Blockbuster Blu-ray announcement: Master Thread - Page 3

Me too. This isn't a death blow and the HD DVD camp definitely could respond, but will they and how is a very good question. They need to keep Universal on their team and away from neutral. Maybe this news will make Ken Graffeo dig in his heals even more. I don't know how stubborn he is. Other places he has said things along the lines of wait until Q4. Maybe he'll dig deeper into the vault and bring us some better stuff than planned.

And how does this affect Wal-Mart's decisions this year and next? I don't know, but wish I could listen in on some of their meetings.

For those who care first about HD on disc succeeding and less about their favorite format winning, I think we can take some positive news from this. Blockbuster did an experiment in 250 stores and the result could have been that interest was low enough that they wouldn't roll out to more stores. But we can see that something is getting them to expand to have close to 7x as many stores renting HD discs.

--Darin

Bitter I'm not. I always planned on owning a BD player... just have zero plans on buying a PS3 for one. I've stated that (what you quoted) on a few message boards, and honestly, no one has really refuted that claim. It does ruff some feathers here...

If I owned a PS3 and had nothing to play, I'd watch some BD too. Sony seems to care more about Blu Ray then gaming. I'm just interested in seeing the ratio over at Netflix. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd bet a PS3 owner is more likely to rent BD's at Blockbuster over Netflix for obvious reasons.

I actually don't see a lot of "fanboy gloating" in here. I actually see more sour grapes and people now saying they won't support Blockbuster now. I am wondering how far people are willing to take this "movie format war" in there own personal lives. Is it worth sacrificing the clear convenience of being able to pick up a movie from your local Blockbuster on a whim? To drop it off and trade it for another? Is it worth all of that just to make some "statement" I wonder.

Honestly I think many people will find this welcome news as it is probably the clearest signal we have ever gotten to what our next High Definition movie format will be. A lot of people are weery and tired of this whole format "war" thing and all the confusion, and just want to move on to getting as many movies and players as we can on one format that is compatible. For people wanting a clear signal of the end to the confusion and to the format war this is excellent news.

No matter how you slice it, good news for Blu.

However, I just dont get how BD only folk dont get an icky feeling over Sony about to control the whole shibang. Are you guys cool with them making the movie? distributing it? replicating it? region coding it to death? etc. etc.?

BD is great technology!, I just have issue with SONY itself. Feels like they keep trying to bend me and my fellow consumer over.

I see it as Sony and 99% of the CE industry saving us from Toshiba and its stranglehold on the DVD market. BDA does NOT = Sony. Phillips is a co-founder, why dont you hate phillips?

Very good news for Blu-ray. Certainly not a death blow to HD DVD, but a sign of the way this thing will play out for sure.

I can somewhat understand waiting for a BD-Live player but I would point out that I have yet to see a full functional HD DVD player with an Enhanced Video secondary decoder. As such if we are talking fully functional stand alone player it looks to me like neither format has such a thing at the moment.



Possible, I have never tallied up the two to see which one stocks more Blu-ray/HD DVD movies.



How exactly could anyone refute a guess that can neither be proven nor denied since it is about what PS3 owners might do in the future? Personally it wouldn't apply to me since I don't see myself buying less Blu-ray movies in the future as more PS3 games come out but I don't know what other PS3 owners might do. Than again I don't think you know that either which is why the only thing that might prove or refute it is time.



Maybe, but wouldn't that even be a better reason for Blockbuster to stock Blu-ray so they might get both Blu-ray and PS3 game rentals? Also it would be interesting to see the Blu-ray/HD DVD rental ratio for Netflix but at the moment we only know that for Blockbuster.

At one point I thought that the combo discs might help HD DVD if they could get places like Blockbuster combos so they could rent them as HD or as regular DVDs, but it seems like it hasn't ended up mattering. There probably isn't enough capacity for making combos at this point and there are other issues like cost with making those.

I think Blockbuster would have more success renting BDs if they would put a sign by the PS3 games letting people know that HD movies are available to PS3 owners on Blu-ray discs.

--Darin

The HD-DVDs I have in stock in my Blockbuster Q are seldom available, particularly if they are new releases. I always seem to get a "Long Wait" status on 90% of them. No wonder then that I rent more from Netflix than Blockbuster.

Why is their a question mark at the end of this thread title? No fanboy on earth could say that this isn't a blow to HD DVD with a straight face!

It was asked a few times to PS3 owners (official playstation forums) if they resort to watching more Blu Ray movies since the gaming selection isn't much of one as of yet, and many of the responses were yes. That is, before people came in and had the thread deleted because it wasn't exactly portraying the PS3 in a positive perspective, which must always happen on that forum for any lengthy discussion to be had.

Whether they'll continue to do so once the library is fuller, is anyones guess, and left to be seen.

The mentality that there is even a POSSIBILITY that people who own the PS3 and are already renting Blu-ray movies will suddenly cease their interest in movies, for ANY reason, is absurd don't you think?

People need to stop using this retarded theory that PS3 users will automatically stop buying Blu-ray movies once better games are available. Did those people buy DVDs too after buying games? Those who buy Blu-rays on PS3 aren't all going save a few bucks and get the SD version knowing there's a HD alternative. Some will, some won't. Regardless, it's all balanced out by the growing userbase.

The PS3 is BD-J 1.1 compliant?

I'm glad that I can rent anything HD at my Blockbuster....

I should have included "at the current rate". The majority of people who bought a PS3 are gamers... I don't understand why many here think that their main interest is some BD movies. Many gamers attribute the Blu-Ray movie functionality in the PS3 as not their main interest... but as a bonus. I'd direct you to some links, if they weren't deleted by lock and chain Sony mods.

i dont think so, the reason im getting br movies right now is cause no games are out. i like movies (not as much as some on this board) but i love video games. if the ps3 had some better titles, id tell HD movies all together to kiss my ass

So if games come out for your game console, you will STOP watching movies? Call me skeptical.

I fully agree. But the reason they bought the PS3 is irrelevant because video gamers like movies. It's not some weird demographic that plays video games all day and does nothing else. EVERYONE loves movies. Especially young males who buy $600 consoles. I doubt that once more games come out their interest in movies completely ceases and/or if they are continually given the choice between DVD and Blu-ray, they will magically decide they would rather go back to renting DVD instead.

BTW I think Blockbuster knows something many people on this forum have discovered with rentals, and that is how scratch resistant Blu-ray discs are and how every rented BD looks spanking brand new. They are PERFECT for the rental market.

That's along the lines of my initial impression as well, though I wouldn't go so far as to say that Toshiba's standalones are "selling well" (I don't think any real numbers have been released, have they?). But overall I have to wonder why Blockbuster would bother to "call this" at this point in the game. Sales (and likely rental) numbers for both formats are miniscule and Toshiba's cheapest player just recently dipped into the high-end of the mass-market pricing bracket. Why not wait to see how that move impacted rentals?

Oh well, I just signed up for Blockbuster Online yesterday, and it sounds like this won't impact me. I suppose I could stay put so as to help show them that HD DVD has a userbase, *OR* I could cancel my subscription, switch to Netflix, and send a grumpy email to Blockbuster explaining my reason for cancelling. In the end, I'll probably stay put temporarily for the same reason I signed up initially (yesterday, remember): the pricing was OK, the one-free-in-store-rental coupon was nice, and I figured I'd give them a try (I had Netflix in the past and wanted to see how Blockbuster compared). So, in other words, I'll make this decision not out of emotion but out of my own interests.

Then you should buy a Blu-ray player. It is clearly more convenient for oneself to have the ability to trade in a movie at a local store for another one rather than always mailing it in and waiting.

Indeed. Instead of signing up for a $15/month-or-so rental plan from Netflix, why not dump your $250 (or likely much more, if you were an early adopter) HD DVD player and buy a new $500+ Blu-ray player and stick with Blockbuster? Have I got that right? Ah, if only money weren't a deciding factor in my decisions. You sound rich...will you adopt me?

no i wouldnt stop watching movies, but if there were some better games out (for the 360 and the ps3) i wouldnt have bought any movies. id just rent the 1 or 2 every couple months like i used to do. right now i have 3 br movies and 15 or so hd-dvds. outside of matrix and bourne supremecy the rest of them were bought out of boredom. like i said i like movies, but i love video games. on avs its probably hard to believe but the ps3 owners that i know, the ones who arent into av, still have regular tvs, and dont even care about HD movies use their ps3 for video games. once ff13, mgs4, and the real socom come out, ill drop my netflix back down to the 5.99 one movie a month plan or cancel it altogether for a gamefly account. im just glad the summer drought is coming to an end. the q3/q4 blitz should be underway and i can get back to rotting my brain for 8+ hours a day

How many times can you post your cheerleader crap in the same thread?

Not sure of current sales figures on the Tosh players, but I'd imagine that the lower price surely isn't hurting sales. Thats what gets me with this BB deal the most, instead of waiting it out to see how Tosh's current moves play out, they've gone ahead and decided that HD DVD no longer suits them. I can't deny that a 70% ratio speaks volumes for BB, but this war is not over...yet. I thought pricing played a key role in this, and were now starting to get that from both sides, but BB pretty much made their decision before the fun started.

would you buy spiderman or transformers?

So you're saying Toshiba knew this was coming and lowered player prices as a pre-emptive strike?

thats the way it is for me too...sadly it looks like this may change.

Well, here is Ken's reaction to this lastest development. From the TV Predictions article:

Blockbuster's decision could be a serious blow to HD DVD in the high-def format war. But one HD DVD backer said Sunday that Blockbuster is acting on limited information.

"I think trying to make a format decision using such a short time period is really not measuring what the consumer is saying," said Ken Graffeo, co-president of the promotional group for HD DVD.

So with Sony inking a deal with Wal-Mart to sell LCD's . . .are they next?

Here is one thing I said previously about that:

Ken has claimed that the HD DVD releases will be better in Q4, but I'm doubting it based on what I'm seeing. Especially Ratatouille last night, which I think is the best Pixar film yet. Universal needs to get more things out that Blockbuster will regret not being able to rent in these new stores if they want Blockbuster to change this decision.

--Darin