[Stevevideoman69]

I was at my local BB looking at some HD DVD titles. I saw a guy who was stocking up on HD DVD. he had about 8 in his hand, and still looking. I asked what playe he had and he said he was buying it after he picks out his movies. He said his reason for going HD DVD instead of Blu Ray was the pricing of the players. Ayway, I walked over to the players after a few minutes and there he was picking out his player. Problem was, he was picking a $129 sony upconverting player and putting it in his cart! he started to walk to check out and I approached him and asked what he decided on. He said the sony wasonly $129 and did HD! I explained to him his DVD's wouldnot play in this machine and he pointed to the side of the box where it said HD. After explaining it to him, that this just "upconverted" standard DVD to a better quality he seemed upset. He asked an employee and the employee told him the $129 sony would make regular DVD's look HD and he needed a $500 player for the HD content.


He then walked back to the DVD section and put back every HD DVD title and picked out 4-5 regular DVD's. He stuck with the Sony $129 player after the BB employee told him it would make normal DVD HD. I did tell him again that it would not even compare to real HD DVD but he did not seem to care.


I wonder how many others are mis-informed like this guy was?

 

[Bar81]

Well, the moral of the story is cheap players = more sales.

 

[JOHNnDENVER]

Lots... Some people have even used that as their comparison that BD is better than HD-DVD. Even more confusing is the few I have seen do this, purchased HD-DVD combo discs and swear they can use their player to play HD-DVD's just fine and that BD looks so much better.

 

[Technicolor]

Your story is proof that we need those chinese players.

 

[Jerry Curl]

What a tool.

 

[Paulidan]

he'll never know or appreciate the difference anyway.


Instead of thinking that a $200 or $300 Chinese player would have sealed the deal here, why not worry that guy gets home, hooks everything up and then starts to watch the $160 worth of movies he bought only to come to the conclusion that he wasted his money and there isn't enough of a difference to justify even the reduced amount that he paid?

Net result is he sours on the technology and then never buys the HD version again.


thats what my worry is with the cheap players on the way. This should remain a niche, for a very good reason- not everyone is equipped or educated enough to know or see what the difference and benefits are.


and thats clear just by looking at some of the comments in the software forums here for pete's sake.

 

[deez]

WE need many more thread(with pics) like this one on here...this is hilarious.....if you want to laugh check out the thread that has a pic of 60 ps3's at a BB.....

 

[lynesjc]

He'd probably have used a composite video connection anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered.

 

[JOHNnDENVER]

Even from his upscaling player he did buy, I'd bank he is using svideo at best.

 

[KJDAVE]

does he even have a HDTV?

 

[Sam S]

Interesting story.


I was at a similar store last week looking at some HD DVDs. Two guys (brothers?) were mulling over the BluRay's and HD DVDs. They were very confused. I overheard them asking each other (with Superman Returns BD in hand), "is this a game? What is it?".


I felt a bit of an obligation, so I informed them that it was indeed a hi def movie, and they would need the appropriate player.


I imagine these scenarios go on daily...

 

[htomei22]

Odd that the guy didn't hesitate to pay the (substantial) premium for 8 (!!) HD dvds over SD dvds, but wasn't willing to shell out the extra for a HD player over an SD player....


htomei

 

[deez]

LOL yes and dont ask a BB/CC person for advice as they recently answered my friend who asked"where are your hd dvd players at?" by directing him to the upconverting Dvd players....he laughed and went along with the guy who then told him "Sir these players upconvert to 550p and thats good cus it is hi def"....lmao

 

[buzzy_]

It is a telling story, but maybe not in the way some of the people here think it is. I imagine the kind of people who think they're so much smarter than this guy are also the people who just knew that DVDA and SACD would take over audio.


SD DVD will look very good to most people on a nice big HDTV that has a good scaler, or a good upscaling player. It's not at all certain that it's worth the extra cost for the 1080 TV + BR/HD player + discs to most people, especially right now when the players are still not where they should be. Most people would probably get more out of a decent receiver/amp/surround HT system.


And it's clueless to think that the world needs HD DVD or BR. How many people have a 1080 TV? How many people sit close enough to see the difference?


Telling the average person they ought to get BR/HD is probably bad advice. Telling them to buy now is worse. Telling the average person to get BR or HD DVD without knowing their setup and preferences is really bad advice.

 

[Snickering Hound]



Quote:
Originally Posted by lynesjc /forum/post/0


He'd probably have used a composite video connection anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered.

Too true.


The Toshiba HD-DVD A2 player comes with just a composite cable. So does the PS3.


Many of the HD-DVD players are being picked up by home theatre enthusiasts who toss aside the composite and hook it up via HDMI or at worst component. PS3 has alot of gamers who just untangle the included composite cable and hook it up to standard def tv. Many would insist they are gaming in HD that way.


The same thing will happen with the Chinese HD-DVD player if all that is included is a composite cable. The purchaser will wonder why it just doesn't have the "pop" that the demo had in the store and return player after player.

 

[pfoley]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Snickering Hound /forum/post/0


Too true.


The Toshiba HD-DVD players come with just a composite cable. So does the PS3.


Many of the HD-DVD players are being picked up by home theatre enthusiasts who toss aside the composite and hook it up via HDMI or at worst component. PS3 has alot of gamers who just untangle the included composite cable and hook it up to standard def tv. Many would insist they are gaming in HD that way.


The same thing will happen with the Chinese HD-DVD player if all that is included is a composite cable. The purchaser will wonder why it just doesn't have the "pop" that the demo had in the store and return player after player.

My Toshiba HDA1 came with a 2M HDMI Cable?

 

[LAGOSIAN]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevevideoman69 /forum/post/0


I was at my local BB looking at some HD DVD titles. I saw a guy who was stocking up on HD DVD. he had about 8 in his hand, and still looking. I asked what playe he had and he said he was buying it after he picks out his movies. He said his reason for going HD DVD instead of Blu Ray was the pricing of the players. Ayway, I walked over to the players after a few minutes and there he was picking out his player. Problem was, he was picking a $129 sony upconverting player and putting it in his cart! he started to walk to check out and I approached him and asked what he decided on. He said the sony wasonly $129 and did HD! I explained to him his DVD's wouldnot play in this machine and he pointed to the side of the box where it said HD. After explaining it to him, that this just "upconverted" standard DVD to a better quality he seemed upset. He asked an employee and the employee told him the $129 sony would make regular DVD's look HD and he needed a $500 player for the HD content.


He then walked back to the DVD section and put back every HD DVD title and picked out 4-5 regular DVD's. He stuck with the Sony $129 player after the BB employee told him it would make normal DVD HD. I did tell him again that it would not even compare to real HD DVD but he did not seem to care.


I wonder how many others are mis-informed like this guy was?

Like I have been saying from the start; WHOEVER BRINGS THE CHEAP PLAYERS TO MARKET FIRST WINS THIS WAR!

 

[Dussander]

They could at least label the composite and s-video outs of the players with "This will not give you high def!" or something. I suppose printing it in the manual isn't enough.


The HD-A1 and HD-XA1 did come with HDMI cables.

 

[Snickering Hound]



Quote:
Originally Posted by pfoley /forum/post/0


My Toshiba HDA1 came with a 2M HDMI Cable?

Well, apparently they lost some common sense by not including it with the A2. Corrected my above post.


Does the XA2 come with an HDMI cable?

 

[yellowlt4]



Quote:
Originally Posted by buzzy_ /forum/post/0


It is a telling story, but maybe not in the way some of the people here think it is. I imagine the kind of people who think they're so much smarter than this guy are also the people who just knew that DVDA and SACD would take over audio.


SD DVD will look very good to most people on a nice big HDTV that has a good scaler, or a good upscaling player. It's not at all certain that it's worth the extra cost for the 1080 TV + BR/HD player + discs to most people, especially right now when the players are still not where they should be. Most people would probably get more out of a decent receiver/amp/surround HT system.

This why I'm convinced this war will have no winner. I have seen too many people tell me that HD/BD look no better than SD DVD.


Both formats have a serious up hill climb to get J6P on board.