Canadian Retailer to Offer Credit for HD-DVD Player Returns

I wrote earlier about a Japanese retailer who was allowing customers who had bought HD-DVD players to trade them in on new Blu-ray players. They had to make up the difference in price, but it was still a great deal. Now a Canadian retailer is making a similar offer.

Future Shop, which claims to Canada's largest retailer and e-tailer of consumer electronics, has announced a trade-in program - and you don't even need to have purchased the player at their store. From March 7th - April 3rd (while supplies last), customers who bring in a used HD-DVD player will receive a $100 credit toward either a Blu-ray player.

However, and here's the important point: it has to be either an LG or Samsung Blu-ray / HD-DVD combo player. These are (naturally) more expensive than a regular Blu-ray player, but the two advertised on the same page as the offer aren't priced too badly, at $499.

Since, as Eric Stockner, Director of Merchandising, Home Theatre, Future Shop, says in the press release:

"The Blu-ray/ HD-DVD Combo player is a win for customers as it allows them the opportunity to continue to view their HD DVDs while entering into the Blu-ray market."

Future Shop is, they say, offering the promotion as a way for the estimated 35,000 Canadian HD-DVD player owners to transition to Blu-ray while still being able to view their existing library.

Returned HD-DVD players will be donated to Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada for use in their after-school and evening programs.