The large Canadian retailer FutureShop has announced that anyone who bought a now obsolete HD DVD player now has the option to trade it in for a $100 CAD discount on the purchase of one of two hybrid HD players, the Samsung BD-UP5000 or the LG BH200. The hybrid players will play both HD DVD titles and Blu-ray titles. Any HD DVD player is up for the deal no matter how much they cost to begin with.
The new deal, which will last until April 3rd, will see all the received HD DVD players donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada.
A similar deal was made recently by the giant US retailer Circuit City to allow users to return their HD DVD players within 3 months or trade them in for Blu-ray players.
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Samsung has announced that it has canceled the upcoming BD-UP5500 Blu-ray/HD DVD hybrid player and attributed the decision directly to Toshiba’s decision to drop the format.
The company also praised the decision, saying that have a standard format will allow the company to focus its efforts and money on Blu-ray. The older UP5000 player will still be available but the company added that the prospect of selling future hybrid players was slim.
“[A hybrid player] remains a practical solution, but the window of opportunity is smaller than it was before,” the company said in a statement.
Toshiba plans to stop producing HD DVD players later this month and prior HD DVD-exclusive studios such as Paramount and Dreamworks have dropped the format making it all but dead.
