paulringodaman

I have never seen one person looking at the HD demo set up at BB's...I've been many times to many different locations.

rdodolak

Nor have I seen HD DVD players or titles advertised in my BB ads since the initial semi-launch.

digitalfreaknyc

All depends on where you live. I've been to BB several times and there's ALWAYS someone there staring at it.

jiggawhat

The displays that I've seen so far have been really weak. They have it displaying on a real small tv and you can't really see that much of a difference. I was watching the Batman Begins trailer on it and I was also watching a Batman trailer in standard def and to be honest with you I really couldn't see a whole lot of difference. I mean it's definitely not night and day difference just gradual which is one reason why most people aren't interested. I think most of them must think it's just a regular DVD playing.

bdhart

When I went in on Tuesday to check the new releases (which they only had U-571), there was no picture and the little hdmi light was blinking.

I rebooted it for them.

awmurray

I saw it on a Westinghouse in BB and (JVC?) at Sears and I don't know what it is that people can't see. Maybe it's setup wrong?

Because what I've seen is absolutely gorgeous. I was skeptical about how much of an improvement it would be over upscaled DVD, but after seeing the demo disc I'm sold. I've stopped buying DVDs since about 1 month ago. I'll only be buying HD discs now... the only possible exception being MST3K because I'm not sure that'll be released (or will benefit from being) on HD.

I think the Westinghouse was a 42"... much smaller than my display, but even at 42" it was like night and day difference. Very easily seen.

Also, plenty of people coming up and looking at it at BB everytime I've been.

darkside

Anything shot on video tape like MST will not benefit at all from HD. I'm still buying all my TV shows on DVD for now whether they would benefit or not.

Zwerchfell

Here in the Bay Area they had the player and titles 2-3 times in the weekly add around the launch.

bruceames

Toshiba is being very secretive of their production numbers and their release plans. Obviously they believe revealing anything would help Sony's strategy more than it would enlighten the rest of us. As well as the players reviews have been, I would think they will sell as many as they can make. There is more pent-up demand for HD DVD (or Bluray) than many think. Relative to the cost of HDTV's the $500 players aren't that expensive. As soon as there is any indication that HD DVD is not going anywhere for a while, people will buy them in droves. I think the indications are already starting to appear.

digitalfreaknyc

Interesting story:
Just got back from CC here in NYC.
As usual, the HD discs were front and center with the new releases. In fact, that's where they've decided to keep all of them.

I walked to the back to look at CD's and I heard two guys talking about DVD players. One of them said "But I want Hi Def. THAT's what I'm waitin' for, man! That's the shit I dream of." The sales person said "It's out! We're getting the HD players in within the next week, I'm told." They kept talking and the customer said "No, I'm talking about REAL HD. Not the upconverters." CC drone: Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. we have the movies already. let me show you."

So I got nosy. I walked up to them and started listening and eventually added my two cents. The customer didn't believe it. I told him it was true and it was absolutely amazing. He was ready to pick up about 5 movies on the spot. I told him about the Amazon deal but he didn't care. He wanted HD and he wanted it NOW.

Very long story short. The CC drone never mentioned BD. He kept talking about how they're getting the HD players within the next couple of weeks and they'd be $500. He told the customer to come back because they've already got a lot of people interested.

The customer and I talked for about 10 minutes and I told him all about the format. He called my DVD collection (400 titles approx) little as well as my TV (51"). he asked how I could even see a difference. He was talking about his Marantz front-screen projecter that he just bought for 2k and his 500 DVD collection. The amusing thing is that this guy really didn't look like he could afford ANY of that stuff and reminded me of the same guy who pre-ordered the HD player back when I saw the demo.

As he said "This IS what I've been waiting for for the last 5 years. This is what it's all about. HD. I'm going home tonight to get one."

bruceames

I used to think that DVD was HD. I remember being disappointed finding out the truth (by that time I had almost 100 dvds!). But having never seen HD, it seemed like it was HD, compared to my vhs tapes.

Giles

yeah, why let him wait?... a quick sale is a good sale.

ChrisHicks

the last few times I was at the Best Buy near me they haven't even had the HD-DVD player on. plus they now have to discs in 2 seperate locations. some are located on a shelf above the upconverting dvd players and the others are located on an end end cap in between the dvds and cds which they have the HD discs sharing the space with cds.

candyrocket786

I still couldn't find the HD demo at the BB store where I bought my player. I did notice that they had the HD-DVDs displayed above the upconversion players.

Another BB I frequent (Houston-Galleria area) had the setup on the 42" Westinghouse along with a rack of HD-DVDs.

Haven't seen shit at CC.

digitalfreaknyc

That's cause they don't sell Toshiba players and they haven't gotten the RCA yet. You'd have to look for the discs.

candyrocket786

I'll have to swing by during lunch today and really look.

SINGLE104

This is the reason why you can't judge a book by it's cover in any circumstances, because looks can be very deceiving.

digitalfreaknyc

Completely.

It also shows that J6P is definitely interested. He may not be spending his money on much else besides his home theater and his car, from our discussion. He was talking about the "bitch" who wouldn't leave his apt because of it.

mbs

I wouldn't call this guy J6P. It certainly sounds like he is a videophile, with Marantz front screen projection and several hundred DVDs. Surprising he didn't know HD-DVD was out, but then again, Toshiba has been rather quiet about it.

digitalfreaknyc

Nah. If he were a videophile, he would've known about this in some way.

He was bragging about how everyone (from "the bitch" to all his friends) were drooling over it. Methinks he's just doing things to impress people. He didn't know specifics about things. He seemed to just be repeating things he'd heard before.

Spiky

There are LOTS of people who can afford a $12K projector and related setup who don't know shit about audio or video. My bro-in-law used to get all sorts of free equipment from these people when they replaced it. They didn't know much, just will buy the best they can afford. I'm not sure what to call them. Knowledge level is about the same as J6P. But certainly not video/audiophiles, either.

Actually, most of the big HT sites on the web were started by guys like this that expanded their knowlege. They get the big setup and think they are wonderful, showing off and whatnot. A couple of them would start to notice that something wasn't quite perfect and they'd start looking into it. Fast forward a couple years and they are running a forum and rubbing elbows with industry pros. I know that's how the HT Spot got started, and similar with some of the bigwigs at AVS.

digitalfreaknyc

Obviously the guy was a bit nuts. To live in NYC in an apt. and have a 51" TV and call it small is insane. It just means that there are people out there who will be buying this stuff and are not "one of us." Makes me wonder if he would have bought it if it were 1k. I should have asked him.

candyrocket786

Just got back from CC.. and saw all the HD discs stocked with the regular stuff. There's no separate endcap like BB... each HD disc is stocked with it's respective SD DVD.

Also saw a BD-R disc (by TDK) for sale.

Josh Z

"Afford" being a relative term. I have a feeling a lot of these people just keep charging up credit card debt until they can't make the minimum monthly payments anymore.

quickfire

If we STOP and think about it....This strategy makes alot of sense!!!!!If you go to buy a new SDDVD and a HDDVD is there right beside it!!!!Most normal customers(not the people that are here on this forum) are going to start to wonder what just how much better the HDDVD is!!!!! Which will lead to customers to start thinking->I have a HDTV!!!!!!I BET a HDDVD player would be GREATwith my set-up....TEMPTATION is the key.......knowing you can have the best of both worlds will most definately sale alot of HDDVD players!!!!!!& MOVIES