Blockbuster Chooses Blu-ray 351
s31523 writes "The format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray has posted another battle, this time the victor seems to be the Blu-ray side. Blockbuster has announced it has chosen Blu-ray as the HD format to rent out in the majority of its stores. This decision comes after rental data was looked at for the 250 stores that carry both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray with the majority of rentals being Blu-Ray. Blockbuster now plans to stock Blu-ray only in 1450 of it's stores, but says the 250 stores with the HD-DVD movies will be kept on the shelf."
They should stock both but... (Score:2, Informative)
Evenrually, it'll be like a DVD-R/DVD+R situation - players will support both and that will be the end of it.
Re:Betting on a loser. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wow, this is huge (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Does this even matter? (Score:3, Informative)
For whom? Geeks with fancy computers hooked up to their TVs? The only digital distribution for movies I use is empornium.us for my fix because the local video store with a "back room" has a shit selection of what I want to watch and I don't like being taxed $8/video because there are no other porn peddling stores in town.
For the rest, I go to the Hollywood Video kiosk at the grocery store instead of the Hollywood Video brick and mortar store across the street or even to Blockbuster across the other street. It takes me exactly 15 seconds to pick something I want and pay for it. It takes me another 4 minutes to drive to and from the store. I'm out of my house and back in less than 10 minutes every time. Wake me up when the digital distribution is that fast (hint: it won't be until someone kicks McLeod in the fucking ass and they drag that last 75 feet of fiber that runs next to my house through my kitchen and into my NAT box upstairs).
Re:Wow, this is huge (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Does this even matter? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, and it sucks. It's basically YouTube on 'roids; you have to watch it on a computer, and it's streamed (not really downloaded), and it's Windows-only. I've played around with it and found it interesting from a technical standpoint but otherwise totally uncompelling. And this is from someone who *does* have computers driving most of the TV monitors in their house.
Re:They should stock both but... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:News That Doesn't Matter (Score:3, Informative)
You can prefer one on a rational basis (Score:4, Informative)
There is no reason to hope both lose. I'd really hate to be suck with DVDs for several years while the next-next-gen media gets its act together, and probably does the exact same thing all over again.
Me, I prefer Blu-ray because Sony takes their recordable-data business seriously and they're getting that stuff to market much faster. You might prefer something else, like HD-DVD because the hardware is a bit cheaper. Either way, there are plenty of rational non-fanboy reasons to prefer formats. The most irrational view I can think of is your position. How would the completely failure of the new media types benefit the market or consumers?
Re:Obligatory Conspiracy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wow, this is huge (Score:4, Informative)
Between Warner and Paramount it looks like around 70-80 titles are currently available on both formats according to High-Def Digest's [highdefdigest.com] historical release [highdefdigest.com] lists [highdefdigest.com].
Warner's been a little quicker about getting their HD-DVD titles out, so they have about 20 more titles that are still waiting for Blu-Ray releases.
Re:someone's getting paid off (Score:5, Informative)
Define clear winner. Toshiba has been heavily subsidizing its players to make them sell, yet it's still had to slash its 2007 sales estimates almost in half. Sales of Blu Ray discs outstrip HD DVD almost two to one and the format has the support and backing of the majority of electronics companies and every major studio except one.
It's not a question of if HD DVD will fail but when. Now perhaps some cheap HD DVD players will charge over the hill and save the day, but I think it may be too late for that.
That doesn't mean Blu Ray has set the world alight - it's still transitioning from early adopter to mainstream. But it looks inevitable that in a few years the only things selling in your local store will be DVDs and BDs.
One format means no more price wars (Score:5, Informative)
Reasons to support BD:
- Sony & Disney catalogs
- More storage
Reasons to support HD DVD:
- Universal catalog
- Less DRM, no region codes (imports!)
- Easier to author your own content
- No censorship by factories
Reasons to hope both stay alive:
- Price wars
Re:confusion (Score:2, Informative)
You've got it backwards. HD-DVD players are fully backward compatible with DVD. HD-DVD is an extension of the DVD format. Blu-Ray is the new format that's not compatible with standard DVDs.
Re:Is there still a format war? (Score:2, Informative)
I still think Sony is stupid enough to keep licensing costs high enough for BD players up over $300 for quite awhile yet, while HDDVD will probably be first to go to China and come out in the states for less than $200. I'm thinking Toshiba branded players for $200 for XMas, Chinese knockoffs for $150 or so.
Folks don't have enough bandwidth for digital delivery of HD, and nobody's doing 1080p digital delivery yet AFAIK (everything I've seen on XBL is 720p)
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:3, Informative)
Big DIFFERENCE between movies and music (Score:3, Informative)
The fact is, most music is 1) listened to in the car on the radio or CD player, 2) by teenagers hanging out with their friends, 3) commuting urbanites on mass transit, or 4) someone looking for background music while working on the computer. Very listen music is listened to in a dedicated environment designed to maximize quality.
As a result, unless one is choosing to listen to music in an ideal way, MP3s or mini-discs which compress the music sound "about the same" in the non-ideal environment. The subtleties of music are irrelevant in a noisy car or while at the gym.
Movies are consumed in a variety of ways. Families may play a movie in the car, may watch it in the family room/living room in a relaxed environment, or may use a dedicated home theatre room. While the latter is the minority, it's not the extreme minority that music listening is.
For music, portability is key, and the ability to pop a CD in at a friend's house is important, but the ability to take your digital audio in MP3 and/or AAC/WMA and have a CD in a few minutes is part of why digital audio is popular.
For video, there just isn't a demand for portable viewing... sure the video iPod or iPhone will be popular with urban commuters, but that is are relatively small percentage of the population. The ability to grab a DVD and pop it in the kid's room, in the home theatre, etc., makes a difference.
Within a few years, either of the high definition players will crowd out conventional DVD players, because distribution costs and desire for profitability will prevent the DVD player from dropping under the $30 it is at now, and the high def players are already "cheap," sub-$500 for a cutting edge technology is historically cheap, and within two years we'll probably be under $200, and the under $100/$50 range will come within a few years. At that point, new sales of DVD players will taper-off.
The reasons that portable and digital music is so popular don't really apply to video, as they are watched differently. Most adults simply don't have the desire for handheld video (handheld televisions were NEVER mainstream, while walkmans took off like crazy when they came out).
The market for "high end" video is a larger niche... probably 5%-10% of middle to upper-middle class homes have a home theatre setup, and many more have "nice" televisions that would benefit from HDTV... If the studios were smart (and they aren't), they'd ship the dual-layer DVD/BR discs at the same price, eliminating the DVD option, which would cause rapid adoption. However, they are looking to increase the prices for HD formats, which may be their undoing. However, as Car DVD players become Car BR-DVD (or HD-DVD), and the HiDef DVDs become common, the format will take off.
The problem, IMO, is that if I have 3-4 DVD players in a house (not unreasonable, Family room, Master bedroom, plus one or more kids rooms), even if I replace the family room DVD
Re:Blue ray MPEG2 ?? (Score:3, Informative)
Second, MPEG2 was mainly used for the initial Blu-ray releases. Casino Royale used AVC at around the same bitrate (~30mbit) and it looks fantastic. I don't even have a 1080p set. I highly doubt it would be possible to get even close to the same quality on DVD (in one disc mind you).
Finally, since it's not in the DVD spec, people would have to go out and buy new players even if DVD w/ MPEG4 was chosen as the new next gen format (and would also have to clear out their shelves to support the 5 disc movie releases in HD resolutions)
Re:I'm Puzzled (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=apple+blu-ra
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:1, Informative)
Andy.
Today just isn't your day... :) (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Food for thought (Score:2, Informative)
Physical media isn't going anywhere soon. Have you even bothered to talk to anyone on the street? A large majority of people don't even know you can download/stream video using their computers. Most people know about getting music online.
At this point the majority is still technically minded people that know about getting movies online. Your average mom and pop have no idea. This could change in 10 years, but I wouldn't say that's "fast."
Re:Oh? (Score:2, Informative)
The Microsoft hater says: They write insecure code.
The Sony hater says: They unleashed a horrible trojan on the world inorder to monitor me
The Microsoft Hater has a choice of using different software, finding a new job, etc.
The Sony hater has no choice for music, if they want to purchase a legal physical copy.
Evil of Sony > Evil of Microsoft
You won't win if/when Sony wins. You will want to get some astro glide for your bum though.