Walmart Emphasizing HD

[Attebery]

Looks like Walmart wants a bigger piece of the pie!

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...cus_Shift/2836

[Rich86]

Can a $5 blu-ray bin in the aisle be far behind all this?

[taygan315]

Originally Posted by Rich86

Can a $5 blu-ray bin in the aisle be far behind all this?

^^One could only hope,lol.

[SlaughterX]

I wonder if this means my local Wal-Mart will actually start turning on the Blu-Ray player in the electronics department so people will have more than just a black screen telling you which input the TV is set to to stare at...

[Hastor]

I wonder if they will start calibrating their HDTVs to actually look better than the standard def ones, instead of colors and brightness jacked up so much it looks like crap. I see so many people walk by the HDTV running a demo in Wal-Mart or Best Buy and say "I don't see what the big deal is, doesn't look any better to me." If they wanna sell them, they need to set them up properly. Those displays DON'T look worth the upgrade of a new TV. It doesn't help that the demo disc is usually recompressed from several sources that were originally different codecs, and badly at that, putting blocks everywhere. Much like the collage of HD scenes from different movies at the beginning of many discs. None of the clips look nearly as good as the actual Blu-ray.

At the same time, I don't want them to start playing whole movies like Blockbuster does. I always go in to rent something new just to see the end of it on the HDTV demo screen. Even for The Dark Knight midnight launch, they were playing the movie while we waited in line to buy our copy, and I was with friends that hadn't seen it yet.

[meremortal]

It definitely depends on the area. The Wal Mart in the bad downtown area still has a lot of analog televisions, VCRs, and very tiny blu ray section, while the classier store in the suburbs has mostly plasmas, 720p and 1080p flat panels, and a large blu ray section. The downtown store also has the entire dvd selection locked behind a glass rack, while the suburb location does not. Interesting.

[The_Doctor]

Originally Posted by Hastor

I wonder if they will start calibrating their HDTVs to actually look better than the standard def ones, instead of colors and brightness jacked up so much it looks like crap. I see so many people walk by the HDTV running a demo in Wal-Mart or Best Buy and say "I don't see what the big deal is, doesn't look any better to me." If they wanna sell them, they need to set them up properly. Those displays DON'T look worth the upgrade of a new TV. It doesn't help that the demo disc is usually recompressed from several sources that were originally different codecs, and badly at that, putting blocks everywhere. Much like the collage of HD scenes from different movies at the beginning of many discs. None of the clips look nearly as good as the actual Blu-ray.

At the same time, I don't want them to start playing whole movies like Blockbuster does. I always go in to rent something new just to see the end of it on the HDTV demo screen. Even for The Dark Knight midnight launch, they were playing the movie while we waited in line to buy our copy, and I was with friends that hadn't seen it yet.

True. Best Buy had a few displays showing off HD which were using Standard def sources.. None of the employees knew the difference

I think wal-mart is gearing up to take CC's slice of the pie. In my area they have been emphasizing HDTVs and blu for what its worth. (constant loop of video and other talking points. )
The really big change seems to be the Computer section. Which as of last week sucks big time. If they bring that up to snuff they may put the hurt on BB. I guess they could also get up to speed with new releases DVD and Blu as well as get price savvy (like best buy's deal buy 2 for one price, which wall-mart will not match.)

[GonzoJoe]

Sadly I work at WallyWorld and our store has already made the change over. Just finished it yesterday. Looks much nicer, alot more like Best Buy now.
No $5bd section yet lol but two large $15 sections a $19.99 section and then the $24-35section.

[Hastor]

yeah I picked up Hellboy for $15 at Wal Mart. There are even a couple at $10, though they are everywhere (like Stargate). Glad to see a few are hitting those prices already.