How many DVD consumers purchase HD DVD by mistake?

[DaViD Boulet]

Planet Earth HD-DVD - eBay (item 330200514604 end time Jan-04-08 18:56:13 PST)

Brand new HD-DVD version of Planet Earth. Realized my DVD player couldn't play it so and getting the other version instead of this one.

Planet Earth - The Complete Collection (2007, HD DVD) - eBay (item 180201661402 end time Jan-04-08 20:41:07 PST)

This is a Christmas gift that was opened and unsealed before realizing

it is a High Definition DVD and we are unable to use in our standard DVD player.

Brand new this set retails for $65!

HD DVD seems to have both benefited by the "DVD" association in its name, but also confused quite a few consumers. Most retailers won't accept returns on opened discs, which makes matters frustrating for consumers who make this mistake and also makes it difficult to track what percentage of HD DVD sales are actually mistaken purchases by DVD consumers.

To make matters even more confusing, Amazon lists a "won't play in your DVD player" warning with the Blu-ray Disc version of Planet Earth, but NOT for the HD DVD version! The irony is that the Blu-ray Disc name is less likely to confuse DVD consumers who aren't HD-media saavy, whereas they might see the "HD DVD" logo and assume that it's a DVD that will work on their new HDTV.

Naturally combo-disc sales are 100% legit since both DVD and HD DVD consumers can play/use the product, but I'm curious if anyone out there works in retail and can point to how widespread the problem of "mispurchases" is. If Blu-ray Discs are being purchases by unsuspecting DVD consumers, I'd like to know that too!

[Robinson_A]

I would love to say no one makes this mistake, however I've run into folks at the stores about to do this very thing. I don't blame the format or the discs themselves I blame cheap up-converting DVD players that plaster things like Hi-Def and 1080p all over the box. A lot of consumers buy these $99 dollar players thinking they've entered the hi-def game only to be mistaken when they get home. Two coworkers of mine recently did that then felt the need to gripe at me. In the stores that sell HD DVD and Blu-ray discs at my house do a good job of keeping them separate from the regular DVDs and go so far as to have signage or compatibility charts in the sections themselves to avoid confusion.

[slugbug]

My sister recently purchased a Toshiba HD-A3 and asked me why the two included movies wouldn't play in her old dvd player. I told here that if they did then Toshiba probably wouldn't sell too many hd dvd players.

[JerryDelColliano]

A ballsy move would be for Toshiba to stop making any DVD player of any kind and work with big box retailers to sell HD DVD players as the ONLY DVD player you now can get.

The problem is: the players are too slow to load and too much money. The Costco crowd wants a $99 player that is better, faster and more stable than the current DVD player and Toshiba/MS can't yet deliver that.

[HT Junky]

At my local Best Buy, the people at the register always ask: "You know that these will only play in an Blu-ray player (or HD-DVD player depending on what I'm buying)". It must be happening all of the time.

I think the "dual format" discs also add to the confusion.

[deacongreg]

It is definitely a nightmare for some. I still believe from my experience, that the Blu-Ray players I`ve been in contact with, with the exception of the PS3, have much slower loading times on average than HD DVD players. But, with this Warners Brothers mess going on now, does it really matter anymore??