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

[Kyle_D]

When I last went to my local Best Buy, they had the A-1 hooked up to a nice 50-inch Pioneer Plasma attempting to play Phantom of the Opera. Problem was, the player was all locked up. The counter kept going, but the image was frozen.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Attention, all: If anybody has a problem with a thread or a person's specific contributions to it please contact a staff person and it will be dealt with. Carry on. JB

 

[Bob Black]

My local Best Buy in Manchester, NH have been doing just the opposite. They finally have a dedicated endcap devoted to the Toshiba which is playing the demo disc, complete with flyers and a large selection of movies. I was listening to a BB employee explaining the player to an inquisitive customer, who asked if his DVD player is now obsolete. I saw the same display at the BB in Concord, NH just last week.

My local Wal-Mart superstores have moved the HD-DVD's numerous times. Now they have reset the entire video dept. and have created a new section specifically for HD-DVD. I've actually seen HD-DVD's at Newbury Comics as well. It's a new format so it's not going to fly off the shelves. Since there's been a shortage of players to sell for most retailers, I don't think they are disappointed with sales.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

OK, seeing as you have already succeeded in taking this thread off-topic I'll respond:

What an extraordinarily mature comment to make. *sigh*

Is it possible we can now stay on topic?

 

[Walter Kittel]

I don't wish to derail the thread any further, so I will leave with the comment that for the most part I agree with you Nils. I wish people would stick to facts and not reply upon speculation or innuendo when discussing HD DVD or Bd. My last statement in my previous post regarding negative comments has more to do with frustration, vs. any desire to silence a civil and reasoned debate.

- Walter.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Very well said Walter, and for the record I have and will continue to enjoy reading your thoughts and opinions on this and many other topics on HTF. I apologize if I was too harsh in my original response. Your participation is always a welcome sight.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Thanks, Nils. No hard feelings, I assure you.

I agree that we all want the best HT experience; owning HD DVD doesn't mean I won't necessarily purchase Bd later, it merely means that I was impatient.

- Walter.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Nils, you start a thread based on pure speculation about a format that you trash at every opportunity, but my comments are immature. Whatever.

 

[Paul_Scott]

considering this is supposed to be a soft launch until Sept., the jockeying around of the displays , imo, doesn't really mean much.

Although it will be interesting to see what happens a month from now and how the Bd displays are handled and how the two compare.- but then again, that is also a soft launch.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Those are all good points Paul, and I agree, things should get very interesting in a few months, especially at retail locations that chose to demonstrate both formats.

As for Blu-ray, I suspect the initial players will likely also have issues, and it will be interesting to see how the retailers respond to those as well.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I hope all of you are done with making personal comments such as questioning another member's maturity and motivation. Let's stop it now!





Crawdaddy

 

[Steve Schaffer]

And of course we all believe everything told to us by the expert crew at Best Buy, they're like gospel, right?? Not much chance that they were out of stock on the players and wanted to sell something else???

If they're having so many returns it's odd that I never see any open-box HD-A1s at my local BestBuy.

Digital Bits didn't get a freebie player from Toshiba, and their little panties are all in a bunch--plain and simple.

I've been enjoying my HD-DVD player and the 7 movies I've bought so far for over a month now with no problems whatsoever. If there are so damn many returns how come 90% of the actual owners responding to the poll at AVS are keeping them?











http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=670945

 

[Brent M]

There's not any kind of HD-DVD setup at all in my local Best Buy, but to be fair I live in a small town and it's not a very big store. However, I was at an Ultimate Electronics store in the heart of St. Louis yesterday and all they had was a small rack of HD-DVDs and the $499 Toshiba player on a shelf(not even hooked up). Keep in mind that this is a huge store in the very affluent area of the STL suburbs so if they're not showing HD-DVD any love I'm wondering what stores are.

 

[Rob_HD]

I seem to be coming in a bit late here, so I'll post with the benefit of much of the discussion ahead of me.

First of all, the Best Buy displays were never "front and center" of the stores. Posts on various forums have pointed this out repeatedly.

Second, I think that making the "connection" that Best Buy has "soured" on HD DVD based solely on this contention is - shall we say - rather tenuous.

Third, it is fairly well recognized that the "bits" is somewhat skewed towards the Bluray format in their coverage. It is the subject of an entire thread on AVS. No harm in it, as Bill is entitled to his opinions like anyone else, but at least folks should be entitled to recognize his position.

Fourth, the HD DVD format has been making huge strides in popularity, particularly as it has proven to be ready for "prime-time", whereas the Bluray format is struggling to get past production issues.

Word yesterday on another forum is that the first BD ROM single layer releases are actually only 20 Gigs, to help improve the yields, as they having problems reading the outer edges of the discs.

I think that as more players hit the pipeline, you'll continue to see plenty of these players in Best Buy - and elsewhere also

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I don't think it is Best Buy's fault that there is a shortage of players. I am waiting for Blu-ray because I believe it is better with greater upside potential and will ultimately be the winner of the format war but Toshiba has made a good opening strike with a good first player and the movies released have been adequate and look great. I have stopped by Best Buy several times to look at the player and movies available. It has been my understanding that the lack of promotion at Best Buy is a direct result of the lack of hardware. If I am wrong and HD DVD is adopted heavily and more studios switch to HD DVD, I am likely going to buy a player and make the switch myself. In a few months, I think the buzz will all be about Blu-ray and HD DVD will do about as well as Beta did against VHS percentage wise and I bought Beta.

Most of the heavy favoritism for HD DVD I read here has more to do with a dislike for Sony than anything to do with a real preference for HD DVD over Blu-ray. Predictions of lower prices for HD DVD is also in HD DVD's favor.

Chris

 

[Juan C]

Oh yeah? Care to give a prediction of when we will see a substantially different HD DVD player (ie not a rebadge)?

I thought that HTF was free from this kind of industry plants. Obviously I was wrong.

 

[Todd H]

Rob's obviously an HD-DVD plant. Do a search for his posts. He joined in May of this year and has made nothing but pro HD-DVD anti Blu-ray posts. The only areas he ever posts in are the Hi-Def forums. Hell, he even threw HD into his user name. I'm surprised the mods haven't caught on to this yet.

 

[RomanSohor]

The big problem Best Buy stores probably have are from people not understanding what the player is / how to use it properly. Since BBY started carrying the Samsung 1080i upconversion player in 2003, the store I frequented always had more open box ones than new ones. Many customers hear the whole "don't fall for the Monster cable" argument and take it to mean "don't use better than composite connections". When I worked there, I had to convince one person not to return their D-ILA set because DVD Playback was bad - they were running Composite, with the DVD set to 4X3 mode - I had another person tell me tha I was lying to them when I told them Component was the only way a particular DVD player could pass progressive scan video, I was told that S-Video was the best connection type, "After all it is SUPER Video" (actually he didn't abbreviate it as S-Video but rather pronounced it as a word, "svideo")

There are plenty of people who have the money to spend on high end gear, but have no idea how to use it properly, but because they could figure out how to program a VCR before all their friends, think they know it all. I'm sure more than a few people bought these players, and connected them up wrong, didn't have HDMI, or whatever, and returned them because "they looked like crap"

Does the Toshiba player have composite or s-video outs? or 480i capability over component?

 

[Lew Crippen]

For the most part, the love for HD-DVD is basically due to that early strike. After all, if you want HD, your only choice are broadcast, tape or that Toshiba.

True enough there is a Sony dislike among a few posters and some blind favoritism, but I really don’t think those are the majority posters here.

To be sure, I tend to discount posts that are unreasoning, so I may not be remembering accurately.

 

[Randy Korstick]

First, without actually owning a player, you aren't really qualified to give your opinion on it - not to have it taken seriously anyway. I also own the Toshiba, along with 15 titles, and ALL are incredible looking and sounding. I have never seen a glitch or lock-up, and these are all I watch now. "Chronicles Of Riddick" is absolutely the finest HD material I have ever seen in 5 years!

Bob
I do not have to own an Edsel or anything with bad reviews to be qualified to comment on it or to know that it may not be that great of a product. I am not saying the Toshiba player is an Edsel but I am pointing out that you do not need to be an owner of something to be knowledgable about it and "qualified" to comment on it. Unless you were appointed to decide who has the right, every member has a right to post their opinions.


"Secondly, your statement about "pushing back the launch until it works correctly like Blu-Ray" is a bit pre-mature, is it not? Did Blu-Ray already have a successful launch of hardware and software that I missed? Last I checked, there were no BD players or movies to be had, and they continue to experience delays and set-backs in hardware and software. We already know about the problems with producing dual-layered discs, and how all releases will be limited to 25GB until October (at the earliest). Is this the successful launch you speak of?"

I never spoke of a launch. I said I am glad they are delaying BD to try and fix known problems. Toshiba had to know they had problems as well but they released the player anyway just to be the 1st out of the gate. Thats a thumbs down from me.


Walter
My post was not pointed at you and I apologize if you took it that way. It was intended for the obvious plants like one already identified and for those who attack a respected reviewer like Bill Hunt for his review and information on a product just because they bought one.