Don't know if folks realize this yet, but Movie Gallery stores are moving into HDM. On Friday, my local Movie Gallery (the only rental outlet in a town of 5000) was setting up a HDM section. The display was left half HD DVD and right half Blu-ray. It was an even 50/50 split on number of disc, with 20-30 different titles on each side (titles had 1 to 3 copies).

They were also changing their marquee to read HD DVD and Blu-ray rentals $5.19. The manager was setting up the display and I asked about their other stores (she manages three stores in the area). All three stores were setting up the shelf space, per corporate mandate.

This is three stores in three very small towns (one less than 1000 people), so I would have to think that every Movie Gallery is getting some type of HDM rental.

The best part is my Movie Gallery is beside Wal-Mart. SO you can walk in and buy your $198 HD DVD player, and then walk next door and have 20-30 titles to rent. This should work out well for both retailers.

I asked and they will also be selling used HD DVD and BD's as they come off display for new releases. She thought $17.99 would be the used price for any HDM disc. She wasn't sure if they would qualify for the same B2G1 and B2G2 movie specials they run, or if they would be seperate like video games.

I don't think I have any of these around but it is great to see another outlet for HDM to get exposure!! $5.19 though..ouch. It's ridiculous what these places are charging these days for movie and game rentals. Ah the the good ol' 99 cent rental days have cetainly passed. I think it was $8 the last time I rented a game at BB. Thanks for the news on this though!!

I will have to call a few that are close to me and see if i have the same results.
Thanks for the heads up.

MG just went banko. They are closing almost 600 stores. The links for MG are all at Video Business

$5.19 for a rental? I'd rather buy that way I could own the title permanently

MG just went banko. They are closing almost 600 stores. The links for MG are all at Video Business

Yeah, but it's Chapter 11 reorg, not Chapter 13 out of business. So business goes on for Movie Gallery.

$5.19 for a rental? I'd rather buy that way I could own the title permanently

I don't know. SD DVD rentals are $4.19 for new releases. I rented Evan Almighty on release day for $4.19 because it wasn't one I would want to own. I would have gladly paid $5.19 to get it in hi-def.

I wish we could go back to the $3 new release rentals, but those days appear to be gone.

I don't know. SD DVD rentals are $4.19 for new releases. I rented Evan Almighty on release day for $4.19 because it wasn't one I would want to own. I would have gladly paid $5.19 to get it in hi-def.

I wish we could go back to the $3 new release rentals, but those days appear to be gone.

Yeah, B&M stores have high overhead, and with Netflix and BB Online, they don't rent nearly as much as they used to, which means they have to jack up the price on individual rentals to make up for it.

The closest movie gallerry shut down a month ago. They are selling off all their DVDs now.

But thiers one about 20minnites away I may cheek out but $5 per rental I don't think so.

It has been a loooong time since I have been in a video rental store!

I had no idea that the rental prices were that high!

I would be interested in seeing a few posts noting how many discs on each format have been rented during your future visits. The only place around here renting HDM is BB (which is BD only), and it's typically about 3 or 4 (never seen more than 5) discs rented at any given time.

We have a few MGs around here (back in the days of SD, I'd go and buy previously viewed because they were buy 2, get 2 free. so they were pretty cheap).

I've since moved on to Netflix, but am glad to hear that HDM is in B&M stores...well at least something besided BB which only has one format.

I would be interested in seeing a few posts noting how many discs on each format have been rented during your future visits. The only place around here renting HDM is BB (which is BD only), and it's typically about 3 or 4 (never seen more than 5) discs rented at any given time.

We have a few MGs around here (back in the days of SD, I'd go and buy previously viewed because they were buy 2, get 2 free. so they were pretty cheap).

I've since moved on to Netflix, but am glad to hear that HDM is in B&M stores...well at least something besided BB which only has one format.

There are only two B &M's that rent movies; BBI and MG/Hollywood Video. It was the purchase of HV that sank MG BTW.

Old news.
Hollywood Video started renting out Blu-Ray and HD-DVD earlier this year.
Mostly only stores that have Game Crazy built in though.
I worked at HV for 5 years (quit last month).
We get more Blu-Ray than HD-DVD (# of titles, not copies). Roughly 2:1.

Old news.
Hollywood Video started renting out Blu-Ray and HD-DVD earlier this year.
Mostly only stores that have Game Crazy built in though.
I worked at HV for 5 years (quit last month).
We get more Blu-Ray than HD-DVD (# of titles, not copies). Roughly 2:1.

I think the news here is that they may be rolling out HDM to all their stores. At least that would be logical to think so. If you are putting 40 HDM titles into a town of 1000 people, there is no way that it has a demand for that many. The only reason to do it would be a corporate mandate to do so. Seems like they would do that at every store then.

Now the store I use is in a town of 5000, but is the only video store in a county of 35000, so it has a decent number of customers. Apparently several people have jumped onto HD DVD locally, as the new releases of Next, Knocked Up, Shooter, and Transformers all sold out on HD DVD at Wal-Mart (and Shooter and Next were two weeks late arriving). Each title had at least 4 copies, with Knocked up having 6 and Transformers 10.

So that Movie Gallery may do okay with its HDM rental, especially since Wal-Mart is next door.

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
It was the purchase of HV that sank MG BTW.

Ironically Hollywood Video was bought by Movie Gallery so they could develop a precense in the Western US, and Hollywood Video was ripe for the picking because they essentially slashed their throats by purchasing Reel.com with delusions of internet grandure.

fitprod