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HD DVD Photography Shack Guide

HD DVD Has Been Superseded

By Nikos L Maxwell

"The format war was confusing for buyers," says a Samsung insider, when talking about Sony Blu Ray format vs. Toshiba/Microsoft’s HD DVD. When the dust settled, 1.3 million consumers had dropped hundreds of dollars on an obsolete machine.

Despite being able to play old DVDs and purchase roughly 386 titles on HD DVD, people won’t be able to get any new movies coming out. "Now there are still HD DVD discs that people want to read; but no one wants to write to that format," the Samsung insider revealed.

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The Samsung Blu Ray/HD DVD Combo Drive

To console the losers of the format war, Samsung is developing a Blu Ray disc/HD DVD combo drive that will read both formats. Many other retailers and manufacturers are following suit.

Best Buy is offering a $50 gift card to people who purchased an HD DVD player or HD DVD Xbox360 unit before February 23rd. The gift cards should all be automatically mailed out by May 1st to "Reward Zone" customers or people who bought warranties.

Trade In Your Old Player For A Blu Ray Player

Other customers must call 1-888-BestBuy and have a receipt or credit card information ready, as proof of purchase. Best Buy also offers a trade-in center to scrap the old player, although you will not be getting a particularly good return on your investment. For example, a Toshiba HD XA2 unit, originally priced at $1,000, may fetch you $148.50 and HD DVDs $2.70 each.

Similarly, Amazon is the most recent retailer to jump on the $50-Giveaway bandwagon. Some Amazon customers received an email, stating: "New technologies don’t always work out as planned.

We at Amazon.com value our customer relationships more than anything and would like to support customers who purchased these players by offering a credit good for $50 off any products sold by Amazon.com."

Refunds On HD DVD Machines

Any HD DVD purchase bought before February 23rd is eligible for the refund and the product can be turned in any time before April 9, 2009. It should also be noted that Amazon has consumer-friendly Blu ray sales as well.

Surprisingly, in a statement from Toshiba, that is the manufacturer of the inferior HD DVD technology, the company has refused to make any concessions to the 1.3 million consumers who bought the players.

"There is nothing wrong with the products," Toshiba argues, "So we aren’t accepting returns from customers. Customers understood that there were two competing formats and understood that one of them would probably prevail, so they made the decision to go with HD DVD." Despite their lack of sympathy, at least confidence in the generosity of retail giants can continue.

Though it has cost retailers thousands, if not millions, they have done the right thing to keep consumers happy and coming back to the store for Blu Ray media, if nothing else.

About the Author:
Nikos L Maxwell has written a number of articles on digital photography and digital editing software including Digital Editing Software, Adobe Photoshop Tutorial, Large Images, Edit Pictures, Fuji Film Digital Cameras, Video Editing Computers, Digital Image Processing, Ray Disc, Blu Ray, Blu Ray Disc, Blu Ray HD DVD, Blu Ray Reviews, Blu Ray Vs HD DVD, DVD Duplication, Ray HD.

Keep a lookout as more articles are added from this popular author on this website in the near future.

More Blu Ray Facts....

Have you made the switch from DVD over to Blu Ray yet? If you have not then what is stopping you? It could be the price to pay for all of those movies that you love and own on DVD.

Many people find that slowly re-acquiring those beloved movies over onto the more expensive Blu-Ray version is a tad bit expensive but there are ways around this. Did you know that some programs allow you to burn a Blu-Ray version of your favorite movie? The trick is to find the right software programs.

Owning a Blu Ray collection is something most movie collector’s dream of nightly. The problem is the expense of acquiring all those favorite movies again but in Blu-Ray format. It can quickly add up to a major expense. There is a solution to this problem though.

It involves burning the DVD’s over into Blu-Ray format with the right software program. If you do not have the software program this may be a problem but thankfully there are programs out there that you can purchase.

The opportunity to own a Blu Ray disc collection is a great one and should not be passed up. But what do you do with all of those DVD’s you collected over the years?

Plus let’s not forget that Blu-Ray discs can be quite expensive in comparison to DVD’s. Converting all of your collection over into Blu-Ray can be a chore, a very expensive one at that. The answer to your problem is to burn the DVD onto Blu-Ray format.

Are you a movie fan that just is not pleased with the quality of your DVDs? Is the color and sound not what you expect from your extensive collection? Maybe you should try swapping those old DVDs for Blu Ray discs. You will be surprised by the difference in picture quality and sound.

But these discs do not come cheap. They are more expensive than DVDs but well worth the price. The trick is to burn your own Blu-Ray movies at home with a software program designed especially for burning movies.

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