Netflix and Best Buy Choose Blu-ray
Well, I think the fat lady has just sung. Blu-ray’s stranglehold on the high-def market just tightened even further this week, as online rental service Netflix have announced they will be dropping support for HD-DVD titles, immediately halting all purchase of new inventory and phasing out existing HD-DVD titles by the end of the year. If that wasn’t enough, the largest U.S. retail electronics chain Best Buy have sided with Blu-ray as well. Although they will continue to carry some HD-DVD stock, starting in early March they will prominently showcase Blu-ray technology and recommend it to all consumers. OUCH.
That pretty much does it for me. I think I am officially done buying HD-DVDs, and will probably make next week’s release of American Gangster my final purchase. As much as I have been a supporter of high-definition DVDs in general, I am a bit frustrated by the way things have played out. I was fine with only having select titles to choose from on HD-DVD, but now I am being forced to buy another player if I still want to purchase and watch new movies in high-def. I really thought that if anyone was going to win, it would be HD-DVD, but Sony has been throwing around a ridiculous amount of money to ensure victory because this is one battle they simply could not afford to lose.
Comments (13)
“I am a bit frustrated by the way things have played out. I was fine with only having select titles to choose from on HD-DVD, but now I am being forced to buy another player if I still want to purchase and watch new movies in high-def.”
Come on Sean, don’t say that nobody warned you! That’s what everybody was saying could be the risk of adopting this technology while there was still competing formats. Don’t whine about it now, please.
Posted by Henrik on February 12th, 2008Yes, I suppose it’s true that I chose a side and apparently chose wrong. However, I did think that both would continue co-existing for quite a while… I didn’t think the format war would end so soon.
Posted by Sean on February 12th, 2008If I had to choose a side from the start it would have been bluray.. but still waited until a month ago to jump in (with a PS3). Glad I did! Though I wouldn’t have minded having both, since I still don’t have a standalone player.
Interesting note.. I’ve never owned a stand alone DVD player. I’ve used the PS2 the whole time, which introduced my family to DVDs.
Posted by joe on February 12th, 2008I would hold out for a bit if your not bothered about rushing to Blu-Ray anytime, maybe Microsoft has a Blu-Ray add-on in the works, it has been mentioned.
Not excatly ideal but its a good option if there is no reason of getting an PS3 just to play Blu-Ray stuff.
Same here, no more buying HD-DVDs, Zodiac directors cut will have to be the last. Shame, great format.
Posted by Nemesis on February 12th, 2008my stratedgy during the format war was as follows: RENT AS MANY NETFLIX MOVIES AS POSSIBLE AND COPY THEM LIKE THE FIRES OF HELL ARE UNDER MY FEET….6 300-disc binders later…I feel as though I won the war. thank you to the studios for not given a shit about copy protection on normal DVDs once the HD ones arrived.
Posted by Bob The Slob on February 12th, 2008by the way, when i say COPY i mean WATCH, and when i say BINDERS i mean BRAIN CELLS…yeah that’s the ticket.
Posted by Bob The Slob on February 12th, 2008It’s a shame, because I do think that HD is a great format. I just wish that somehow they could have collaborated and/or co-existed. I have about 11 HD-DVDs, and I love them, but I guess I’ll be looking at a PS3 or maybe a dual format sometime soon. Sucks to have picked the wrong side, but at least the movies I have still look great.
Posted by Jon Rocks on February 12th, 2008I’ve been avoiding the format war entirely, though I am slightly glad that Blu-Ray seems to be winning because I plan to purchase a PS3 when the new Metal Gear Solid game comes out. My first DVD player (and indeed only DVD player for several years) was a PS2, and for the foreseeable future, a PS3 will be serving as my next-gen media player.
Posted by Rian on February 12th, 2008“I am a bit frustrated by the way things have played out. I was fine with only having select titles to choose from on HD-DVD, but now I am being forced to buy another player if I still want to purchase and watch new movies in high-def.”
Honestly you should have waited. Despite being a PS3 owner and enjoying the Blu-ray features when people asked me if they should get a Blu-ray player I would tell them to hold off buying either type of player and wait till one was the dominant hi-def format. Your situation is unfortunately a result of being an early adopter.
“I really thought that if anyone was going to win, it would be HD-DVD, but Sony has been throwing around a ridiculous amount of money to ensure victory because this is one battle they simply could not afford to lose.”
Don’t sound so bitter about it, it’s not like HD-DVD didn’t spend a lot to gain their supporters either. Whether it had been Blu-Ray or HD-DVD that would have won this format war the best thing to come out of this is that it’s going to end soon and that is better for the consumer. Less confusion over the formats and less people who are going to buy more than one type of machine.
Posted by Tanya on February 12th, 2008But I didn’t want to wait! I still got a year’s worth of enjoyment out of the HD-DVD format, and I guess maybe that’s all I should really have expected. I did take the easiest and cheapest route to early adoption possible by just buying the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on. Still, I do feel like in this case the superior technology has once again lost out to someone with more marketing muscle and more money. But at least I can admit that it’s time to call it a day for HD-DVD.
Posted by Sean on February 12th, 2008I hear you Sean, i did excatly the same thing, the 360 HD-DVD add-on was really good value at the time of release & the 360 was the best machine out there, the PS3 cost too much & had not many games on it.
Posted by Nemesis on February 12th, 2008HD-DVD seemed to be head to head most of the time with blu-ray until the warners decision.
I’m calling it a day too with HD-DVD, the balls in Sony’s court now, might as well wait & see how things turn out.
I still think that HD looks superior to blue-ray. Blue-ray has a really weird look to it that I can’t stand. Everytime I go to a Best Buy and see a movie playing on blue-ray I change my mind about buying the player.
Posted by Alex on February 14th, 2008Leave a Reply