The local Best Buy here only has a Blu-Ray endcap setup running a demo disc that shows the supposed differences between BR and SD discs in a "split-screen" comparison. The SD side of the picture looked worse than the original DVD release of Highlander... artifacts and grain galore. The Blu-Ray side appeared to be no better than a good quality progressive scan SD playback.

A pretty worthless demo, IMO.

So pricing so far does appear to be the factor, and a lot of people report the same thing: Blu-Ray looks less than impressive while HD-DVD looks alright.

The pricing thing is no surprise but, to hear that Blu-Ray actually looks pretty bleh does surprise me.

And have no special features. T2 without special features is really a joke.

Double dip is inevitable.

Saw BB's BR demo today (pretty snazzy lookin cases I might add). Picture looked awesome to me on the 40", it was just Aeon Flux... I watched for a few minutes.

They had the HDDVD's in the same spot last wk, with a pretty unimpressive demo of Serenity playing.. didn't see them this wk.

Yeah really. Even if BR turns things around this fall and every release is stellar, we still have to wait for double-dips on these first-wave titles. Lame.

Has any of the BD movies released so far used the new Durabis coating? That's one thing that concerns me about even buying into this format, is the discs might be more fragile/prone to errors from possible scratches. I can't remember the reason, something about the data side, I'm sure someone here has the correct answer.

They have a coating, but it is not Durabis II. Whether or not they can stand up to wear I don't know. I doubt anyone would want to try and scratch their Blu-ray discs to find out.

I had posted about this a while ago. Nope ;)

I was at Best Buy today buying some new appliances with my 12% off reward zone coupon and walked by the DVD players. The BD player has taken over the end cap and the HD DVD was moved with the other players (not hooked up, but the XA1 is on display in Magnolia and still not hooked up right) and has all the discs on shelves above it.

They had the demo disc in the BD player and the picture looked awful, however, its the way the TV is set up as the HD DVD player looked awful hooked up there as well. They were sold out of HD DVD players and had two BD players in stock.

Looking at the displays for both formats still convinces me Best Buy is out to destroy both Blu-ray and HD DVD. How anyone could look at their displays and want to buy either format is beyond me.

BTW, I was really tempted to take out the demo BD disc and test the coating, but don't want to be accused of damaging their stuff. I have no doubt the discs will scratch as easily as CDs and DVDs.

I was at my BB today and they had the Samsung hooked up to the Westinghouse 40" while the Toshiba was playing on this little ass tv(I think it was a 13" LCD). they had 4 Samsungs and 0 Toshibas(except for the display) on the shelves. I asked about the Toshiba and the guy said he thinks they may have a few in the back. I asked the guy why they don't have them on the shelf he said they were instructed to push BD and make it as hard as possible for anyone to get the Toshiba. he said Toshiba hasn't provided any "advertising funds" to them so they are not required to sell them on their shelves.

I'm not sure if he was full of it or not but he did try to sell me a Samsung while telling me that BD blows HD-DVD out of the water. he then proceeded to try to sell me on this fact by comparing the BD pq on the 40" screen compared to the Toshiba on this crappy little 13" or whatever screen. I just laughed to myself and walked away.

Went to Circuit City yesterday, and the rep said they don't carry the Tos HD-DVD, but they would carry the RCA when it becomes available. I was told that they currently only carry the BD player because BD is much better. Told me that the BD picture is a little better then HDDVD, but that the audio is much better. Also said that since Sony ownes most the movie studios, most all moves will only be available for BD. And of course BD can hold more info.

While most of what he said doesn't make much sense, he said it with such confidence that I would guess most average joes would believe it and buy into it.

Yeah, unfortunately, they will listen to him. That guy sounds like a tool.

Someone should get a rope.

Just remembered he also said that LG (I think) is coming out with a dual player in a few months. Was this BS too?

Yup. They're not.

Bestbuy in my area had a Blue-ray player hooked up and eeryone who waled buy paid no attention to the player but they were interested in the tv set. Shows how much people like the player. Also why play Chicken little in a blue ray dvd player? If they are gonna try and sell a $900 player why not show a movie that the buyer would most likly watch. If it was me I would buy a blue ray dvd player to watch an animation.

I went into CC the other day and never thought to ask about the Toshiba. I was just shocked on how much they are promoting Blu Ray.

From what I've heard, CC does not sell Toshiba products, at least when it comes to A/V stuff. But Circuit City sucks anyway, so there you go.