DVDGuy’s Blog @ Digital Digest

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 …

A person asked me the other day when will the “HD DVD Fire Sale” series end on the blog, because he said he was bored to tears with it. I told that person that the question he should have asked is not when this blog series ends, but rather, when the HD DVD fire sales end – because as long as the sales still go on, my buying continues, and if my buying continues, then I have to justify spending so much money by pretending that I’m doing it for “research” purposes on this blog.

So my “research” continues, and I’ve now picked up some more titles. But first, an update on my existing orders. Everything bar the EzyDVD orders have now shipped (EzyDVD’s original planned shipping date was the 28th, but they were nice enough to send me an email telling me that they’ve received stock early so they may ship on the 12th instead). I have cancelled “The Ant Bully” from my EzyDVD order, since I’ve heard one of my Toshiba redemption titles may be this one, and I don’t want duplicates (and to be honest, this was not one of the titles that I would consider a “must-have”). I have yet to receive the Playbox and DVDCrave orders, but I expect them to turn up on Monday much to the chagrin of my postman, who has been coming up to my house with deliveries for about 6 days in a row now. Amazon’s Universal title prices are still higher than what they once were ($11.95 for HD DVD only titles and $16.95 for combos – now $13.95 and $17.95 respectively), but I found a store called DVD Pacific that could do these titles for $11.50 and $17.09. Not only that, their shipping is a lot cheaper than Amazon to Australia.

But I still did consider ordering from Amazon, simply because they have this thing called a “Post-Order Price Guarantee”. What is means is that if the titles you ordered drop in price within 30 days of shipment (not the order date, but the shipment date), then they will refund you the difference. I’ve taken advantage of it just recently (got $4 back – every little bit counts!), and it works like a charm. You can read more about their policy here, and contact them here to get your claim. A couple of recently discounted Universal titles, some down to $9.95, would mean you get get a few dollars back if you ordered recently. Here’s a small list of the recently discounted titles:

The Amateurs – $9.95
Backdraft – $9.95
The Big Lebowski – $9.95
The Bourne Identity – $9.95
The Fast and The Furious – $9.95
The Mummy Returns – $9.95
The Pianist – $9.95
Pitch Black – $9.95
Planet Earth – The Complete BBC Series – $55.95
Pride & Prejudice – $9.95
Shaun of the Dead – $9.95
Tremors – $9.95

Anyway, the price at DVD Pacific was too good, so I ordered it from them. And for “research” purposes as well, it makes sense to buy from a new store, as opposed to doing the same “research” with Amazon all the time. So far, I’m impressed (I will have a nice little roundup of all the online stores I’ve dealt with recently in a future blog) – ordering was easy, communication was prompt (email updates), and very little delay between ordering and shipping. This is what I ordered:

DVD Pacific Order #1:

• American Gangster (Combo) – $USD 17.09
• Eastern Promises (Combo) – $USD 17.09
• Scent of a Woman – $USD 11.50
• The Pianist – $USD 11.50
• Shipping: $USD 7.95
• Order Total: $USD 65.13

You may have noticed by now that the title of this blog contains the phrase “JB Hi-Fi Stuff-up?”. Let me explain. JB Hi-Fi is an Australia chain store selling cheap music, movies and basically anything home entertainment. They also have a somewhat separate online store. I have shopped with them in the past, and didn’t have too many problems. That is until Thursday night.

Someone posted a link on a forum that JB were doing the Planet Earth HD DVD for only $18! That’s an amazing price, because it normally retails for $100 here – even the DVD version is $60. So in my excitement, I make my order (for just one copy, since I don’t want others to miss out) and everything seems to be going through perfectly. The news broke, and thousands of orders were made, many from the US. Some of the eBay scum came and ordered 50 copies, as they are known to do. But I was confident since my order was fairly early, and not a bulk order which JB might reject. Also, it’s a local order and JB said they will honor these first and it will be on a first come first served basis. But on Friday afternoon, I receive an email from them that my order has been cancelled because they did not have enough stock, and this is where the fun began. Apparently, I was not the only one affected, and even people who ordered much earlier than me missed out. So did JB even have any stock, many wondered. But some people then began to say their order shipped, and many of these people had ordered much later than me, or ordered multiple copies. There was apparently no pattern in which order was processed, and which were rejected. Suffice to say, there are now a lot of angry people trying to get an answer from JB, but they’ve been silent about it. I saw this post on a forum with a open letter type thing to JB, and I will publish it here for further promotion (my order number was #72773x):

Dear JB Hi-fi,

I am writing in regards to the Planet Earth HDDVD special that was recently advertised on your website.

While I am sympathetic to the fact that there was an overwhelming demand for this product and your supplier could not provide adequate stock, I and many others feel that you as a company have handled the situation extremely poorly. Several questions have been raised within the community and we would like them addressed.

How many copies of Planet Earth were available and how many orders were actually filled? The data that I currently have indicates that approximately 14 orders (#727642 – #727656) were filled, and yet within only hours of the special being made available, several hundred orders were placed. Could you not have anticipated the demand that this special would result in? Why were people still able to place orders many, many hours after the allocated stocks would have been gone?

However, the sore point within the community is seeming unfairness in the way in which orders were filled. From the data I’ve collected, orders #727642, #727647, #727655, and #727656 were all filled, and yet orders #727616, #727622, and #727639 (all containing Planet Earth HDDVD) were not. How was it decided which orders would be allocated stock and which ones would not? Why were the orders not processed in a sequential order? It only seems fair in a case like this that those who ordered first should be given preference.

This email and any response given will be posted to several websites and online communities. Should these questions not be answered adequately, or at all, then I will be doing the only thing that I can as a consumer — I will stop shopping at JB Hi-fi (online and brick and mortar stores), and will be encouraging as many people as possible to follow suit. I have no doubt that other people who feel that this situation has been handled poorly will take similar action.

Yours sincerely,
The Internet

I will post any response from JB on this blog, but until that time, it’s probably wise to avoid JB Online if you would like to ensure you get what you ordered.

In this third part of my articles on the HD DVD fire sales, I turn my attention back to Australia. Since my first post, Warner has started discounting their titles, and Paramount has started doing so today as well. I have received all of my ordered items from dstore.com.au, but my Playbox Zone and EzyDVD orders are still outstanding. Most of the B&M stores have sold out their stock, so online stores are the best choice. The only B&M store that still has stock is EzyDVD, although one wonders perhaps if they have waited too long to have their sale, since many people have already finished their buying. EzyDVD is said to have secured a lot of stock, perhaps all of the remaining stock, and will have one huge sale either this week or on the 28th. Prices are fair, but higher for certain titles.

Here are the additional orders I’ve made since my first post:

EzyDVD Order #3:

• The Ant Bully – $7.92 
• Dog Day Afternoon – $9.92
• The Fugitive – $9.92
• Unforgiven – $12.92
• Shipping: Free
• Order Total: $40.68 ($USD 37.68)

DVDCrave Order #1:

• Disturbia – $12.95
• Shooter – $12.95
• Stardust – $12.95
• Top Gun – $12.95
• Shipping: $2.50
• Order Total: $54.30 ($USD 50.31)

That brings the total to $341.67 ($USD 316.64). The average is up, to $10.35 ($USD 9.59) per title including the box sets, which is still terrific value. 

There are still 6 Paramount/Dreamworks titles that I want from EzyDVD, and possibly another 6 from Amazon.com, and after that, I think my HD DVD buying will be over (having already spent far more than I had planned). You might think that I’m only picking up these titles because they’re cheap, but there are tons of other titles that I haven’t bothered with as I’ve been pretty selective when it comes to my shopping (no buying movies I already have on DVD, unless it’s a favourite, and then only buying the titles that I want to watch). If I wasn’t selective, the total chould be easily over $600 now. With so many unwatched movies (most of the movies I’ve bought, I’ve not seen before, on DVD or elsewhere), I think that’s my movie shopping for the year done (unless there are further sales).

The somewhat short lived Amazon.com Universal sale from yesterday is a bit strange. Prices dropped to $11.95 (and $16.95 for combos), but has now risen back to $14.95 (and $19.95 for combos). Some suggest it might have something to do with Amazon’s 30 day price guarantee, where they will refund you the difference if prices drop within 30 days. Too many people must have applied for this when prices dropped, so perhaps they are now going to wait until the 30 day is over for most people (which will most likely be the 20th of March, 31 days after Toshiba’s announcement to drop HD DVD).

Stay tuned.

The US fire sale has not started, and there are questions now whether it will start at all. Apparently, HD DVD stocks are drying up fast, and despite no huge price cuts like here in Australia, the titles that have received a discount are still flying off the shelves.

In this blog post, I will mainly concentrate on the US titles. I might write another blog post tomorrow to update you on the Australian situation, although I have posted a small update in this forum thread.

As I mentioned before, there hasn’t been a “Under $10” sale in the US like here in Australia, but several already discounted items (as part of Amazon’s 50% off sale) has received further discounts. The Paramount titles I’ve listed before in this blog post are still discounted, even though Amazon has removed the feature page for the discount. Some titles are now at a lower price than what I’ve listed before, for example, Top Gun is only $11.95. The following titles, especially, are worth a look:

Anchorman – The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Unrated) – $11.95
Lara Croft – Tomb Raider – $11.95
Mission Impossible (Special Collector’s Edition) – $11.95
Mission Impossible II (Special Collectors Edition) – $11.95
Old School (Unrated) – $11.95
Sahara – $11.95
Sleepy Hollow – $11.95
Top Gun – $11.95
Trading Places (Special Collector’s Edition) – $11.95
Transformers (Two-Disc Special Edition) – $18.95
The Italian Job – $11.95
The Untouchables (Special Collector’s Edition) – $11.95
We Were Soldiers – $11.95
Zodiac (Two-Disc Director’s Cut) – $18.95

You may find this list of Paramount HD DVDs useful.

The Warner sale is still going on, with certain titles discounted above the normal 55% off. In particular, these box sets might be worth a buy:

Harry Potter Years 1-5 Gift Set – $71.49 
The Ultimate Matrix Collection – $49.99
Ocean’s Trilogy – $36.49

You may find this list of Warner Bros. HD DVDs useful.

For Universal titles, today was the day that discounting begins. All combo titles are now priced at $16.95, while non combo titles are at $11.95. Not cheap enough for us Australians, but a much greater range of titles that will certainly tempt a few of us. These are the titles that I thought might be interesting:

Update: Amazon seems to have upped the price by about $3 for all the Universal titles. Don’t know what’s going on, and don’t know whether prices will come down again or not…

American Gangster (Combo) – $16.95
The Bourne Trilogy – $29.99
Easter Promises (Combo) – $16.95
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Combo) – $16.95
Serenity – $11.95
Shaun of the Dead – $11.95

You may find this list of Universal HD DVDs useful.

There are many more bargains to be picked up, just go to Amazon and do a search. If I find any more good ones, I’ll update this post with the links.