Holiday Fire (Blu-ray Disc, 2008)

I ordered the DVD on 12-11-08 and it did not arrive until 01-05-09. After I emailed them because it did not arrive for X-Mas, they stated they shipped it out on 12-15-08 and to allow 2-6 weeks for delivery. They stated on their add;

“This is a DVD Pre-Order, scheduled for release 11/04/08. This item is guaranteed to ship on or before that day. If the release date has already passed your item will ship immediately.”

They also stated near the bottom of their ad; "Will usually ship within 2 business days of receiving cleared payment."

Now I know I picked the slow delivery option but that was ridiculously slow for just a DVD (that was not even packed in a padded envelope, so I know it did not cost the $2.98 they charged to ship it). I later noticed in their ad it stated; "WHEN SELECTING THIS METHOD ITEMS MAY TAKE AN ADDITIONAL 3-5 BUSINESS DAYS TO PROCESS PRIOR TO SHIPMENT."

If you are not careful at their check out they have the insurance option checked and it will charge an additional $2.05. That brought my shipping total to $5.03. I emailed them about it immediately and they simply said sorry. I was sort of hoping they would just use the insurance money to expedite it out to me a little quicker. From looking at the envelope I can not say if it was really insured or not. It does not say it on the envelope.

When the DVD arrived I put it on and I was not impressed with the image. There is this image on the sides of the fireplace that make it appear like you are watching an un-centered 4:3 aspect ratio version (It is part of the fireplace). Oh snap! I just looked at the info behind the DVD cover and it is a 4x3! Wow! Their Add stated I was purchasing the "widescreen" edition!! You can totally tell that it is a looped video and the audio from the whopping 10 X-Mas carols is horrible. You can pick to have the carols not play and only hear the fire but there is this horrible humming background sound that will drive you nuts! I have to honestly say that for being on Blu-ray this is no way close to high def. It seems they took standard quality equipment to record it and copied it to a Blu-ray. If that doesn’t make sense to you it’s like getting a copy of your child hood videos and putting them on a blu-ray disc. If it was not recorded in High Def it is not high def.

Wish I could get my money back but would end up losing more money and time on this. They charge a 50% restocking fee and will not cover the shipping charges!

There is a camp fire version as a bonus and it is way better than the fireplace.

I can see this DVD being sold very soon at your local McFrugal’s or Dollar Tree stores.....Really!

I was so excited to have the holiday fire in time for a party I was throwing...but alas, it came the day after...longer than was quoted. but the worst of it was my fault. It was a blu-ray disc and I didn't know I needed a different player for it. I had a hard time getting a response from the seller, I think they were overloaded on holiday orders. But once the confusion was cleared up I decided to keep the disc and hope for a blu-ray player for nest Christmas. lesson learned...make sure it is a DVD and not a blu-ray.

very nice..................................................................................................