Not in my area.

All the Target Greatland's around here had 3 columns each of Blu-Ray and HD DVD. They are now all 4 Blu columns and 2 HD DVD columns.

Maybe the non-Greatland Targets handled this differently, but around here this is how it was handled.

Is it burning you inside to see this memo? So what if Target decides to no longer carry HD-Dvds or if they decide to continue carrying them? Do you ever buy HD-Dvds from Target anyway?

I have no idea if mine (Target) even carried HD-DVDs at all, lol. Rarely go in there at all and certainly not to buy HD titles...

I'm in Target all the time, like 2 times a week minimum.

One of the Super Targets around here has about 48 Blu-Ray titles available, but most have about 16-20, and about 8-10 HD DVD's at any given time.

No, its not. But when people keep saying "Well, someone on Blu-ray.com said a memo was going around so it must be true" then yeah, I want to see it. I can make the same claim about Blu-ray and Wal-Mart but you wouldn't believe it without proof, right?

We already have Pioneer who admitted right after their press conference that Target would still be carrying HD DVDs and 360 players, just no SA players (like the Holidays where Sony paid them not to).

Since were going to take the word of a Blu-ray.com member, let me go ahead and post this from some random guy who apparently works at Target from an Engadget post

I'm sure it's not burning him inside. But, he has every right to request "proof" of something that apparently isn't happening, despite certain people's insistance.

Mine went from 3:3 to 8:4 around November or so.

Target is goofy - they seem to have different floor plans and planograms for different regions.

I was in a Target in Seattle and couldn't find anything LOL.

they have, I think 3 different types of stores. Target, Greatland (or something like that), and another one. you can tell by what if any groceries they carry. I think each type is similar...

This is the first I've heard of any of this Warner stuff.

I feel rumbly in my tumbly.

I can understand that. But I guess you could ask why does anyone really care what Target does? As far as bargains go they are few and far between there and they don't pricematch. And Targte does seem goofy with their selections as mentioned earlier. You could go to 10 different Targets and each one would have a different layout and selection to boot.

The sad thing is Target had some nice pricing in the beginning. All their HD DVD catalog titles were 19.99. Then they adopted the Best Buy Guide To Gouging HDM Customers price structure.

I don't even like using gift cards on HDM there as it feels like a waste.

The only title I ever bought from Target was Batman Begins back you could get it early by bringing the SKU# or whatever it was and the clerk would go get it out of the back.

That is the reason that I have yet to buy one HDM title from them. There is at least some wiggle room with Best Buy with some of their wacky offers and coupons that make it to the web.

I was on the fence on moving onto HD for a long time. However, the promotion that Amazon.com ran where the A30 was only $200 with 10 movies (5 mail in) was too good to pass up. As soon as I played my first HD movie (Transformers) I was in awe.

I was excited to be able to take advantage of my new HD TV as well as watching my favorite movies in high resolution. I already have a large list of movies I was going to buy and was about to order the Matrix Trilogy on Friday when I decided to check DVDTalk for the best deal. When I read the press release I was almost in disbelief even though I know it was inevitable. My first reaction was denial, still believing that HD-DVD had a shot to come out on top. After the weekend passed I soon realized that it was just false hopes.

I contacted Amazon.com this morning and they were willing to take back my player and opened movies for a full refund. +1 for them. I asked what their cheapest Blu-Ray player was and he pointed out a player nearly $140 dollars more than the HD-DVD player and only 5 mail in free movies.

So here I am disappointed, but at the same time grateful that I was able to recoup on my investment into this new medium. I'm still a fan of movies and I will continue to watch them however this whole 'war' ordeal has left me with a bad taste. Will I eventually invest in Blu-Ray? Probably not, if so not any time soon.

I have a collection of over 400 SD movies that I'm not planning on getting rid of. A good 30% of them haven't even been opened, and even more that I bought blindly. I think I'll buy a upconverting dvd player and enjoy my existing library.

It's ironic how taking advantage of a sale which was meant to lure me into this new medium has turned me into someone who is going to pass it by.

Umm, if you need an upconverting player now, why not keep the A-3 and all the free movies and things...I guess I'm confused. those HD DVD movies aren't going to explode

There must be a lot of rich people in the world, and on this forum, with the idea that the high cost of Blu-ray players is no big deal. Not many people that I know spend thousands for multiple players and high end setups as seems to be the norm on this forum. And I live in a very wealthy community, but still when I go in most people's homes, they've got their HDTV attached to a cheap or midrange DVD player (just one) by compenent or even sometimes AV inputs.

These analogies to early-day high prices of DVD players are purely mythical. There were DVD players available under $200 very quickly. There are very few people out there who paid more than $250 for their first DVD player. And I'd venture that most paid less than $200. The people who paid $400+ for their first DVD player is an extremely small number of people that populate technology forums. The masses bought in when they started going on sale at $199.

There are $25 DVD players in Wal-Mart and other stores now. Blu-Ray is asking people to pay FIFTEEN TIMES THAT MUCH for their CHEAPEST player, which is a game system not REALLY designed for playing movies! Lack of a remote, for example. A machine that isn't comptabile with universal remotes and requires a separate $20 remote that requires setting up a bluetooth connection isn't on the average consumer's agenda for watching movies at home.

I'll say this: I think an end to the format war is good, although I would have preferred to see HDDVD win, I'm happy that it is over. But Blu-Ray is going nowhere if sub-$200 standalones aren't available by the end of 2008. Not saying that has to be the MSRP, but if you can't watch the sales for a few weeks and get one for under two bills, then BD will be cemented in the minds of consumers as expensive, unnecessary technology, and something else more affordable will ultimately be the hi-def format of the future, and Blu-ray will end up either like laserdisc, or like SACD.

Upconverting players will get better and cheaper (my $40 Philips upconverting player does a pretty good job on most discs), and while the difference is notable to most, it isn't a difference that is going to blow away NON-TECHIES enough to justify the cost, not like the VCR/DVD difference, which was an obvious giant leap to almost everyone. My rough guesses: 10% will say WOW to HD vs. upcoverted SDDVD, 10% will say its a good improvement, 50% will say it is a small improvement, and 30% won't be able to tell at all. And this is under ideal circumstances on a large screen, 1080p TVs, side-by-side with the optimum setup on both. On a smaller screens, 720p displays, with less-than-ideal setup, and not being able to actually look at them side-by-side? 75% of people won't see any difference that they care about. You say an extra hundred bucks? Ok, sure. And extra $300? No way.

Everyone on forums like this believes they have golden eyes and golden ears, so they notice every tiny thing and claim, whether they geniunely see it or its pretense, that there is a HUGE difference between every tiny step of technical improvement. When S-VHS came out, progressive scan DVD players came out, when 720p came out, when 1080p came out...it was a revolution, according to every techie forum, and you were BLIND if you couldn't tell a huge difference. The average viewer doesn't see a huge difference in these small steps. I have to explain to my girlfriend what makes a good or bad DVD transfer. She can't tell the difference between the transfer of Pearl Harbor and transfer of my ten year old Sleepers flipper disc, and most of my friends that watch movies at my house can't tell either, or don't care. I still have friends who don't care about the difference between VHS picture quality and DVD. "I just care about the story" they say.

Techies like most of us are on forums like this greatly overestimate the average consumer's interest in incremental technologal advances. If it's cheap enough, yeah, people will drop a hundred bucks or two on something just for the hell of it. But the majority of folks in this country think pretty hard about $300 and $400 purchases. And when they think hard about that kind of money for a Blu-ray player, I don't think there are a ton of people who are going to do it.

I'm not a hater. I want to see Blu-ray thrive, and I want to see HD become the norm, and I think it is inevitable that SOME HD format will, but for that format to be Blu-ray, hardware prices have to come WAY down, and fast. If Blu-ray can bring their player prices down to HDDVD player levels by year's end, then I think by late 09-mid 2010, BD will be neck and neck with SDDVD. But if the player prices stay so high, they are headed for niche, or defunct status.

Sony, for all their technical saavy, often seems to not understand the American consumer at all. and I think this is refelcted in the failures of their past proprietary formats. In Japan, a much higher percentage of people are willing to spend large amounts of money on new comsumer electronics technologies. The culture i different. People want to be on the leading edge, and will pay a premium to do it, even if it is only a marginal improvement over something much cheaper. there is a much higher percentage of people in Japan who want the absolute best, price no object, when it comes to their consumer electronics. In America, more people are that way about their cars and homes and clothes, but NOT consumer electronics. For comsumer electronics to catch on in the US, the price has to be right, or the item has to be indispensible. I hope Sony figures this out, and finds ways to do whatever they have to do to, along with the others in the BDA consortium, get the prices down.

I don't know how it is where you're from, but an upconverting DVD player is alot less than $200 bucks.

If I can return it I see no reason why I shouldn't. I probably own most of the free movies in SD format anways.

I don't expect you to understand my reasoning nor am I here for alternative suggestions. I came here to express my thoughts, nothing more.

Those $25 players at Walmart lack 2 things: upconverting dvd and playing Blu-ray. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say they probably aren't very reliable. Is it really fair to compare player pricing of a format that's been out 10 years versus one that's been out for less than 2 years? What was the player pricing for dvd during its 2nd year? $400? $500? Those prices look similar to BD.

If some are unaware, BD player manufacturers are actually trying to make money on their players. Seems like a legitimate idea to me.

First, if you post your situation on a forum, expect for people to comment on your decisions...especially if they are trying to be helpful and possibly help you out.

Secondly, a good upconverting player is going to run you at least $100, more likely $150 bucks. The Oppos, considered the best, are even more expensive. Supposedly, the A3 is slightly below the Oppos in terms of upconverting but better than almost every other upconverting DVD player. I have an A2 and the upconverting is great.

So yeah $200 for a HD player with 10 free movies is a pretty good deal, and a better deal, IMHO, than a $150 standard DVD upconverting player. Plus it saves you the hassle of returning everything to Amazon, and possibly not having to pay shipping, which if the CSR went with typical Amazon policy, you would have to pay for.

From HD Digest:

"We have received word from Paramount/DreamWorks that although they continue to support HD DVD, they will not be making any new high-def title announcements at CES 2008."

Interesting.

Seriously dude, just let it go. I'm buying a $40 dollar upconverting player and you're just going to have to deal with it.

Like VCRs?

If true, then most people have vision problems.

Yeah...because that didn't happen with VCRs either.

Or DVDs are phased out... which is what I predict will happen after the format war is truly and absolutely over. When Toshiba starts producing BR players.

When that happens expect to start seeing one or more (in part or combination) of the following release scenarios: movies being released in HD only; HD releases being release weeks/months ahead of DVD versions; DVDs becoming bare bones, movie only versions; DVD becoming the bastion of cheapo public domain and direct-to-video releases.

Oh, wait... that last one has already happened. :-)

Yeah well I'm not overly eager for BD companies to make a profit off of me. I will wait probably until next holiday season and see if I can pick up a 1.1 model at a decent price, I don't give 2 cents for internet connectivity.

[QUOTE=Jon2]1.) The majority of people did not have VCRS in their laptops, cars or portable viewing devices. So yeah, its a big difference.

2.) If you think DVDs are going to be phased out when Toshiba starts producing BR players, well thats just wrong. Sorry.

3.) If you think studios are going to release things in HD only and forsake the multi-billion dollar market, well you are wrong again. Movie releases are timed on massive ad campaigns, and studios are not going to run 2 different ad campaigns, especially when HD media sales is miniscule to BR+ HD DVD combined.

4.) As mentioned ad nauseum already, VHS to DVD jump was not just quality - it was portability, no need to rewind, and the hope that DVD discs, like CDs, don't wear out, like VCR and cassette tapes did.

HD media only offers improvements in audio/visual department, and while it is nice, thats the only improvement I see.