Popularity of HD DVD and Blu-ray in stores
06-26-06 | 03:47 PM
#201
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by RockStrongo
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.
06-26-06 | 05:05 PM
#203
Banned by request
I actually just had a nice experience at Circuit City.
I walked in to where they have the big display TVs with the couches, and saw one was for BD. It was The Fifth Element. The PQ was awful. Worse than the Superbit DVD by far, and dirt all over the place. Unlike my Best Buy, this TV was actually calibrated correctly, so I got a fair representation.
As I sat down to watch, a salesman came over and said, "Want to buy a Blu-ray? I have one left." I said, "Nah, I just ordered an HD-DVD player." And he said, "Man, I wish we could get some of those in, I'd love to set it up. I don't know what our buyer is thinking." And then we talked for a bit. He was actually very pro HD-DVD, and wasn't at all impressed with BD. He said they tried out most of the movies (except Underworld) and they all looked bad, especially XXX. So it's clearly not every CC and BB that are blindly pushing BD.
I walked in to where they have the big display TVs with the couches, and saw one was for BD. It was The Fifth Element. The PQ was awful. Worse than the Superbit DVD by far, and dirt all over the place. Unlike my Best Buy, this TV was actually calibrated correctly, so I got a fair representation.
As I sat down to watch, a salesman came over and said, "Want to buy a Blu-ray? I have one left." I said, "Nah, I just ordered an HD-DVD player." And he said, "Man, I wish we could get some of those in, I'd love to set it up. I don't know what our buyer is thinking." And then we talked for a bit. He was actually very pro HD-DVD, and wasn't at all impressed with BD. He said they tried out most of the movies (except Underworld) and they all looked bad, especially XXX. So it's clearly not every CC and BB that are blindly pushing BD.
06-26-06 | 09:22 PM
#204
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From: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Originally Posted by Suprmallet
I actually just had a nice experience at Circuit City.
As I sat down to watch, a salesman came over and said, "Want to buy a Blu-ray? I have one left."
As I sat down to watch, a salesman came over and said, "Want to buy a Blu-ray? I have one left."
06-26-06 | 10:51 PM
#206
Went to the Best Buy in Secaucus, and they didn't have HD-DVD set up at all. Just sitting on the shelf all lonely by itself. No players available in stock. BD had the same Samsung setup, but they had 2 in stock.
06-27-06 | 02:06 PM
#207
DVD Talk Hero
Originally Posted by Fettastic
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.
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.
06-27-06 | 02:10 PM
#208
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Originally Posted by Draven
That thing reads like a Penthouse letter. And a poorly written one at that.
06-27-06 | 04:22 PM
#209
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From: Greenville, South Cackalack
Purged the last few posts.
There's an "Other" forum for debating the merits of police officers.
There's an "Other" forum for debating the merits of police officers.
06-28-06 | 11:00 AM
#212
Moderator
The Best Buy here in upper Northwest DC is soooo lame - they aren't even showing off a Blu-Ray disc in their demo BR setup - just some generic standard DVD disc that just shows off scenes from movies like 'Gladiator' 'Return of the King' 'Charlie and Chocolate Factory' - sigh... guess they didn't get the Blu-Ray demo disc that Circuit City is showing off...
06-28-06 | 11:11 AM
#213
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From: NYC
Originally Posted by Giles
The Best Buy here in upper Northwest DC is soooo lame - they aren't even showing off a Blu-Ray disc in their demo BR setup - just some generic standard DVD disc that just shows off scenes from movies like 'Gladiator' 'Return of the King' 'Charlie and Chocolate Factory' - sigh... guess they didn't get the Blu-Ray demo disc that Circuit City is showing off...
07-01-06 | 07:49 AM
#214
It looks to me like Best Buy and Circuit City favor BD while Walmart is fully behind HD DVD. Best Buy has taken down their HD DVD display in most stores, Circuit City never really pushed HD DVD. I was in one yesterday that had a big cardboard BD display with the movies in it. Of course, they still have their HD DVD titles covering the checkout area. I think they have every single title as well.
I was in Walmart today. On the bottom row of the long new release aisle, they have about 20 HD DVD titles going across with a "HD DVD" shelf sticker in front of each. They also have a bigger sign above the section that also says "HD DVD". And I also noticed they have dedicated an end cap near the furniture unit that has a plasma tv set up and is hooked to the RCA HD DVD player, which also features HD DVD stickers, etc. They had the Apollo 13 disc in and it looked pretty solid on their display.
While I hope Best Buy finds a place for their HD DVD stuff, I'm glad Walmart, at least at mine, is showing their support for the format. I bought Syriana there today. It was $24.96, which is definitely the cheapest of any B&M store. Their HD DVD prices, along with Amazons, are beating the other stores.
They did have a few BD titles that were in small display units hanging on the end cap of their dvd section. I think I saw Lord of War, Crash, and a few more. No Samsung units anywhere.
I was in Walmart today. On the bottom row of the long new release aisle, they have about 20 HD DVD titles going across with a "HD DVD" shelf sticker in front of each. They also have a bigger sign above the section that also says "HD DVD". And I also noticed they have dedicated an end cap near the furniture unit that has a plasma tv set up and is hooked to the RCA HD DVD player, which also features HD DVD stickers, etc. They had the Apollo 13 disc in and it looked pretty solid on their display.
While I hope Best Buy finds a place for their HD DVD stuff, I'm glad Walmart, at least at mine, is showing their support for the format. I bought Syriana there today. It was $24.96, which is definitely the cheapest of any B&M store. Their HD DVD prices, along with Amazons, are beating the other stores.
They did have a few BD titles that were in small display units hanging on the end cap of their dvd section. I think I saw Lord of War, Crash, and a few more. No Samsung units anywhere.
07-01-06 | 09:07 AM
#215
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My local Best Buy has the best HD DVD selection of any B&M store I've seen, although there's no player hooked up and the titles are tucked away now, with Blu-ray getting the front-and-center treatment.
The Wal-Mart across the street had a surprisingly robust selection of HD DVD titles (maybe a third of the overall titles) but most of them have disappeared over the past week. They had a decent selection of Blu-ray titles too, but all but a couple of them are gone too. These were on an end cap but one facing a highly trafficked area.
Another Wal-Mart had a "more HD DVD titles coming soon!" tag on their tiny home video section, although there wasn't a single HD DVD -- just a handful of Blu-ray discs. (Blu-ray titles, if they're not completely segmented on their own, really "fade in" with traditional DVDs. The HD DVD cases, love 'em or hate 'em, at least stand out.)
The Wal-Mart across the street had a surprisingly robust selection of HD DVD titles (maybe a third of the overall titles) but most of them have disappeared over the past week. They had a decent selection of Blu-ray titles too, but all but a couple of them are gone too. These were on an end cap but one facing a highly trafficked area.
Another Wal-Mart had a "more HD DVD titles coming soon!" tag on their tiny home video section, although there wasn't a single HD DVD -- just a handful of Blu-ray discs. (Blu-ray titles, if they're not completely segmented on their own, really "fade in" with traditional DVDs. The HD DVD cases, love 'em or hate 'em, at least stand out.)
07-01-06 | 09:15 AM
#216
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From: Indianapolis, IN
My Best Buy has the A1 on disaplay, but it was not hooked up to the Westinghouse TV it was under. Right next to it was the Blu-ray disaplay running the demo disc.
All of the movies for both formats are located in the DVD player aisle. None in the section with regular DVDs
All of the movies for both formats are located in the DVD player aisle. None in the section with regular DVDs
07-01-06 | 09:27 AM
#217
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My best buy had a BR played hooked up where the HD-DVD player used to be. The HD-DVD player was just set next to a bunch of other DVD players and wasn't hooked up to anything. The discs themselves were right next to both players.
None of the Walmarts near me carry either one.
None of the Walmarts near me carry either one.
07-01-06 | 02:26 PM
#218
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well, just got back from Best Buy. They had a huge sign "HD DVD - the next wave of Movies!" or something like that with the official HD-DVD logo. They had about 40 DVDs of movies on a rack in front of the display. I had to double check - because ALL of the discs were Blue-Ray!! This was not the case of a couple of BR discs being mistakenly placed there but the entire rack was ONLY BR!
I can only imagine the confusion this must cause with folks.
perhaps these discs need to come with stickers that say "Note: This disc will only play on Blue-Ray compatible players, and will not play on standard DVD players, HD-DVD players, etc. Ensure you have the compatible hardward before purchase'.
Just my thoughts.
I can only imagine the confusion this must cause with folks.
perhaps these discs need to come with stickers that say "Note: This disc will only play on Blue-Ray compatible players, and will not play on standard DVD players, HD-DVD players, etc. Ensure you have the compatible hardward before purchase'.
Just my thoughts.
07-01-06 | 02:37 PM
#219
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From: NYC
Originally Posted by Steve
well, just got back from Best Buy. They had a huge sign "HD DVD - the next wave of Movies!" or something like that with the official HD-DVD logo. They had about 40 DVDs of movies on a rack in front of the display. I had to double check - because ALL of the discs were Blue-Ray!! This was not the case of a couple of BR discs being mistakenly placed there but the entire rack was ONLY BR!
I can only imagine the confusion this must cause with folks.
perhaps these discs need to come with stickers that say "Note: This disc will only play on Blue-Ray compatible players, and will not play on standard DVD players, HD-DVD players, etc. Ensure you have the compatible hardward before purchase'.
Just my thoughts.
I can only imagine the confusion this must cause with folks.
perhaps these discs need to come with stickers that say "Note: This disc will only play on Blue-Ray compatible players, and will not play on standard DVD players, HD-DVD players, etc. Ensure you have the compatible hardward before purchase'.
Just my thoughts.
07-01-06 | 05:25 PM
#220
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
My Best Buy has a pretty sad looking collection of HD DVDs, (the 3 launch day titles from Warner) so one day I decided to check out the Circuit City near by just for the hell of it. Just to be clear I hate Circuit City, I hardley ever go in there. But to my great surprise my Circuit City has almost every HD DVD title in stock except for Constantine and Cinderella Man. Best part is they are all $24.99 except for the combos which are $27.99. That makes some of the titles like The Rundown cheaper than Amazon even witht the 10% off discount and about $10 cheaper then what my Best Buy wants! The only negative is that the HD DVDs are peppered into the SD DVDs. But I kind of dig the treasure hunt aspect of it.
07-01-06 | 06:05 PM
#221
Well, I was in Best Buy today and they thankfully reset their HD DVD unit. They have it hooked up to a Samsung plasma. It's on an end cap near the home entertainment furniture. They also have about a dozen movies standing up all around the player and 2 cases on the floor filled with titles. They had almost every movie released save for a few.
They also had a big HD DVD sign above the display and another shelf liner, so at least this one is showing some support.
They also had a big HD DVD sign above the display and another shelf liner, so at least this one is showing some support.
07-02-06 | 12:44 AM
#222
Banned by request
I went into Sears today. They had the Toshiba attached to a Toshiba TV right in the center of their TV section. They said they had some kind of Samsung display, but they were playing the SD of Revenge of the Sith on it, heh. The salesman said he wasn't impressed with the PQ on BD. I gave him the rundown on why BD looks like crap right now, so hopefully he'll be able to inform people in the future. They didn't have any players other than display ones, though. You had to special order them.
07-02-06 | 08:34 AM
#223
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I went to bb yesterday...I found the HD-DVD setup on a 42in WH tv....when I asked the sales guy where the BD one was...he said they didnt have one and it wasnt out yet....then 5 minutes later came over and said he was wrong and they had one...I walked over where he told me to go and saw the display on a sammy plasma....I wasnt impressed.
It was playing a demo disc that I assume was BD. Im not sure how they had it set up, but the HD-DVD on the Westinghouse actually looked better....my girlfriend agreed.
At the very least, they hadnt set it up right. Oh well.
It was playing a demo disc that I assume was BD. Im not sure how they had it set up, but the HD-DVD on the Westinghouse actually looked better....my girlfriend agreed.
At the very least, they hadnt set it up right. Oh well.
07-03-06 | 04:01 AM
#224
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I talked to a guy at Best Buy the other day - he says that the Toshiba HD DVD players are still selling out almost as soon as they get them. He also said that the Bluray players are stuck on the shelves, as very few people are buying them.
The HD DVD players seem to still be what everyone wants - no one wants to spend $1,000 on a bluray player when the movies are not up to a decent PQ standard yet.
The HD DVD players seem to still be what everyone wants - no one wants to spend $1,000 on a bluray player when the movies are not up to a decent PQ standard yet.
07-03-06 | 09:03 AM
#225
DVD Talk Legend
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.
A pretty worthless demo, IMO.