What will happen at retail? (Best Buy, Wal*Mart, etc)

[bhampton]

Hey,

(If there is a thread about this I didn't see it,.. sorry)

What will happen at stores as a result of WB dumping HD DUD?

I predict HD DUD will own all the shelf space of the "open box" items and that whole section will double in size till BB works out a deal that lets them return the stuff to Toshiba.

Then I predict the Universal and Paramount on HD section (previously know as HD DUD) will be pulled out as early as March.

I think HD DUD's will be available for online retailers (where they don't have to actually be seen by the public) for most of this whole year.

-Brian

[BadAss]

Yeah, who's going to be dumb enough to replace stock when you have people bring back players?

If I was Walmart, CC, or BB i' be cancelling all my orders for new players and getting rid of all my inventory while I could.

It's going to take a few weeks for the WB news to filter through to the public domain, magazines, etc so it will be a slow gradual decline for HD-DVD.

[DealsR4theDevil]

Why would anyone buy an HD DVD at this point? I know that once they start being really cheap it might make sense to snag a few titles that will prolly end up just being ported over to Blu discs without any improvements (people who already have HD DVD players). But why would anyone pay full price for any anymore?

[reallyman]

I have some favorite dvds .

[tru_to_blu]

They will put all of the HD DVDs in storage.

[Kendall]

Originally Posted by tru_to_blu

They will put all of the HD DVDs in storage.

Yeah, right next to the Arc of the Covenant. Or perhaps inside it.

[xwingsct]

This is just too early for retailers to react to the news.
But whatever it is it's just not a good sign for HD-DVD camp.
I was at Bestbuy today and they have Three BD player playing BD demo infront of every ailse and on HD-DVD on one ailse (Didn't really pay attention what was playing).
When you see them start dropping the prices on HD-DVD movies you know HD-DVD is coming to an end.

[gr3y]

i'm pretty sure they would be put in 'send backs' and sent back to the toshiba......

[JasonS]

They are going to be putting all of the discs in incenerators like Paramount did with their Blu-ray discs. Hey wait a minute...those could really come in handy right about now.

[What'sHD]

There have been broad hints from P-man about retailers finishing off the war for good by declaring support for BD.

Now, we have alleged excl. from Target. But, I think we can expect a bombshell within a month or so from the big boys of HDM retailing.

[Grisle]

I don't know why, but I was reading some of the threads over at highdefdigest and thoses HD-DVD supporters are just delusional. They seem to think that Warner will change their mine, or Fox and Disney will go neutral, or if they flood the market with $99 players they can turn this thing around. Some people are even trying to spin it like Warner doesn't have any heavy hitters like Tranformers until The Dark Knight comes out...so what! The Dark Knight is coming BD exclusive and it's not that far away, but Transformers didn't even give them one weekly win. I'm sure there will be several WB titles that will help us crush their sales this year. I really need to stop looking at those threads...those people are driving me crazy. Oh and all that hate and bias for the PS3...seriously I love mine.

[mystiksuicide]

Originally Posted by BadAss

Yeah, who's going to be dumb enough to replace stock when you have people bring back players?

If I was Walmart, CC, or BB i' be cancelling all my orders for new players and getting rid of all my inventory while I could.

It's going to take a few weeks for the WB news to filter through to the public domain, magazines, etc so it will be a slow gradual decline for HD-DVD.

That's a problem though, Cris tells me that during his shift no Toshibas where sold yet there where 5 open items waiting to be priced and displayed. In other words they're inventory grew by 5 players.

[jermwhl]

Originally Posted by Grisle

I don't know why, but I was reading some of the threads over at highdefdigest and thoses HD-DVD supporters are just delusional. They seem to think that Warner will change their mine, or Fox and Disney will go neutral, or if they flood the market with $99 players they can turn this thing around. Some people are even trying to spin it like Warner doesn't have any heavy hitters like Tranformers until The Dark Knight comes out...so what! The Dark Knight is coming BD exclusive and it's not that far away, but Transformers didn't even give them one weekly win. I'm sure there will be several WB titles that will help us crush their sales this year. I really need to stop looking at those threads...those people are driving me crazy. Oh and all that hate and bias for the PS3...seriously I love mine.

I can't believe they can spin this! Holy crap they are determined...i'll give 'em that much!

[GAMER4730]

I'm a Home Theater sales specialist at Best Buy in MN, and I can tell you that today we sold 11 Sony s300 blu-ray players (each one with 5 free instant blu-ray movie + 5 in the mail), 9 Sharp HP20 players (free with purchase of SHARP LCD 42 and above), and 5 Panasonic DMP-BD30k (free with purchase of ANY Panasonic 1080p display + 5 free instant blu-ray movies + 5 ffree in the mail movies). I think this is the first time that more blu-ray stand alones were sold than PS3s (40GB + 80GB). Everyone came in saying that this is the type of deal they were waiting for not just to get a blu-ray player but their first HDTV! Great job by SONY, SHARP, and Pansonic for making it easy for people to migrate to the HDTV era and amking it affordable as well. This can't just be a coincidence that these deals occured the same time as Warner announcing blu-ray exclusitivity. And by the way, Best Buy ads are printed two weeks in advance. I can definitely see our Media department getting an e-mail from corporate to shift next-gen dvd shelf space accordingly to accomadate for the increase demand in blu-ray movies and shipments.

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by GAMER4730

I can definitely see our Media department getting an e-mail from corporate to shift next-gen dvd shelf space accordingly to accomadate for the increase demand in blu-ray movies and shipments.

Do you think Best Buy will start sending HD DVD players back to Toshiba? Seems like they should if it is allowed in the contracts, even if they keep software on the shelves to keep current HD DVD owners happy. If I was running Best Buy I would sure be thinking about sending those XBOX360 add-ons back and not trying to sell them to unsuspecting customers.

Can Best Buy return the open box players to Toshiba? Seems like Best Buy might have wanted something special in the contracts for the holiday season from both sides, given that Warner made it clear they might drop one format.

--Darin

[richard lichtenfelt]

Thanks GAMER4730 for the retail insider info.

[JohnGalt]

Originally Posted by DealsR4theDevil

Why would anyone buy an HD DVD at this point? I know that once they start being really cheap it might make sense to snag a few titles that will prolly end up just being ported over to Blu discs without any improvements (people who already have HD DVD players). But why would anyone pay full price for any anymore?

Ignorance mostly. Heck if I could pick up a 1080p player for, say, $50 and the couple of dozen current HD-DVD only movies I'd really like to own for $5-10 per I'd jump in. But at anything close to current retail I'll just wait for the titles I want to come out on Blu, they'll all get here eventually.

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by Grisle

Some people are even trying to spin it like Warner doesn't have any heavy hitters like Tranformers until The Dark Knight comes out...so what!

I doubt they would want to ignore I Am Legend which has brought in well over $200 million in the US (more than The Bourne Ultimatum already) if Warner had announced they were dropping Blu-ray instead. I don't see any day-and-date titles from Paramount or Universal that have made that much and haven't been released (they already released Transformers and The Bourne Ultimatum). And one of the big problems for HD DVD is that the Blu-ray side isn't relying on just Warner. They are just on top of all the other releases. Just look at the current box office and people will see stuff like Charlie Wilson's War and Sweeney Todd that some HD DVD fans were counting on to really propel HD DVD, yet both of them are likely to finish with lower box offices in the US than Fox Searchlight's Juno. And Blu-ray isn't counting on just that one, since they have [I]National Treasure 2[I], which will finish with over $200 million itself. Probably won't do as well on BD, but even The Chipmunks will make over $200 million (a figure Universal only hit for 1 movie in 2007, with Parmount/Dreamworks only have 2 movies in 2007 hitting that figure). Then there is Enchanted with another $130 million in box office. Without Warner and the other studios Blu-ray has, Blu-ray can counter every release on the HD DVD side and then some. And the small studios are going to go Blu-ray's way now too. No way the majority of those small studios go to HD DVD after seeing what Warner just announced.

Now the next Harry Potter movie is Blu-ray too.

And although it isn't day-and-date, just the Lord of the Rings trilogy by itself would shut up a lot of HD DVD zealots. Any high definition movie fan who can't figure out that it will hurt a lot for HD DVD to have lost LOTR, isn't worth their salt.

--Darin

[chrisshea]

made me think of something
retailers should push for blu-ray
since if blu-ray fail and streaminign or direct download takes over retailers will lose BUckit loads of cash
u imagine best buy without any dvds

[Cambrian]

LOTR is going to be so huge. It has lots of replay value and people are just going to flock to bluray when they see the picture quality.