HowardLive

I might shoot for some Blu-ray movies, but ONLY if I can get them at lower prices than Amazon and DeepDiscount.com... which is hard to do. Even Wal-Mart has some deals the rest of the year; I just picked up the BD version of "The Usual Suspects" for a 10-spot. :) Let's hope this is the year BD is mass-market enough to justify a blowout on the discs as well as the players. If so, I'll get up to four movies on Black Friday, five if the sale is REALLY good.

I'm wondering if Wal-Mart or someone else will offer some stupid-good deal on entry-level plasma TVs, especially the 720p variety. WM offered 50-inch Samsungs for $799 last year, and with mail-order prices dipping pretty close to that mark now, you wonder how low a price is needed to grab people's attention. What price level will get people through the door? I welcome your guesses. :)

A $199 standalone Blu-ray player, even though at that price it could only be for BF itself as the components are still pretty expensive. (This is for others, not for me - got my PS3 last month. Just want the happiness to be shared, is all - like seeing the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies in high definiition...)

I have absolutely no inside information on this, keep that in mind. But... ...you might watch carefully to see if the cheaper plasma TVs get heavily discounted on BF. This year, the number of plasmas with full 1080p resolution surged - to the point that Panasonic (for example) cut its number of older-style 720p sets to just two. (I bought the 42-inch version myself.) They're solid deals already, but maybe stores will try to get rid of them early in the Christmas season? Could already be starting - Wal-Mart had been selling a 50-inch Sanyo plasma (720p) for $998, and now they're throwing in a free DVD player too. Food for thought...

Bought my first high-definition TV from Best Buy (Mission Viejo, Calif.) as a Black Friday special in 2005 - actually got it the Sunday following, if that counts. It was a Westinghouse 32-inch, 720p LCD panel: in those days, a stone-cold steal at $850. Glad to say it's still working, though it's no longer mine. In May I used my stimulus check to upgrade to a 42-inch Panasonic plasma (love those blacker blacks!). Now that TV of Christmas past is... my nephew's gargantuan computer monitor. :) Cheers, Howard (iPod Nano this BF? Zune? Compact digital camera? Kodak HD pocket camcorder? None of the above? Suggestions welcome...)

Most likely Yuba City, Calif. - and I might be out for Black Friday as a reporter rather than a shopper this year.

So, Phaser, what do you think will be the fistfight-inducing price for 32-inch high-def LCDs this year? $499? Maybe even less? Curious to know what you think the magic number will be. (The rest of you, you're all free to guess, too.)

I'll play... Wal-Mart: as a doorbuster, a 32-inch LCD HDTV for $599 - which will lead to, oh, 33 misdemeanor arrests nationwide. Howard

Yuba City, California... but Sacramento or Roseville if I have to buy any big iron (i.e., an HDTV or camera for relatives).

Anyone seen good BF/Christmas deals on the Fuji F10? This is really not for me (I own a Canon Digital Rebel XT and love it) but for a friend of mine. It's debatable whether she can wait in line for anything, as she has a young daughter, but I want to give her a shot a good camera. Haven't used the Fuji, but I've seen lots of pics taken with the camera. Anyone taking a lot of indoor photos should be VERY interested in the F10 because of its high-ISO (virtual film speed) capabilities, which give you clean low-light shots without the girlie-man flash of most digicams, even good ones. So again, any F10 bargains to be had? Thanks!

Questions, questions! - Wal-Mart's 42-inch plasma set that goes on sale BF: is it HDTV-capable or not? (I plan to get a Comcast high-def cable box, so this matters right away.) And will we have to wait in line six hours to get it? - As for 30- or 32-inch high-def LCDs, what are the good deals out there? (I initially ordered a $999 Kreisen 30-inch from Target.com - mostly because of its use of Samsung guts - but canceled it, perhaps hastily, after hearing about Wal-Mart's 1K plasma set.) Thanks!