Walmart sales tomorrow

[Jeff Weston]

Go to Bestbuy or order online a Toshiba HD-A3 for $200 and get two HD movies instantly for free and another 5 by mail. Sounds like a better, attainable deal to me.

If you like the advice, send me $5.

[TObject]

Relax; the Holiday season is just beginning. It's not even Black Friday yet.

Today is also the first day you can pick up the less expensive [than previous models] 40GB Sony Play Station 3, it's a game console and it plays Blu-ray movies. The Fry's in San Diego had 50 of them in the morning.

Blu-ray has a five free movies offer as well: http://www.bluraysavings.com/

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by Jeff Weston

Go to Bestbuy or order online a Toshiba HD-A3 for $200 and get two HD movies instantly for free and another 5 by mail. Sounds like a better, attainable deal to me.

If you like the advice, send me $5.

I'd send you the $5 but I just bought an HD-A3 for $139 at Circuit City. This was after they screwed up and told me they had one remaining HD-A2 in stock for $129 but couldn't find it once I got to the store. They started at $179 for the A3 when I griped about them not having the A-2 in stock but I got 'em down to $139. Yep it included the two HD movies in the box plus the 5 by mail.

I think the only difference between the A2 and A3 is the A3 has some kind of a better quality audio output.

[Matt Pascoe]

You made out pretty good Jerry

I was at the Escondido Walmart at 8:03am and watched the guy walk out with the last HD2.

Sooo I drove to the Vista Walmart. They still had stock and showed me where to line up, I was 4th in line and they had 11 units left.

Of course I couldnt resist buying a HD movie (Transformers) so my OTD price was $139.46. I think Jerry got the better deal At least I still get 5 free HD movies as part of the deal (BTW, so do you Jerry).

I have a Pioneer 5080 Plasma on its way for christmas But now I realise my Bose system is too old to work with all this new tech (only has Coax digital)... Guess I need to bump the Onkyo TX-SR705 up to the NEED list. And you know... my speaker really could use some updating

Wow, that HD player deal sure saved me some money...

[Allen]

Sorry you guys struck out.

My wife strolled into the local Wal Mart at almost 8:30 this morning, and sauntered back into the electronics department.

She picked up two players, payed for them and left.

[NAILER341]

if your store has extras grab me one

[Jeff Weston]

Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford

They started at $179 for the A3 when I griped about them not having the A-2 in stock but I got 'em down to $139.

Next car I buy you're coming with me Jerry.

Good score on the player. I once purchased something at Circuit City online for in-store pickup and they didn't have it in stock when I got there to pick it up. All I got was a lousy $24 gift card for wasting an hour of my time and $4 in gas.

Do you get your choice of any movie or do you get to choose five out of fifteen wonderful movies with Keanu Reeves or some other splendid talent in it?

[Jeff Weston]

Originally Posted by Matt Pascoe

You made out pretty good Jerry
I have a Pioneer 5080 Plasma on its way for christmas But now I realise my Bose system is too old to work with all this new tech (only has Coax digital)...

When I got my plasma I also bought a schnazzy new Bose system to go with it, only to discover that even with the high price tag it didn't have a single HDMI input. Back to the store it went.

BTW, even though I have no intention of watching a movie any time soon, I have this sudden urge to go bargain hunting along with you guys ... that's how I ended up with a Playstation 2 several years back that I used about a dozen times.

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by Jeff Weston

Next car I buy you're coming with me Jerry.

Good score on the player. I once purchased something at Circuit City online for in-store pickup and they didn't have it in stock when I got there to pick it up. All I got was a lousy $24 gift card for wasting an hour of my time and $4 in gas.

Do you get your choice of any movie or do you get to choose five out of fifteen wonderful movies with Keanu Reeves or some other splendid talent in it?

You pick one from 3 choices each in 5 categories. I have heard of a few of them, that's all I can say. I'm less excited about the five free pics after seeing the choices. Oh well, better than nothing.

By the way, this new Toshiba is more like a computer than I've seen, you can even update its firmware directly from a broadband modem. One thing, it doesn't come with any cables so buy them before leaving the store.

[Dan-H]

Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford

One thing, it doesn't come with any cables so buy them before leaving the store.

cableclub.com

http://www.cableclub.com/consumer-hd...e3a65245ca231f

[Jerry Bransford]

Just got the new Hitachi HD DVD player installed & configured. Question/problem.... why does the HD picture from either of my two new HD DVD movies (300 and Bourne Identity) included in the DVD box not fill the screen at the top and bottom?

Both DVDs start off in HD & fill the screen totally but once the movies start, they fill only to the sides, there are black bars at the top & bottom. I've got the HD-DVD player configured for a 16/9 ratio & it DOES fill the screen with an HD picture during the DVD's start up (the lion roaring, the FBI warning, etc.) but it then switches to where the top & bottom is missing once the movie starts.

Is that just that neither of the two movies were actually filmed with HD in mind? If HD movies don't fill the screen as an HDTV program does, I'm not going to enjoy this new HD-DVD player as much as I thought I would.

Larry N. suggested the movie might be in letterbox format but I thought HD was only supposed to be 16:9 ratio. Both new DVD movies I tried are labeled as HD.

[Jeff Weston]

Jerry,

Movie theaters are wider than 16:9 so it still has to be letterboxed to see the whole picture. The bars should be pretty small though compared to watching it on a 4:3 screen.

[Jerry Bransford]

Oh gotcha, I never thought about that. Thanks Jeff, I continue to learn something new every day.

[Lawrence]

Most movies original aspect ratio is 2:40:1, 2:35:1, or 1:85:1 (anamorphic widescreen) and they are "enhanced" for 16x9 TVs. So you'll always have the bars at the top and bottom, but like Jeff said, they should be fairly small. The cool thing is that you view all the action the director intended to capture. A full screen DVD will fill the whole screen, but the drawback is that you are then missing some action on each side.

[Jerry Bransford]

Thanks for the explanations guys.

We watched '300' last night, one of the two HD DVDs included in the Toshiba box, & wow, that was a creatively done film. Based on history with an intentional comic book look & style to it, it was entertaining but certainly graphic! More than a few heads were whacked off without much left to the imagination.

[Bermudacat]

I wonder is Toshiba is lowering the cost of players to try and keep their 'dog in the fight'?




http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/10/19...nding-october/


http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...share+blue+ray

[TObject]

I am sorry, HD-DVD supporters, but Blu-ray has won:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...4E&refer=japan

Yey! Let’s celebrate.

New Blu-ray releases today: Michael Clayton, In The Valley Of Elah, Run Lola Run, Yes - Live At Montreux, Santana - Hymns for Peace, Deep Purple - They All Came Down to Montreux.

[Jerry Bransford]

Yep I'm afraid to tell my wife that HD DVD player we recently bought was the "Beta VCR" of DVD players. What really ticked me off was when Netflix emailed me to say that as an HD DVD subscriber, they would no longer be sending us HD DVDs after another month or two.

[NAILER341]

didn't you get in on the hundred dollar one at wal mart?

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by NAILER341

didn't you get in on the hundred dollar one at wal mart?

Close, they were sold out by the time my wife got there that morning. I ended up with one slightly higher-up model for $130 from Circuit City.

[zman]

Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford

What really ticked me off was when Netflix emailed me to say that as an HD DVD subscriber, they would no longer be sending us HD DVDs after another month or two.

Bought my kid the PS3 last April and started Netflix Blu Ray DVD's. Got them on a timely bases.....Until around December. Looks like everyone got on the band wagon during the holidays and now getting Blu Ray DVD's is an extremely long wait. I have some in my que over a month old. BTW the newer Blu Ray players have some features that the older one don't, so if getting one do your research.

zman

[NAILER341]

the ps3 is still supposed to be the most advanced blu-ray player on the market.

[Matt Pascoe]

For Sale -

Obsolete HD-DVD Player with 6 obsolete HD-DVD movies

(kidding, sortof)

I wasnt going to put a dog in the HD fight, but at the Walmart pricepoint (under $100 for the player and 5 movies) I took a chance. Don't really regret it though, I've had $100 worth of enjoyment out of it

Blu-Ray confuses me. From what I understand, they really havent perfected the player/software yet. Guess I'll stick with my obsolete player for another year, by then (hopefully) the blu ray bugs will be worked out and the price will come down

[TObject]

Matt,

Hey, at the very least you got a pretty good up-converting DVD player out of the deal. How much does an Oppo cost, again?

If you just want to watch movies, Blu-ray is fine. The sticking points are things like picture-in-picture and Internet extras. Here is a good site about Blu-ray: http://forum.blu-ray.com/

[Jerry Bransford]

Well, I guess the ideal solution is one of the DVD players that plays both HD and Blue Ray. Kinda spendy but at least it'd be a solution. I don't think I'll be trying to convince my wife to buy another DVD player for the next year or two, I don't want her knowing I screwed up again like I did with Beta vs. VHS.

[TObject]

Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford

Well, I guess the ideal solution is one of the DVD players that plays both HD and Blue Ray.

Why? Why not then make a player that also plays VHS, Beta, Laserdisks, and 16 mm and 8 mm celluloid film.

[Matt Pascoe]

Originally Posted by TObject

Matt,

Hey, at the very least you got a pretty good up-converting DVD player out of the deal. How much does an Oppo cost, again?

Excellent point. In fact, I have a very hard time seing a difference between a 'true' HD-DVD and an upscaled standard DVD.

And, if I understand correctly, the audio quality has nothing to do with standard vs HD...

[Jeff Weston]

Good news for those who bought the HD-DVD from Best Buy. You may be eligible for a $50 gift card. They will also have a trade-in policy for those wanting to dump their system.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....&type=category

Jerry, Circuit City is pretty good with price matching so perhaps they may offer you something similar.

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by Jeff Weston

Good news for those who bought the HD-DVD from Best Buy. You may be eligible for a $50 gift card. They will also have a trade-in policy for those wanting to dump their system.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....&type=category

Jerry, Circuit City is pretty good with price matching so perhaps they may offer you something similar.

Dang, I was thinking that I had bought it from Best Buy but you're right, I bought mine at Circuit City. You have a better memory than I do Jeff. I just emailed Circuit City and included a link to Best Buy's rebate page. Hopefully they'll respond with some kind of offer or program.

[Lawrence]

Or like Sergey said, you now have a very nice upconverting player. I looked into the Oppo which is one of the best, and they are not cheap.