Is Best Buy Souring on HD DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Walter Kittel]

Please refer to my newest signature. Cheers.

- Walter.

 

[Lew Crippen]

 

[MattGuyOR]

Finally saw my first demo at a local Best Buy. Hooked up to a 42" Westinghouse LCD. I thought it looked great! I stood there for about a half an hour just staring at it. Saw trailers for King Kong, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, Van Helsing...all looked amazing. It's going to get harder and harder to refrain from buying one the more great titles come out!

 

[Mike_G]

I have a Toshiba. No problems yet, and I've run about 6 or 7 movies so far.

 

[Dave Moritz]

I for one have nothing against HD-DVD as a format in itself. If the Toshiba player would have been better and not had so many issues. Even though I consider myself to be a Blu-ray supporter. I would have pulled the trigger and purchased a HD-DVD player followed by a Blu-ray player. There are some good titles on HD-DVD and the picture looks really good. My issue is with the player and more importantly I feel that Blu-ray will stay more viable and offer more in the future than HD-DVD will.

I will be saving up and should have enough saved before Nov to buy a Sony Blu-ray HD player. If Blu-ray does not make it and HD-DVD does. I will be heading out to buy an HD-DVD player and some movies and I will enjoy them. But for now I will stick with Blu-ray until things change and Blu-ray is out of the picture.

 

[Dave H]

Here's a story.

I starting having freezing issues/stutters with my Toshiba HD-A1. I was on the last day of my 30 day return policy from Best Buy. I decided to return the player. (I chose not to exchange it because of the widespread problems and will just wait another 6-12 months for a second generation player and see how the format war plays out before I invest one more penny into HD.)

I told the customer service rep the reason for my return. She called over a "home theater specialist." I thought maybe she was calling this person over just to check that I had returned all the belongings (remote control, cables, etc.). Well, someone else did that.

This "home theater specialist" came over and asked why I was returning it. I told him why. He then tried to get me to exchange it and tried talking me out of just doing a return. He then proceeded to ask me what kind of cable I was using. I told him "Blue Jean," but, of course, he had never heard of it. He said the problem is I am not using a Monster cable!!! Yes.....according to this genius, not using a Monster cable is why I experience disc freezes and such. I told him he was completely wrong and explained why (this guy didn't even understand what purpose a cable actually serves!) and how a cable CANNOT cause what I was experiencing....how it was actually impossible in my case. His only response was, "Well, I've been doing this job for four years." I held back, but I almost said, "that makes you even more pathetic."

This was the first time I experienced this from Best Buy...and I've returned standard DVD players in the past at Best Buy for one reason or another. I strongly suspect they had been getting a lot of Toshiba HD-A1 returns and we're trying to talk customers out of returning them....and, of course, trying to sell them a Monster cable at the same time (Monster and Best Buy are strongly in bed together as we all know). This is just pure speculation, but I wonder if Toshiba is pressuring Best Buy about all of the returns. Again, I really don't know. It just seemed this way when I returned the player. Something was just strange about this entire thing.

 

[Shawn.F]

I try and stay away from purchasing any sort of hardware from Best Buy simply because a majority of their employees (not all, mind you) haven't the slightest clue about the ins and outs of what they are selling. I can't remember how many times I have gone into the Magnolia section of their stores only to a) find 4x3 full-frame versions of DVDs stretched to fill a TV screen and b) not have a single solitary employee come over to ask if I had any questions. They all stand around the cash register talking to each other (if they work on commission, God help them).

Dave, I will say this much: you showed a far greater degree of restraint than I would have with that so-called "Home Theater Specialist". If that dolt tried to convince me that it were the cables (and a particular brand of) causing the freeze-ups on my HD-DVD player, I would have tore him a new one (after getting my money back, that is ).

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Best Buy employees don't work on commission. Which makes me wonder why they're always trying to puch monster cables. They've done the same to me.

 

[Scotty_McW]

My XA1 crapped out on me last night. It had the same stuttering/freezing problems as others have reported with the A1. I'm glad I was still within the return time even though the discs I bought will now be collecting dust...

 

[James D S]

The other Austin area Best Buy, Mopac and 71, has the same display. I go in every other day it seems during lunch and have YET to find a player in stock. The salesperson I asked about it says they sell as fast as they get them in.

Now, I don't know how fast they get them in nor did I ask about the return rate, but the shelves are empty as far as hardware is concerned.

Software, that's another matter. Though, I suspect that has more to do with quality of first-batch titles than anything. When the A-list titles start to appear, I imagine I'll have an even harder time tracking down a player. :frowning:

 

[Rachael B]

I know, second hand, that they tell them to push Monster. In these days of audio-video observation, it mght be a good idea to do what you're told, eh?

 

[Paul O]

Every Best Buy I went to in Northern California (S.F, Berkeley, Emeryville, San Jose, Newark) last week was out of stock. I don't expect much from Best Buy but they had a HDA1 display front and center in the AV area with the Westinghouse 42" LCD at every store in this affluent area. One store even had 2 displays! Frankly I have never seen such consistency for any product at Best Buy so I doubt that they are souring on it. Each display was well stocked with (overpriced) movies. What was consistent was that there were none to buy. Checking every store there were only displays which was discouraging - the comments i got were "people are pre-ordering..", "a truck comes every Tu/Th and we may have some then", "can't keep them in stock..". This doesn't seem like corp or their employees are turning against HD-DVD or have a BR agenda. I was able to get my player from Onecall this week since supply seems to be better and frankly I am simply stunned by the image - for what i paid (less than MSRP) it is the 3rd most expensive player i have owned compared to a Denon (can't remember the model) and Toshiba SD6200 and it is revolutionary not evolutionary like those players were. The build quality is excellent - I have not experienced any lockups or problems with the 5 discs I have purchased and 3 blockbuster.com rentals including a badly scratched copy of Goodfellas. The start up times are a little slow and the remote is dumb but i can live with those. I understand that Toshiba has already issued a firmware update which solves some some issues for those experiencing problems which can be downloaded (Sony and Samsung i understand don't have an ethernet port?) so they are actively supporting the player to take care of gen 1 issues. I am watching and enjoying HD now after 2 years of HD Cable and by all reports the image is as good if not better than what the 1st gen BR players will provide at half the price - i will give up some theoretical capacity for that and Stringer-san's digital convergence plan for my living room will have to wait a little longer.

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

This was a first for me. Best Buy told me this morning that they didn't receive their HD DVD shipment.

Was hoping to get Constantine, Firewall & The Perfect Storm today (June 6, 06).:frowning:

 

[Sean Bryan]

This is supposedly from Best Buy.

Thought it was interesting that it says the "end cap" will transition from HD DVD to Blu-ray in late June.

So, I guess no HD DVD display now at all, or maybe still a display but moved to a less prominent location?

Toshiba needs to push harder if they want to stay in the game, 8 week "head start" or not.

 

[Dave Moritz]

When I read that I laughed so hard I thought I would fall out of my chair


This does not concern HD-DVD but it is about BB and there so called sales people. A friend found a good deal on an open box Phillips dvd recorder on day. It did not have cables so he purchased cables and blank discs and a few other things. I helped my friend hook it up and was going to show him how to use it. This recoder/player would not see blank media or prerecorded media. The only thing it would do is play CD's! After going with my friend to BB and explaining what it was not doing to customer service. They had there technician come over who was a snotty little jerk. So after being talked down to and being told that they would not fix it unless my friend purchased an extended warranty. They would not even honor the manufacture warranty so I told the so called technician off and my friend returned everything he purchased that day!

As far as Monster goes IMHO its a good product but its not going to cause any player to have the kind of issues people have been having. Personally I use Audio Quest and Tributary cables and they work great for me. As long as you are using good quality cables you should get great results from your source equipment.

I have been in Best Buys here in Phoenix checking out the HD-DVD player. And I have never had any sales people ever ask me if I need help or if I have any questions. I have seen other people in that area and it seems like sales people avoid them like the plauge. I came close to pulling the trigger and buying the HD-DVD player but I am glad I did not. Its a shame because the discs that I saw looked great so Toshiba IMHO is really messing up there chances to be winner of this format war.


BB / Home Theater Specialist

 

[Jeremy Little]

It is from Best Buy, and the endcap switching out to Blu-ray is true also. Toshiba is souring Best Buy's view of HD-DVD by the lack of production. Our location has gotten a total of 4 players to sell (plus 1 to display) which isn't going to win them any awards.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Jeremy,

Can you confirm the Best Buy info here that shows Batman Begins and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire coming this month?

The info shown here has the dates for Happy Gilmore and The Rundown off by one week, but I know this stuff changes week to week.

 

[Dave Moritz]

If BB is going to be selling Blu-ray HD movies then I will be thrilled. Especially since I work next to one and all I have to do after work is go next door to buy HD movies.

I don't think I will buy my Sony player from BB but I have no problem getting the disc's there. I will most likely get my player from Ultimate Electronics here in Phoenix.

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

What a hastle I had yesterday, trying to find the three titles (Constantine, Firewall and The Perfect Storm) on release date! :frowning:

Best Buy finally showed on their website, close to closing time, two of the releases (Constantine and Firewall), and the option that they were available at my local Store!Just called the "local store" an hour before to ask if the HD DVD's came in that day and after waiting on the phone 10 minutes, was told sorry, NO.

Had to wait for an e-mail to tell me to come in and pick the two up, but didn't get the e-mail message till this morning 6/7/06. At this point, I don't even know if I want to bother to try to get the 3rd disc (The Perfect Storm).

Paul

 

[Rachael B]

Paul, if you wait till wednesday to go by most Busted Buys, then they'll proably have the new HD-DVD's out. Most of 'em seem to be getting them in late, consistently. The local one told me they are coming in on release tuesday via Fedex in the early afternoon. Yesterday they told me that the computer that they needed to check in new merchandise was down and that although the discs might be in, they couldn't sell them until check in was done. Here, Circus City is almost across the street. I went over there and picked up the 3 new titles.

I have a $10 coupon for BB in wait. Next week I'll wait for wednesday to shop BB.