Let's be honest -- after sinking a few large on a new HDTV, a few hundies on some overpriced cables and even more on HD programming, you weren't about to cough up another month's paycheck for a decent TV stand. For the 48,600 customers out there who purchased one of four different King Pao Enterprise TV Stands (likely sold and distributed by Studio RTA), you now have a product known for tipping over and ruining lives. The E Series, Fierro, Madison DLP and Madison 3000 -- all of which were sold at Best Buy and other big box retailers from May 2004 to August 2008 -- have been deemed unstable and unfit for use in your living room, and it's suggested that you cautiously remove your set and wait for a "repair kit" before it does the removing for you. Godspeed.

As more and more music releases head to Blu-ray, we've got one more coming to stores next month. Elton John's The Red Piano collection will hit stores on October 28th and will include a single Blu-ray Disc and two audio-only CDs. The discs will include 14 song performances from the Red Piano show and a documentary about the making of The Red Piano show. Fans can check it shortly for $29.99 (MSRP).

We know, it's off the beaten path a bit, but Sound & Vision's latest writeup comparing the actual Best Buy with 'Buy More' in NBC's quasi-hit Chuck was too good to ignore. The site rounded up a couple of Best Buy / Geek Squad employees and asked them to compare their experiences with scenes in the show. Comically enough, we learn that at least some Squaders do indeed joyride in their company car, employees actually do have to undergo training to interact with and persuade customers, and yes, workers are beaten over the head with selling those ridiculous replacement plans. If you're in need of a chuckle (ahem), there's quite a few waiting in the read link.

Klipsch's Icon W speakers sure look a treat, but they're on the pricey end of the scale, so Klipsch is offering up the Icon VF-35 and VF-36 speakers to Best Buy shoppers at the lower price points of $750 and $950 per pair, respectively, to set things right. That 1-inch horn-loaded tweeter high on the front baffle somehow reminds us of a Dalek, which makes us wish we could remove the lower speaker grille to show off the trio of mid/bass drivers; but it's fixed (that middle pic is factory-only), so maybe live with the top grill on instead and be contented that those drivers are pushing response down to 41Hz and 36Hz, respectively. As you'd expect from Klipsch, sensitivity comes in at a high 97.5dB, so not a lot of amplifier will be necessary to drive these.

[Thanks, Jim]

Read - Klipsch Icon VF-35
Read - Klipsch Icon VF-36

Not even four whole months ago, Best Buy was pushing its Insignia NS-BRDVD Blu-ray player for $349.99 with a $100 coupon book. Now, that same pamphlet of discounts comes bundled in a box stickered at just $229.99. We've reckoned here lately that once the $200 price point was met by a few manufacturers, BD units would start flying off shelves more briskly; we can't say $230 is close enough just yet, but it's sure good to see things moving in the right direction.

[Thanks, Anthony]

We've heard for some time that Samsung planned to have two Blu-ray players in its lineup, but it's been well over a year since there's even been a peep about the BD-P2400, now out of nowhere the BD-P2550 shows up at Best Buy stores all over the country for the premium price of $499. According to Best Buy's website, the new model has many of the missing features from Sammy's latest BD-P1500, like 7.1 analog outputs and the sought after Silicon Optix HQV video processing. What does appear to be missing though, is the elusive BD-Live, but with the included network connection and USB port, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine that either Best Buy failed to mention it, or it's coming in a firmware update. Although $500 Blu-ray players aren't for everyone, it's good to see Blu-ray manufacturers offering multiple models for those in need of premium features.

[Via Format War Central]

Send in the clones -- the Insignia NS-BRDVD is another dead ringer for the Funai NB500, which started showing up under its various monikers three months ago. The Best Buy house brand is taking a stab at igniting some excitement in the sub-$300 Blu-ray player market. But reading CNET's review, it sounds like it comes up a bit short. First the good news: the NS-BRDVD is a benjamin cheaper than the ubiquitous PS3, it does a good job with 1080p/24 content and even outputs Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA via bitstream (to a comparatively upscale receiver, we assume). But the unit was marred by lackluster 1080p/60 output. As we've seen, you can pay a lot more for a Profile 1.1 player, but we're with CNET on this one -- save up just a little more dough and spring for a PS3.

We've witnessed a few lawsuits related to Blu-ray, but this is the first one we can recall that perfectly fits the "patent troll" mold. The Patent Prospector has it that Acacia subsidiary Digital Security Systems is suing a smorgasbord of big BD players for infringing on a patent that it has held for years. Defendants named include Samsung, Best Buy, Denon, Funai, LG, Matsushita, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, and Sharp, though details beyond that are sadly scant. Oh, and if you're wondering where the complaint was filed, it was in the infamous Eastern District of Texas.

[Via FormatWarCentral]

Chances are, you feel pretty strongly that you give enough of your hard-earned money to your state as it is, but if you're a resident of California, Connecticut, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas or Wisconsin who purchased a DTV converter box from Best Buy, you may have donated a little extra. Reportedly, some Best Buy locations accidentally overcharged for sales tax when deducting the $40 government voucher from the purchase price of DTV boxes, and now the retailer is looking to right the ship by doling out refunds. If you paid with a credit card, sit tight -- your check is in the mail; if you used greenbacks, don't even bother spending $5 per gallon to retrieve your $2.50.

[Thanks, Matthew]

With a report emerging this week pegging Best Buy as the go-to location for Blu-ray Disc purchases, it stirred up some curiosity here at Engadget HQ. Personally, we prefer to snag our discs online; there's just something about receiving those corrugated boxes on our doorstep that does it for us. We're interested to see where you procure most of your own BD titles -- in a store (which one?), online (which e-tailer?) or out of the back of a white panel van? You can keep quiet if it's the latter.

Looks like all those specials are paying off for Amazon and Wal-mart, as surveys done last fall and this spring indicate they're narrowing the gap with "leading Blu-ray shopping destination" Best Buy. No nifty percentage numbers this time, but according to VideoBusiness, Amazon's own findings indicate its share of the Blu-ray retail market is 3.5 times bigger than its DVD slice. That seems to jibe with NPD's finding placing it number two, followed by Wal-mart (benefiting from enhanced Blu-ray displays and sales of its own), then Target and Blockbuster, respectively, having overtaken Circuit City in the period from fall to spring. Is there anything other than deep discounts and BOGOs that decides where you buy Blu?

Let's get this straight. A Best Buy survey suggesting that the public isn't acting early on the imminent digital TV transition. From the same big box retailer accused of pushing ignorant citizens into buying unnecessary wares in order to maintain a signal post-2009. Righhht. For whatever it is (or isn't) worth, a recent survey from said retailer has found that 88-percent of respondents were "aware of the digital broadcast transition, but were still confused about why [it] was happening and what really needed to be done to prepare." It also found that nearly half (45-percent) of those who hadn't already picked up a new TV or a DTV converter box were going to "wait until after the digital deadline to take action," which is really so typical of our society, isn't it? Go ahead government, spend those advertising dollars good -- the public at large still won't do anything until their hands are forced.

[Image courtesy of StarBulletin]

For those maintaining that $349.99 for an Insignia Blu-ray player is still too pricey, how's about this deal? Best Buy is now offering a $100 Coupon Book right in the box of its newly released NS-BRDVD, and while there could very well be a score of $5 coupons in there, we do know that it'll provide "instant savings on a great collection of Blu-ray Disc movies from Disney, Touchstone and Miramax." It should be noted that the book is included regardless of whether the unit is purchased in-store or online, but the actual coupons within can only be redeemed in a brick-and-mortar location. Anyone actually cracked one of these open and care to share what's tucked inside?

[Via TG Daily]

While it's no big secret that VUDU's movie set-top-box is still serving a niche market at the moment, things could be on the up-and-up for the outfit. According to Video Business, it has managed to land its wares on the shelves of two dozen California Best Buys. The move marks VUDU's first foray into the brick-and-mortar realm, as it has previously sold the device exclusively online. It's also noted that the VUDU is being "merchandised in four different locations" within the stores, while the Apple TV is generally only found near other Apple products. There's no word on whether more BB locations will be picking the STB up, but that decision may be made based on how sales go in the first 24 stores.

What's this? Best Buy finally released the Insignia NS-BRDVD blu-ray player for an affordable $349.99. The design, like other in-house Insignia-branded products, is questionable, but if you were looking into the PS3 as a player, this could be a $50 cheaper option if games aren't your thing. The unit outputs at 1080P, decodes Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD, and decodes 2-channel Dolby TrueHD. Outputs include stereo audio, composite video, component video, optical Toslink, digital coax, and HDMI. No word on image quality just yet, but based on previous Insignia products, we're not holding our breath.

[Thanks, Jordan]