Is there any collectibility in this market yet? Anything to look out for?

There will be eventually but perhaps not for many years, but for now I'd say get whatever you like or can at the current low prices. It's a good bet the later releases that were somewhat limited in amounts and purchase would be good ones. Something like Transformers, which was the biggest seller, won't be a big deal later on. I purchased several copies of The Fog (new version) on VHS tape at 99 cents store just to keep sealed since it was the last studio release on VHS, and in widescreen too. Big Lots once had a bunch of last-released Digital VHS tapes real cheap and now I kick myself for not getting them.

Since there were about 900+ HD DVD releases and it survived for such a short tieme, it's easier to try for a fairly complete collection of releases right now than probably any other obsolete format. Plus not a bad idea to grab a couple of players.

I have no idea how they will hold up in time, but both LDs and CEDs have held up rather well in discs and player self-repair, and even Betamax, though it's tougher to get good beta machine repair and not so easy to do it yourself.

One cool thing about the format is the xbox hddvd drives. They seem to be bulletproof and in the long run should hold up, I hope. I am buying everything on the cheap and am going to get the matrix stuff next. Love the animatrix. Were there many anime titles released in the format?

On a lark I just went to amazon. There are a few expensive discs. Though, I did pick up the matrix set and harry potter gift set for 30 bucks. Not bad when you consider the price of the Blue Ray counterparts. Anyway, I am just going to pick up odds and ends of the things and see where it goes.

Unless they put out a similar set on Blu-ray, I will certainly cherish my French Le Labyrinthe de Pan - Édition Ultime box set
http://www.amazon.fr/Labyrinthe-Pan-Ultime-Discs-Livre/dp/B000Q35S6M
It has the film on HD DVD with SD DVD copy and 2 DVDs of bonus features, a CD soundtrack and a 64-page book. I have seen a Korean BD with the same cover, but it has none of the bonuses, just the BD movie. Mine cost me about €40. Not cheap but worth it for me at the time.

That is pretty cool. I might have to get that just to get it.

There are a many HD DVDs that are identical to their Blu counterparts, and much cheaper on HD DVD. Blade Runner is one example. There are some that people say are better on HD DVD. I hear Casino thrown around a lot, as people say it was DNRed to death on Blu, and looks much better on HD DVD. Then there's the ever dwindling list of unreleased movies on Blu that are on DVD. The Big Lebowski was the king of this list until it just got released. Half Baked, Liar Liar, White Noise 1 and 2 are still left. A few more too.

The ones you spoke of that were unreleased might never get released. Especially white noise 1 and 2, especially 2. It falls under who cares. If that makes sense.

There are some titles that tends to be quite hard to track down on HD-Dvd such as Reservoir Dogs and Les Triplettes de Belleville, although can someone here confirm if Highlander was released on the format? According to LDDB it was, but I've never seen it.

does anyone own BEE MOVIE... i wish i could find one to complete my hddvd collection

What about Bloodrayne? I believe it was only released in Russia? Not a great movie but if you are looking for rare titles.....
There is also a Harrison Ford movie only available in a Box set of 4 movies that was recalled for a authoring issue.

There's plenty of rare-collectible HD-DVD's. To name some: The Jack Ryan Collection Boxset, Taking Lives (Never Released retail but can be found for around $15 now), P2 (Also not released retail but plenty have been unloaded on eBay).

Most of the import stuff is kinda rare, Elephant Man, Das Parfum, Twister etc.

And then there are 3 Steebooks that I know of (I have them) Strip Mind (Low Budget Horror), T2, and Death Proof. The interesting thing is they are all G2 Steelbooks (which bluray steels are now).

Also, which is currently around 10 bux is Bonnie and Clyde HD-DVD book.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread; but did you ever find out anything about this, Nissling?

Depends on what movies you'd want that have a release really or what you can find, I currently have Babel, the Matrix Collection and Nacho Libre on HDDVD

Is the Matrix Collection still playing?
Have you tried them recently?

Julien

Basically all Warner dual-layer discs are dead (except Japanese pressings). That also includes the Pathe releases from France.
The rest is mostly OK in my collection.
Exceptions are Magolia and BBC / 2 Entertain releases and a few single discs but not nearly as bad as Warner.

What to look for?
Russian releases are rare, Japanese are hard to come by for a decent price, so are the Bootlegs.
The only Czech release is rare and of course all the demo discs and some XXX.
Some US discs only had a few discs released like the HDNet DVD-Rs.
Homemade Discs like Zombie Farm and Deadlands where only available for a short time.

"Only" about half of my Warner Brothers dual-layer HD DVDs were bad when I tested them all a few months ago. My Planet Earth HD DVD set had one or more bad discs too, but -no other- HD DVDs of mine have been bad so far. I only tested perhaps 15-20 non-WB titles before deciding I do not have a problem overall. Planet Earth was probably made by WB also, as well as Magnolia titles.

The list is dwindling, mostly Universal catalog titles from the early life of BD since their BD counterparts tended to be more DNR'd than their HD-DVD counterparts, but with 4K, that list is shrinking. The 40-Year-Old Virgin, for example, had additional EE and DNR on the BD compared to the HD-DVD, but now it just got a 4K release that's from a new non-DNR'd master. The only ones that come to mind right now are the Borrne movies, particurally the first one, which did not have a DI and was finished on film, yet the 4K is derived from a 2002 1080p telecine. The HD-DVD for Identity is superior to the BD and 4K releases, the latter in particular suffers from being an early format release based on the same masters used for the previous HD releases, so an early 2000's 1080p telecine master, with excessive DNR poured on top of trying to slap an HDR grade on top of a product that, again, was derived from an early 2000's 1080p telecine, it's like trying to squeeze water from a stone.

Funny that this thread popped up. I’m visiting relatives and someone who works for Half Priced Books here in Wisconsin says that they now throw HD-DVDs away instead of even charging $1 a movie.

They’ve had too many people pick them up and then return them because the general public doesn’t identify them as a different format from blu-ray anymore. They see HD and DVD and think they’re either HD movies on blu-ray or DVDs and we know they are neither.