That I did. And I'm well aware of the bullshit that comes from corporate pushing stuff like that. Now, it's a bit different because CC actually created the format so they had a lot more personally invested in it. No one really trained me to sell them. I honestly knew enough about DVD's and through my readings on the internet, I knew what to say and, more importantly, what not to say.
I remember getting a lot of people who would come in to test me on DIVX. Some were downright obnoxious. But I always told people "look, if the format fails, you'll still have a DVD player. You really have nothing to lose." That seemed to work.
Still, I remember my dept. manager calling me very early one morning after he got out of his meeting to tell me that DIVX was dead. I started laughing like crazy and jumped out of bed.
I'd imagine I'd have the same reaction if something similar were to happen with this "war" as well.

Maybe Sony did learn from the Betamax loss.

It's weird, people don't seem to care. The employees are jazzed because they are technogeeks like us, but the typical consumer is completely despondant. Of course, there has been practically no marketing to speak of so I guess I can't really blame them. They don't even know it exists by and large.

Yeah but now everyone who bought a DIVX disc has a coaster to show for it and a really crappy single-layer-only DVD player. That crap was the worst scam ever perpetrated on the American people and I hope CC lost a lot on it.

www.dvdfile.com is reporting this morning that the Sony delay until October was not to install HDMI 1.3, but to work out some sort of software glitch. Just more reason to get the PS3 I guess.

Or a reason NOT to get the PS3.

Single layer only? Seriously not true.

And if anyone is still using a DIVX machine, they're not really caring about quality.

::

Thanks. I needed that.

They admit they lost $114,000,000 on it:

DIVX Bites The Dust

The PS3 will be the first hardware available which incorporates HDMI 1.3.

I will never forgive CC for DIVX. They touted it as "a free special feature", then when it self-destructed, they admitted to charging an additional $100 per player for DIVX.

But at least they didn't say that "the future of home entertainment doesn't start until we say it does."

I am wondering, though, exactly how Sony is able to get the PS3 to supposedly work, when they can't get their standard Blu-Ray hardware to function properly. Heck, is the PS3 release date even a definite? Are there any chances that it, too, will be delayed if Sony can't work out the glitches?

That was my thought as well. If the PS3 didn't have issues, they would know how to fix the other players. And no delay 6 months into the future i definite.

Well, it would have been suicide had Sony gone to E3 without a release date for the PS3....who knows if it will actually happen?

If there are software issues with the standalone, I cant imagine what issues they are having with the PS3. Also, since its the first to support HDMI 1.3, id be worried about that too.

My advice, wait for a second gen PS3 so all the kinks would be worked out. Besides, there arent really any good games coming out for it this year anyways, imo.

If PS3 gets delayed again I'm gonna be pissed! I guess the bright side would be that studios might just say "Fuck this, HD-DVD is selling through the roof and Sony can't get their shit together, we're gonna support HD DVD."

walked into BB today and wandered over to the BR and HD displays within a minute someone came up to me and asked if i needed help, i declined, but they also told me they didn't work on commision which seemed kinda random. Anyways they had both HD and Blu Ray set up with Blue Ray with a bunch of Signage while HD was tucked away with in the display room. I looked all over and found an end cap for about 3 HD dvds and for the life of me and i couldn't find any BR dvds. The picture for BR on the Samsung they had looked terrible while the HD in the display looked much better.

Anyways i walked next door to CC and they had a big demo area for BR. One of their sales reps came over and we started chatting about the system. It was hooked via HDMI to a 1080p system, blah, blah, and blah. They had House of Flying Daggers menu on playing so i asked if i could watch part of the movie. Sure, and she goes and pushes play. Nothing. She tries again. Nothing. I look at the TV and whenever she pushes play there's the invalid circle with the line through it. She finds the remote and hits play, nothing again. So, she goes to the manager and talks to him and she comes back and restarts the machine. After the long loadup time, which she even comments on, we get back to the main menu. She again presses play with nothing happening. Now, i'm starting to laugh because this is ridiculous. She goes and talks to the manager again and he comes over. He presses play, nothing, he finds the remote, nothing, so he reboots the machine. Long wait while we all stand in silence waiting, very weird moment as they try to smile and tell me about all the studio support for BR while they keep glancing at the TV.

So it boots back up and he presses play, again nothing. He finally presses stop, then Play and the movie finally starts playing. I ask about the service plan and they both scurry off to find out. While i have a minute free i scan ahead to the scene where the blind girl does the dance with the beans. It looks pretty sharp and the audio was nice. So, they finally come back and tell me the service plan is $169.

After that i ask about HD-DVD and they tell me that CC is not going to be carrying HD-DVD because BB is carrying only HD-DVD and that CC is going to go with BR so that they don't have to compete with the same product?!?!?! I kindly tell them that BB is carrying BR as well. And that i saw one of the workers holding the Last Samurai HD-DVD. Stunned silence for a minute, follwed by "Well, all i know is that we don't have them. But i do know that we have a few Blu-Ray players in stock ready to go. Want me to grab one for ya?" It took alot of will power not to laugh in their faces after all the problems they had with the demo. They also had a demo for sd dvd right next to the BR and it looked so bad that i could have sworn they messed with it. Bad experience from CC and Best Buy.

I used to work at BB...they are instructed in training to get your name and let you know that they arent on commission.

Funny cause the last time I was in BB....this little hottie blonde girl came up to me in the DVD section and asked if I needed help....I knew that she was new because I had never seen her there.....she walked away when I said no, but a minute or 2 later, she walked up and asked my name. Took me off guard and I thought for a second that she was hitting on me....then I realized that she was supposed to get my name the first time and just forgot. haha.

Funny stories cocheese. I guess we've all had pretty similar experiences. These people are absolutely clueless.

Wow. I go in best buy all the time and never get asked my name nor does anyone tell me they're not on commission. Strange.

Well, they are supposed to....that doesnt mean they will.

My a-hole assistant manager used to walk around and point to customers in my area and ask their name...I used to just make up names.

They used to tell me the commission thing all the time but they haven't in quite awhile. The thing is that they don't work on comission but they DO work on incentive so it's pretty much the same thing anyway.

Me either, I'm in there probably 3 times a week and haven't heard that once. They actually seem like they've hired a couple of bright people, I've been impressed at the service last couple times through. But if somebody told me they don't work on commission without any context I'd probably ask why I'm supposed to care.

If you have never gone to this site before, check it out.
http://bestbuysux.org/comments.html

Here's a typical story from that site:
First I want to say I really enjoy your website. Best Buy is an evil empire that I know hope would fall off the end of the earth. Here is my story. I bought my son a ps2 and also a extended warranty since he keeps wearing em out. So approx 9months later the ps2 starts to malfunction. But I am not worried, I have my ext warranty lol. I bring it back, explain the problem. The clerk was about to exchange it when a manager comes up and states not to return it yet. They hook it up trying to recreate the malfunction. They actually do one time. For some reason the manager still does not want to honor my warranty. Then for another unknown reason they cannot find my warranty in their computer (it is numbered I think). Well we go back and forth and before I get pissed I just leave. I wait a couple hours and call back and talk to yet another manager. He tells me to bring it back and he will exchange it. So I go back and wait in line. Once there the issue of the warranty number comes back. I was like ok, here are the warranty papers and the receipt showing I paid for it. I asked why I was told to come back if this is what they were going to do. I would not back down from this guy and I think this may be some issue of him thinking I was a punk kid. I am not, infact I am a cop, which was his downfall in the end. So this guy starts threatening me, telling me that if he wasnt at work he would fix my attitude and that he was going to call his loss prevention personnel to escort me out of the store. I tried once again to explain that I was not leaving, all I wanted was an exchange and then I would be more than happy to leave. I also explained that he its not wise to threaten people. Having a great idea I deceided to leave. A couple of nights later I had this guy stopped for speeding, he about shit. Needless to say he got a couple tickets and he was invited to threaten me, but it didnt happen. I did also get hold of someone at corporate who to my suprise
fixed my warranty problem. Imagine the look on his face when I showed up again and he had no choice but to exchange my ps2. Sometimes life is infact Great.

Not only does it tell you how BB deals with warrenties (this is about how they treated me too), but also confirms everything I've always suspected about cops.