HD-DVD may be dead, but not before giving away some free money and enjoying two great last releases. I’ve been largely ignoring the rebate situation, as I bought my HD-DVD (for Xbox) from Amazon. Surely they won’t give away free money! I was wrong. Amazon, like BestBuy, will be giving back a $50 GC for everyone who purchased a player prior to the announcement of it’s death. Now, I’ve purchased a total of THREE HD-DVD players! I picked up my original HD-A2 from BB, which was eventually sold on eBay due to it’s abysmal startup times. Then I bought an HD-DVD drive for Xbox from Amazon and CC. Now, Circuit City isn’t just going to give something away for free, but they will offer trade-ins for a gift card. The other HD-DVD I also resold at a profit, but I’ll be happy to collect the $50 for my pain and suffering. :)

In the weeks following the HD-DVD loss to Blu-Ray, everyone began dumping the movies. BestBuy didn’t sell them on clearance, at least not by me. They ripped the shelves out of the store and spread the Blu-Ray love down the entire aisle. Blockbuster pulled all the discs from the shelves and put most of them up for sale (at very high prices, considering they were used!). But the thing that bothered me most, was that Netflix and Blockbuster Total Access stopped getting new titles. Sure, you can still rent from existing inventory, but movies like Valley of Elah and I am Legend were listed as N/A on HD-DVD format. These are, however, available from Amazon new. But the movie I’m most excited about is the HD-DVD release of Appleseed Ex Machina. I watched this movie on my PSP and was blown away by the action scenes and visuals. I’m expecting it to be nothing short of breathtaking when I get the disc later this week.

But after that, my HD-DVD collection will cease to grow, and I will continue to look forward to the LG BH300, which is nothing but a promise as of yet.