If the devil himself made a cable, it would be a Monster cable.

I work for Blockbuster, so maybe I can more accurate information. They are working to shift focus away from ordering as many RETAIL copies (movies for sale) and they are looking to get more revenue sharing. This means copies are supplied in bulk at a discounted rate. This in turn means more copies of each film, but in turn Blockbuster must agree to physically destroy a certain number of copies instead of selling them previously viewed, so that the retail value of the title isn't driven too low immediately. Right now Blockbuster has really good ties with Warner and some of the independents. (That's why our store had over 400 copies of Get Smart on release date, and 600 of Dark Knight. A normal title DVD order would be around 100-150 for a major title.) It's Disney that has a pretty bad relationship with Blockbuster since they want more of the profits to come from sales than from rental. (About 30 copies of Wall-E and the Pirates Films to rent.) Blockbuster is trying to get away from selling NEW copies of movies and games, and focusing on selling used earlier and getting rid of titles that aren't selling as well or renting, though this may mean having less catalog titles on the shelves. Not that I don't see the possibility of Blockbuster going under. I personally wish Netflix would just buy them out and turn them into exchange stores to extend the value of their business. But that would actually make sense. Instead the 80,000 people who work for them (yes, 80,000!) will probably lose their jobs in the next few years unless they take their heads out of the sand and keep up with technology. Blu-ray may be their salvation in the future, but it still isn't going to save them if they can't make their retail credit payments!

Actually, Blockbuster has been doing thisfor over a year. 1 movie or video game out at a time, no due dates, for $21.99. It's actually a pretty good deal if you get video games or if you go in every day on your way home from work!

I work for Best Buy. Just because you have had a bad experience with customer service doesn't mean that all Best Buy employees believe in peddling $180 monster cables or are misinformed. I take pride in the research I do on this website and many others, so that I can recommend what I THINK is right for the customer, not what Best Buy does. Also, Best Buy doesn't mark up TV's as much as you think they do. I agree they get a little carried away when items aren't on sale, but typically a Brick and mortar store has to cover it's overhead and employees. I don't understand how anyone can say they think a store should go out of business. There are people like me who can only make ends meet because of my job there, and I feel like it is very rude and insensitive to say that you think that close to 100,000 people should lose their jobs because CEO's make some stupid decisions that we have to carry out. Not everyone who works at Best Buy is an idiot, and not every store is a bad one.
So...your millage may vary. Circuit City going away was bad enough, I knew close to 20 people who worked for them that are now looking for jobs. Some of them with families to support! In response to the article though, Panasonic's rep told me that all this means is they are going to ship to Brick-and-Mortar stores FIRST, while it may be harder to find them online, since they feel that too much competition ends up knocking down the prices to the point of un-profitability. Basically they are going to be more selective about which retailers they sell too. (In other words Amazon and Crutchfield will still carry the Televisions, but maybe not newegg or butterfly photo, and so on.) They are also working to have retailers/e-tailers send back returned/damaged/refurbished units back to the factory so that they can be sold on their own website at a set price instead of letting the store take the financial hit.
I think it's all very smart. Panasonic is the ONLY company who sends a rep to our Best Buy consistently. He's usually in 2 times a week. I've never even met the Sony and Samsung reps, and the LG rep doesn't even know how to change the settings on the TV's or turn the Demo mode off. I applaud Panasonic for working to educate the consumer, they want to talk with the customer face to face (which means they have to sell at less locations) so that they can be hands on in explaining the benefits of their excellent technologies, because ultimately it will result in less customer returns/problems. Most customers I work with still don't even understand that buying an HDTV doesn't give you an HD signal on everything you watch, as ridiculous as that sounds!

I'd like to remind everyone these are units shipped, not units sold.
You can ship as many movies on DVD and Blu-Ray as you want...
but if they don't sell it doesn't matter.

Just pointing this out to those who keep quoting these as sales figures.
Technically, I think both DVD and Blu-Ray sales are doing considerably better
than they should be considering the state that the economy is in.

I'd say that while Blu-Ray is still a niche market at the moment,
it won't be for much longer.

It looks like the BD70V is a VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray combo. Am I correct?

Don't let the forum posters get you down. A lot of people's expectations are just a little too high for this title. It'll look and sound great on Blu-Ray. "Could it look better?" is just beside the point. It'll look and sound great, for an average of $5-10 more than the DVD. I think it's a no-brainer.

It works with Apple TV, and your computer (If your Video card is up to snuff).
You get a free portable copy (SD) for your iPhone/iPod with every HD purchase as well.
So I think it's definately worth it...(if you have the hard drive space.)

Don't knock Baby Mama to hard, it's actually pretty funny. And they won't tell you a lot in the trailer, but Steve Martin is also in it.