HomeThe HD DVD Fire Sale – Part V
Yes, I know. You’re bored of it. But I’m not, and it’s my blog 🙂
I did get a copy of Planet Earth, from DVDCrave. Slightly more expensive than the non existent JB listing, but still a bargain. They had about 200 copies on sale for $AUD 30 ($USD 27.63), and all were sold within 45 minutes. There has been some question as to the various version of Planet Earth on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD, so I thought I might do a brief rundown:
- DVD Version: 5 discs, fifth disc has additional “Planet Earth: The Future” documentary, which is actually 3 documentaries nearly 150 minutes long in total
- Blu-ray/HD DVD Version #1: 4 Discs, as sold by most retailers in the US. With original David Attenborough narration.
- Blu-ray/HD DVD Version #2: 4 Discs, sold by Discovery.com. With Sigourney Weaver narration. Bonus extra features as compared to #1, but missing 50 minutes of actual documentary footage.
- Blu-ray/HD DVD Version #3: 5 Discs, sold in Europe/Australia. With original David Attenborough narration. Fifth disc include “Natural World: Desert Lions & Snow Leopards” documentaries (so different to the 5th disc in the DVD set)
Purist will skip the “Ripley” narrated version from Discovery (narration aside, missing nearly an hour of the beautiful footage is a crime). Obviously, the European/Australian version is the best, although you might argue the 5th disc adds nothing to “Planet Earth”. Those wondering why people (including me) are so obsessed with Planet Earth, it really is a title to show off HD at its best, and the 9.8 out of 10 score on IMDb, even after more than 5,000 votes, says everything. A must have for any serious HD collector.
Anyway, I’m just glad that I got my copy in time (it has already been shipped, so none of that JB Hi-Fi nonsense with taking orders, and then cancelling). There is actually an online store selling (update: or about to sell) it for $30 as I type, but I won’t link to them since a lot of Australian buyers have missed out in previous sales to US folk, and it’s not fair to them to plaster the link everywhere right now. (update: Hi-Def Oz has their PE sale which was Australian customers only and limited to 1 copy per person. Still sold out in less than 10 minutes)
Amazon has just dropped prices of The Weinstein Company’s HD DVD titles (only 11 titles) to $8.95. Some good movies in the list though, which includes:
Black Christmas
Clerks II
Derailed
Feast (Unrated)
Harsh Times
Lucky Number Slevin
The Matador
Pulse
Scary Movie 4 (Unrated & Uncensored)
School for Scoundrels
Wolf Creek (Unrated)
As for me, I’ve ordered a couple of more titles (just couldn’t resist, and don’t want to miss out, like the rest of the HD DVD addicted buyers here in Australia):
DVDCrave Order #2:
- Babel – $12.95
- Shrek The Third – $12.95
- Shipping: $2.50
- Order Total: $28.40($USD 26.14)
DVDCrave Order #3:
- Planet Earth – $29.95
- Shipping: $2.50
- Order Total: $32.45($USD 29.87)
I’ve now received everything except for my recent DVD Pacific and the above two DVDCrave orders. And of course, the EzyDVD ones are still set for 28th March, although they might be sent out as early as tomorrow. Can’t wait to get my copy of Heroes: S1.
So that’s 21 titles received so far, 7 shipped and on the way, and 11 titles still on order at EzyDVD. And all for less than the cost of one of the cheaper Blu-ray players here. I have about 15 titles that I still want, but just waiting for the price to drop. And of course, 10 titles on redemption from Toshiba.
It’s not that many really if you read some of the posts by other Australian HD DVD users, some buying more than 100 titles. At least that’s what I’ll be telling myself …