I bought a Sony TV and a PS3. Went to look for a new movie to pick up and they were $29.99 across the board for blu ray and hd-dvd.

Forget it. Went home picked up a couple of used one's on ebay for a fraction of that.

If you want to be competitive and you want to sell product. Lower your prices.

Or come up with a program where I can trade my old DVDs in + $10 to get the Hi definition version of it.

while it won't solve your fan chain problem, smarthome's new insteon technology look promising. It's got 900mhz wireless for 150', plus powerline signaling and x10 backwards compatability.