A CHANGE OF TUNE AT CIRCUIT CITY by Dean Winkelspecht

The following is a report on staff writer Dean Winkelspecht's experiences with Circuit City's sales staff as DIVX began its national rollout.

It has come. After many months of waiting, the dark side of DVD has entered the marketplace. DIVX (DIgital Video eXpress) entered its national release this month and the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Circuit City has received their product. It was only a matter of time until a visit was necessary to see how this product was marketed and to uncover some truths and lies about this ill-received "feature" of DVD.

As I walked into the location with my best friend, DIVX was in the air. There were banners all over the place and signs galore. Where there had once been DVD titles near the DVD players, there were only DIVX. Some of the signs said "Buy DIVX, get 5 Free titles." A walk was made to the corner of the store where the majority of the DVD titles had lived. I was not terribly surprised to not find them there. I had heard that some Circuit City locations had taken them off the shelves. However, I turned around and found a large section of DIVX titles. Walking over to them, I saw slightly larger DVD section facing the DIVX discs. An end display also existed that had DIVX titles and DVD titles in bins in a manner similar to how CDs and Cassettes are marketed on a New Release wall. It was a surprise to see DVD get more than equal floor space. I expected to see a large bias towards DIVX, but I was proven slightly wrong.

There have been many horror stories about the marketing of DIVX in its early days of national release. Some tales tell of how Open DVD videos have been stored out of the public eye and only DIVX movies are available for sale at Circuit City. This had already been proven wrong. Many stories have also been told about the mistruths that are told to make DIVX seem like the perfect home video format without any faults or weaknesses. Many of these mistruths seem designed to battle the mudslinging and finger pointing that has been aimed towards DIVX via internet news groups and the handiwork of the home theater press. An eager salesman was all that was needed to uncover some more of the myths, lies and truths that have been told about DIVX.

And the eager salesman came. He appeared to be around twenty-five years old and was very clean cut. He seemed a very sly character and at first glance, the perfect subject to interrogate. Our target salesman approached and asked the usual question: "Can I help you?" A loaded answer was given: "We are just standing here laughing at the DIVX display." Our eager salesman gladly took the bait and begin a long speech about the negative press that DIVX had unfairly received and how it was the perfect format for him and his wife. He stated that they both were into retail and had contributed thousands of dollars in late fees and how DIVX would save them. His response seemed a little over-exaggerated, but he had delivered it in a nice calm manner against his combatants.

The next question given to him was "How many players have you sold?" He claims that many of the players have been sold. I stated that I was shocked that so many of the discontinued Zenith players have been moving in such a short time given the bad reviews they have been given as DVD players. He quickly pointed to lower right hand of the DVD players and stated that they also had the RCA player and had units coming from Harmon Kardon, Pioneer and Phillips. A good dodge from the question about the Zenith's quality. I just found it interesting that the Zenith player was the display model and the new RCA was almost invisible to the eye. At least, there was a DIVX demo disc playing. It appeared to be a DIVX demo recorded onto a DVD disc.

Our salesman quickly took me by surprise when he tried to push a Sony 7000. He was excited that they dropped the price by two hundred dollars. I am not sure if this was a muse to get us off his back about DIVX by feeding us Open DVD, but the attack on DIVX had to continue, so I began to ask him about the lack of features and about the differences between Silver and Gold and standard DIVX titles.

Some information given was how newer titles could not be converted to Silver for a period of time after they are released, and that the DIVX Gold discs are to be coming soon and for a one time fee can be played on any DIVX player. Many times the question about playing DIVX Silver on a friend's machine was raised and he finally admitted that this could not be done, and that any account that would first run a disc had to pay a viewing fee.

Another question asked him was what would happen when a movie was watched that would cross the 48 hour viewing period while watching. He stated that he did not know, but believed that player would prompt you to pay a charge to watch the movie because there would not be enough time left to watch the movie. It was interesting to hear him agree to a possible weakness of DIVX and theorize that the solution would be undesirable to most consumers. After this question, our salesman went into a very long winded speech of how DIVX was simply a feature of DVD and how Circuit City wants to sell as much Open DVD merchandise as DIVX merchandise. He spoke of how DVD was wonderful and how DIVX was a good idea that was not for everyone, but had an audience that it would supply well.

Our salesman did very little to talk down Open DVD and praised it. He did not try too hard to push DIVX on us, even though an act was given that we would be potential buyers. The only textbook knock on DVD was on rentals. He claimed that numerous articles have been written about the problems with renting DVDs and how they were always scratched so badly that they could not be played. This statement was not carried out much and a new direction was taken in the conversation after it was made.

I was surprised to see the salesman attempt to sell Open DVD as well as DIVX. He seemed somewhat partial to DIVX, but he did not try to bend our arms against an Open DVD decision and he did not try to shove DIVX down our throats. The main argument was that it did have a target audience and that because of Circuit City having such a large stake in it that some Circuit City stores may be overly partial to DIVX and this could be the root of some of the horror stories.

Leaving Circuit City, I was not as disgusted as I believed I would have been. DVD was not painted as a horrible decision to make when DIVX was available. DIVX seemed to be marketed by our salesman as an option that could be purchased and that it was only for people that rented and usually did not buy videos. DVD was abound and the discs had ample floor space and the price was not raised or any other pro-DIVX maneuvers that have been told about. DIVX had large banners at the entrance and by the players, but I did not witness any of the horrors that I have heard about. I wondered if there was not a sense of doom at this Circuit City and they did not want to close the doors on Open DVD or if the management at this location had learned how to market this dark specter with some intelligence.

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