How Best Buy is selling HD DVD

[yankeedawg21]

At the Best Buy I work at we have like 15 HD DVD players only 4 of them are new the rest are all returns. Also our system shows no replenishments on them for our next 2 trucks and last nights truck had none

[blu-rayfan101]

Nice!

[Blu Titan]

The "regular" customer is already aware that Blu-ray won. Good to see BB sending a clear message, no need to deceive anyone!

[USF Bull]

yeah, i noticed at my best buy, on the price display it says "Toshiba 1080i DVD upconverter, HD DVD player"

[ryoohki]

Originally Posted by USF Bull

yeah, i noticed at my best buy, on the price display it says "Toshiba 1080i DVD upconverter, HD DVD player"

[sodrock]

Originally Posted by USF Bull

yeah, i noticed at my best buy, on the price display it says "Toshiba 1080i DVD upconverter, HD DVD player"

Yes! That is the photo I took with my camera phone that I don't know how to post. ALso on the descripton of the tag it does not mention anything about "Hi Def" etc.

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by USF Bull

yeah, i noticed at my best buy, on the price display it says "Toshiba 1080i DVD upconverter, HD DVD player"

Should have read: "Toshiba Retractible Cup Holder, Night Light, Kitty Bed Warmer, Industrial Paper weight, 1080i DVD upconverter, and HD DVD player".

"Make Offer".

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by USF Bull

yeah, i noticed at my best buy, on the price display it says "Toshiba 1080i DVD upconverter, HD DVD player"

Thats the best thing I have heard all day !!!!!

[Maxell]

The only "direction" that is told is from supervisors or managers of each store. This is not a corporate strategy so far. As much as the stores look the same, every store and every employee is different.

[GTsmokeya]

I work at CC and have only 2 blu-ray players left in stock and alot of hd-dvd players. To give you a snap shot the area I work in has alot of money and a guy today asked if we carry the $800 hd-dvd player I was suprised and said no I am sorry we dont, I asked why out of curiousity and he said I just want it for the upconversion its rated the best. He than asked how much the panasonic blu-ray player was going for and said he already has one. I almost laughed at the fact he did not care about its cost or hd-dvd playback.

GTsmokeya

[saljr]

BB EE in Stockton,Modesto and Tracy. They said the same thing Blu-Ray won.
HD-DVD

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by GTsmokeya

I work at CC and have only 2 blu-ray players left in stock and alot of hd-dvd players. To give you a snap shot the area I work in has alot of money and a guy today asked if we carry the $800 hd-dvd player I was suprised and said no I am sorry we dont, I asked why out of curiousity and he said I just want it for the upconversion its rated the best. He than asked how much the panasonic blu-ray player was going for and said he already has one. I almost laughed at the fact he did not care about its cost or hd-dvd playback.

GTsmokeya

Dangerous combination. Stupid People with Too Much Money! Good for the economy though.

[alkalinesi]

Originally Posted by sodrock

I was at two Best Buys today to see the state of the war was looking like. And as I expected there are now 4 Blu-ray displays and 1 HD DVD. Their entire stock of the A3's and A30's out on the floor, "clearing them out". There were not less than 5 open box units on display, with a sign saying to ask customer service for additional units.

Secondly, one of the employees was educating a customer on Blu-ray, i.e. HDTV Blu-ray deal. And the customer wanted to see the Regza, it happened to be hooked up to an HD DVD player. Conversation below

Customer: "What is this?"
BB E: "Oh, that plays DVD up to 1080p."
Customer: "Oh, only DVD's"
BB E: "Well, they also play HD DVD's"
Customer: "I see, Toshiba is competing with Blu-ray"
BB E: "Well, they did up until two weeks ago. Blu-ray has won the war."

Just as I had thought, Best Buy is going to clear out the HD DVD players as Upconverting DVD's and push Blu-ray as the High-def format. Why would an employee say such a thing unless directed.

so did the customer buy the blu ray player?

[Meerkat]

Originally Posted by w_tanoto

or maybe toshiba itself telling the stores to sell it as upconverter

You can find a cheaper upconverter that is just as good or better for less money. Trying to sell the HD-DVD on upconverting basis only can not be justified, IMO.

With a great possibility that HD-DVD will be dead at the end of the year and HD-DVD will only have around 500 movies out compared to blu with 500 and growing, this is a hard sale to get most consumers to buy a HD-DVD player even with a upconverter capability. Why restrict yourself to 500 titles when you can buy into 500 and growing?

There are going to be some consumers that will buy because they are not educated to all the options or who want backups for their current collection.

I believe HD-DVD will be dead by the end of the year.

[JackStraw]

The Best Buy I hit in Charlotte actually expanded their HD DVD section to show off the facings of the boxes as opposed to just the spine. My first instinct was to think that something was afoot against blu ray. Then it hit me that they were probably giving HD DVD extra facings in an attempt to sell them off (maybe before inventory).

But I don't want to come off like an AVS HD DVD'er so I just stopped speculating.

[plee]

Originally Posted by JackStraw

The Best Buy I hit in Charlotte actually expanded their HD DVD section to show off the facings of the boxes as opposed to just the spine. My first instinct was to think that something was afoot against blu ray. Then it hit me that they were probably giving HD DVD extra facings in an attempt to sell them off (maybe before inventory).

But I don't want to come off like an AVS HD DVD'er so I just stopped speculating.

As 'mystiksuicide' has said they want get rid of all HD-DUD stuff while it's worth something so anything to promote it, I'm sure they are willing/trying to do something. If that doesn't work, I'm sure they will be marked down/clearanced out eventually.

[BPHusker]

I went to one of the Best Buys in Omaha, NE and they had the same tag. "Toshiba 1080i Upconvert DVD / HD DVD Player." Both the HD-A3 AND HD-A30 said 1080i only. :P

Here are the pictures from my terrible camera phone...

A3


A30


BWHAHAHAHAHA! Looks to me like Toshiba is trying to sell of as many they can for something rather than nothing in 3-4 months

They also had ONE A30 hooked up at a display, compared to the Sony, Sharp AND Panasonic being hooked up to various HDTVs around the HT department.

[mystiksuicide]

Originally Posted by Maxell

The only "direction" that is told is from supervisors or managers of each store. This is not a corporate strategy so far. As much as the stores look the same, every store and every employee is different.

Do you work for BB corporate?

[CptGreedle]

I would like to at least hear from BB an official statement that they are not going to restock HD DVD when they are out. That would really end the war.

[pitabun]

Originally Posted by Maxell

The only "direction" that is told is from supervisors or managers of each store. This is not a corporate strategy so far. As much as the stores look the same, every store and every employee is different.

Of course its a corporate strategy!!!!

Do you think each BestBuy gets to pick and choose which products to sell?

Corporate just sends them a shipment. They have no control over what they are being sent! Also, its not like they have printers in the back printing all of those labels and editing them to their choosing.