At the Digital Entertainment Group’s (DEG) CES party last evening, redbox announced it would begin a rollout of UltraHD Blu-ray disc rentals starting in some test markets. There was no mention of which markets would be selected – or how many of them would be included – just that the UltraHD trial would begin in markets that already show a strong interest in Blu-ray disc rental.

This is huge news for 4K movie lovers, as there has yet been a way to enjoy 4K movies without buying them. And we all know there are plenty of movies you’d love to see…once. When asked about price one representative told me that hadn’t been finalized but that she expected it to command a slight premium over current Blu-ray rentals, which currently cost $2.00, estimating around $2.50 - $3.00 per rental.

I'm thinking of getting a subscription with Bluray Rental dot come in order to rent UHD discs which Netflix does not carry. Can current users tell me what their experience has been with this rental site when it comes to UHD movie availability. Some of the earlier posts in this thread seemed to indicate long waiting times but to be fair, they date back to early 2016 when fewer UHD movies were available and less people had the hardware to take advantage of UHD capabilities. Thanks in advance.

Cal68

Long waits still happen. But I manage to get on average 4 UHD disks and 1 regular BR each month, to fill up my 5 disk plan. I just pop in and rent another title each week regardless of whether the prior week's rental has reached me.

But I don't mind seeing a new release several weeks after release, which happens some times. If you want to rent new releases and see them on release date, you will probably be disappointed. No disk rental service seems able to guarantee that or achieve that.

And with online rentals from places like Apple containing excellent quality copies (albeit without the premium audio), I would guess that fewer and fewer disk based services are going to survive.

I'm thinking of getting a subscription with Bluray Rental dot come in order to rent UHD discs which Netflix does not carry. Can current users tell me what their experience has been with this rental site when it comes to UHD movie availability. Some of the earlier posts in this thread seemed to indicate long waiting times but to be fair, they date back to early 2016 when fewer UHD movies were available and less people had the hardware to take advantage of UHD capabilities. Thanks in advance.

Cal68

Thanks, folks.

I've been reading that Netflix/RedBox & some other rental sites are "hit or miss" when it comes to the audio quality of rentals. Such as, they might only have DD instead of Atmos (if otherwise available).

Will the 3-D rental place mentioned in this thread have the same potential issues?

At 2 titles a week, you run out of "good" content pretty rapidly. You are consuming it at a rate faster than they are creating it. Why BD vs streaming?

There are hundreds of BD titles that I want in my video collection.

Has anyone heard of this 4k rental company?

http://4kave.com/index.php

Seems reasonable but is it legit?

I just took the plunge and signed up for 4kave silver subscription - 2 discs at a time. Had 2 movies in my queue with "low" availability. I emailed their customer support to ask when they will ship out. They said the movies were rented out. So "low" means rented out. And a lot of their movies are low. If you're not signed up with them, the availability bar will always show a full blue bar. But when you sign up and put the movie in your queue, the correct availability bar will show up. Deceiving. Will update once I actually get something.

Anyone have friends that work at redbox?

Where are the uhd rentals they promised?


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The redbox facebook page says they'll be rolling out 4k rentals in test markets no later than early June.

I hope my area is one of them.

That's interesting. What do they bump in terms of "stock" at their rental units? There is only a certain amount of discs that each box can hold. I'd be skeptical about a proliferation of 4K discs anytime soon in your area unless it's a major metropolitan location.

I'd be happy if Redbox got rid of DVD's. There are many movies I'd like to watch that I could rent from Redbox but they are in DVD format - not Bluray.

I'm in the DC area which is a major area. I know they rolled out the game rentals early in some of the locations in my area. So I hope they do the same with UHD BD. Although I haven't used RedBox much lately. But if they start having UHD BD rentals, I would easily use them six times a month.

It will be interesting to see how Redbox handles any 4K rental rollout. I think it’s great that there will be more availability of 4K discs. As I mentioned earlier, something will have to give on Redbox product mix based on the number of rental capacity of each Redbox location.

As far as I’m concerned, Redbox can totally eliminate all non Blu-ray Discs and just stock Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray. I think that would be a more profitable model going forward.

The problem is that more people probably rent their DVDs than their BD titles. That is certainly the case with sales of discs. So I would expect rentals to also be the same.

Something has to give. Either the reduction of regular DVD's or Bluray's to make way for "4K" discs. UNLESS they just have a few dedicated 4K Redbox locations in specific markets. And I'm sure the price is going to be higher for a 4K rental. I doubt you'll be able to visit a 4K Redbox site six times a month. I just don't see them having that much supply.

It has to be the right profit model for Redbox to make this work. And, as you say, they can't sacrifice their existing customer base.

Any more updates for 4kave.com? I signed up, and one of the items on my list (Shape of Water) was shipped right out, so no issues so far. The other items in my queue look like they might take some time, so I'll have to see.

This is all very low tech so far. The disks come in a plain white envelope with stamps. The return envelope is the same. Just an envelope, disk, a tiny layer of bubble wrap and that's it. The return address show a local suburban area near Dallas.

I'm almost done with my first month. Shipping is relatively quick since they are in Texas and so am I. Customer service is also very responsive. But their inventory is not that robust. I never could get the movies I really wanted. I'm thinking about trying 3d blu ray.