Posted on 11/01/2007 11:31:00 AM PDT by TrueKnightGalahad
[Wal-Mart] Wednesday said it would start its Black Friday and holiday pricing early on some items, in a move to drive sales during the increasingly competitive holiday shopping season. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, said it will offer Black-Friday prices three weeks early by unveiling "secret" in-store specials. The company said it will offer discounts on five popular gift items. Wal-Mart plans to reveal discounts on its Web site on Thursday. The items will be available in stores beginning Friday morning, Nov. 2 as it officially opens its special Christmas shops. The day after Thanksgiving is one of the biggest shopping days of the year and is known as "Black Friday" in the retail industry because retailers earn so much on this single day they are able to swing to profitability.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
My understanding is that the HD-DVD player will do a better job than an upconverting standard DVD player.
People keep pushing the season earlier and earlier. There is a radio station in Kansas City that started it’s “All Christmas Music All The Time” yesterday and it’ll run through December 25th. Any predicitons on how many times they’ll be playing “Santa Baby” over that 57 day span?
I noticed a few weeks ago the commercial for Branson with Andy Williams singing Christmas carols.
Thanks - that site previewing Black Friday sales is great!
That’s unusual for Wal Mart. Usually their Black Friday products are poor quality. Certainly nothing worth pushing & shoving like idiots over.
That sort of bad publicity might put a dent in the annual consumer spending frenzy we use to celebrate Our Savior’s birth.
I’ve been surprised by that myself. Haven’t bought one yet so I’m liking it.
Hey, don't peg me with an anti-WM bias. Of course it could happen anywhere. And employees can also be racist. I went to a Home Depot in the Bronx and asked where something was to a (black) guy working the aisle. He said he didn't know and to ask the service desk. Then a black couple asked him about a location and he said "come on, I'll show you, and proceeded to take them across the store to the item's location". I mistakenly thought complaining to the manager would make a difference. He couldn't have cared less.
I'll bite. As payback for the root-kit mod they made to my computer without my approval. And as payback for DRM and the additional OS bloat.
On a personal note, I live in SoCal. During the last big earthquake, the only electronics of mine that did not survive the fall were Sony. Even the Panasonics survived, how weak is that?
My understanding is that the HD-DVD player will do a better job than an upconverting standard DVD player.
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If I may, I'd like to add to kevkrom's answer. Even the less expensive HD DVD players will be on a par with, or slightly better than, the best of the 'regular' up-scaling DVD players (and much better than the $59.99 el cheapo up-scalers). The best HD DVD player, the XA-2, is in a league of its own for up-scaling; many regular DVDs, up-scaled on my XA-2, look better than most High Definition broadcasts over my satellite receiver.
Blu-Ray to date has more titles, and the "quality" of these titles is a matter of opinion. This is arguable however because a dozen or so of the Blu-Ray titles have been discontinued, and some of them were REALLY bad MPEG transfers. Case in point The Fifth Element; it was so bad that Sony had a free mail in program where you could mail it back for a replacement transfer that was created because of the controversy over its quality. My friends Remastered Platinum edition DVD actually looked better than the 1st generation Blu-Ray.
Secondly, region encoding isn't something that I would call anti-consumer. Its a basic measure to cut down on foreign bootlegs, and was something that most DVDs have had throughout the years. I've never ran into an issue with it, although I'm not into buying Japanese manga bootlegs or stuff like that. Most consumers will never have a problem with it.
I would also add that the rental store market (at least in my neighborhood) is almost exclusively Blu-Ray. For example, the HD-DVD version of Hot Fuzz (it was a Universal title, so it didn't come out on Blu-Ray) was heavily backordered on Netflix. But I was anxious to see it, so I decided to try and go rent it. I went to 6, count 'em 6, movie rental places in my neighborhood, and not one of them had a copy, or even one on order. I didn't even see any HD-DVDs to rent. Everything was Blu-Ray. This of course could change with the strategic partnerships between the studios and rental corporations constantly changing, but that is the current situation.
Both formats are going to be around for a long time until one format gains a monopoly on the studios, or the studios decide to offer both formats on everything.
I just bought a Panasonic DVD-S53.Must have a HDTV w/ HDMI input
This is outstanding in picture and sound !
$88.00
It’s like primary season. I just can’t get into it.
I have yet to see an HD-DVD player anywhere locally up here in Alaska, Sears had just a first generation Toshiba HD that was overpriced, Walmart has had only the BR and to be frank I will wait it out, most likely any HD DVD player being sold is 1080I at best if that.
its not worth it to buy something this early in the market in this field regardless of the price, too many software issues.
Seen ‘em as low as $25.
And it wasn’t a fluke.
They started in October??? Couldn't even wait until after Thansgiving to start the Christmas push? What's next - Black Friday Christmas sales in July? Although I think it's great that Wal-Mart is cutting prices and making things like the HD DVD player more affordable to many more people, I see this pre-Black Friday sales positioning as a harbinger of things to come. Other retailers will watch Wal-Mart's results closely, and follow suit with early sales of their own if Wal-Mart is successful in grabbing market share and dollars in the all-important 4th quarter.
Yeah, nobody shops at Wal-Mart anymore, it’s too crowded.
BR has more space and bandwidth. Your claim that HD-DVD is complete is false. I still see no verification that TL 51 will play on current HD-DVD players.
How many manufactures make HD-DVD players? You see, this was why Beta Max failed. BR has the support of major electronic manufacturers (Sans Toshiba of course).
One major advantage of BR disk is that they are hard coated. Hard as heck to scratch, something HD-DVD disk have a problem with since info is placed close to the top layer.
Not a Sony fanboy but smart enough to know that Blue Ray does not = Sony. Heck, Blue Ray is comprised of many companies besides Sony.
I too use a PS3 as my HDDVD playler and I was most impressed with how much better regular DVDs look on it. In fact that jump is farther than the difference between HDDVD and regular DVDs. I still watch mostly regular DVD because my son works at Blockbuster part-time and that's what he brings home. Employees get first crack at the new releases a week before they hit the shelves.
Cheaper always wins out over better.
There’s an Ace store next to my wife’s office; a couple of weeks ago I needed a fitting and gave her a note to take over there.
What I wanted was a 1/4” NPT close nipple and that was all I wrote down.
When she got home from work she gave me the bag and I took out a 3” long nipple.
I told her it wasn’t close enough and drew a sketch on paper while showing her the difference.
The next day I noticed that she had left the wrong nipple at home so I figured I’d just wait another day, but no, when she got home she proudly showed me a small plastic pouch with the correct item that was clearly labeled 1/4” (npt)close nipple; she had gone back over, couldn’t find the salesman and just browsed the rack until she spotted the match to the sketch.
On an earlier occasion at the same store she picked up a package of small springs after I told the guy on the phone I needed the part number for a pair of springs about 2” long and the diameter of a pencil eraser.
I still have the springs in the garage, they are the size of a pencil lead.
Oh, well.
Most folks who shop at Walmart are Republican - I shop there. Feel free to be superior - "push past" me or not - my next stop will be at the bank to count my savings...
When Black Friday comes
I’ll stand down by the door
And catch the grey men when they
Dive from the fourteenth floor
When Black Friday comes
I’ll collect everything I’m owed
And before my friends find out
I’ll be on the road
When Black Friday falls you know it’s got to be
Don’t let it fall on me
When Black Friday comes
I’ll fly down to Muswellbrook
Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book
Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do but feed
All the kangaroos
When Black Friday comes I’ll be on that hill
You know I will
When Black Friday comes
I’m gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it ‘til
I satisfy my soul
Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop’s gonna sanctify me
And if he don’t come across
I’m gonna let it roll
When Black Friday comes
I’m gonna stake my claim
I’ll guess I’ll change my name
I switched from Blockbuster to Netflix because Netflix rents Blu-Ray...And I don’t have to go to the damn store AT ALL.
And I should add that they rent HD DVD also.
40”? What are you, a girl?
Hey, Bud! I resemble that remark.
I have the S52, the previous version. I love it. Got it FREE! with the purchase of my LCoS tv. The picture is outstanding and audio is top notch via optical since my reciever doesn’t have HDMI.
I got plans for my millions, and it ain't for overpriced department stores.
I use the PS3 as a DVD player too. It works great on upscaling, and my favorite feature is the 1.5x fast forward. Its like all the actors are on speed.
The Dan Rules!
Never bet against Sony’s ability to screw up a clear market advantage.
The source data is stored on the disc (HD-DVD or Blu-ray) at 1080p/24 and is interlaced to 1080i/60. Your television should be able to properly deinterlace the signal to 1080p, and you will see the exact same picture. This 1080i/p thing is worthless marketing talk.
If you have a 1080 set that can play in 24Hz multiples, then you probably have the money to buy a better player that can output the native 1080p/24 signal to the set.
For the rest of us with 60Hz televisions, this 1080i issue is moot.
Sorry, but all the figures I've seen show that you are incorrect; HD DVD has more than 300 released titles and counting since September, and that's without counting the many HD DVD releases from Europe and Japan of both American and foreign-language films (which will play in any HD DVD player, hence the advantage of not having region coding, which has always been anti-consumer despite your apologetics) or 'adult' titles (hey, just mentioning it, as it's the chosen format for many XXX producers), while Blu has not, to my knowledge, even cracked the 300-release barrier. If you know differently, show me the figures.
The desireablity of one title over another is, of course, purely a matter of taste; for me, Paramount, Universal, and Warner's have far more titles I enjoy than does, e.g., Sony Pictures.
I went to 6, count 'em 6, movie rental places in my neighborhood, and not one of them had a copy [of Hot Fuzz - a great flick, BTW], or even one on order.
It's unfortunate that you couldn't find "Hot Fuzz" in your neighborhood. It's in rental stores in my neighborhood, including Blockbuster, which is supposedly Blu-Ray exclusive (and the exec who made that deal was canned, shortly after Paramount went HD DVD exclusive). But few rental stores carry anywhere near the entire inventory of HD media, whether it's HD DVD or Blu-Ray, which is contributing nicely to the Netflix bottom line.
I don't think the format war will last for years, though; Fox and Disney have 'stuck' with Sony because of promises about advanced content that Sony just hasn't kept - thus explaining the dearth of titles from those two studios, and the continual cancellations of announced titles (Fox has released virtually nothing in the last year; almost every title they announced was later cancelled). I believe there's a rational limit on the studios' patience with Sony's broken promises, and that limit is fast approaching.
The XBOX HD-DVD add on is 1080p with a VGA connection.
There is a lot of excitement about this on other forums. Looks like my dad is going to be joining in on HDM for Christmas with a new HD-DVD player! If not the A2, then maybe an A3.
I’m waiting for an HD DVD player/recorder with 250 gig hard drive and recordable floppy to come out. Otherwise, I’ll just have one more box and the boxes are driving me out of my house.
Save on the work. Send your money directly to China instead. And for the record, I make less than 30 grand a year, drive a 10 year old car, and live in a home I paid a lot less than a hundred grand for. On further thought I can say there are plenty of oafs in many other stores as well. Go to a supermarket on a weekday night. See the people who are there at 11 at night with their school age kids? Oafs. But then, this part of AZ has a VERY high dropout rate. Higher than other parts of the state. Can pretty much figure where they will be forced to shop when grown.
Blu Ray outsells Sony by 2 to 1 right up to the release of Transformers 2 weeks ago.. Seems that Sony is winning, handily.
I did quite a bit of homework on it.. I went the Blu Ray route, but I have to admit, both formats are awesome.
both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray upconvert old DVDs and make them look stunning.. (in answer to someones question) they do a far better job of the up-converting, as I also have a Samsung that I bought for just that purpose. I have since moved it to the bedroom.
Big BIG screens like projectors I can see the advantage but under 60 inches and its an up to date 1080P TV and you have an up converting regular DVD player that has 1080P the differences are hard to really notice except for the additional features the HD can offer, I’m happy with just this combo above on my 57” Toshiba DLP, I may buy the HD player next year but I’m sure as heck not buying some hyped up sale/factory closeout electronic device from a mega retailer that “Sells for Less”.
Plus I still try to severely limit my Made in China addiction, very hard habit to get off of, will take me years of counseling and therapy I expect.
Amen. I never shopped in WalMart until I moved to a rural state in fly-over country. I don't mind it at all, tho I do prefer Target.
For some reason, my grad students love dissing WalMart. I don't even know how the freakin' topic comes up, but time and time again they mention WalMart in the same tone you'd reserve for Hitler. I am trying to keep my politics out of the classroom, but I swear one day I'm going to go off the deep end and start lecturing about the free market, people's right to work, etc.
It's not that I don't understand the whole 'made in China' issue, it's just that if you don't like it, don't shop there. It's not a religion, it's a store; go spend your money somewhere else.
The current count is 351 Blu-Ray, 327 HD-DVD. However, this includes 30 or so Paramount releases that are no longer made, which might make HD-DVD the winner if you offer currently manufactured titles. Neither format wins in a runaway; at best its a wash.
HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on October 23rd, 2007
If you're big into foreign films, I can see why you hate region encoding, however most of us don't care, and it will not affect market share.
It's unfortunate that you couldn't find "Hot Fuzz" in your neighborhood. It's in rental stores in my neighborhood,
Maybe that's the way they do things in New York, but we're just out of the stone age down here in the sticks. I'm lucky enough to be able to spell my name. Your testimony aside, HD-DVD is AWOL in all of the rental chains in my area.
Regardless of your dislike for Sony, Blu-Ray as a format has potential even outside the movie market. Its a low cost storage alternative, and Blu-Ray burners are becoming more available in desktops and laptops. Outside of playing studio releases, HD-DVD currently has little use. Blu-Ray is better positioned to be the heir to CDs and DVDs.
Spoke too soon. It looks like Toshiba is coming out with a slimline HD-DVD burner. At least they're following Sony's lead on that.
yeah, I got my Sharp Aquos 37” last year and love it.
130 posted on 11/01/2007 2:51:17 PM MDT by Phantom Lord
Picture quality on my Toshiba 64" DLP is stunning ! The sound is 3D and surround ; it is also stunning. True Home Theater. The Matrix Reloaded becomes alive. But you must use the HDMI for full up-converting and sound enhancement. The sound was a bonus.
You can get a DVD recorder for $50. For $99 you can get one that records off digital cable or a local HD channel from an antenna.
The "sticks" - in the People's Republic of Austin? LOL - that explains it! Blu is the choice of libs (most of the Blubots I see on the forums are rabidly liberal), while HD DVD is the choice of true red-blooded Americans. :-) How's THAT for a marketing paradigm? :-)
One thing I share with many of the effete intellectual libs :-) is a love for foreign films - so yeah, the absence of region coding is important to me. I want to watch what I want, when I want, without Sony or any other manufacturer making it impossible for me to see certain movies. Region-free DVD players have been widely, though unofficially, available for years; that HD DVD decided not to hobble their media is a feather in its cap.
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