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New HD DVD commercials start airing

I was watching the nation’s most trusted news source, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and I saw a nifty commercial for HD DVD using Shrek characters.

This campaign is probably linked with the promotional agreement HD DVD gave Dreamworks Animation to drop Blu-ray support. Whatever it is, the ads are quite effective. They actually explain what HD DVD is and how it’s different than DVD but without being dull. Check the ads embedded below and let us know what you think of them by posting in the comments section.

K-Mart contradicts Toshiba’s announcement

In a previous report, Toshiba had claimed K-Mart was going to carry HD DVD exclusively. High Def Digest is reporting today that K-Mart announced this is not the case.

In the statement released today, K-Mart Vice President Jonathan Magasanik directly addressed Toshiba’s claim in the following statement:

There have been numerous statements in the media today, attributed to Toshiba, indicating exclusive support for the HD DVD format in Kmart stores. These statements are false. Kmart intends to support both the HD DVD and Blu-ray platforms, and has no plans to support either platform exclusively.

Either someone at Toshiba got a little eager or a reporter misheard the Toshiba representative - but there’s always the outside chance they flat out lied to create more buzz amongst the already clamoring news surrounding the $98 sale at Wal-Mart. I want to believe the best about people so I’ll assume it was a mistake.

A little rationality is in order

I’ve been thinking about the whole format “war” thing and I’ve come to a conclusion: It seems like the only rational discussions concerning the formats is taking place in the Warner Bros. boardrooms.

By the way the HD DVD fans have been talking on the message boards across the internet about this pre-Black Friday sale at Wal-Mart, you would think Sony had thrown in the towel … along with the other 170 other companies that support Blu-ray. Yeah, a one-day sale of a discontinued player single-handedly ends a format war with staunch lines drawn on both sides. Pretty ridiculous.

And there are reports of Blu-ray fans picketing outside Wal-Mart claiming supporting HD DVD is supporting terrorism. That’s right, buying an optical media format kills children all across the world!

Can we get some rational discussion about this? I wish I had a TARDIS so I could go back to 1994 and hog-tie Al Gore to prevent the “interweb” tubes from getting clogged by base blabber from fanboys.

Face it, Time Warner is having trouble getting advertisers for high-def networks because there aren’t enough subscribers. People with HDTVs don’t care about high-def. This is the problem, isn’t it? The “digital revolution” has brought us a culture that doesn’t care about quality. MP3 has taken a format that is already someone flawed (CD) and made it markedly worse, yet the iPod has made it acceptable. Surround sound systems are frequently set up so the front and rear speakers are sitting next to each other. Standard-def TV is displayed on HDTVs and that’s worse than DVDs. Two-thirds of HDTV owners think DVD is high-def.

My point? The HD DVD side is looking for commodity priced players. The problem is when a customer goes to the store they don’t want to think about formats, they want to think about which movie to buy. HD DVD isn’t a commodity product. Blu-ray thinks they can force the format on the market, but over 60% of PS3 users could care less about Blu-ray.

Both formats are niche products!

So can we have rational discussion about the merits of both formats? Can we talk about the market in a way that analyzes the moves of the companies and the impact it might have on the way we enjoy our movies? Can we talk about anything without hyperbole and pedantic arguments?

I would rather argue about poverty, politics, religion, art, literature … you know, stuff that actually matters.

$98 HD DVD player at Walmart this Friday

With the holiday season fast approaching, Walmart has announced plans for “Secret In-Store Specials”, 3 weeks in advance of the highly anticipated Black Friday shopping bonanza. This “secret” sale will start on 8AM and last until noon on Friday, November 2nd.

Details on an Acer laptop were leaked approximately 1 week ago, but other items were shrouded in mystery, set to be unveiled as of today. Now, those additional products have been revealed and the “secret” sale details can be found on the Walmart Holiday website.



$98.87 for a Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player!

A brand name HD DVD player for less than a hundred bucks? You better believe it! But will this player be available for the 5 free HD DVD mail-in offer? Details are unclear at this time.

As you can see from the image above, Walmart will also have select HD DVD’s on sale for $14.96 each. Definitely a bargain on HD movie titles. Or if you’re looking for a new HDTV, check out the Samsung 50″ plasma that will be on sale for $998. That is certainly a great price for a 50″ plasma. With all these promos going on, I’m going to try my best to get over to Walmart tomorrow morning. Will you be going?

Update: Bestbuy has the Toshiba HD-A2 priced at $99 as of today! They are currently sold out online, but you can still find the player available at some brick & mortar stores.