Walmart will kill HD-DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Travis Brashear]

Although, at least in neighboring Broken Arrow, OK, the Wal-Marts all have shelf space devoted to all five HARRY POTTER films on HD-DVD, whereas they only carry 1, 4 and 5 on Blu-ray. My pissed-off self had to go home after picking up 1 and 4 and order 2 and 3 from Amazon (hopefully, I'll be able to pony up for ORDER OF THE PHOENIX a week or so from now).

 

[Vegas 1]

I was in a WM superstore yesterday and the HD display was 50/50 for HDDVD & BR

 

[Mike Frezon]

Not for much longer, I guess. A number of posters over in the "Warner's Going Exclusively Blu-ray" thread say they've seen the same thing and that the rumors are rampant that W-M will be going BD-only. One posted this link: Walmart to only sell Blu-ray? :: PlayStation Universe (PSU)

One said that his W-M put the HD-DVD players on clearance and had only three BD players for sale.

 

[Travis Brashear]

Bring it on, I say, and more power to 'em!

 

[Todd H]

I checked my Wal-Mart yesterday and the endcap containing both Blu-ray and HD DVD titles was completely Blu-ray now. No HD DVD titles anywhere in the store.

 

[nolesrule]

If this is true that this is happening at all Wal-Marts (some faster than others apparently), I don't see how HD DVD can survive to the 2008 holiday shopping season.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Just a caution: who know if in a year we'll see a "Wal-mart will kill Blu-ray?" thread because the blu-ray hardware is still priced too high for the average consumer, and the disc prices aren't low enough to attract regular weekly buyers of HDM, and Wal-mart pulls out of the HDM game altogether and keeps pushing cheap DVDs and DVD players to the masses.

I sort of fear that HDM might be too complicated for the masses, or the benefits won't be enjoyed by the average consumer who doesn't have the HT infrastructure to truly experience the visual and sonic advantages that HDM has to offer.

 

[PaulDA]

(love that scene from your signature quotation)

I have to admit I have the same trepidation. While not exactly analogous, the hi-res audio experience does offer some cautionary lessons. Everyone to whom I've demonstrated hi-res audio has been impressed. Once I explained what was necessary (more complex than today with HDMI 1.2 and up) with all the settings, cabling, speaker placement, etc., the enthusiasm quickly dampened (I only know 4 people who have an HT setup of any kind--3 of which I installed--and none of them wanted to go the extra distance for hi-res audio).

Now, along comes HDM. Certainly the "format war" has caused many to sit on the sidelines (just as happened with hi-res audio--if only Oppo had put out their universal hi-res audio players a few years earlier [unrealistic, probably, but it could have made an impact]) but even if it were only one format, several factors weigh heavily against a mass adoption of HDM.

The first is misleading marketing. How many "upconverting" players claim to give you "HD quality" from SD DVDs? I've had far more arguments about this than I ever thought I would.

The second is price. In a world of 9$ DVDs, HDM seems outrageously expensive to the masses.

The third is indifference. Just as "upconverting" players give people "HD" (so they claim and so many believe), just buying an HDTV gives you "HD" in the minds of many. A good friend of mine bought a nice Panasonic plasma a year ago and it took him until last week to get HD cable (and only because his SD box died). And he's got loads of cash, so it wasn't a money issue for him.

Related to this indifference/ignorance is something I've witnessed myself. When I've shown people (on my 64inch screen, with a Sony AW15 front PJ) standard cable vs HD cable, everyone, without exception, has been highly impressed. When I've done the same with SD DVD and HD DVD, not so. Some barely see a difference (and I can imagine it would be zero on a 40 inch or so display), some see it a bit more and a few notice a measurable degree of improvement. If I use Blade Runner for the demo, everyone is impressed. If I use The Bourne Ultimatum, not so much. Same for Serenity. Of course, the latter two have very good SD transfers, so it's understandable (Blade Runner, of course, did not). And last fall, I ran through the first three seasons of Lost on SD DVD and whenever anyone came into the room, they asked if I was watching an HD broadcast (and I have to say, the Lost SD DVDs are quite impressive). I don't regret going HDM, but I think the level of "WOW" that one gets between SD cable and HD cable needs a bigger screen than I have. Below 80" diagonal, the improvement is still there (and sometimes spectacular) but it is not as jaw dropping as some of the hype makes it out to be. And while front projectors with 100"+ screens may not be rare among enthusiasts, they certainly are among the general public.

So I hope HDM doesn't go the way of Quadrophonic audio (or even current hi-res audio--I still buy a fair bit, but my collection has a lot more classical music than my general tastes would likely have dictated). The key to overcoming indifference/ignorance/misleading marketing, though, is price. IF that comes down reasonably quickly, HDM may become reasonably mainstream. Otherwise it will be a somewhat more successful version of laserdisc, IMO.

 

[nolesrule]

THink of Wal-mart's profit margins on Blu-ray. That's reason enough for them not to dump it even if it's a slow seller.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I agree with Patrick 100%. And I think that's what most of the discussion has been in this thread.

The BD discs at my closest Wal-Mart are locked behind glass and impossible to see and determine prices. Who wants any part of that?! Not to mention that the BD glass case is located just 12 feet from the $5 DVD dump bin.

Guess what? The bin was surrounded by customers yesterday...while I was lucky one of the W-M electronics employees could tell me where the HD media was moved to.

I hope not all W-M plan on hiding/locking-up their BD discs. I liked knowing that end cap was there.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I saw more HD-DVD "squeeze" in three local stores tonight. It could be that retailers are really going to be making it difficult for HD-DVD to maintain ANY visibility in stores.

At one FYE (TransWorld) store, a small 50-50 HD media display went to75-25 in favor of BD. And, the HD-DVD section was pretty empty.

At another FYE, a much larger HD section went to 60-40 (in favor of BD).

And, at my local Best Buy (where I think the HD-DVD section used to be larger than BD), the BD section now supercedes the HD-DVD section by six racks/sections to four.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Though I would love to see Wal-mart and its ilk wiped off the map, I did see a "The Future Is Blu" ad during one of the NFL playoff games brought to you by Wal-mart.

Dan

 

[Chris S]

Saw that commercial too and found it very interesting given the recent speculation about them dropping HD DVD. Either way I'm still not shopping there.

I still haven't seen the "squeeze" in my area expect for the almost barren racks at Target. I did notice at a local Best Buy the HD DVDs were more prominently displayed (i.e. facing the front door) than the BDs (on the back side of the same rack). I would have expected the opposite but these types of things may be a local store manager's decisions and not corporate policy.

 

[Sam Posten]

My local BB now has 4 units of BD to 1 unit of HD DVD, where 1 unit is 6 shelves.

 

[Patrick Sun]

My local BB has 7 units of BD, and 6 units of HD (1 unit has 5-6 shelves).

 

[StephenA]

The Wal-Mart in my town has one little kiosk type section for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and it's divided equally between both. It used to be bigger for both a year or year and a half ago, but they cut it down. They have a whole isle and a lot of little areas for regular DVD though.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

It's just a couple stores for now, but at least one Wal-mart employee in the Midwest is reporting that the A3 has been removed from any future inventory, complete with photographic evidence:

 

[Viper]

Well, in all fairness, the stuff is a little high. I mean, you can see the same hi-def movie for $4 on PPV. Why should the disc cost $35? It is a bit absurd, especially with new releases. New movies have hi-def transfers to begin with. What's the difference of pressing SDM or HDM? It shouldn't be double the price. IMO, no HD movie should be priced higher than $25. They're simply not worth it.

 

[Bryan^H]

Went to Walmart last night, and was surprised to see their Hi Def dvd section had many HD titles. Of the 30 or so titles, everyone(Except the Harry Potter titles for $18.96) of them was $29.96!!

Very puzzled by this, as I thought Wal MArt was to stop selling HD titles, and if they are to continue they sure as Hell aren't going to sell them at those prices.
I also want to add that Blu Ray had just as many titles, and most were $24.96. Again, very confusing.

 

[Dave Moritz]

I might stop by Fry's and BB tomorrow and see if they have marked the HD-DVD's down yet? I might buy some next month if the prices are low enough?