DVDizzy Forum

Posted: **Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:14 pm**

I was at two different Walmarts today in my area, and one has returned all of their Blu-ray Discs and HD-DVD's...and the other is selling their remaining stock and not getting in any new shipments.

I will have to go to Best Buy to get Haunted Mansion on BD, and they sell it for $5 more than Walmart would have!

I am really upset about this because I hate going to Best Buy...

I wonder if it's just the Walmarts in my area, or if it's more wide-spread than that??? I live in the Milwaukee area.

Posted: **Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:37 pm**

I am not surprised both HDDVD and BluRay marketing plans were utterly butchered.

The biggest problem is the price. DVD still provides a better value.

The industry did not learn their lessons from SACD/DVD-Audio.

Posted: **Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:55 pm**

Target has started to sale them now. I noticed a very small display today, you may want to try there. Only one of our Wal-Marts has HD-DVD/Blu-Ray and it only has maybe 5 titles for each. The only player they stock is the RCA HD-DVD one.

Posted: **Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:04 pm**

To be honest, I hope that the Blu-Ray players don't go anywhere. No offense to you or anything, but how good of quality do we actually need? Regular DVD players already offer a fantastic picture as it is. But if Blu-Ray players do end up replacing DVD players someday, I'm really not looking forward to replacing my very expensive DVD collection. Grrr...
If only money grew on trees...

Posted: **Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:14 pm**

It doesn't really surprise me. What's really screwing over both formats right now is the cost of their players... especially for Blu-Ray. It's even worse when you consider the fact that these first-generation devices will have pretty awful compatibility with future BD-R and BD-RE media, and perhaps even future BD-ROM discs, if quad or six-layer discs show up. Why would anyone in their right mind want to spend so much money on a player that'll probably be useless a year or so from now.

Posted: **Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:16 pm**

Prince Ali wrote:To be honest, I hope that the Blu-Ray players don't go anywhere. No offense to you or anything, but how good of quality do we actually need? Regular DVD players already offer a fantastic picture as it is. But if Blu-Ray players do end up replacing DVD players someday, I'm really not looking forward to replacing my very expensive DVD collection. Grrr...
If only money grew on trees...

Many are saying it's not going to be a quick transition, so you really don't need to wish for its "failure" now just because you don't want to rebuild your collection. After all, DVD came in 1997, but only really grew big in 2003, and VHS started to finally really wind down in 2005.

The difference between the DVD takeover and the Blu-Ray takeover is that the benefits are really more for technophiles than for the Joe Average. I wouldn't mind having A+++ picture quality, but the regular A- we get now is suitable until I can actually afford to buy the hardware and discs (and HDtv).

I don't plan on buying any Blu-Ray titles until 2008, 2009 at the latest. Can't see myself committing to them at all this year or next. I could buy a PS3 though just to get a Blu-Ray player, though by 2008/2009 I'm sure prices will be reasonable.

Even if the obscurest of titles come to Blu-Ray, I only plan on buying those that would actually benefit from the higher quality, or offer Blu-Ray exclusive bonus material (like the In-Movie Experience). I'll upgrade for films like "Batman Begins" or the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" series. But I won't see it necessary to buy another version of a film like "One Fine Day" or "You've Got Mail".

Escapay

Posted: **Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:40 pm**

I'll eventually make the upgrade, when its the right time and dvd begins to fade out of the masses. Which I'm sure will be a while. Plus, I'll wait to see who wins the format war and fares better. Nothing like getting stuck with the 2000's equivalent of a Beta player (although, personally I think betas are cool, but thats beside the point)

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:53 am**

Aren't the players capable of playing DVD discs too, anyway? Or is that something that will probably be phased out in time?

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:27 am**

Blu-ray and HD-DVD players will play your regular DVDs just fine. And it should stay that way forever.

I saw that Target had a new display...they had every new release except for Haunted Mansion, and I went to 2 different Targets. Their selection was still really small, though - and the prices were high, but the same as Best Buy.

I'm very disappointed in Walmart. I sent the manager an email. One of the problems the associate was talking to me about was that they had no official way to "display" the new formats.

And, in the meantime, I guess I'm headed to Best Buy.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 9:46 am**

HBO has announced it has cancelled issuing the Sopranos on HD DVD and has put on haitus all HDDVD plans.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 9:51 am**

Prince Ali wrote:

To be honest, I hope that the Blu-Ray players don't go anywhere. No offense to you or anything, but how good of quality do we actually need? Regular DVD players already offer a fantastic picture as it is. But if Blu-Ray players do end up replacing DVD players someday, I'm really not looking forward to replacing my very expensive DVD collection. Grrr...
If only money grew on trees...

You won't ever have to replace your DVD's. If you read my posts on the "Blu-Ray or HD-DVD" thread you will see that I have made sure to tell everyone that the Blu-Ray player upconverts all regular DVD's to near-Hi-Def quality picture. Your collection won't become obsolete, I can promise you. Unlike HD-DVD, the Blu-Ray player uses a Blu-Ray instead of a Red one to scan discs, and that is what gives it the depth and quality of picture that it does. Since I am a Blu-Ray Disc Player owner, I can tell you that it is well worth the extra money to get into Blu-Ray when you are ready, be it with a PS3 or a stand-alone player. I own only five Blu-Ray discs in my 3,000 DVD disc collection. I am not about to replace any of my previous purchases with Blu-Ray. I will also be very selective in my Blu-Ray purchases down the road.

Hope that this eases your concerns about your extensive DVD collection.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:30 pm**

dvdjunkie wrote: You won't ever have to replace your DVD's. If you read my posts on the "Blu-Ray or HD-DVD" thread you will see that I have made sure to tell everyone that the Blu-Ray player upconverts all regular DVD's to near-Hi-Def quality picture. Your collection won't become obsolete, I can promise you. Unlike HD-DVD, the Blu-Ray player uses a Blu-Ray instead of a Red one to scan discs, and that is what gives it the depth and quality of picture that it does. Since I am a Blu-Ray Disc Player owner, I can tell you that it is well worth the extra money to get into Blu-Ray when you are ready, be it with a PS3 or a stand-alone player. I own only five Blu-Ray discs in my 3,000 DVD disc collection. I am not about to replace any of my previous purchases with Blu-Ray. I will also be very selective in my Blu-Ray purchases down the road.

Hope that this eases your concerns about your extensive DVD collection.

Both formats use a blue laser. The only difference between the two is the size of the discs and the depth of the data that is stored on the disc layers. Both are encoded to output to 1080p, however only one HD-DVD player will currently do 1080p.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:18 pm**

Best Buy, on the other hand, has the largest Blu-ray collection I've seen in a store to date. We have a brand new Best Buy that just opened up last Friday. They have the Blu-ray and HD-DVD display right in the front of the store behind the new release aisle. I was in and out of there within 4 minutes.

However, I would have been better off buying The Haunted Mansion on Amazon.com. Their price was $6 cheaper than Best Buy's $29.99... if only I wasn't so darn impatient to wait for things to come through the mail. Also, I like to see what I'm buying. I will use Amazon for some Christmas presents when the shopping season gets too busy for me, but I wish there were some way I could benefit this site by going to an actual store.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:34 pm**

Like Escapay, I wouldn't mind getting ultra-insainly high picture quality but I don't really think its necessary. I wouldn't like the idea of some of the older animated features getting retooled to be suitable for Blu-Ray anyway (mabey Sleeping Beauty, because of its backrounds). Also the difference between the 2 formats is not as drastic as VHS (or laserdisc) to DVD.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:42 pm**

Flanger-Hanger wrote:Like Escapay, I wouldn't mind getting ultra-insainly high picture quality but I don't really think its necessary. I wouldn't like the idea of some of the older animated features getting retooled to be suitable for Blu-Ray anyway (mabey Sleeping Beauty, because of its backrounds). Also the difference between the 2 formats is not as drastic as VHS (or laserdisc) to DVD.

Actually it is. Especially if you have a progressive 1080 display. Its 5 times better.

You know, I read comments on this forum and other forums about compression artifacts on normal DVDs ("If only they had less episodes per disc" or "they should have removed some of the supplements, or put them on a second disc" are common).

Yet here we are with a system that genuinely offers Five times the quality of SD (a jump just as big, if not bigger than from VHS to DVD) and the majority of people are indifferent. Its mystifying.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:50 pm**

2099net wrote:
Flanger-Hanger wrote:Like Escapay, I wouldn't mind getting ultra-insainly high picture quality but I don't really think its necessary. I wouldn't like the idea of some of the older animated features getting retooled to be suitable for Blu-Ray anyway (mabey Sleeping Beauty, because of its backrounds). Also the difference between the 2 formats is not as drastic as VHS (or laserdisc) to DVD.
Actually it is. Especially if you have a progressive 1080 display. Its 5 times better.

You know, I read comments on this forum and other forums about compression artifacts on normal DVDs ("If only they had less episodes per disc" or "they should have removed some of the supplements, or put them on a second disc" are common).

Yet here we are with a system that genuinely offers Five times the quality of SD (a jump just as big, if not bigger than from VHS to DVD) and the majority of people are indifferent. Its mystifying.

I didn't really mean picture quality, I just ment how the systems work. You didn't have Chapter Selection or "enhanced for 16x9 televisions" or Bonus features and set up menus and options on VHS. I realize that presentation quality is way better (as I have seen it in person) and you can hold much more information but the general workings and running options are basically the same

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:53 pm**

2099net wrote:
You know, I read comments on this forum and other forums about compression artifacts on normal DVDs ("If only they had less episodes per disc" or "they should have removed some of the supplements, or put them on a second disc" are common).

Yet here we are with a system that genuinely offers Five times the quality of SD (a jump just as big, if not bigger than from VHS to DVD) and the majority of people are indifferent. Its mystifying.

I think that the main reason most people are indifferent, is because that they are waiting to see what happens, and do not have the knowledge of what the benefits are. Of course, I would say that the bigger issue is, right now, the technology is too expensive. To even enjoy the high-definition offered by HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, you have to invest in an HDTV. Then, there's the cost of the players, which are quite expensive, when compared to DVD technology. Not to mention that the cost of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies are quite a bit more than a DVD. I think that, once the prices come down, and people actually see the difference it makes, you will see the technology take off.

I, myself, have seen the difference, and until you see it, you can't imagine how greatly the image is improved, in either format. However, I find it's too expensive for me to upgrade. I don't have an HDTV, nor the money to purchase one, right now. Plus, it's always the early adopters that end up being frustrated. The problems that will arise with the first few players (as have already been reported), plus the fact that it's very early in the lifespan, many things can change, and improve.

I think I'll hold out until one format wins out over another. If one doesn't win out, then I'll eventually choose one, when I can afford to upgrade my television. At the current time, I'm satisfied with what I have.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:59 pm**

MadonnasManOne wrote:
2099net wrote:
You know, I read comments on this forum and other forums about compression artifacts on normal DVDs ("If only they had less episodes per disc" or "they should have removed some of the supplements, or put them on a second disc" are common).

Yet here we are with a system that genuinely offers Five times the quality of SD (a jump just as big, if not bigger than from VHS to DVD) and the majority of people are indifferent. Its mystifying.
I think that the main reason most people are indifferent, is because that most people are waiting to see what happens, and do not have the knowledge of what the benefits are. Of course, I would say that the bigger issue is that, right now, the technology is too expensive. To even enjoy the high-definition offered by HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, you have to invest in a HDTV. Then, there's the cost of the players, which are quite expensive, when compared to DVD technology. Not to mention that the cost of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies are quite a bit more than a DVD. I think that, once the prices come down, and people actually see the difference it makes, you will see the technology take off.

I, myself, have seen the difference, and until you see it, you can't imagine how greatly the image is improved, in either format. However, I find it's too expensive for me to upgrade. I don't have a HDTV, nor the money to purchase one, right now. Plus, it's always the early adopters that end up being frustrated. The problems that will arise with the first few players (as have already been reported), plus the fact that it's very early in the lifespan, and many things can change, and improve.

I think I'll hold out until one format wins out over another. If one doesn't win out, then I'll eventually choose one, when I can afford to upgrade my television. At the current time, I satisfied with what I have.

Well, yes, I can accept price is a major issue. But you can still be happy for what HD-DVD/Blu-Ray had achieved - we all know prices will fall year upon year. I mean, a Ferrari car is too expensive. But you don't have people dismissing it as "a waste of time" as a result - people still (generally) drool over it and wish they had one. And they stay expensive and out of the average person's reach for their whole lifetime!

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:10 pm**

kbehm29 wrote:I will use Amazon for some Christmas presents when the shopping season gets too busy for me, but I wish there were some way I could benefit this site by going to an actual store.

If you order online through our link to Best Buy or Circuit City and select In-Store Pickup, you can. They just don't give the type of referral fee that Amazon does.

Posted: **Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:14 pm**

Luke wrote:If you order online through our link to Best Buy or Circuit City and select In-Store Pickup, you can. They just don't give the type of referral fee that Amazon does.

That's great to know! I wouldn't have thought of that. I could do that, then just pick up my order after work or on my lunch hour. I definitely will do that, and also use Amazon too whenever I can.

DVDizzy Forum

My local Walmarts stopped carrying Blu-ray discs!

My local Walmarts stopped carrying Blu-ray discs!