Walmart AM says BluRay only before Christmas?

[joemin97]

I was at my local Walmart and noticed they have added a new BD Movie Night at the Museum well not yet priced and behind the case door I asked how much the Assistant Manager came and opened the Case priced it and I asked him if they were to ever get anymore BD titles in since I do all of my shopping on Amazon for BD movies I thought it would be nice to have them readily available when I want one the same day. He told me that through the Walmart Grapevine is that they will be carrying many BD titles in the Future he said "Very Soon sometime before Christmas" I said well I knew that BD was out selling HDDVD and he said that Sams Club and some walmarts have already been closing out their supplies of Xbox360 HDDVD addons. Which jived with recently seen reports on the net that Sams dropped the price to $80 to get rid of their inventory of 360 HDDVD Drives. I asked him why I haven't seen the HDDVD at the store for awhile he said that Walmart Corporate has discountinued it due to low or no sales. And he mentioned how that is the reason why they haven't carried any HDDVD movies at his store nore many of the others in the US. He asked me if I have a stand alone BD movie Player I told him no but I do have two PS3's and that when Sony Makes a ES BD player I will jump right on it. He said well you do realize that Walmart will never carry anything ES to Expensive more for SoundAdvice and other HighEnd Shops I said yeah your right. Really this guy was pretty knowledgeable most people at Walmart or even Circuit City never even knows what ES is Let alone knowing it is a Sony Elevated Standard Product. So I thought I would post this. Take it in stride I do but it all sounded legit to me. Seems the guy was hesitant to mention anything till I pressed abit for more info.

If this does happen look to see HDDVD fade away by Christmas of this year. Oh I also notice how all of the stores in my area are renovating making the store look abit upscale like a Sears or Marshal's look. The Electronics Dept have what 30 HDTV LCD TV's hanging on the back wall. Maybe they see Bluray as a great Addon for their HDTV lineup? To get the most out of the HDTV's they are selling.

Thanks
JoeM

[ProvenFlipper]

That sure would be ironic, Wal-Mart going from ordering 2 Million HD-DVD players to not carrying HD-DVD at all in their stores.

If this is true, I welcome the support from Wal-Mart. Add this to Blu-ray's marketing dept buying up retail floor space, stores carrying less and less HD-DVDs, and soon customers will only know of one format.

Anything that can help speed this format war along gets approval from me. The sooner I can get Universal flicks and better VC-1 encodes the better for all of us.

[theknub]

Originally Posted by ProvenFlipper

That sure would be ironic, Wal-Mart going from ordering 2 Million HD-DVD players to not carrying HD-DVD at all in their stores.

If this is true, I welcome the support from Wal-Mart. Add this to Blu-ray's marketing dept buying up retail floor space, stores carrying less and less HD-DVDs, and soon customers will only know of one format.

Anything that can help speed this format war along gets approval from me. The sooner I can get Universal flicks and better AVC encodes the better for all of us.

fixed

[clyon]

I was at BB 3 days ago & BD had 2x the space then HDDVD had + the limited # of HDDVD where spread out thin to make it look like there was more to fill in the space/gaps. 2 months ago it was 50/50

& the display for the movie 'Queen' had all but 1 HDdvd still sitting there but BD only 1 left in the whole store

[jorg]

wow great post what a way to use your first one lol wish i oculd of done that

[u_nick]

I really really hope this is true.

I still havent seen sign of EITHER format much in my Walmarts. For the past few months, only Xmen 3 was in along with the PS3 games, and last week they added Night at the Museum. Thats IT.

I was hoping they were just waiting for a winner, and hopefully this will be soon. I would love to have BRDs at great prices readily available, much like the thread creator mentioned.

[Heresy]

That would be cool but I still won't shop there.

[ProvenFlipper]

Originally Posted by theknub

fixed

LOL... That is where I hope it goes, but I'm sure Uni and Warner won't instantly drop VC-1 and start using VC-1.

[nhaase]

Last I saw, Wal-mart's official stance was that they would support both formats, including stocking the new $600 Sony BD player due out in July. Their official stance said nothing of dropping HD-DVD, but a manager would know insider info, especially if he's as knowledgable as this one is portrayed.

[nhaase]

Originally Posted by clyon

I was at BB 3 days ago & BD had 2x the space then HDDVD had + the limited # of HDDVD where spread out thin to make it look like there was more to fill in the space/gaps. 2 months ago it was 50/50

& the display for the movie 'Queen' had all but 1 HDdvd still sitting there but BD only 1 left in the whole store

There have been other threads on here about BB's high-def movie sections, and they're all saying the same things: more BD space, and in most cases, video displays of BD, but nothing for HD-DVD. From what people are saying on here, BB has made their choice, and I salute them. At the one's I've been to, the add-on is in the 360 accessories section, w/ nothing in the DVD player section cluing people towards it, so it doesn't seem like they really care. Plus, the one by me has the HD-DVD players (not incl. the add-on, and incl. the LG combo) sitting at the end of a shelf, right by each other and alongside regular DVD players. On the other hand, the BD players, like I said, are out in full display hooked up to TVs w/ BD movies and a few boxed players underneath.

[dakota81]

Around here the Best Buy is still equal between formats, Circuit City has very limited quantities of both formats somewhere I can never find so I never go there anymore, Wal*Mart has neither formats just one copy of House of Flying Daggers in the PS3 display case that's been there for ~3 months.

I have heard Fry's is doing the same thing, giving 2x the space to blu-ray, and some moving hd-dvd to the back of the store, which of course is pissing off those at avs, there's a thread there somewhere urging everyone in the area to go in and complain to the employees.

[ra1024]

I can confirm that my Fry's has had 2x the shelf space for BR for at least a month.

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by ProvenFlipper

LOL... That is where I hope it goes, but I'm sure Uni and Warner won't instantly drop VC-1 and start using VC-1.

Universal may lose some friends in the M$ camp if they go neutral. They may have to start making relations with the AVC boys!

[cawgijoe]

The BB at Fair Lakes, VA has about equal main display of HD-DVD and BD, but you will see more BD beneath the demo display.

I've also asked the guy who works the game and video dept. how sales are going and he's told me twice that BD outsells HD-DVD in that store. He attributes it mainly to the PS3.

I sure wish this format thing would end and Toshiba would just start making BD players. Things would really take off then.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

Universal may lose some friends in the M$ camp if they go neutral. They may have to start making relations with the AVC boys!

You forget that b/c HD has just settled on H.264 as the industry standard for moving to the next generation of HD in America, so will NBC want to do two different encodes, one for b/c and one for optical, when they could just use the same 1080i60 one for both.

[beatboy77]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

You forget that b/c HD has just settled on H.264 as the industry standard for moving to the next generation of HD in America, so will NBC want to do two different encodes, one for b/c and one for optical, when they could just use the same 1080i60 one for both.

This is a very good point and a point which is often overlooked. It appears Blu-ray is moving more and more to AVC and as this is becomming the accepted codec in television it will most likely become the accepted codec in HD optical.

~Josh

[JTK]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

Universal may lose some friends in the M$ camp if they go neutral. They may have to start making relations with the AVC boys!

It's just a matter of time and money.

[HDJK]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

You forget that b/c HD has just settled on H.264 as the industry standard for moving to the next generation of HD in America, so will NBC want to do two different encodes, one for b/c and one for optical, when they could just use the same 1080i60 one for both.

I'm not sure you could use the same encode for b/c and optical. Afaik the bandwith of b/c is not as high as it is on a BD (at least it's not here in Europe). And if a deinterlace can be avoided (as in 24P) I'm all for two seperate encodes

[Longshot]

The thing with WalMart is most of their stores are unlike the one the op described. Maybe 10% of WalMarts are super stores and have a really good electronics dept. The rest are an absolute joke. The biggest HDTV in the WalMart in my neighborhood is a 27" ILO. They have $49 DVD players stacked to the ceiling. If WalMart does end up with these FuYan players it's going to be an absolute disaster. The consumers they are targeting will not pay $149 for a HD DVD player. WalMart is just to smart to let that happen.

[dobyblue]

My local Wal-Mart in St., Catharines, Ontario, Canada has been carrying both HD DVD and Blu-ray disc titles for a while now and they're not kept behind any casing.

Wal-Mart HD DVD section


Wal-Mart Blu-ray section


Wal-Mart's SD DVD display for The Prestige with Blu-ray ad.