Toshiba HD-DVD Player $98.87 at Wal*Mart

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: ryema22
What are the chances of getting a Circuit City to price match Walmart's ad price on this?

And if anyone knows 100% that BB is doing this also, please post... the 7 free hd-dvd deal through them would be sweet.

Circuit City should match Wal-Mart.

Best Buy doesn't have much if any HD-A2s in stock so it could be iffy.

2 open boxes in my neighborhood store...

...and that's supplying the whole of Chicago!

I'm sure you can find something.

 

[Eug]

If you are interested in a Wal-Mart $99 player, go as early as possible.

Some stores have started selling them as of 6 am, instead of the posted 8 am.

 

[Genx87]

Went to the Maple Grove store in MN. Wife and I wrrived 10 mins to 8 and they were handing out tickets. Well they were already sold out well before we showed up. They had about 25 players on hand. We went to the Monticello store and had better luck as it is a small town. They had about 20 in their inventory and when i arrived about 10 left.

Unfortunatley that stores HD-DVD selection sucked. So Ill be going to BB later today to pickup Transformers. btw since this thing came with composite cables, how many HD-DVDs are protected and revert to 480?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Went to the Maple Grove store in MN. Wife and I wrrived 10 mins to 8 and they were handing out tickets. Well they were already sold out well before we showed up. They had about 25 players on hand. We went to the Monticello store and had better luck as it is a small town. They had about 20 in their inventory and when i arrived about 10 left.

Unfortunatley that stores HD-DVD selection sucked. So Ill be going to BB later today to pickup Transformers. btw since this thing came with composite cables, how many HD-DVDs are protected and revert to 480?

Composite is capable of nothing higher than 480i.

Perhaps you meant component(I myself am not sure if the player comes with those) which is capable of 1080p(if unprotected)

I BELIEVE(may be wrong) that no HDDVDs downscale via component at this point.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

At this time no HD-DVDs are downscaled via component. However, iirc, component is only capable of 1080i via HD-DVD. 1080p TVs will de-interlace that anyway so there won't really be any noticeable loss in quality.

 

[cubby1223]

I don't know about you guys, but I just had to check my local Wal*Mart while I was out getting lunch, they've got a palette full of HD-A2 players sitting there with no one buying. If you want them, come on out here, plenty available. I was actually half-expecting them not to stock any, their selection of both HD & Blu-ray movies are next to nothing.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
I don't know about you guys, but I just had to check my local Wal*Mart while I was out getting lunch, they've got a palette full of HD-A2 players sitting there with no one buying. If you want them, come on out here, plenty available.

Would help people to know where "here" is....my walmart was sold out when I called but I ordered it from BB for $105 including tax and shipping...basically the same price as it was at walmart.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: cubby1223
I don't know about you guys, but I just had to check my local Wal*Mart while I was out getting lunch, they've got a palette full of HD-A2 players sitting there with no one buying. If you want them, come on out here, plenty available.

Would help people to know where "here" is....my walmart was sold out when I called but I ordered it from BB for $105 including tax and shipping...basically the same price as it was at walmart.

Woodstock, Illinois. I doubt anyone's even close to my town anyways. 😛 It's an hour & a half drive from Chicago.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: Genx87
Went to the Maple Grove store in MN. Wife and I wrrived 10 mins to 8 and they were handing out tickets. Well they were already sold out well before we showed up. They had about 25 players on hand. We went to the Monticello store and had better luck as it is a small town. They had about 20 in their inventory and when i arrived about 10 left.

Unfortunatley that stores HD-DVD selection sucked. So Ill be going to BB later today to pickup Transformers. btw since this thing came with composite cables, how many HD-DVDs are protected and revert to 480?

Composite is capable of nothing higher than 480i.

Perhaps you meant component(I myself am not sure if the player comes with those) which is capable of 1080p(if unprotected)

I BELIEVE(may be wrong) that no HDDVDs downscale via component at this point.

Maybe it is component. A red, white, and yellow colored cable? It came with the player. ill laugh if they included cables that are not HD capable. The manual says the cables are HD capable but some movies have protection requirements for HDMI. And thus it will be played at 480.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Maybe it is component. A red, white, and yellow colored cable? It came with the player. ill laugh if they included cables that are not HD capable. The manual says the cables are HD capable but some movies have protection requirements for HDMI. And thus it will be played at 480.

Red, white, & yellow cables are composite. Component are red, blue, green.

Well, actually they *all* are just cables that can be plugged anywhere. You can use composite a/v cables as component, just match the player outputs to the tv inputs.

I just had a funny thought - what is some uninformed consumer at Best Buy going to say when the hdmi cable being sold to him costs more than the player?

 

[Shadowknight]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Maybe it is component. A red, white, and yellow colored cable? It came with the player. ill laugh if they included cables that are not HD capable. The manual says the cables are HD capable but some movies have protection requirements for HDMI. And thus it will be played at 480.

No, the cables ARE HD capable. Using component does NOT cause DVDs of any sort to be downscaled. However, non-HD movies won't be UPSCALED using component, leaving you stuck with the TV's internal scaler for the 480 source.

 

[iRONic]

Just picked on up at Wallywerd. They had six left.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: Genx87
Maybe it is component. A red, white, and yellow colored cable? It came with the player. ill laugh if they included cables that are not HD capable. The manual says the cables are HD capable but some movies have protection requirements for HDMI. And thus it will be played at 480.

Red, white, & yellow cables are composite. Component are red, blue, green.

Well, actually they *all* are just cables that can be plugged anywhere. You can use composite a/v cables as component, just match the player outputs to the tv inputs.

I just had a funny thought - what is some uninformed consumer at Best Buy going to say when the hdmi cable being sold to him costs more than the player?

Heh i did laugh when I hit BB to see what they had. I went through this a couple of years ago with a HTPC I built. I ended up buying a DVI-->HDMI cable for that machine for 20 bucks off the internet because BB wanted about 90 bucks for a 3 foot cord. Anyways the HDMI cables were all north of 70 bucks at BB which is funny because the player was 100 bucks.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: Shadowknight

Originally posted by: Genx87
Maybe it is component. A red, white, and yellow colored cable? It came with the player. ill laugh if they included cables that are not HD capable. The manual says the cables are HD capable but some movies have protection requirements for HDMI. And thus it will be played at 480.

No, the cables ARE HD capable. Using component does NOT cause DVDs of any sort to be downscaled. However, non-HD movies won't be UPSCALED using component, leaving you stuck with the TV's internal scaler for the 480 source.

I think what the manual is talking about is that secure connection DRM crap. Like with Vista you are capable of viewing HD movies via media player unless the movie requires a secure connection. In that case it will downscale the movie if you lack a HDMI connection to your monitor.

/shrug

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I had to be at work at 7:30 and well on my way south down the I5 there was a bad accident halting traffic VERY badly. It took me an hour to get to a street where I could go hit up the toll road and bypass the accident. So I figured I would swing by WM and grab one. I arrived at 8:05 went to find them and the girl said they were already sold out. I was like WTF its only 5 after 8, she said they open at 7am, sigh cause the site says 8am. Anyhow she said people were even lined up at 7am for them, this is the laguna nigeul store.

 

[dainthomas]

CC has them online for $130. Just submitted my order. Everyone else was out around here.

Edit: my wife went into CC, where the manager told her they wouldn't PM the WM ad (this didn't matter since they were out anyway). She probably didn't raise as big a stink since they were out, so others might have more luck.

 

[Genx87]

Got it hooked up using component at a resolution of 1080i. Highly sexy. Going to sit down for a nice afternoon of Transformers.

 

[Shadowknight]

Originally posted by: Genx87
I think what the manual is talking about is that secure connection DRM crap. Like with Vista you are capable of viewing HD movies via media player unless the movie requires a secure connection. In that case it will downscale the movie if you lack a HDMI connection to your monitor.

/shrug

No, NOTHING gets downscaled. Nothing. As long as you use component or HDMI, you will ALWAY be able to watch your high-definition movies at 720/1080. It's when you watch a regular, NON-high definition disc that component is a problem and it won't get UP-scaled.

 

[pdavidson1]

I was able to grab one of the Toshibas HD DVD players from Walmart. I put in a regular DVD and the screen has changed to a smaller formt. The Samsung DVD player I just replaced, played the movie Cars in a larger format. I tried a couple different DVD movies that always had a large picture and for some reason when I conected the new HD DVD player I am getting a smaller picture. It is only happening to about half of my Kids DVD movies. Any Ideas???
Thanks

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: pdavidson1
I was able to grab one of the Toshibas HD DVD players from Walmart. I put in a regular DVD and the screen has changed to a smaller formt. The Samsung DVD player I just replaced, played the movie Cars in a larger format. I tried a couple different DVD movies that always had a large picture and for some reason when I conected the new HD DVD player I am getting a smaller picture. It is only happening to about half of my Kids DVD movies. Any Ideas???

Not sure what you're talking about.

A better description might help.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Eug

Originally posted by: pdavidson1
I was able to grab one of the Toshibas HD DVD players from Walmart. I put in a regular DVD and the screen has changed to a smaller formt. The Samsung DVD player I just replaced, played the movie Cars in a larger format. I tried a couple different DVD movies that always had a large picture and for some reason when I conected the new HD DVD player I am getting a smaller picture. It is only happening to about half of my Kids DVD movies. Any Ideas???

Not sure what you're talking about.

A better description might help.

I think he's referring to how the regular DVD will show black bars when the HD DVD player tries to upscale. not sure about the Toshiba menus, but if there is a configuration for upscaling SD DVDs, fiddle around with that setting. Probably ~3 options. I would stick with standard/normal upscaling.

This is what happens with the PS3. You have to go into the menu and tell it how you want to upscale so that you don't get bars on SD DVD playback.

I should have an A2 coming in the mail sometime next week, though 🙂

 

[Shadowknight]

Originally posted by: pdavidson1
I was able to grab one of the Toshibas HD DVD players from Walmart. I put in a regular DVD and the screen has changed to a smaller formt. The Samsung DVD player I just replaced, played the movie Cars in a larger format. I tried a couple different DVD movies that always had a large picture and for some reason when I conected the new HD DVD player I am getting a smaller picture. It is only happening to about half of my Kids DVD movies. Any Ideas???
Thanks

Check the setup menu for the Toshiba: It has different modes for different tv and movie types:

4:3 content
widescreen content on a 4:3 screen
widescreen movies and widescreen TV

You need to make sure you choose the right one for the movie to display properly.

 

[BladeVenom]

Depending on the model, you can also change that with your TV controls.