Memberships That Get You in Trouble

So I joined up for Columbia House a little while ago. Cost me $2.77 for 5 Blu-rays. Now that is a good deal. Granted so far I have only got one of 5. Seems the rest were out of stock. So now I have chosen others and am waiting to see if they are in stock. If they are I will make a nice little profit. Their enrollment selections are not so good.... so I wil just sell them to the pawn shop and make about $20-$30. Right now if you order 1 at regular price the rest are 60% off. So my first order was (all on Blu-ray): Dark Knight, Wanted, Jarhead, the Kingdom and Miami Vice. Grand total for that order $83 and change. Second order was for the Unit Season 1 (on DVD), Dogma, Pride and Glory, Domino, Eagle Eye and Sum of all Fears. Total this time was $104. This time I also got a free overnight bag. Thank goodness for holiday pay and my tenure bonus. It's allowing me to capitalize on some good deals here. Oh yeah and selling off some DVDs that I wasn't watching. But at least it is a membership that I will make use of... unlike say a gym membership.

Hits from the Bong

I am thinking that LG has been listening to too many Cypress Hill songs... Oh the song titles I could use here.... "Hits from the Bong", "Insane in the Brain," and "I wanna get high" Cuz a drug induced haze is the only way I can make sense of their most recent decision. While everyone else is abandoning HD-DVD (well okay maybe Paramount will still be supporting them after their payout in August to go HD exclusive) LG has decided NOT to join that trend. Instead they are planning to come out with a new dual-format player. With the fire sales that are about to happen why not just pick up another HD player? The dual-format players are typically more expensive and (as evidenced by the dual VHS and DVD player) if one part fails you're kind of SOL. I am assuming that people who had built up an HD collection already have an HD player. So I guess LG's strategy is to still make them abandon their old HD player in favour of one that plays both. Why not just pick up a Blu-ray player? Or they are trying to take advantage of some poor fool that hasn't heard the news yet that HD-DVD is dead and the funeral is now over. All I can say to LG is to remember to "Puff, Puff, Pass."

Nails in the Coffin and the Final Burial

TOKYO, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.' decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD. As central members of the DVD Forum, we have long maintained a close partnership with Warner Bros. We worked closely together to help standardize the first-generation DVD format as well as to define and shape HD DVD as its next-generation successor.
We were particularly disappointed that this decision was made in spite of the significant momentum HD DVD has gained in the US market as well as other regions in 2007. HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the US market in 2007.
We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer.

February 12, 2008 - "We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it's unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail."

February 18, 2008 - "The media [has] reported that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business. Toshiba has not made any announcement concerning this. Although Toshiba is currently assessing its business strategies, no decision has been made at this moment."

February 19, 2008 - "We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Tales in Customer Service

For once I am not venting about Apple's lack of service. Back in December I pre-ordered the Resident Evil trilogy from Blockbuster. I had $100 in store credit and they really haven't been getting in any Blu-rays. So I went with something expensive since I knew that I would end up paying more any ways. The customer service rep wasn't sure if they would be able to order it since it was a Blu-ray title but promised that he would look into it and let me know if there was a problem. I went in a week before the release date to make sure it was ordered. "Oh yeah, no problem" I was told. So I go in January 1 to pick up my movies and everything came to a crashing halt. It had not been ordered at all. Say what? I was told that they would look into it and get back to me. A few days later I got a phone call promising that it would be in the following week.

So I called on Tuesday to see if there was any news. I figured since movies were released that day it meant that they would be getting in shipments on Mondays. Turns out the shipments come in on Wednesdays so I was told to call back. I stopped in on my way to work. Why waste cell phone minutes? I was already in the area to get dinner so it was all good. No sign of it. But I was told it might be in by the end of the week. Since I had been promised that it would be in that week I went back in. The customer service rep this time was pretty rude. First words out of her mouth were, "Did we call?" This was followed by "wait until we call." Guess they don't want me shopping for anything else.

The following week I still hadn't heard anything so, while at work (of course), I managed to locate an email address for Blockbuster's customer service. I decided to email them with my tail of woe and see what happens. I didn't figure I'd even hear back. But I was getting frustrated. After all I paid for the movies... cost me something like $140 in the end (including the store credit) so I wanted my merchandise. They replied within a few days (which made sense since I emailed them on the weekend). Sent it off to the district guy who got back to me pretty quickly as well. Here I was getting my hopes up. They were telling me that there was a problem with the order. According to the supplier the title was not available and according to Sony it is. They basically said that they would know that day (or the next) if they could get it. They were also going to match Future Shop's price if they could get it (since it was $40 cheaper). So far so good right? Except that I didn't hear back. I waited until the beginning of the following week and then emailed the district guy again. All I wanted was a yes/no answer. Is it available? Didn't get that... He told me that he was going to be checking with the store that day. And once again I never heard back.

Almost a month after it was released I still did not have my merchandise and had no way to know if I was ever going to get it. I keep checking for good deals on Blu (like my misprint for Lost: Season 3 which I got for $24.99) and discovered that Amazon.com had the Resident Evil trilogy for $48.99. Since Future Shop had it for $72.99 that was a wee bit of a difference. I jumped on that deal. Got it for $58 including shipping. So then I had to go into Blockbuster to get my money back. Almost 2 months after the whole ordeal started I still had the $100 in store credit to spend and was back where I started. But I did save quite a bit of money in the process.

I did get a couple of Blus while I was in Blockbuster but they were still overpriced. Why is it that they specialize in movies and can't even compete price wise with other stores? I still have $14 left and no idea what to buy.... As I mentioned previously, I might put it towards a previously viewed movie so that I don't have to spend as much on both formats. Or perhaps a previously played game. But I am not playing that many PS3 games these days. Or maybe they will even start getting in Blu-rays... but then again they even say on their web site that prices start at $34.99. Definitely overpriced... especially compared to the States.

I can say this... after using Blockbuster to build up my DVD collection I have absolutely no desire to ever step foot in that Blockbuster ever again.... other then to use up my store credit. This whole experience has been extremely poor and they really have done nothing to retain me as a customer. I am more then happy to support Future Shop and Amazon with my hard earned cash. Blockbuster is now on my boycott list.

Entertainment War

It really does cost a lot of money to upgrade your movie collection to a whole new format.... at least it does when you have about 200 movies. The good news is that not all the titles are even currently available. How can that be a good thing you might ask? Well seeing as I can't afford to buy all the movies I am making my way through the collection. But now there is a new problem. Not only are the movies I had previously on DVD not available but some of the new releases are also not being released in the high-definition format. I can understand not being able to buy those made by Paramount or Universal since they are backing the HD format. However, those made by Blu-ray supporters is a little more mystifying. Rendition is one movie that will be released shortly but so far there has been no announcement on it being released in the Blu format. More importantly, Lions for Lambs will be coming out at the beginning of April and there is no word on it being released in Blu either. The dilemma is that I don't want to be paying for the movie twice. It's an understandable concern. But I really do like the movie. I do have credit at Blockbuster.... so maybe I'll pick it up previously viewed there while waiting for a high definition release. In other news, I really do wish that the format war would come to an end so we can all move forward and not have to pick sides.... It's not grade school... and it's only hurting the consumers.

The End is Near

The end just might be near... at least as far as the high-definition format war goes. Warner announced the other day that they were going blu... Blu-ray that is. Right now I am glad that I didn't buy an HD DVD player for Boxing Day like I was thinking of. After all that leaves Universal and Paramount as the ONLY HD supporters... Everyone else (Disney, Sony, Fox, Warner) all support Blu-ray. I hear the death knell already....