I wonder how this will affect HD DVD's attach rates. Anybody that has waited this long to buy a $99 player probably won't be buying too many $30 movies. That's the one thing Toshiba constantly brags about, the attach rates. It's also one aspect of HD DVD that Warner has been eying with great interest.

If standalone sales increase heavily over the next two months, but software sales increase only a little, Wal-mart won't have much reason to go with HD DVD, and that's the only chance HD DVD has of surviving.

You'll be surprised at attach rates. I saw a guy buy a $99 HD DVD and two HD DVDs, and his boy bought two HD DVD movies as well. I can bet you - folks only need to watch one HD DVD in HD to be hooked. That's all it takes. As someone with nearly 200 DVDs, I wasn't gonna get in the fight for a while. Now? I am not buying another DVD unless I absolutely have to.

Wal-Mart also had select HD titles for $15 so I'm sure people bought a few of those with their new player.

You mean take the jump to either format?  Warner is the only remaining neutral studio in a position to "jump" either way. 

 Warner is the ultimate decider.  They said this past week that the public is not deciding this war, and they are in a position where they can.  They are the last neutral studio and have released almost 30% of the total HD movies on either format to-date.  

 They hinted that will be looking at the sales of Toshiba's standalone sales this holiday, and the overall software sales, and will make their decisio in early '08.   Most are prediciting an announcement at CESin January, as that is where major HDM info is often released.

 The specific mention of Toshiba's standalone player sales leads me to believe that Warner knew of the Wal-mart deal over a month ago. Most likely Toshiba was trying to use the deal as leverage to get Warner to go HD exclusive back when they convinced Paramount to as well.  Warner obviously didn't take the bait.

I bought 7 titles for $15 each.  I'll also send in for the 5 free ones.  After that, its netflix all the way.  Its great because they don't charge any extra for HD-DVDs.  The only movies I buy now are for the kids, cause they'll watch them multiple times.  I generally watch a movie once.  So netflix is the best option.

Spent 3 hours at Wal-Mart today. I stoped 11 out of 12 people from getting HD-DVD players. I will be spending a lot of time down thier the rest of this year. It is the best I can do to help the less tech savy not get screwed on this half-step format. One couple I talked too went straight over to the games section and picked up a 40GB PS3. The wife said about HD-DVD "We have purchased Toshiba products for over 10 years and we have never been disipointed in them. I can not believe that they would sell a product that is not of the upmost quality." Two other's went ahead and picked up the 80GB which really shocked me , because that is a lot more than they came in expecting to spend. One of these people was an older man about mid 50's he said "It would really be nice if they posted the differances between these products more. Seeing 30 of those GB things compared to 50 really gives you more of a idea about these products than price and names." The only one I could not stop from buying it was this 27 year old guy that said he already had the 360 HD-DVD drive for his 360 in the living room, and he wanted to get this one for his bedroom.

Overall I think the day went well. I was surprised to see so much traffic towards HDM. It seems this year will see a lot of sales in this spectrum of the market. I am going to do my best to try and make sure that these Walmart shoppers in my area make an informed decision before purchaseing into HDM. Hopefully it will help Blu win and put us on track to a medium that will last for a solid 15 to 20 years.

Ah KBG, you are too funny. :P

 Can you tell me which walmart so I can go pick up the rest of the players they have left?

Thanks, and have a nice day.

Wow. After reading this Blu Ray fanboy rant, I feel like I wanna hurl. I felt like I was forced to read a FOX NEWS press release at gunpoint. Thanks for some morning fug. ;-(

Now, those same folks will buy Transformers for their kids and grands, play it on their hella expensive Blu Ray players and see *gasp* 'This disc is incompatible with this player' and go back to Wal-Mart looking for the BR fanboy who misled them.

And you have so much time to just hang out at Wal-Mart. Wow ... you don't have a job ... a girlfriend ... a console ... oh yeah, you own a PS3, and there aren't that many games, so you probably have a lot of times on your hands these days since Solid Snake won't slither onto your P$3 until mid-2008.

I hope I see you at my Wal-Mart, because I'll counter your crap FTW.

I am glad I am informed of my decisions and not swayed by someone who's on Sony's payroll ...

This isn't about a bad format - it's about not making folks pay an arm and a leg for essentially the same product. Maybe you are a doctor or have wealthy folks to buy lil Johnny/Joann everything they want, but some folks aren't that fortunate. And for them, they could care less about GBs and think GBs stand for giblets.

If you're on a mission to help the misinformed, work to get Dubya impeached. That's a good start right thurr ... 

Onya Madskills.

I cannot BELIEVE KBG29. That is without a doubt, the worst instance of fanboyism I have ever seen. So desperate is he for the PS3 to succeed that he would trick unsuspecting consumers into purchasing overly expensive equipment when they only needed a relatively cheap HD DVD player.

Do the mod guidelines allow bans to be handed out as a means of safeguarding the world's uninformed from Sony employees?