Retailers Blowing Out or Hiking Up Price of HD DVDs

Since the end of the format war which saw Blu-ray emerge victorious, consumers that own HD DVD players have been doing one of two things: returning their players to the store, or stocking up on HD DVD discs while they're still available. After all, "winning" format or not, HD DVD produces some darned good quality content! Over the past few months, however, I've noticed some subsequent changes in how retailers have been dealing with the remaining discs.

The first step was logically to drop the price of HD DVDs. One that might have sold for $30 was all of a sudden $18.99, then $12.99, and so forth. Granted, I didn't see any earth-shattering deals, but the prices were certainly coming down more significantly than they likely would have if HD DVD remained in the market. Lately, however, I've noticed that the prices have gone back up as supply slowly dwindles and the discs become more difficult to find.

Interestingly, I was prompted to observe this by a fellow shopper in a discount retail shop this past weekend. As we stood side-by-side looking through the last few HD DVDs in stock (selling for just $6!), he commented about how the prices were going back up elsewhere. Funny enough, this was only after he proudly advised me that "you can't play that in a regular DVD player, you know?" While I enjoyed a little internal chuckle, I was genuinely quite pleased to see an example of an "average" consumer that appeared to understand the difference between HD and SD discs and was eager to share his knowledge.

Regardless of what the current average price is, the fact remains that HD DVD discs are still more affordable now then they were 6 months ago. If you still own a player, now's primetime to stock up on the last available titles. For now, they'll provide better quality content than you'll get via standard DVD, and will certainly tide you over before investing in a fancy new Blu-ray. And who knows: once these discs are completely out of circulation, you might be able to flip those discs to an A/V collector of some sort for a pretty penny!

Wal-Mart U.S., Canada Supports Blu-ray!

The format war may officially be over. Wal-Mart in the U.S. has announced that it will be phasing out HD DVD players and software titles over the next coming weeks, and a spokesperson from Wal-Mart Canada tells me that stores north of the border will indeed be following suit.

"We are adopting the same decision here," said Wal-Mart Canada's Manager of Corporate Affairs, Karin Campbell. "As a result of customer feedback, we have decided to move toward offering the Blu-ray format only."

Campbell says that all HD DVD products will be sold and gradually phased out of stock over the next few weeks.

"We believe that this will help make the customer purchase decision easier," she added.

And for those who haven't yet taken the plunge, Campbell reassured that Wal-Mart would continue to stock "regular" DVDs and players. However, with the format war slowly coming to a close, we'll likely see more and more customers jumping onto the high-definiton DVD platform this year.

We won't call it a tried and true victory until, as they say, the fat lady sings. But it sure looks like she's taking a deep breath to belt out a big tune very, very soon.