Warner Bros. offers “Red2Blu” HD DVD-for-Blu-ray trade-in

If you gambled on HD DVD in the high-def DVD war and came up a loser, Warner Bros. is giving you another chance to break even (well, almost). Its new Red2Blu program lets you exchange old Warner HD DVDs for a Blu-ray version of the same movie.

The swap-out isn’t free—it costs $4.95 per movie, plus a $6.95 shipping and handling charge per order (so it's $6.95 even if you exchange more than one DVD). Just go to the Red2Blu website, choose the HD DVDs you’d like to exchange, and use a credit card to pay the fees. You then print out a pre-paid, pre-addressed shipping label, which is sent via a confirmation email, and mail the original cover-art packaging sleeve from the old titles (you actually get to keep the HD DVD discs themselves!) to a processing center. Within four to five weeks, you should receive the replacement Blu-ray discs.

You're allowed to swap up to 25 HD DVD titles, and there are well over 100 titles from which to choose. The complete list of terms and conditions for the program is on this part of the Red2Blu website. —James K. Willcox

Comments

[Steve]

So you'd rather keep four obsolete discs, instead of spending $27 (4 @ 4.95 + 6.95 s/h) for brand new blu-ray copies? Why?

Are the other seven movies you own Warner Bros movies that aren't offered in the trade or are they non-WB movies? This is only a WB promotion, so only WB movies would be eligible.

[stevebert]

Interesting offer, in concept -- but might be more useful if there were more than a handful of titles available for trade-in. Of the 11 HD-DVD titles I own (all of them either blockbuster movies or well-known classics), only 4 are available through this program. Pass.