Warner Offers HD Trade-In, New Archive Discounts

Just when I was ready to turn my collection of HD-DVD’s into coasters, Warner Home Video has announced a program offering fans of that failed format the opportunity to trade in up to 25 HD-DVD’s for corresponding Warner Blu-ray releases for $4.95 apiece, plus shipping and handling. The offer is at red2blu.com — hopefully Universal, which backed HD-DVD exclusively as its high-def format until Warner (which also offered Blu-ray) withdrew its support — will offer a similar deal. Warner is also offering a mail-in deal for a free Blu-ray (from among selected list) with proofs of purchases for five other titles, a deal they offered a decade ago on DVD. It’s at warnerblu.com/rewards. Meanwhile, most of the 15 Warner Archive titles introduced just last week at $19.95 have already had their prices cut to $14.96 as the studio continues to experiment with its new on-demand line of burned DVDs. That discount is on top of a buy two, get three deal in effect through today (discount code: SPITFIRE) that also applies to the first wave of titles. Most of those 150 titles appear to be still priced at $19.95, though Leo McCarey’s “Once Upon a Honeymoon” with Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers has dropped to $14.96.