Wal-Mart Won't Carry $200 HD-DVD Player

Wal-Mart has opted not to carry Ventura's $200 SHD7000 HD-DVD player, which could have pre-emptively won the next-gen format war, beating Blu-Ray to death with the nerfbat of cheap. Why would Wal-Mart turn its nose up at such an amazing piece of technology?

[sonarus]

didnt see that coming. Low low low prices are hd-dvd's only shot of winning this war

[LoydX-mas]

It will be packaged under a different name though. Wal-mart loves to do that, they will get essentially the same player with the same specs, but it will be for Wal-mart only.

----Which of course means they will pay even less for them.:)

[bung tickler]

perhaps they have some deal with a chinese HD DVD manufacturer since those are coming out this holiday too...

[cuco33]

exactly what i was thinking...

walmart is infamous for outsourcing to the lowest supplier. they are known to basically cut the costs from a vendor if they want to distribute their product in walmart stores. i have a feeling walmart isn't happy with the profit they'ld make off venturer and probably has something up it's sleeve

[Lightning Mr Bubbles]

right... you guys can hope. But in reality it's anyones guess. But right it just looks like they won't carry that HD DVD player for some reason.

Maybe they only carry certain brands.

[THE_JUDGE]

will bring them some early so they have them in time for the holidays.

[Keyser]

The Judge...bubbles for humor...

[Rims]

Damn, even walmart doesn't want this cheap crap.

[g-nome]

Clever people , they know where this is heading.

[cdzie1]

Old news. Wal-mart has already said they are going to carry the name brand Toshiba HD DVD players. They don’t carry every Blu-ray model from every manufacturer either.

Wal-Mart merchandise spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said. “We will continue to offer the best values on popular HD DVD and Blu-ray products from leading consumer brands like Sony, Samsung, Philips, Toshiba and RCA.”

[Omegasyde]

then why sell crap TV's? Or let alone every cheap chinese knock off?

Answer that one bright one.

[Lightning Mr Bubbles]

Maybe they favor blu ray? I doubt it, they don't favor anyone. Maybe they only carry certain brands. Not a big deal.

[mirroredderorrim]

It's all about money, my dear friend, Lightning.

It's much more profitable to sell both formats; hardware/storage wise than to shift towards a single format.
Retailers are reluctant to choose sides because there is money to be made. It's too early to pick a side right now, I don't see a clear winner in sight yet.

Once a format has gain irreverseable momentum beyond the competitor, people will start to choose sides once the HD era kicks off into full gear. Till then, we'll be seeing alot of money being thrown around, threats, deals made, etc.

The reason I see Blockbuster taking a side is because it's an industry leader in terms of what it does. Nexflix is big and started the mail-rental trend, so Blockbuster had to follow suit to stay competitive.

My point with Blockbuster is, I THINK that they went pro Blu-Ray to help end the format war in some shape or form. If a single format is pushed as DVD was and still is being pushed I think there is alot more money to be made and prices can fall much more after a single format becomes standard.

It sucks, though..when DVD came out there was nothing really standing in it's way to take over, infact it was a welcomed change by the world.
Myself included. The same reason I bought a PS2 back in those days is the reason I bought a PS3 this year: A machine that can play movies in a new state of the art media format and play games, the bonus here is it can play games two generations old and beyond with it's emulator capabilities, using Fedora via Yellow Dog Linux. There are ways to play imports and back ups on the machine as well, but I am still looking into this so I can see for myself, first hand.

I"m giong way off topic here, but yeah...Business as usual in the format wars.

[MikeGdaGod]

Wal-Mart's not carrying cheap crap? since when?

[mistertwoturbo]

it's not that they don't carry cheap crap. it's the fact that they do carry cheap crap. so if they don't want that "cheap" hd-dvd player then that must tell you something.

[MikeGdaGod]

i see your point

*wink* *wink*

[pwnsause]

wow., nuff said.

[cooke15]

Too bad for Walmart.. The store I work at will be carrying them next month. Futureshop in canada. owned by bestbuy

[eagle21]

If you think the picture is true hd and sound at $200 then you might want to check out the true hd-dvd players retailing for $499. Those are the true players. Buy the best first. When you can afford it. Do not settle for less. Blu Ray has the quality players only and the quantity of movies. This is why it is making a profit while leading the market. But I guess blu Ray owners are blind people who will throw our money anywhere. Wake up. Toshiba is not profiting from their $299 player.

[YoMeViet]

Maybe it just wasn't "cheap" enough for Wal-Mart..
I imagine them telling chinese hd-dvd makers something like

"You go lower! NOW! I no buy from you! $150 Now!"

[Rageaholic]

showing TMNT on blu-ray on a 52 inch monitor.

And at a futureshop they were showing 4 blu-ray units playing on 4 big screens , and with chairs to watch a movie. Further more they were presenting the movies on nice speakers (2500 dollars for the Front Speakers alone)

While hd-dvd was showing
1 movie on a small screen, and you had to standup to watch the movies.

[cuco33]

Sony & the BDA paying for store promotions ;)

to 12.2, BD 'killing' HD DVD? FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR from it ;)
but I'll agree how Toshi isn't marketing HD DVD as much as BDA

[Fan Tastic]

True it is a superior product as well but marketing plays a big role.

[ITR]

cuco33: Your absolutely right.
They are doing the same with Target. They did it for the PS3 and Nintendo did it for their Wii.

If you want to see HD DVD on a big screen go to an HH Gregg then. We have both BD and HD playing side by side on 7.1 Klipsch sound systems and on 73" MITS.

[jared81799]

Wow, this must have been a very shoddy construction piece or something.

[Fan Tastic]

And people thought the Toshiba players were buggy garbage, can't wait to see what these things do.

[Bill Gates]

That's because Blu-ray is the future, and HD-DVShiet sucks ass....AHAHAHAHA

[OmegaKulu]

This whole deal was fake... i search the company that suppose to supply the HD-DVD drive, they said they only been ask to give wal-mart a cost assessment, there were never actual talk of making the players.

[ITR]

That was deal #1. Wal-Mart was talking to about 3-4 companies about this, not just one.
ACLO is the Chinese partner that makes the Venture SHD7000. Venture is based out of Canada and their products can be had in Wal-Marts in Canada.

[Tyrael]

The format war needs to end. Now.

[ITR]

Maybe Wal-Mart is going with a combo player?

At HH Gregg, it looks like we'll be dropping the Sony BD player in favor the new Samsung BD player. Instead of carrying 2, Toshiba HD DVD players we're only carrying the new A30 player. We are also carrying the new Samsung BD/HD DVD combo player.

[BlazinEurasian]

The reason they don't want to carry something at such a lower price is if one brand wins out it destroys the competition, which is better for the consumer, but worse for the corporations (except the winner).

[Charlie2688]

One of the reason I might think they might not carry is possible manufacturing problems with the player might have so Wal-Mart might not want the trouble

or some corporate nonsense thing that prevents them from doing it

[anonymousAJA]

Think about it. If Wal-Mart goes with HD-DVD their entire stock of Blu-Ray discs and players won't sell so their shelf time will be longer than it needs to. If Wal-Mart goes with Blu-Ray the same thing happens to HD-DVD. But Wal-Mart would be wise to sell on Blu-Ray because of the fact that they can move more units of PS3s and discs since the PS3 and Blu Ray are more popular thus driving more sales. Even though they might lose something with going for Blu-Ray they won't lose as much if they go with HD-DVD because they lose the console sales and disc sales because Blu-Ray has a larger library of movies.

[Texas GMR]

Good point.

[Bolts]

Do you seriously think that Walmart give a rat's ass about who win the format war? They have no stake in any format, they're just a retailer and will sell which ever format serve their purpose. I doubt their stock of HDDVD and Blu-ray is so huge that they must play both sides off each other to keep their inventory profitable. Thats totally absurd.

I'm sure there are other issues with this player we just don't know about. Maybe it explode into a million pieces when you put Transformer into the tray or something.

[mirroredderorrim]

Blu-Ray has about 300+ movies out right now and I am hearing they are going to start putting movies out that are old and not just current titles.

I'd love to see Scarface on Blu-Ray but Universal had to be a di*k and go single format.Hell, I wouldn't even care if it was dual format. :/

[n4gno]

"which could have pre-emptively won the next-gen format war, beating Blu-Ray to death with the nerfbat of cheap"

xbot spotted.

[drsfinest72]

walmart is anti xbox360 lolz and their sony fanboyzzz