Blockbuster going with BluRay

[George Bellefontaine]

In a June 18th press release, Blockbuster has opted to provide BluRay titles only on its rental shelves. Not good news for HD DVD.

[Ovation]

Sadly, this is true. Not necessarily because I prefer one over the other, but because I deplore the influence that some mega-chains have on the market--it's quite distorting. I'm especially not fond of Blockbuster because of its treatment of NC-17 rated films in the US. It was created to offer artistic freedom without the stigma of an X rating (bonus points for anyone who knows what the only X rated movie to receive Oscar nominations was) but no studio (practically) will sanction an NC-17 movie because Blockbuster won't carry them. The irony is, if the NC-17 label had actually been given a chance, then a number of R-rated movies would have been much more difficult for children to gain access to and watch (principally those with violence). Anyway, I don't want to hijack the thread, but I find this kind of market distortion disturbing.

If Wal-Mart adopts the same policy (though I'd heard they were backing HD DVD), then I think the format "war" will resolve itself within 12-18 months, at most. Universal studios will not want to be shut out of the biggest rental and sales outlets in America for too long, and, as the lone hold-out from Blu-Ray, I predict they will fold--just as Sony did when it started making VHS machines, back in the day.

[DrJRapp]

(bonus points for anyone who knows what the only X rated movie to receive Oscar nominations was)

Midnight Cowboy not only was nominated but won Best Picture award in 69.

I really think the Blockbuster situation sucks....probably came from the BluRay Consortium offerring Blockbuster big $$. I'm not exactly sure how badly this will hurt HD DVD but any setback is an issue. Blockbuster is now the wannabe HiDef movie rental service anyhow, taking a back seat to Netflix.

[Pez]

If Walmart does go forward with the $200 HD DVD players the Blockbuster situation could have little impact for deciding the format war. I dont care who wins either way just as long as it happens soon.

[Chris D]

Update to this story today:

http://www.psu.com/node/11746

News story claiming that this has already hit the HD-DVD camp. You decide if it's true.

[RebelMan]

If Wal-Mart adopts the same policy (though I'd heard they were backing HD DVD), then I think the format "war" will resolve itself within 12-18 months, at most. Universal studios will not want to be shut out of the biggest rental and sales outlets in America for too long, and, as the lone hold-out from Blu-Ray, I predict they will fold--just as Sony did when it started making VHS machines, back in the day.

There has been much speculation about Wal-Mart and their stand on both hidef formats. I think the Block Buster impact could be greater to the masses than Wal-Mart's decision to sell players. What good is an HD-DVD player if you can't easily rent the movies to support it? Sure there is NetFlix but frankly I like browsing the isles for a movie and if the prices and availablity are there I would abandon NetFlix in a heartbeat.

Asking the masses to buy ~$30 hidef disks instead of ~$10 DVDs will not be easy. But if they can rent them for the same price as DVDs, then you might have something. The BB announcment is big news. I'am willing to bet we'll all be making a vist there someday soon.

I am very eager for the pact between Universal and HD-DVD to disolve in December and I hope they will finally jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon. I am holding out before making any concrete decisions to support the other format until then.

At the moment I think the HD-DVD format is better overall but I also see it fighting to survive not thriving. The Blu-ray format will flurish regardless of any outcomes because it is a dual format supporting games. Besides, the PS3 smokes every HD player out there IMHO and families love "it does it all" solutions.