I want to a new promo (ie new store setup model) Blockbuster today here in Winnipeg Manitoba Canada and was absolutely shocked at what I saw. Their setup was too good to be true. It consisted of two EQUAL sections of HD movies. One section had a large title banner 'Blu-ray', under which they had about 100 to rent, the other section had a nice red banner 'HD-DVD', also with about 100 titles to rent. There was a small stand in front the two sections, right in the middle actually, with a bunch of handouts made by Blockbuster that inform the customer what Blu-ray and HD-DVD are, and they both explained the positives of each.

I continued to walk around the store esp towards the 'sale' area, and again it was promising setup to give an EQUAL space for both Blu-ray and HD-DVD to buy. Prices were fair, about 1-2 bucks more than amazon so overall competative.

What really shocked me was I asked at the desk about the formats, while I was buying a couple HD-DVD's and the clerks were extremely knowledgable about both, funny because a lot of other electronic stores dont seem to know much. Not to be sexist or anything but both clerks were very young, 18-20 year old females, ie not who you would normally assoc with HD knowledge, but again it was clearly my misconception, as they were obviously trained very well.

I should also note that this promo test store layout WILL be going full scale in Canada very shortly, so while Blockbuster has made there decision in the USA, it clearly does not affect the Canadian decision to move both formats

I am going to try an hit the store agian, this time with a camera, I think you guys really need some photos to first hand appriapate the work that was done instore for these EQUAL setups.

Jamie

"This thread is worthless without pics" :D

As I said, I'll go back tomorrow, or as soon as I'm in the area and ask if I can snap a few.

This is the handout they are giving

http://www.blockbuster.ca/hd-blu-ray-faq.html

Stores included:

http://www.blockbuster.ca/hd-blu-ray-stores.html

My local store has both BD and HD but the setup doesn't sound quite as nice as what you describe. They have about 40-50 of each format but seem pretty slow adding new ones. It is one of the stores in that list as well. I'll have to go back this weekend and see if they have changed it but as of Thursday it wasn't.

Yeah this store was up to par, Hot fuzz, 300, Shaun of the Dead, all there. They even had a 300 on HD-DVD stand up, ie disks for sale.

Blu-ray was also up to date with the new releases.

I have called all of the local stores here in New Jersey and they aren't renting out HD content yet. I am a little disappointed and shocked because a few of the BB are huge.

I just got back from Blockbuster yesterday. I went to check if they were renting out blu-ray movies, and to my surprise they were. The selection was pretty large(I'd guess at least 60+ movies), I didn't think they'd have so many at the beginning. I rented "The Covenant" mainly because of it's high scores from hidefdigest and because it was one of the few movies I hadn't seen. It looked incredible and I even kind of enjoyed the movie. I'll probably go back to tomorrow and try something completely different like "The Ant Bully" because I've actually yet to see a Blu-Ray movie that doesn't use the 2.35:1 ratio or higher. It'd just be nice change to see a film that actually fills the whole screen.

I read the original post thinking that he meant Best Buy for some reason. I was thinking "when did they start renting movies?". Anyway that sounds great.

psh none of the blockbusters w/ blu-ray are located near me. laame