Wal*Mart has decided to push high-definition systems in general, and Blu-ray in particular, in their stores. They’ve revamped their consumer electronics departments nationwide, and have added a “high-def Blu-ray experience area” in 1,200 stores. They’ve increased their selection of full HD (1080p) HDTVs by over 58%, and they’ve increased their selection of Blu-ray players by adding players from Magnavox, Samsung, and Panasonic to their existing Sony player offerings. Along with the additional players they’ve also expanded their selection of Blu-ray movies.

As a promotion, between June 8 and June 14, they’re offering a $100 Wal*Mart gift card with the purchase of any Blu-ray player. And, also beginning June 8th, they’ll be pricing selecting Blu-ray movies at only $15, including 3:10 to Yuma, WAR, Shooter, 300, and The Fifth Element.

Their press release announcing the changes:
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The offer of a free TiVo HD with the purchase of eligible Samsung HDTV models that I posted last week is even better than it at first seemed. I received an email from Amazon today promoting the deal, and in addition to getting the TiVo HD free, you’ll also get three months of free TiVo service, and free ‘white glove’ delivery on the TV. The bundle deal is only good through June 6th.

This week, June 2-6, is High Definition week for Amazon’s Gold Box promotions. Check back daily for deals on HighDef consumer electronics, video games, and Blu-ray Movies and TV. Amazon normally offers a few different Gold Box deals in the the course of a day, so you might want to check in a few times.

What’s an HDTV without an HD DVR to go with it? Who wants to be a slave to TV schedules just to catch HD content? Well, Amazon has a solution to that problem, they’re offering what I consider the best HD DVR on the market, the TiVo HD, free with the purchase of a Samsung HDTV. There are five LCD models to choose from, with prices from $945.72 for a 37″ 720p up to $1,849.98 for a 46″ 1080p, and six plasma models with prices from $979.99 for a 42″ 720p up to $2,999.99 for a 58″ 1080p. If you’re in the market for an HDTV, it is a pretty good deal.

And, if you’re not in the market for an HDTV, you can get the TiVo HD for $230.13.

Thanks to reader Kevin for the tip. He got it from WatchingTiVo at InvestorVillage, who spotted it at Gizmodo.

If you’re reading this you probably already know that analog broadcast television, aka NTSC, is going away in February, 2009. Since no one is quite sure how the transition will go, the FCC has decided to run a test. Wilmington, NC is the lucky market, NTSC broadcasts will be turned off in September, 2008 - five months before the nationwide digital transition. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) issued the following statement regarding the trial.
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Lately you have have been seeing promo spots for a new TV series Scarlet, which looked like some kind of spy thriller with a female lead, similar to Alias. I’d been catching the spots mainly as a promo inserted into some TiVoCast content such as The Onion. The spots looked fairly high budget with explosions, etc. I was actually thinking of checking out the show just to see what it was like. It has a website and even an entry in IMDB. Here’s one of the versions of the teaser:

Well, there is no such series. It was all an elaborate hoax that is part of a marketing effort for a new line of HDTVs from LG Electronics called, of course, Scarlet. See, it is a ‘TV Series’ as in ‘a series of TVs’. Clever, but at the same time I feel kind of disappointed that I was misled. It feels dishonest to me, and leaves me with a bad feeling about LG. Certainly not what they were going for, I’m sure.

How do you feel about such deceptive viral marketing tactics? Did you get taken by Scarlet?

A couple of months ago at CES Panasonic was one of the vendors showing off Tru2way, nee OCAP, products. At the time I focused on their ‘portable DVR‘, which I still think is a poor idea. But what I didn’t mention at the time were their Tru2Way CableCARD HDTVs, which they said would be out later this year. Well, based on reports in Dealerscope and Home Theater Magazine, it looks like they’ll be true to their word. Panasonic will be introducing Tru2Way to their PX80 720p and PZ80 1080p VIERA plasma line-ups in the second half.

The first generation of CableCARD TVs, which were all unidirectional, didn’t sell well and they’ve faded to just a few models left in the market. The hope is that the new generation of CableCARD sets, with Tru2Way, will succeed where the first generation failed. With Tru2Way the TV will have all of the functionality of a non-DVR cable STB - support for Switched Digital Video (SDV), OnDemand, PayPerView, on-screen program guide, etc. It will completely replace the cable box while providing all of the same functionality, unlike the first generation which only allowed access to linear content - no SDV, VOD, PPV, EPG, etc.

In theory, Tru2Way-enabled TVs could also offer DVR functionality, either with built-in storage or an external add-on. The cable MSO could push down OCAP-based DVR software, like TiVo’s software for Comcast, to provide the DVR functionality. But that would require support in the hardware, including encoding chips to handle the analog channels. (Note that I’m talking in general here, there is no sign of the Panasonic sets having any such features!) This would all be easier with a complete digital system. Once NTSC is phased out (less than year from now), the last obstacle will be the lingering analog cable channels. If a cable MSO went 100% digital, or at least offered digital simulcast of all their channels, it would be possible to provide DVR functionality without any encoding hardware. You’d simply need to save the signal as-received, and then play it back later - and the playback hardware is already in there, of course. (This is how satellite DVRs work today, they’re 100% digital. And there are some cable DVR models like this as well, for areas where the system is already 100% digital.)

ZatzNotFunny also covered this today.

This week’s list of sales at Best Buy has a strong focus on HDTV, especially bundle deals.
1. Save $1000 when you purchase a Samsung 40″ 1080p LCD HDTV, Samsung BD-UP5000 BD/HD DVD player, Samsung 5.1 channel home theater system (expandable to 7.1), and Geek Squad installation.
2. Buy one of three Sony BRAVIA 1080p LCD HDTVs and get a free Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player ($399.99 value).
3. Buy one of six Sharp AQUOS 1080p, or one Sharp AQUOS 720p, LCD HDTVs and get a free Sharp AQUOS BD-HP20U Blu-ray player ($499.99 value).

There are a number of other HDTV related specials as well.