Ishimaru Posted October 28, 2007 Posted October 28, 2007 because its not a store promotion, its a manufacturer promotion. Still it seems insanely slow. It is nothing more than "send form into giant warehouse that only has 15 different discs in it" and wait, is it not? There's plenty of companies with like 50 employees that stock thousands of different products and get hundreds of orders a day that ship stuff out same-day. Why can't the manufacturer just ship it to stores that are selling the product and promote it at the same time? Or are they just smart enough to assume that half the people that buy the products would forget about the promotion in the first place, I just hate it when companies do this. Like Circuit City for example, they got rebates all over the place and it literally took me 4 weeks to get a $20 rebate off my 4GB Travel Drive, might as well sell it the original rip off price instead...
the white drew carey Posted October 28, 2007 Posted October 28, 2007 Why can't the manufacturer just ship it to stores that are selling the product and promote it at the same time? Or are they just smart enough to assume that half the people that buy the products would forget about the promotion in the first place, I just hate it when companies do this. Like Circuit City for example, they got rebates all over the place and it literally took me 4 weeks to get a $20 rebate off my 4GB Travel Drive, might as well sell it the original rip off price instead... Becauswe the retailers wouldn't go for that. If you walked in, bought an HD player and then got 5 free discs right there in-store, chances are you wouldn't actually purchase any on that visit. Retailer wants your money, so if you go in and get no free discs right there, you'll most likely buy at least one.
Gunbuster Posted November 2, 2007 Posted November 2, 2007 (edited) The crazy bastards went and did it. Walmart rolls out sub $200 HD DVD player Makes me wonder what the Blu Ray camp has up their sleeves for this Christmas season? Walmart sells it under $100 http://holiday.ri-walmart.com/?section=secret and you can still get the 5 free HD DVDs Sony says no to price drop ($399 Bluray player) http://www.tvpredictions.com/sonyprice110107.htm Edited November 2, 2007 by Gunbuster
Alpha OTS Posted November 2, 2007 Posted November 2, 2007 Walmart sells it under $100 http://holiday.ri-walmart.com/?section=secret and you can still get the 5 free HD DVDs four months from now if you're lucky. Fixed.
David Hingtgen Posted November 2, 2007 Posted November 2, 2007 I was at Wal-Mart an hour ago---but didn't go by the electronics area. Is that 100 bucks for all Wal-Marts, you just have to be lucky and hope they're in stock, or what? I would so pick one up for a hundred bucks now, and just hold on to it until I get my HDTV in a few weeks/months.
JsARCLIGHT Posted November 2, 2007 Author Posted November 2, 2007 Those players are probably long gone at most main Walmarts right now. From what I have heard the whole $100 player thing originated at Best Buy but they sold out in a microsecond but other retailers who have stock have matched the price. I just wonder what these early price wars are going to parlay into for the holiday season? If this $100 player sticks around, heck even at $200 and sticks around it will most likely begin to change the face of the HD market slightly. I'm not saying that HD DVD will suddenly regain all this ground and pass up Blu Ray, but it certainly seems like this holiday season is already in HD DVD's favor. From the look of things Sony's big PS3 push is going to focus on it's Blu Ray capabilities more this time around so I would assume the BD folks have some sort of counter attack in mind... I just wish I knew what it was already.
David Hingtgen Posted November 2, 2007 Posted November 2, 2007 Luckily *(or unluckily, depending), I live in Eastern Iowa---we have Wal-Marts all over in rural farm towns, where probably 1% or less of the population has HDTV. If there's not one in town--I know several towns less than an hour away that are sure to have some in stock. When I had the money for a 360, I knew exactly where to get one when they were still "sold out everywhere"--drove over, and picked it up. Probably the only 360 they've ever sold...
mikeszekely Posted November 3, 2007 Posted November 3, 2007 (edited) Luckily *(or unluckily, depending), I live in Eastern Iowa---we have Wal-Marts all over in rural farm towns, where probably 1% or less of the population has HDTV. If there's not one in town--I know several towns less than an hour away that are sure to have some in stock. When I had the money for a 360, I knew exactly where to get one when they were still "sold out everywhere"--drove over, and picked it up. Probably the only 360 they've ever sold... As far as I know, it's all Wal-Marts, and I don't know anything about Best Buy being involved. It was supposed to be be Wal-Mart's pre-Black Friday Friday, so it might not even apply tomorrow even if you did have some in stock. I do know that a friend of mine and I went around 2:00 to a pretty well-shopped Wal-Mart, and they still had some. The trick was they didn't have them out anywhere obvious, you had to ask specifically for them. EDIT: Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, I was at a CD Warehouse the other day (it's this place that sells used games, movies, and CDs, I think we only have them in PA) and I snagged Transformers for $15, even though I didn't have an HD-DVD player. Then I lucked out and found a used 360 HD-DVD player at my local Gamestop. Traded in some games I'd finished, and I wound up paying just $26 out of pocket. Good times. Edited November 3, 2007 by mikeszekely
Oihan Posted November 3, 2007 Posted November 3, 2007 I believe you can still buy the Toshiba HD-AD HD-DVD player for $100 till the 4th of November (assuming there are any left). I picked one up yesterday, now all I need is the HDTV!
myk Posted November 3, 2007 Posted November 3, 2007 But...At a $100 is this thing gonna' crap out before the year even ends?
Oihan Posted November 3, 2007 Posted November 3, 2007 But...At a $100 is this thing gonna' crap out before the year even ends? If there are any known problems with this player...I wouldn't know of any. I'm not sure what the warranty is like on this item either, but it seems like a great purchase to help get started in the HD era.
JsARCLIGHT Posted November 3, 2007 Author Posted November 3, 2007 The Toshiba HD-A2 has a pretty good service history. One thing to consider about all these "super low sales" is that they are all pretty much undercutting the manufacturers' MSRP on this player. This is not a "crap" player that people would assume it has to be because it's a hundred bucks... this is one of the one-time flagship players from Toshiba. The only real thing it has going against it is that it is outdated cutting-edge technology wise and there are much better players on the market to be had. Walmart is even putting up endcaps featuring $15 HD DVD movies like Sleepy Hollow, Big Lebowski and others. By all accounts Walmart is in the midst of a D-Day level HD DVD push. I've talked with people who would not normally be even remotely considering getting into the HD DVD game thinking about it with these prices. As I've said a few times in this thread, the Blu Ray camp really needs to pull out the stops and combat all this press the HD DVD camp is garnering with these super low bargain basement player sales. It's not even officially "Christmas" shopping season yet...
mikeszekely Posted November 4, 2007 Posted November 4, 2007 The Toshiba HD-A2 has a pretty good service history. One thing to consider about all these "super low sales" is that they are all pretty much undercutting the manufacturers' MSRP on this player. This is not a "crap" player that people would assume it has to be because it's a hundred bucks... this is one of the one-time flagship players from Toshiba. The only real thing it has going against it is that it is outdated cutting-edge technology wise and there are much better players on the market to be had. Walmart is even putting up endcaps featuring $15 HD DVD movies like Sleepy Hollow, Big Lebowski and others. By all accounts Walmart is in the midst of a D-Day level HD DVD push. I've talked with people who would not normally be even remotely considering getting into the HD DVD game thinking about it with these prices. As I've said a few times in this thread, the Blu Ray camp really needs to pull out the stops and combat all this press the HD DVD camp is garnering with these super low bargain basement player sales. It's not even officially "Christmas" shopping season yet... To build on what JsARCLIGHT said, my friend that bought it also bought the HD-A1 when it first came out, and it still works quite well. He likes the HD-A2 better, but continuing that logic, if you spent the extra money, the HD-A3 (which I believe is Toshiba's current flagship model) would be even better.
Gaijin Posted November 4, 2007 Posted November 4, 2007 To build on what JsARCLIGHT said, my friend that bought it also bought the HD-A1 when it first came out, and it still works quite well. He likes the HD-A2 better, but continuing that logic, if you spent the extra money, the HD-A3 (which I believe is Toshiba's current flagship model) would be even better. H-A1 had great upscaling for SD DVD's...but super duper long loading and play/stop times. Unusable in that sense. A2 and A3 better choices indeed. That said, the PS3 and 360 add on are still the fastest loading HD players on the market.
David Hingtgen Posted November 4, 2007 Posted November 4, 2007 HD-A3 is/was going for 170 some places---might just wait for that to come down a little.
Kin Posted November 4, 2007 Posted November 4, 2007 As a consumer... I don't want to ge involved in some competition between blueray and hd dvd.. don't know anything technical about it. I'm getting annoyed by the fact I can't decide what system i should invest for the long term. As long there's no real winner I won't buy anything yet... (not to mention HD TV)
Gaijin Posted November 5, 2007 Posted November 5, 2007 As a consumer... I don't want to ge involved in some competition between blueray and hd dvd.. don't know anything technical about it. I'm getting annoyed by the fact I can't decide what system i should invest for the long term. As long there's no real winner I won't buy anything yet... (not to mention HD TV) Once you do get an HDTV and HD programming, you will care.
David Hingtgen Posted November 5, 2007 Posted November 5, 2007 Simple basic question: 32in HDTV, 5 foot viewing distance (maybe as little as 4 to 4.5 at times). Good, bad? 1080p worth it? (Do 32in 1080p's actually have 1080 pixels, or just accept 1080 and show it with 768 pixels)
Oihan Posted November 5, 2007 Posted November 5, 2007 (edited) Simple basic question: 32in HDTV, 5 foot viewing distance (maybe as little as 4 to 4.5 at times). Good, bad? 1080p worth it? (Do 32in 1080p's actually have 1080 pixels, or just accept 1080 and show it with 768 pixels) The only 32" 1080p LCDs out there on the market (right now) are the Sharp Aquos LC-32D62U and LC-32GP1U models; both have a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. From my understanding, unless your sitting close to the tv set, 1080p isn't that practical when it comes to sets that are 32" and smaller. I think at your viewing distance the 1080p will be worth it; as for myself I'll probably be sitting about 3.5' to 4' away...so it's definitely worth it for me. Edited November 5, 2007 by Oihan
David Hingtgen Posted November 5, 2007 Posted November 5, 2007 That's kinda what I was worried about---based on my rough estimates of "TV distance at BestBuy" compared to my at home distance--I think it is visible (720 vs 1080)--but not a lot. But I don't want to go down to a 26in, as they almost all are of inherently lower picture quality, the 32's are the start of the "good technology" stuff. Though Sony and Samsung seem to have some 26's that are almost as good as 32's. 26S3000 is a possibility. The Sharp 1080 sets cost a lot more than the other 32's I was looking at though, and nowhere around here seems to have the non-game-mode one (which I have yet to see any review say makes any difference--yet adds hundreds to the cost). Of course, getting it online brings the price down to the same as the 32S3000---but then introduces all the hassle of if there's anything wrong with it it's hard to exhange/return.
Uxi Posted November 6, 2007 Posted November 6, 2007 Once you do get an HDTV and HD programming, you will care. Seriously. I've never been an early adopter at anything before... When Win 95 came out I was using 3.11. Hell when Win 98 came out I was using 3.11. I was using Me when XP came out (adopted right after SP1). I ended up getting sucked into both HDDVD and Blu-ray. I prefer Blu-ray since it looks like it has longer "legs" and room to stretch the format and the predominant support of the CE and movie industries, but it wouldn't be a bad world if HDDVD survives either. Being a gamer, I already had a 360 and a PS3 was a foregone conclusion. The fact that the PS3 is such a great Blu-ray player is just gravy. The 360 is more mediocre and has it's own negatives (mostly the 360's own noise) but is much faster than the cheaper Toshiba players.
Gaijin Posted November 6, 2007 Posted November 6, 2007 (edited) Simple basic question: 32in HDTV, 5 foot viewing distance (maybe as little as 4 to 4.5 at times). Good, bad? 1080p worth it? (Do 32in 1080p's actually have 1080 pixels, or just accept 1080 and show it with 768 pixels) HOnestly, it will be better, but not much at that distance and size. GO for a 720 32" Bravia or Panny or Aquos. Or if you really want to spend little now, get a Vizio for cheap and upgrade later. Wally WOrld had a 32" Bravia for $800 something this week. Not sure which one. Edited November 6, 2007 by Gaijin
David Hingtgen Posted November 6, 2007 Posted November 6, 2007 Was at BestBuy again---I think the 1080 (vs 720 at 32in 5 feet away) only looks better with static text---images generally look nigh-identical. While that may be nice for video games, I don't think it's worth almost double the price of a nice 720. (BB changed settings again, the two 720p Sonys are on completely different demos, impossible to compare again)
Gaijin Posted November 6, 2007 Posted November 6, 2007 Was at BestBuy again---I think the 1080 (vs 720 at 32in 5 feet away) only looks better with static text---images generally look nigh-identical. While that may be nice for video games, I don't think it's worth almost double the price of a nice 720. (BB changed settings again, the two 720p Sonys are on completely different demos, impossible to compare again) If you can't see the difference, it's not worth the cash. I'd tell them you want to hook something up to both to compare...a DVD player, console, etc. Would they really balk to make a sale?
JsARCLIGHT Posted November 6, 2007 Author Posted November 6, 2007 The real question would be if the blueshirts are smart enough to jumper it in. The local Beast Buy that I shop at employs kids that barely know how to dress themselves.
Alpha OTS Posted November 7, 2007 Posted November 7, 2007 Guess what came in the mail today......no, not my HD DVDs from the August promotion that at this point is over 10 weeks old. No, what are you on crack or something? No, what I got in the mail is far better. I got a notice that my HD DVDs from the August promotion are delayed! Really? Why, I had no idea! But wait, it gets better! If I'm lucky, they'll have the additional stock in and be able to ship by 11/25/07. Great! I have a shipping date, and the post card makes it clear that it's NOT a firm ship date too! But wait, it gets better! I have the option to cancel the *FREE* HD DVDs. All the titles I selected have a possible ship date of 11/25, but if only one of them was that, I could cancel it and get the other four earlier! I know we all expected a long ship time, but imo this is a bait and switch and contrary to the spirit of the promotion. If the promotion had said "Buy an HD drive in August, get 5 free movies in December!", maybe I wouldn't be so surly about it. I think while I'm irritated about htis I'm going to page through this thread and find that phone number to call and complain. It's pretty funny that this post card has NO contact information whatsoever on it: no phone number and no company name.
JsARCLIGHT Posted November 7, 2007 Author Posted November 7, 2007 Haaaa Ha! Oh wait... I got that same card a week ago with the same 11/25 dates. Edit: I have that number, give me ten seconds to dig it out. Edit Deuce: The number is 1-800-405-7520. I've called three times now, they are very polite and "understanding" but from what I've found calling the number pretty much does nothing.
JsARCLIGHT Posted November 10, 2007 Author Posted November 10, 2007 Next Gen HD Media war is at a "Stalemate" I'm not sure this article or what is said in it was timed all that well. You'd think people would have kept their yaps shut until after the Christmas shopping season... unless someone knows something the rest of us don't know.
Roy Focker Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 Maybe I'm staring at my TV for too long but when I'm playing a game or dvd on my PS3 I'm starting to notice these lines on my set. Using a standard TV. The lines are easier to see when the footage is dark. They are these horizontal like wide lines that scroll up during use. I don't I recall seeing them before. My almost 8 years old. Is this a sign that my Player is just too advanced for my TV or that my TV is starting to wear down?
Gaijin Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 Maybe I'm staring at my TV for too long but when I'm playing a game or dvd on my PS3 I'm starting to notice these lines on my set. Using a standard TV. The lines are easier to see when the footage is dark. They are these horizontal like wide lines that scroll up during use. I don't I recall seeing them before. My almost 8 years old. Is this a sign that my Player is just too advanced for my TV or that my TV is starting to wear down? TV getting old.
Roy Focker Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 Good that means I'm gonna be forced to by a super new TV some time in 2008!
David Hingtgen Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 One of my most-likely-3 is down 100 bucks this week at BestBuy. We'll see what happens as we get closer to Xmas.
Gaijin Posted November 14, 2007 Posted November 14, 2007 Massive BOGO Free on Blu-ray discs from Sony/Colombia and Disney/Pixar/Touchstone/Buena Vista at Amazon. Disney Blu-ray Buy 1 get 1 Free Sony Blu-ray Buy 1 Get 1 Free Picked up six discs for $51 with free shipping and my 10 percent off Hi Def items.
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