Blockbuster Blu-ray announcement: Master Thread - Page 6

Yeah. But no decision is written in stone. Maybe when low cost Chinese HD DVD players will start to fill the store shelves, Blockbuster will reconsider this decision.

We are still early in the format war. Those decisions can change overnight.

Topic title edited, topic stuck.

I paid approximately the same price for 1st gen Panasonic DVD player and 1st gen Toshiba HD DVD player. Both bought during the first week of their introduction.

fro another forum I posted the story on:

For a second, I thought you were saying that the "topic suck"

What BB has announced today IS the same thing they did when they decided to get into the DVD rental business. Small test - large rollout - all stores

Well i waited a few more months than you did for HD DVD:

DVD - $800 for a Toshiba Player - 1st week intro'd

HD DVD $325 with 3 free movies - 1/07

i've never seen so many people complain before in my life. good lord. so you picked what looks like the wrong side, in hd dvd.....

......more support. and who wouldn't want a larger disk anyways? i don't care which side is which..but 50gb > 30gb. it was a simple pick for me.

is this the end of hd dvd? not even close. do i only rent and buy bluray because my ps3 has no games to play? no. will that change when there actually are games to play? no...why would it?

i'm glad somebody is finally picking a side. one of the formats needs to die, and i'd rather it was hd dvd, it was their demise to me when they only made them with 30gb. but thats me, storage is important to me.

and honestly, to the very few of you who are going to switch to netflix..do you honestly think blockbuster gives a ****? seriously people..look at the big picture here...

but the online services are included in that arent they.... i would suspect any increase is from the online rental services which has been and will continue to stock both hd-dvd and bluray.

not saying its not a blow to toshiba but i think this is not going to end anything unless netflix and blockbuster online both go bluray only. then it has some significance.

Really the next question is:








How long now until Universal Studios announces support for Blu-ray?

Can't imagine them deciding that they don't want to participate in 75% of the USA rental market.

does anyone know what the plan is for the stores now offering HD DVD? is it full support or just not getting rid of it?

i.e.

1) "let's keep them fully stocked and if HD DVD does better then we can think of adding it again in some othe markets"

2) " we have the disks so might as well still offer them, but nothing new"

3) " we will tread lightly in those stores with HD DVD stores and might pick up some new titles that could be popular, but we are only lightly supporting a market that is not 0 for now"


the relevence could be very different depending on what exactly it is.

Anyone want to bet that Toshiba tomorrow,announces that they have permantely lowered the HD A2 MSRP to $299 tomorrow. I believe the sale ends tonite at midnight. Maybe up it from 5 free to 7 free.

IMO it just will not be enough to counter this development. Then it really does look like a fire sale.

Get ready for more! Beatboy posted that on 6/20/07 the BDA will be making a 1 year anniversary announcement. Blockbuster news is just step 1.. More to come im sure!

It wasn't my thread. It got deleted because the mods there breed rabid fanboys by deleting any non pro-sony thread. I'm sure you know that...

Oh and thanks for taking my post out of context, when I specifically mentioned that gamers would still use the PS3 for movies.

Maybe you just wanted to post for the sake of doing so.

Well I haven't rented anything from Blockbuster in over 4 years and I won't start no matter what format they carry. I got tired of them trying to screw me every time I returned a DVD and they said it was late. In fact they had one as a week late one time.
This may be good news for Blu-ray but don't get too excited. Neither format is selling well enough yet to be anything more than a niche market.

Hmmm...companies are not altruistic and BB's B&M business model is obviously not the future. In fact, they are losing money. So how does this decision improve their business? It certainly gets ink but it appears to me there must be a financial incentive somewhere. Given the low risk of not carrying one of the HD formats the choice would be easy if they receive capital to change that model...

Also BB only stocked FS only (at least in Canada) for the first year(?) of them having DVDs.

because the person that rents and rents from BB will go there when getting his DVDS and will see BDs but no HD DVDs when he goes to the store because he is ready to upgrade he will ask for BD because that is what his rental place is carrying. He won't give a sh!t for HD DVD because he won't be able to rent them there.

It won't affect someone that wasted their money on HD DVD already (well it might) but it will affect new buyers. And let's face it with 250k-300k HD DVD players sold so far it is conning new people into buying into it that is most important.

Just curious, why is it so expensive? My Panasonic DVD-A300 was only about US$500. Did the Toshiba cost that much more?

HD DVD only supporter here. Not crying about this news. I actually think this is awesome.

If this moves us to a single format, I am all for it.

Can't wait to pick up my Blu Ray player.

Blu-ray players still need to drop to a price point where more than just enthusiasts about next gen formats will purchase them.

so what you are saying is that you would rather have no hd format instead of one hd format. Seems very myopic and selfish if you ask me.

Ditto. Whatever gets us closer to ending this stupid war.

I know I'm going to get flamed for this but I see this as good news for HD DVD.

If it looks like BD will win this war Universal will release every big title they have. Why wouldn't they. They will make their money and then release on BD.
If BD wins and HD DVD becomes a niche market I can see the other movie studios release movies for HD DVD for some extra revenue.

You don't need billions of people to support your favorite format as long as movies are released and you can enjoy them.
People have done that with LD and have been relatively happy, you might have to pay more probably.
I don't care who wins this war. I think movies will be released on the other format for quite some time. There is always money to be made.

I think we will see some great last measures from both camps=great for the consumer.
just my opinion

You guys that are saying this makes no real difference think about this.
All the people I know have a DVD player & watch movies all the time.
80% of those rent.
They will go to BB to pick up a movie for them & the kids on the weekend & see that BB now has Blu-Ray,
This Xmas there will be Blu-Ray players in the $200-$300 range.
Those with HDTV's will remember that the BB has Blu-Ray movies when Xmas shopping starts & will buy one of the players whos movies can be rented at BB.

People at this forum are not like the masses, we are early adopters & will buy our movie collections, for most people they will buy the Blu-Ray player because the corner store has the movies they can rent.

Toshiba has no one to blame but themselves, the Blu-Ray group tried to make a deal with them to have one format but Toshiba was greedy & wanted all the royalties to themselves.
Sony learned a bunch from Betamax & was determined to not let that happen again.

The last straw will be Universal going format neutral, then it's lights out!

Circuit City has decreased its HD DVD rack in Santa Monica. It's now 2 to 1 rack in favor of Blu-ray.

This is bad news for HD DVD and as an HD DVD advocate that pains me. Still I think this fits with what we know about the demographics of the two competing HDM formats.

It even fits with my future plans. I hope to go format neutral when full-spec dual format players are available south of $500. The main reason for me doing this will be for rentals. I started with HD DVD for cost and content reasons, but on the content side it has always been for movies I plan to own. In looking at my DVD library I realized that about 70% of the catalog titles I owned were Universal releases so HD DVD was a no brainer. I don't rent many movies to begin with and I have yet to rent an HD DVD, but if I had a dual format player I probably would have rented a few BDs. I'm not going to buy Night at The Museum or Ghost Rider, but I might rent them.

For me it is simply the nature of the exclusive studios and what they release. I don't own many Fox or Columbia films and the Disney films I own are rarely watched by the kids these days because at ages 11 and 13 they don't have much interest in those anymore. Assuming both formats survive I see myself five years from now as format neutral with a library that is 70% HD DVD and 30% BD, but with a rental history that is closer to 60% or 70% BD.

Same thing at my Best Buy in the Palisades Mall at Nanuet, NY.

well Mike

1) for every few that fit your scenario one will buy.
poorer Joe: "still can't afford it"
richer John: "I can, let's go for it"

2) there are already over 1M PS3s now, for many, it will be easier to rent BD
Joe :"Cool I cantry the BD movie now"

3) some might even change to BB instead of the store the rental place they use nowthat has only DVD.
John: "Joe come over, we can play Y on the PS3 and then watch X on BD"
Joe: "when did you get X"
John: "Rented it"
Joe: "Ma, you aare lucky, maybe I should change places"

4) it makes it harder for the store to sell HD DVD players
Joe: "still can't afford it"
Salesman: "well we have the HD DVD, it is cheaper"
Joe: "does it play Blu ray?"
Salesman: "no, it is HD DVD, but it is dirt cheap because Toshiba is so desperate that it is at a cheaper fire sale price"
Joe: "but BB does not rent HD DVD"
Salesman: "But you can buy movies"
Joe: "I own 5 DVDs, why would I pay 30$ to buy a movie I only want to watch once. I rent 1 movie a week at a 25$ difference in one month that is a 100$ difference."

I was at the Best Buy in Downers Grove (A western suburb of Chicago) this weekend and saw 5 racks of Blu-Ray to 2 racks of HD-DVD.