Best Buy Tries to Ease HD DVD Pain

Best Buy is reaching out to customers who own HD-DVD players post the end of the Blu-ray war with an offer: a $50 gift card if one purchased a HD-DVD player or HD-DVD attachment before Feb. 23.

The electronics retailer said it will "proactively mail cards to all   customers that the company can identify as having purchased an HD-DVD player. Members of the Best Buy Reward Zone program, customers who purchased Performance Service Plans (PSPs) or who made their purchase on BestBuy.com should look for their gift cards in the mail by May 1."

As a further HD DVD gesture, HD DVD player owners can get trade-in values on their players and movies from Best Buy. One visits a special Web site, gets information about estimated values for their collection and ships their gear free of charge to Best Buy in exchange for another gift card. This service is open to HD-DVD owners regardless of where they bought their player.