Blu-ray's new attack on HD DVD: 5 movie freebies

The Blu-ray Disc Association is going for HD DVD's throat with a new promotion announced this week that will give purchasers of new Blu-ray players five free Blu-ray movies. Any Blu-ray player is eligible, including the Sony PS3. The promotion begins July 1 in the US, and lasts through the summer until September 30. choices like Pearl Harbor, Black Rain, Underworld, and Transporter 2. The complete list has not been officially announced, but according to marketing materials seen by Ars Technica, other movies included in the promotion are: <UL><LI>The Guardian <LI>Babel
<LI>Invincible <LI>Chicken Little <LI>Corpse Bride <LI>Blazing Saddles <LI>Kiss of the Dragon <LI>The Phantom of the Opera
<LI>The Devil's Rejects <LI>The Italian Job <LI>The Last Waltz <LI>The Omen (2006)
<LI>Stealth <LI>Invincible <LI>Resident Evil: Apocalypse <LI>Species
<LI>Hart's War <LI>Stir of Echoes <LI>Underworld: Evolution
</LI>[/list]

They're not exactly the year's greatest blockbusters, but the BDA hopes you'll think a deal's a deal. Customers won't be able to get the movies at the time of purchase; they'll have to send in a coupon via mail and have the movies sent to them. More information will be available via the promotion site when it launches this weekend.

The Blu-ray movie promotion follows similar promotions put forth by the HD DVD camp. Toshiba offered three free movies with the purchase of an HD DVD player just before Christmas last year, and in May, Toshiba offered several rebates off its Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD players combined with another five free movie promotion.

The promos have apparently gone over well for HD DVD—as the HD DVD camp saw a spike in sales afterwards—and Blu-ray doesn't want to miss out. Not that they have much to worry about; Blu-ray movies have seen strong sales this year, at least in comparison to HD DVD's sales for the same period. The format also recently got a ringing endorsement from Blockbuster, which announced earlier this month that it would begin carrying (only) Blu-ray movies in its retail stores. Although Blockbuster had previously been renting out both HD DVD and Blu-ray movies, Blu-ray rentals "significantly" outpaced HD DVD rentals and the company said they wanted to stay on top of the demands of its customers. This means that Blu-ray has won at Blockbuster unless something major happens.

Blu-ray hopes that the results of their own free movie promotion will be similar to those of HD DVD, which could provide just enough of a boost in sales to take an even more noticeable lead in the HD wars. Although standalone sales of Blu-ray players seem to be lagging behind those of HD DVD, when PS3s are accounted for, the player has a much wider reach. And Blu-ray has a stronger backing from Hollywood than HD DVD. But even with these bragging points, actual numbers still show that <A href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070423-why-early-high-def-disc-adoption-rates-dont-really-mat