Been trying to get on the HD wagon for the past couple months, but the powers that be just aren't letting me.

In May I tried ordering a TV from Fry's. The truck it was in was in an accident and that broke the TV. I only found out about this when 2 weeks beyond the supposed ship date I asked DHL what the deal was, and they matter of factly said "Oh, it crashed. Sorry. You should really contact Fry's and ask for your money back."

Then yesterday I try again. I figure it can't be in a car accident if I go to pick it up myself, unless god forbid, I'm in accident. Well, on the plus side, I wasn't in an accident, but when I got my Vizio 42 inch plasma home, I set it up and everything went great, it looked great, everything is fine... for a half hour. Then I hear a loud popping noise and the screen goes black. It refuses to power on and the power light (which usually glows orange when it's off) isn't on.

Hopefully third time will be a charm

Oh man, that bites! Hope you have better luck the third time.

For the first time I received an HD title without a disc in it. I got it off of ebay and it came sealed, except for the fact the the plastic was torn. I didn't even bother to check if all was complete (until today). Left positive feedback and everything. Hopefully, I can get an exchange or refund. But that is the first time that ever happened.

Wow, that sucks Wazootyman. Hope it all works out for you on your third try.

Wow. That sucks. Now my day seems trivial. But, since you were so kind to share yours, I'll share mine. To give it weight, I'll add an older bad TV experience story first.

I bought my first HDTV a long while ago. It was a lovely new Sharp LC-52D62U. If you’re familiar with this set, you know that right off the bat, I had banding. At first, I thought it was a voltage issue so I check AVS to see what's up and then I find that it's a panel issue that they all had. Normally I'd send it back but I had gotten it for $1000 under what it should have been due to a major price error where I work. Anyhow, I noticed the bands were slight enough that if I was watching regular TV or movies, I rarely noticed. The only time I found it obvious was during certain video games. Sadly, I noticed that pixel died on the set and it was glowing bright white. Kind of the opposite of what I expected a dead pixel to look like but there it was. I promptly exchanged it for a new set (same model) because two problems were two too many. My new set arrives and the pixels are fine. But the banding it had was the worst I've ever seen. It looked like gradient banding over everything. It was even noticeable during bright white images (where banding on these sets disappears). It took a few months before Sharp (I chose to go directly through them this time) got replacement sets in stock and sent me a new set. Well the new set also has banding but it's the very slight sort that was in my first set. So, honestly, I usually don't see it if I'm not looking for it.

Now for my second story. The slight one. Recently I finally got my tax return. A measly $500 but I figured I can finally get myself an HD DVD player to go with 15 HD DVDs (of which only four are combo discs) I already own. Well there's no way I'll get one at work cos they actually expect me to pay just under $500 for the RCA HDV5000. No way! :P Sadly, Amazon doesn't seem to ship players to Puerto Rico so their good prices are out of the question and I didn't have the cash back when the AVS deal was posted here. The different Costco and Sam's warehouses I've visited don't have any HD DVD players in stock (and the scan few Blu-Ray players they have are too pricey and I only have HD DVD discs so it's moot for me anyway). Heck, half the time the employees have no idea what I'm talking about and those that do have no idea when, if ever, they'll have them in stock.

This leaves the Wal-Marts and K-Marts. No K-Mart I've visited has ever had any HD DVD player at all in stock. But Wal-Mart on occasion has. Sadly, that was when I didn't have the cash.

An hour ago, I went to a Wal-Mart in the town over and they had two HD-A2's in stock! I don't see any price on the one I picked up (and the other was buried under a couple of heavy DVD/VCR players on a top shelf) so I ask an employee. He points to a small print on a shipping label on the box and states: "$498." What? That's one hell of a markup for an item that should be closer to $299! To which he claims that online prices and whatnot have no bearing in Puerto Rico. I grant him that is true (working at a retail store, I know that sad fact) but that's still a huge price hike. So he suggests I just take it to the register to get it scanned.

I take his advice but given that the solitary cashier seemed to be in a coma and there where three customers before me, I chose to find one of those store price checkers instead. On my way towards one, I notice a price label someone attempted to remove from the box. It had been slashed diagonally but they forgot to remove more than half of the label. It reads in small print "HD DVD PLAYER" and in very large bolded print "$298.00". Interesting. I get to a price checker and the box scans "$398.00". Confusing.

Just in case, I headed to a checkout line with the player in tow. The cashier noticed the "$498.00" and "$298.00" labels. And she was just as confused as I when the players scanned at "$398.00" on the register. So she called the electronics guys for verification but both employees where on break at the same time. So we had to wait for an assistant manager that insisted that the $298.00" label was meaningless even though it clearly identified the item along with a price. He came up with some long winded story that the label was probably taken from a shelf and slapped on the player or that someone (which sounded suspiciously like you) brought in a price label and slapped it on the box (this after I asked him to then explain from what player did that price come from - hoping to find out and buy that instead). So after that stalemate I just let go of the player and went home. So close, yet so far...

And as upsetting as that was, I found my story is nothing compared to yours, Wazootyman. "You should really contact Fry's and ask for your money back" indeed!

I got an empty case from either DVDPlanet or DeepDiscount for a BD title around Christmas. They were nice enough to reship it no questions asked, but other than that so far so good.

Now the TV is mocking me. I unplugged it, waited a bit and plugged it back in, which turned on the "off" light, giving me hope that yesterday was a fluke. I turn it on, but no sound comes, I fiddle with the volume, I attach external speakers, I press the mute on, mute off button several times, but nothing.

On top of that, it turns off after like 10 minutes and the off light goes black

I was given a refund so that was nice!

Glad to hear it, Bill Geiger.

Any news on your front, Wazootyman?