a sale on HD DVDs there. I'm getting the idea Amazon just wants to keep them. I Am Legend has been stiffly priced at $24.99 for quite some time now. I still want that, but it has to go below $20.

 

I used Amazon's sale and a trial membership in Prime to already have The Doors in the house for $18.95 .

My big system is back on line, the 805 passed the DTS Bomb test of Master And Commander last night. I recalled the Bomb was between 15 and 25 minutes, no incident.

The Doors has DTS Master, so, it's more good test fodder. I did play quite a lot of BD's with Master before I hit one that caused a problem, before the 805's firmware upgrade that is.

 

Tower.com has been frequently undercutting Amazon's BD pricing lately. They are selling The Doors for $15.86 as an example.

 

It was $4 higher when I bought it from them. Unfortunately they don't have the 30 price difference refund policy like amazon.

I did get a Dead Can Dance SACD for $13.99 with my order though so it wasn't all bad.

 

Probably not the right thread for this, but Best Buy has dropped the price of the LG BH200 to 399.95, and they are in stock ... at least for now. I'm sure they'll go fast.

 

Now it is 17.72

Their prices change frequently probably depending on how many are in stock.

 

I just picked up "The Proposition" on Blu-Ray. This is a budget priced title, cost me $14.99 at Best Buy.

 

Watched The Rolling Stones "Shine A Light" on Blu-ray last night. From Netflix, but I will have to buy this one!

Good sound, and absolutely amazing picture. Yes, there are a few "hot" shots due to all of the stage lighting, but the detail can be extraordinary.

 

Best Buy.com has it for $340 now. I have a rewards coupon for 12% off, not sure it will work but I am going to try. Just add to cart to see the $340 price:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...bh200&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1186004964788

Chris

 

I picked up Gattaca yesterday, only my 3rd Bluray I've purchased to date. Rather pathetic given I've owned a PS3 for a year. I'm holding out for the entire release of the Sopranos and will be picking up Blade Runner this week. Save for these videos, I can't really think of anything that is compelling enough for me to buy. Maybe the Matrix along with the upcoming restoration of the Godfather films.

 

I got U-571 to try out Universal's BD's. I've heard I may need a firmware upgrade for my Panasonic A10 to handle Uni's BD's. I'll test it on the A10 and then move to the big system and slap her in the BD30 and play it in all it's boomin', DTS Master glory.

Vita Mah-sheen!

 

Just picked up Nightmare Before Christmas. I had BB match Target's price of $29.99

 

I've noticed Best Buy has had no problems selling that even at the exorbitant $35 price. They had just 1 left when I was there after work today. And only 1 left of Heroes 2 blu-ray at $50. Plenty of Heroes 1 though, I guess some people draw the line at $80.

I've got the big fat Heroes Season 1 & 2 (combined) box on the way to me from amazon.co.uk .. cheapest way to get them both, in the world.

 

I am not so sure that it is the $80.00 price of the Heroes 1 set, but the fact that it was already released on HD-DVD (which I own), or the fact that anyone who wanted Heroes season 1 bought it on DVD a year or so ago when it was originally released. Not sure that many people would want to double-dip on the set.

Heroes 2 is a totally new release, so it makes more sense for people to purchase that now over season 1.

 

My first Universal BD, U-571 went down well. I didn't put it in my A10 yet but it had no problems with the BD30. The DTS Master audio is a definite upgrade over the Dolby Digital Plus on the HD-DVD. The DD Plus on the HD-DVD compressed the dialog too much IMO. It rendered some of the dialog hard to hear, particularly Harvey Keitel's deep voice. The deapth charges seemed better too. The bass was mighty.

The PQ looked about the same as D-Theater tape and HD-DVD. This is the first title that I own on all three formats. It'll proably be the only 3-timer I own anytime soon. I'll be waiting for Universal to release somethin' I don't have like, say, Charlie Wilson's War. C'mon Uni, get off the repeats and mummies!

 

Received my first discs today (along with a Blu-ray/HD DVD combo rom drive, nice timing!):

All HD DVD (cheap from the inetvideo.com sale):

Blade Runner 5 Complete Collector's Edition ($12.99 used!)
Casino - $7.99
Carlito's Way - $7.99
Black Snake Moan - $7.99
Red Dragon - $6.99
Scent of a Woman - $6.99
Lost in Translation - $10.29

Can't wait to install the drive and start watching!

 

Andrew,

Pick up Seabiscuit. Quality HD-DVD.