As Life Goes Digital

BestBuy giving away consolation money to please HD-DVD owners.If you don't want to keep your HD-DVD player you have two options from Best Buy - 1) If you bought the player from them before Feb'23'2008 then you can exchange it for $50 of the store credit card.
2) If you didn't buy from them then they have some trade-in program which you could benefit from.

Check out the details @@




This is truly a arbitrage opportunity for those who bought these players for less than $50 as Best Buy doesn't seem to care the model of HD-DVD player. I didn't buy the player from them but from Sam's club for $68.00. I gotta find out what trade-in options they have for this HD-D3 that I own.

If you already own a HD-DVD player, I feel there is no rush to get rid of your player on eBay. If you don't own it then this is a good time to buy this player for the below reasons.One compelling reason - its a great upconverting dvd player at a bargain price.Everywhere you see the comparison of HD-DVD players to lost battle of Betamax to VHS which in my opinion is not correct. With Betamax there was no earlier formats and simply to put it no backward compatibility for its commercial success when that tapes format war ended. With HD-DVD players the scene is different it competes with all existing upconverting DVD players and fares well in the quality section.

Look at the prices of these players, you can get a HD-A2 player at Sam's club for now $68. [ Click here for $68 Toshiba DVD player - enter your zip code and pick up the player from your nearest store ]. This trend will make the demand go up for these players in upconverting players market and supply will become scarce in near future. I personally still waiting for Blu-Ray players prices to come down as after the announcement of HD-DVD format pull back announcement from Toshiba, a surge in demand for Blu-Ray players kept their prices intact with out any good bargain deals.

Also consider the already available 500 plus HD-DVD titles that makes a good collection. I recently bought Bourne trilogy - The Bourne Identity , The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum for deal price from Amazon. [ Click here for Bourne hd-dvd]. Keep looking for these HD-DVD prices to drop as low as $10 and at least until May of 2008 we can expect new releases which were already promised to release in HD-DVD.

There is one more great reason that it seems it is possible to burn HD content to a regular DVD-R discs . Once burnt you can play it as an HD movie on an HD-DVD player. I'm sure there are restrictions in the video length as DVD-R can support less of HD content. All my camcorder HD content can be burned this way to DVD-R as anyway they are short duration clips. I'll research more and write a post with step-by-step guide of burning HD content to DVD-R discs.

Labels: Amazon, blu-ray, Deals, HD-DVD, Toshiba

BookMark in Onlywire

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Labels: blu-ray, BUYCOM, Deals, disney, DVD, HD-DVD

BookMark in Onlywire

The day Toshiba announced that they are pulling the plug on their HD-DVD players, I was sad that I bought a desktop media computer with HD-DVD drive. After a day or two many of Toshiba's players are marketed as upconverting DVD players rather than HD-DVD. This is one use where I can use standard DVDs and with upconverting quality I can see near-HD experience of all my already existing DVD collection.

Is it right time to invest on Blu-Ray player now ? The following article is worth reading of how the TV is under going a change from static cable/satellite transmissions to Internet streamed entertainment pushed and watched from TV these days.

Labels: blu-ray, HD-DVD, Movies

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HD-DVD kind of lost its last battle to Blu-Ray in last month when Warner Brothers announced a shift from HD-DVD to Blu-Ray. Here is a nice graph that shows except for Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures every one sided with Blu-Ray.

Here is pie chart that depicts this share :



Barnes & Noble probably decided that all their Universal Studios HD-DVD inventory must go and hence is offering 50% off HD DVD sale. They have up to 95 HD-DVDs on sale.

If your total is $25 you can get free shipping.



Here are some other items that are going on for sale at Barnes & Noble.

Game Sale: 50% off select board games, Ends 2/15

2 CDS for $20 when MasterCard used

Labels: BarnesNobles, Deals, HD-DVD

BookMark in Onlywire

Ten more days for Christmas and retailers are competing to get the best deals out to attract shoppers.This is definetly a "shoppers market" buy year worth of all electronics when they are cheap.Here are some of the deals that are making dealosphere talk and talk and talk ..hope you will like them
1] ---> Toshiba HD-A30 + 10 free HD-DVDs = $233 shipped (No Tax in most states)
HD DVD Playback
DVD/CD Playback
Upconversion for SD
720p/1080i/1080p resolution
Includes Warner Bros' 300 HD DVD and Universal's The Bourne Identity HD DVD (packaged inside)
What reviews say ?
4stars from 40 Amazon customer reviews

Picture quality of HD-DVD is, as expected, superb, and DVD upscaling is the best.It takes about 40 seconds before the HD-DVD logo appears on screen, with another 20 seconds to load the disc, it's around 60 seconds total from power on to actually start watching the disc.




2] --> Ipod Touch 16GB and 8GB for $368.99 and $269.99
Revolutionary multi-touch interface
Gorgeous 3.5-inch widescreen display

Music downloads straight from iTunes
Surf the web with Wi-Fi
What's best of this deal?
Its difficult to get IPod touch in a deal and thats what Amazon price beats other retailers price with free shipping and no tax in most states
Reviews:
Four starts from 100 Amazon customer reviews
PLUS
- great "video" iPod
- WiFi web browsing with Safari (killer feature)
- wide range of supported file formats (audio, video, images)
- great display
- phenomenally sharp images
- drop-dead gesture/touch interface
- both NTSC and PAL video out (important for us Europeans).
- iTunes store wirelessly
- TV PAL and NTSC out

MINUS
- no playlist groups
- difficult to use 'blind'
- no contrast control for movies
- no disk mode (huh???)
- non-standard AV connector (again!)
- artificial limitations on Calendar application
- no Mail, Notes, Games applications
- can't access iTunes shared libraries on WLAN
- can't share songs with other Touch iPods
- no wireless synching
- 16GB can be awfully small when ripping movies for Touch's resolution
- no WiFi iTunes PodCasts



3]-->Terk Indoor Amplified High-Definition Antenna for $30 only I have Zenith HD antenaa and is good if you are looking for HD antennas to save some money off subscribing it from Comcast (cable) or Dish Network (satellite).
Tech Details
Amplified indoor HDTV antenna engineered to receive UHF and VHF channels
Optimized to receive all HDTV channels (2 to 69) for free local high-definition entertainment when used with a compatible TV or TV/receiver
Exclusive Dual-Drive Amplifier ensures clear reception of both distant and close HDTV and DTV stations
High-gain antenna array can be oriented horizontally or vertically for optimum reception
Appealing design with small footprint; easy to install--supplied cable carries video and power
Reviews
4 stars from 249 customer reviews.



4]-->Toshiba Regza 37HL67 37" 720P LCD TV for $865.29
TechDetails
ATSC/NTSC & QAM Digital Television Tuners
CineSpeed Panel with Response Time of less than 8ms
Panel Resolution - 1366 x 768
PixelPure Hi-Bit12-Bit Digital Video Processing
Digital Noise Reduction

Reviews
4.5 starts from 26 Amazon customer reviews.

Labels: 2007, Amazon, Christmas, Deals, HD-DVD, HDTV

BookMark in Onlywire

Amazon has Xbox 360 HD DVD Player $130 with free shipping and no tax.

Click me for $130 XBOX HD-DVD Deal

First time I heard and showed inclination to buy HD DVD player is when Wlamart had secret black friday like sale a month ago by marking down the price of Toshiba HD DVD players for around 200$.But now the most affordable high-definition player available, the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player is the best solution for movie lovers seeking HD content in the highest possible resolution, this promotion ($129) makes the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player one of the most compelling offerings for consumers looking to make the leap into HD this holiday season.

Microsoft claims the Xbox 360 HD DVD player is now the cheapest high definition player available, following the recent price reductions.

Xbox 360 HD DVD Player benefits [From Microsoft]
•Stunning video and immersive surround-sound audio with up to six times better resolution than a standard DVD
•Innovative interactive content that enables PIP commentary, scene selection, and menu access when you watch movies
•Only HD DVD offers the 'combo' disc that lets you play the DVD on your existing DVD players in your home or in your car
•Enjoy hundreds of great HD DVD movies from major studios such as Universal, Warner, Paramount, Studio Canal, and more

PS3 comes equipped with the HDMI output option, the Xbox 360 HD DVD player allows only for either component or VGA output via the Xbox 360 itself.The bottom line: The Xbox 360 HD DVD player is an inexpensive way for 360 owners to get high-def movies, but nonowners and audiophiles should stick with standalone HD players.

Toshiba HD DVD Players vs XBOX HD DVD

Previously exclusive to Toshiba HD DVD Players, with the purchase of an Xbox 360 HD DVD Player at the new low price of $179, choose five HD DVD titles free from a selection of 15 popular titles through a mail-in offer. Comparing the Xbox 360 add-on to the Toshiba unit showed that the Xbox 360 unit was capable of some very good visuals, even considering it is using only component cables versus the HDMI hookup of the Toshiba. The Toshiba is essentially a Pentium 4 computer, where the Xbox 360 runs on a PowerPC core.

Here are some of the refernces:

Microsoft KB article

Zdnet Review

XBOX.COM

DVDTown review

Labels: Amazon, HD-DVD, XBOX360

BookMark in Onlywire

Bestbuy too joined the early Black Friday like sale in response to Wal Mart's secret sale.Bestbuy business marked down Toshiba HD-A2 - HD DVD player to 99$ price matching to what Wal Mart offered to its shoppers BUT online.Looks like their site is getting hammered right now with heavy onslaught of shoppers who could not get to Wal Mart deal.

Here is the link to try your luck at this deal : click me for Bestbuy Toshiba HD-A2 - HD DVD player

Also don't forget to grab your 5 select free HD DVDs [ click for free 5 HD-DVDs ]

If you happen to grab this online let the deal community know this via comments.

Good Luck

Labels: bestbuy, Deals, HD-DVD, Toshiba, walmart

BookMark in Onlywire

It is less than a month and giant retailers like Wal Mart opened up a can of deals of worms to lure the potential Black Friday shoppers for early profits.

One of the items is an Acer laptop with a 14-inch LCD screen for $348. (Probably Aspire 5315 Series ??)



This Friday (November 2'2007) sale items:
->Toshiba HD A2 HD-DVD Player $99 [ Here is this player's review. Remember you get 5 free hd-dvds by mail with this hd-dvd player]
->50 inches Plasma TV.
->HD-DVD DVD bundled packages for less.

Enjoy the toooo early Black Friday special from Wal Mart

Labels: BlackFriday, Deals, HD-DVD, walmart

BookMark in Onlywire

See this top 10 topics of Digg today:


Today Digg got clobbered with too many diggs for this HD-DVD key that was circulating in the web.As far as I know this is a very first unseen big crisis sitiation for such a popular site.Power of digitization and Digg has to take the brunt of this anger.

HD-DVD key fiasco is an example of 21st century digital revolt:

It's the most circulated number of the week. Sixteen hexadecimal digits that unlock the wonder of most currently released HD-DVD titles from the surly clutches of the AACS revenue content protection system. Sixteen digits that have been posted in so many places -- and in many cases, removed only to be reposted -- that they're hard to avoid.

What is digg going to do now ?
-Shut down its website for maintainance
-Contract Google search programmers to effectively filter all HD-DVD posts from its front page
-Consult Microsoft to host digg.com temporarily which Microsoft servers will anyway take care of auto website shutdown because of load issues.
-Digg ganging up with Apple to garner moral support.If I remember correctly Steve Jobs was not in favor of all these DRM stuff.
-Is it possible ANYWAY to change that 16 hex digits to make it invalid.The invalid key message stop these numerous posts.
-Digg just apologise to users and get back to business.
-Digg getting rid of all users who posted and digged for that HD-DVD key.No more users for digg.

All of them are related to that HD-DVD key .....Did we get to see this in digg..WOW..

List of some of the sites that keep posting this HD-DVD key fiasco.

downloadsquad

imageshack

mirror.sam-network

nigelstewart

Ipv6

farm1.static.flickr.com/

Labels: HD-DVD

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