I'm not so sure it's a good idea. I understand it may get more people to notice them, but it would take much longer for people to find an HD-DVD if they go in looking to buy one but don't know what's out. For us, sure, we know before we get into the store what's available, but the people who don't know will have to look through every DVD to find all the HD-DVDs.

Also, it will inevitably cause some people to think the discs will play in their current DVD players. The packaging is different from a keepcase, but then again, so is a thinpak, a digipack, and a snapper case (and that's not even counting all the weird packages like the Simpson heads). They'll just think it's yet another "innovative" package.

If anyone in the Houston area is looking for the HDA1 apparently the Woodlands and Humble stores have at least one unit.

i just don't think they advertise their displays enough. should be a huge flashing hddvd sign above the demo area. otherwise people just aren't going to find it.

that and the jump from vhs was far more dramatic. vhs was like the stone age. a crude tape format that required rewinding, would wear out, couldn't skip tracks or navigate instantly..had bad image quality etc etc. it was just a mess. dvd was small convenient and chock full of new impressive special features that made the purchase so much more fulfilling for anyone that liked film. the bonus features gave you everything you wanted to know about your favorite film, the dvd menus gave you the power of choice. the small format now lets you playback stuff for your kids and such with 100-150 dollar portable dvd players, its just so cheap and convenient. hddvd/bluray? its just dvd+. most consumers can barely take advantage of dvd quality, let alone broadcast quality..or let alone 1080p:P just remember, 33dollar magnavox divx+dvd player from walmart. vs what? 500-1000dollar hd format? they will be interested when the prices come way down, and when displays stop cheating with less pixels than the 1080i/p actually needs so the difference will become undeniable.

Universal is starting to put stickers on the cover saying something like "these will only work in HD DVD players and drives".

Dammit! They're catching on to our stupidity.

No, it's not a good idea to mix HD-DVD with regular DVD.

If someone has a HD-DVD player, they're going to be looking for HD-DVD discs. And right now, there are only about a dozen HD-DVD movies available.

Seems pretty stupid for Circuit City to hide them in with the regular DVDs.

But then again, this is the company that backed DIVX.

My Circuit City has all the HD DVDs grouped together on 2 shelves in front of the register in the movie section.

I just got back from best buy to purchase a Play and Charge kit for my 360. So while there, i am shopping around the tvs and was looking for the HD-DVD display. If you werent specifically looking it, theres no way you'd have found it. No signs, no promotion, nothing.

So i am looking at it on the 1080p 42" westinghouse. Right when i got there, Serenity had finished playing. So i pressed Stop then Play. Play wouldnt respond. Then i remembered this player takes a while to register commands so i waited.. and waited.. then finally it started playing. Im watching the movie, and i am in SHOCK over how much grain i am seeing. I mean, its absolutely unbeleivable how much grain im looking at. I wondered if this was a HD-DVD or not, but then i realised i saw that big HD-DVD Logo before the movie came up, so i am.. The movie just looked terrible to me. If i was a consumer looking at it, id be utterly disapointed. Being a PQ whore, i was disgusted.

I have also often heard of Serenity being THEE movie to see in HD to display what its capable of. Was this a bunch of Blu-Ray guys recommending it to make people laugh at hd-dvd? Please, some insight would help. I thought the HD-DVD Demo disc was bad, but this was just.. sad. Also, a friend of mine that has a 60" LCD HDTV was with me, and he kept telling me how bad it looked since i was in shock at how bad it looked and couldnt talk. So it wasnt just me.

That's what happens when you turn the Sharpness and Contrast settings on the TV all the way up. Try it at home sometime.

Good thing he won't have to worry about watching it on his BD player

Did you calibrate the set?

If I go somewhere like BestBuy to look at PQ issues, I'll always bring DVE and quickly calibrate the set. Without doing that, judging by how BestBuy has the TVs setup is meaningless. The sets are often in torch mode and occasionally all sorts of fudged up (as if some kid was toying with the TV's settings).

It's too bad, but BestBuy just blows at showing off displays.

It would also be helpful to find out how the player was connected to the TV. Best Buy stores have been known to connect their DVD players to the display TVs by composite cable. I wouldn't put it past them to do the same with an HD player.

They even set the TVs this way in the Magnolia store and HD DVD looks just as bad. Believe me BD discs are going to look just as awful on Best Buy's demo TVs in torch mode with all the crap turned all the way up. On a properly calibrated set HD DVD delivers an amazing picture. If Blitz was really a PQ whore I think he would know about things like Video Essentials and most importantly the Imaging Science Foundation. A group of people Best Buy could really think about calling.

We have a local high end store called Bjorns that used properly calibrated sets for their HD DVD and Blu-ray demo and they sold many of us on the technology by using sets that squeezed every ounce of picture out of the disc.

I never once said anything about the image itself, it was hooked up HDMI and it was clean. What i am concerned with is the absurd amount of grain present. It was so distracting that i couldnt even watch the film anymore, it was that bad.

You sure you weren't looking at it through BD colored glasses?

Most likely the tv was not calibrated correctly. Also, did you check what resolution it was playing? Since you didnt mention it, then I would think you didnt.

Its very likely that BB forgot to change it to 1080i.

On my ISF calibrated 61in sammy DLP via HDMI at 1080i rez (my set downscales to 720p), Serenity looks very good. Obviously shot on film though.

There are bound to be a lot of people that will be pissed when their movies (on EITHER format) don't look like Discovery HD.

Film in HD has a VERY different look than Video in HD.

Blitz will have a very rude awakening when he sees the same issues on BD...although, if he keeps wearing those glasses, maybe not.

If the sharpness and contrast is cranked all the way up that stuff you think is grain is more than likely noise that is added to the picture. I viewed the same thing on Phantom of the Opera at the Magnolia section of Best Buy. Serenity has more of a soft look they went for when filming it and is not overly grainy at all. There is grain present as there should be on things shot on film, but is it not distracting nor does it ruin the image. As mentioned though, film will always look like film and will not look like things shot on HD video cameras.

Like it or not, film grain is going to be more apparent on an HD format than it will be on DVD. Even with DVD, I've noticed that when I upgrade to a better display, grain is more apparent because the clearer image reveals the grain more clearly.

Surely there will be complaints when something like A.I. or Minority Report is released on an HD format. Hopefully they won't betray the filmmakers by putting them through a "grain removal" filter.

Well, I was at BB today. I saw the HD-DVD display on a widescreen TV. They were playing Batman Begins.

And while it looked good, it didn't blow me away. I think if it hadn't been promoted as HD-DVD, I just would've assumed that it was either regular dvd, or possibly Batman Begins on HBO in HD or something.

It obviously looked clear, but it wasn't something that made me want to go out and tell all my friends about this great new technology I saw. Maybe Batman Begins isn't the best sample to use to show of the HD-DVD technology...but watching that for 5 or so minutes didn't and wouldn't make me even consider switching from DVD to HD-DVD.

Wait, are you saying you can't see any difference between an SD DVD and HBO in HD? If that is the case, then I would say that you are probably not a target customer for either HD DVD or Blu-ray.

While i agree that BR will look very similar, it will IMO look better then what we've seen so far on HD-DVD. 1080p is the hot ticket, no matter what the naysayers want to tell you. However, since they will look relatively the same, its simple enough to support the one with the studio support, the better technology format (50gig dual layer anyone?) and the hardware that delivers what it promised (1080p discs AND player, not just discs that get lowered in quality before sent to the tv). Honestly, seeing these HD-DVD flicks in person turns me off to HD movies more then id ever have thought. Hopefully they'll go through hoops to get peoples attention once the formats are settled and they release some amazing content. Right now it looks like the only thing that will take HD Films to the next level is the PS3 and the hope that people will want the somewhat better picture quality.

If anything all that grain you hate should be even easier to see on one of Best Buy's awful TV displays set up for Blu-ray in 1080p. It does appear that Best Buy is doing no favors to HD video and may single handedly destroy HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Did Blitz miss a bulletin? HD DVD is going to be 1080p too. It's possible a firmware might "unlock" it from the current players.

Collateral sd dvd looks brilliant upscaled on the A1. In all its grainy gloryness!

Its near HD quality if I say so myself.

On a 1080p tv, you might be right. It might look slightly better. But, it will most likely not even be evident to most people.

But, like digi said, HD-DVD DOES support 1080p, its just that the initial players do not (which could change).