Jonathan Takiff | Sony to start take-back program

NOTE: THIS STORY HAS BEEN CORRECTED.

THE GIZMOS: Sony recycles; digital TV converter box update; and Paramount/DreamWorks chooses a side.

GREEN WITH ENVY: Do you have an old Sony electronics product gathering dust - maybe a big, clunker of a TV that you've replaced (or plan to do so soon) with a sleek, new, flat-panel high-definition model? You don't want to put the old dinosaur out on the street for the trash guys - an environmental nightmare, if it goes to the dump. And you don't want it cluttering up a closet or the basement. What's a person to do?

The Sony Take Back Recycling program, starting next month, may be the answer to your prayers. Showing good corporate-consciousness and marketing savvy in this eco-sensitive age, Sony will take back any branded product it has ever made - for free - at drop-off centers run by Waste Management. That company will dismantle and recycle the material.

The e-cycling project is launching with 75 drop-off and processing  locations in 18 states (PA's one and only is in Lancaster.) That number will expand within a year to 150 sites - with at least one  in  every state. The company hopes to eventually have a drop-off location  "within 20 miles of most consumers," said Mark Small, Sony vice president for corporate environment, safety and health.

The program is a "first move" to persuade the consumer electronics industry and the federal government to establish a national e-waste program, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said. "Our government has talked for nine years about starting a national program . . . Somebody had to take a first step here."

Unwanted goods from other manufacturers also will be accepted at the Waste Management Recycle America facilities, but that'll cost you. A big old glass-tube TV costs about 50 cents a pound to recycle, calculates Small.

For more information, call 877-439-2795 or go online to www.sony.com/recycle.

RIGHT ON SCHEDULE: For those eco-minded or economical souls who watch over-the-air TV and don't want to give up their old TVs when American broadcasters go all-digital on Feb. 17, 2009, digital set-top converter boxes are on the way from Thomson, Samsung and LG.

And last week, right on schedule, the National Telecommunications and Information Agency contracted with IBM to promote and process the $40 rebate coupons that the government has come up with to help viewers pay for those boxes, expected to retail for $50 to $75.

Two paper vouchers per household will be made available, each of them specially coded and personalized. IBM expects to start expediting requests, made by mail or phone, when the first boxes go on sale next January.

HD DISC WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK? When last we looked, high-definition movies on the Blu-ray format were outselling discs on the rival HD-DVD format by a ratio of 2:1, largely because more major studios have been supporting Blu-ray exclusively.

But come the fall, the scales are likely to be rebalanced as Paramount and DreamWorks stop offering discs in both formats and jump into the HD-DVD exclusives camp where Universal Studios Home Entertainment already hangs its hat.

Of the 14 summer 2007 blockbusters that have surpassed $100 million in U.S. grosses, seven will likely be available in high-def by year's end on Blu-ray only: Sony's "Spider-Man 3," New Line Cinema's "Hairspray," Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Ratatouille," and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment's "Live Free or Die Hard," "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" and "The Simpsons Movie."

Over on the HD-DVD side, we see five top-grossing flicks warming up for home delivery. The new Paramount/DreamWorks commitment will produce exclusive, HD-DVD high-def versions of "Shrek the Third" and "Transformers," along with three titles from Universal: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "Knocked Up" and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Harry."

The only top grossers you'll find on both Blu-ray and HD-DVD for holiday giving will be from format-agnostic Warner Home Video: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and "Ocean's 13."

CONSUMER BE WARY: So where does this leave the average consumer? Even more dazed and confused, I'm guessing, for the most part.

But clearly, the HD-DVD format is looking like less of a gamble than it did, say, last week. And that camp's strategy of repeatedly slashing player prices may result in a model or two soon hitting the $199 mark - an impulse buy for an HDTV owner.

"Even if the format were to fail, it will still be useful as a conventional DVD player, with excellent up-conversion of discs for your HDTV," rationalized Universal exec Ken Graffeo.

Paramount cited the "value" of HD-DVD players as a factor in its decision to go exclusive. It's also been reported that the studio was promised substantial up-front dollars and advertising support from the HD-DVD Promotional Group - worth about $100 million for Paramount and $50 million to DreamWorks - to drop Blu-ray and go exclusively with HD-DVD for the next 18 months.

(Steven Spielberg's films are not part of the DreamWorks deal, however. In fact, his "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is coming out only on Blu-ray!)

The Blu-ray Disc Association responded that "the price delta between HD-DVD and Blu-ray players has been greatly reduced in the past few months, a trend that is on its way to eliminating any perceived cost advantage the HD-DVD format has claimed to have."

As of yesterday, though, the least expensive Sony Blu-ray spinner was selling for $456.69 at Amazon.com, versus $238.88 for the cheapest Toshiba HD-DVD player. *

Send e-mail to takiffj@phillynews.com.