wow, i cant believe you are crying over this. did anyone actually think HD-DVD had a chance? im no sony fanboy, but DVD had the PS2 which made DVD what it is, then HD-DVD comes out and tries to make a name KNOWING that PS3 was going to come out with a BD player already in it. even if PS3 was doing a lot worse (not saying its doing great) but even if it had only sold....2 million systems, thats still way more than HD-DVD has sold for players. this "war" was decided the moment sony decided to include BD players in the ps3. so stop crying about it and get used to it, BluRay is the winner and blockbuster is being smart by picking the winning team ahead of time to avoid losses in the future. go ahead and cancel your membership, if you cry about it that much, i wouldnt want you in my store anyway (used to work at BB) because whiny customers just annoy the hell out of the employees anyway.
I don't hear any crying but you Xero, whah whah, somebody wants to rent a movie in HD DVD when I think Blu-ray is better. :( I just want a choice, and I choose not to rent from Blockbuster anymore. What is it to you that I want to watch HD DVD anyway?
"I will now be officially canceling my Blockbuster account. I want choice and convenience, and limiting my choices looses my patronage."
(see above statement) perhaps i should have worded it differently then. what i should have said is you are throwing a hissy fit over this. "I want HD! I dont like BluRay! If I cant rent one, then i wont rent any! Screw you for not offering me a doomed format because you want to save money in the long run due to your company being in dire straits financially!" thats the equivalent of what you have stated. BB is doing very badly financially. they were on the verge of bankruptcy not too long ago. any little thing they can do to save money they have to do. why would they stock up on something that is already showing signs of failure? if you honestly, and i mean 100% dont believe that HD-DVD is going to lose/has already lost this "war" then you are delusional. an example-HD-DVD was kicking the crap out of BluRay in Europe. THEN, ps3 launched and the very next month, BD is outselling HD every single week from launch til present by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 discs each time. that alone has shown BB, im sure, that the format to side with is clearly the one with the larger market share. they have to take a risk with it either way, so they are going with the safer choice.
You're still not getting it xero...it doesn't matter if I support HD DVD or Blu-ray. I'm saying that I want a CHOICE in my HD format. If that means renting from Netflix instead of Blockbuster, then that's what I'm going to do. No one is throwing a "hissy fit" or crying about it but you. I'm simply stating that I'm switching from Blockbuster because I want a choice in my HD format. Comprende? Do you own a huge amount of stock in Blockbuster or something, 'cause you're really making a big deal about me not renting from them anymore.
why yes, i own 51 percent of blockbuster. i actually made the call to support BD only. mwahahaha.
then i hope a third HD format comes out as well so Netflix can try to please everyone with that as well. i like seeing them go the extra mile. do they rent betamax and laserdisc too? cause if its about choosing formats on a personal level, i choose those. seriously...laserdisc...its the next big thing. im going to leave it at that.
So Xero, basically you are stating that it is your personal opinion that HD DVD and Laserdisc have the same amount of support, there for it would be fool hardy for Blockbuster to include HD DVD in their stores?
actually i dont mean they have the same support... i mean they will soon, meaning they will both have NO support. toshiba is the only one trying to kick the dead horse. even warner bro.'s jumped ship. universal is the only exclusive backer now, and i would wager that its due to some binding contract. you know whats even better though? Disney has a NON-exclusive contract with BluRay and they still refuse to release any movies on HD-DVD...they dont want to bother. the moral of the story is this- Laserdisc will soon be on the same level as HD-DVD because HD-DVD will fall from grace to the pits of the media moratorium. and dont reiterate your point, i know that you want a choice at a personal level, i get it, i will admit i misunderstood you the first time, but now im just letting you know my thoughts on Netflix's supporting both formats.
Well not only does your choice cost Blockbuster money, it costs you money. One format surviving benifets everyone. I dont know about you but I sure dont want to buy both a Bluray player and an HDDVD player just so I can watch 2 different movies. I also dont know why you expect Blockbuster to have to stock twice as many movies to support a format a miniority of people use. That would raise prices for everybody. Blockbuster isnt going to do that and neither is any other company after they figure out what sells best.
If Blockbuster wants to support Blu-ray exclusively, it's their right to do so, they are a business after all. On the other hand, their business is a rental service, and when they decide to not carry a format, those people will go some where else to get it. The way I see it, and obviously a lot of people feel the same way, that it is too soon to decide what format is going to eventually win...assuming there is only going to be one format come out on top. I'm not bashing Blockbuster or think they must be a bunch of retards, obviously they are doing something right to still be around. I'm just stating that if I was the CEO of Blockbuster, I wouldn't count out HD DVD just yet...unless Sony was paying me millions of dollars to do so, then I would have to reconsider :)
Xero get a clue! The all mighty dollar speaks. And no consumer can speak louder than with his money! I do not have a regular membership with BlockBuster, but I do rent from them on a regular basis. Well untill now. BlockBuster should NOT take sides, but support BOTH so that A MAJORITY of their customers will be able to have the HD Content they desire. By taking a side, they punish EVERYONE who purchased HD-DVD equipment.
Personally I have NO High Def DVD format equipment. I plan to stay out of the format war untill there is a standard.
As long as you're using online services, they stated they would stock HD-DVD online. They have limited space in their stores, and the amount of people looking for HD movies is already pretty small. You can't expect them to keep 3 different versions of every movie.
I have to agree with Xero though. HDDVD is dead, and has been for a very long time. It's been pretty obvious that Blu-Ray would win, even a year before any players were released.
Anyways 70% of there customers were renting Blu-Ray. That's a pretty large majority that will probably continue to grow. I could see maybe buying a HDDVD player for my 360 because it was cheap before. I would call anyone that's buying a HDDVD player now an idiot, you might as well give me the money.
Maybe my understanding of Netflix is misunderstood... they are online only correct? Didn't the article state that Blockbuster was going to continue to offer HD DVD online in addition to Blu-ray? "HD DVD titles will continue to be offered online"
Not that I care either way. Just get one of them out of the way so I can buy a player at what ever the price is going to be. I don't want to worry about it not working next year because my format is dead :P
for those who would like the priviliege of calling me a double talking hypocrite, let it be known that i am not the same Xero from the other topic. this topic is the first ive ever posted on engadget before. :)
calling this a "war" is like saying "the French can put up a fight if they wanted to." Just not happening. ;) and as far as Blockbuster doing something "right" they are only around due to extreme budget cuts and marketing refocusing. they are still doing awful. i think their stock is 12dollars a share? bad juju. they are smart to pick a side. and as someone said earlier, there is no benefit to having both formats. let me clarify something, as a former manager at a BB. They dont just spend 25 dollars for an HD movie, or 20 for a dvd. they pay nearly triple the price OR pay a slightly higher price and profit share with the studio for the first couple of months. they cant just buy 20 HD-DVD's, rent them out a combined total of 100 times and be even. they would still owe some or they would have made a marginal amount off of them depending on rental fee. they needed to choose a side and they chose the popular one.
its interesting how Xero, who isnt a fanboy, in his original post claimed that Sony is the reason for DVD taking off and becoming a success. DVD was gonna be a success with or without the PS2 including a crappy low-end DVD drive. It just helped persuade people to buy PS2s... lets not forget that MS's Xbox also had a DVD player in it too.. There are soo many things that are untrue about your version of the history of the way HD-DVD and Blu-ray came into conception that it simply shows you are running at the mouth with having no knowledge of the history. Stop talking about stuff you dont know and do some research.
Xero pretty much right on with his DVD rollout comments. DVD did get a big boost from PS2s. Very big. Further, the PS2 DVD was not crap. It was a reasonable entry level player for a lot of people (myself included). It was a very good deal at the time (although the GUI and remote was lacking). Go back and check DVD player prices and the number of players out in the public's hands when the PS2 came out. Then check the numbers 6 months, then 12 months later (before the Xbox hit the shelves, as the PS2 went to market in 11/00 and the Xbox hit the shelves in 11/01). I think you will see that Xero's version of history was right, as least in terms of the PS2 giving DVD a huge surge in market penetration.
why do you want a choice though? sure maybe you went out on a limb and bought an HD DVD player and thats why you would prefer that format, but really, would you want two different types of DVD type formats? isnt it so much simpler having one format? sucks to be an early adapter huh.
I have heard that Blockbuster not only will carry blue ray, but will totally do away with regular DVD's. That seems to be non-american, like a monopoly on the big business end ( sony ). If I'm misimformed pleases correct me, but I just spoke to a blockbuster employee.
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I will now be officially canceling my Blockbuster account. I want choice and convenience, and limiting my choices looses my patronage.
wow, i cant believe you are crying over this. did anyone actually think HD-DVD had a chance? im no sony fanboy, but DVD had the PS2 which made DVD what it is, then HD-DVD comes out and tries to make a name KNOWING that PS3 was going to come out with a BD player already in it. even if PS3 was doing a lot worse (not saying its doing great) but even if it had only sold....2 million systems, thats still way more than HD-DVD has sold for players. this "war" was decided the moment sony decided to include BD players in the ps3. so stop crying about it and get used to it, BluRay is the winner and blockbuster is being smart by picking the winning team ahead of time to avoid losses in the future. go ahead and cancel your membership, if you cry about it that much, i wouldnt want you in my store anyway (used to work at BB) because whiny customers just annoy the hell out of the employees anyway.
I don't hear any crying but you Xero, whah whah, somebody wants to rent a movie in HD DVD when I think Blu-ray is better. :( I just want a choice, and I choose not to rent from Blockbuster anymore. What is it to you that I want to watch HD DVD anyway?
"I will now be officially canceling my Blockbuster account. I want choice and convenience, and limiting my choices looses my patronage."
(see above statement)
perhaps i should have worded it differently then. what i should have said is you are throwing a hissy fit over this. "I want HD! I dont like BluRay! If I cant rent one, then i wont rent any! Screw you for not offering me a doomed format because you want to save money in the long run due to your company being in dire straits financially!" thats the equivalent of what you have stated. BB is doing very badly financially. they were on the verge of bankruptcy not too long ago. any little thing they can do to save money they have to do. why would they stock up on something that is already showing signs of failure? if you honestly, and i mean 100% dont believe that HD-DVD is going to lose/has already lost this "war" then you are delusional. an example-HD-DVD was kicking the crap out of BluRay in Europe. THEN, ps3 launched and the very next month, BD is outselling HD every single week from launch til present by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 discs each time. that alone has shown BB, im sure, that the format to side with is clearly the one with the larger market share. they have to take a risk with it either way, so they are going with the safer choice.
You're still not getting it xero...it doesn't matter if I support HD DVD or Blu-ray. I'm saying that I want a CHOICE in my HD format. If that means renting from Netflix instead of Blockbuster, then that's what I'm going to do. No one is throwing a "hissy fit" or crying about it but you. I'm simply stating that I'm switching from Blockbuster because I want a choice in my HD format. Comprende? Do you own a huge amount of stock in Blockbuster or something, 'cause you're really making a big deal about me not renting from them anymore.
why yes, i own 51 percent of blockbuster. i actually made the call to support BD only. mwahahaha.
then i hope a third HD format comes out as well so Netflix can try to please everyone with that as well. i like seeing them go the extra mile. do they rent betamax and laserdisc too? cause if its about choosing formats on a personal level, i choose those. seriously...laserdisc...its the next big thing. im going to leave it at that.
So Xero, basically you are stating that it is your personal opinion that HD DVD and Laserdisc have the same amount of support, there for it would be fool hardy for Blockbuster to include HD DVD in their stores?
actually i dont mean they have the same support... i mean they will soon, meaning they will both have NO support. toshiba is the only one trying to kick the dead horse. even warner bro.'s jumped ship. universal is the only exclusive backer now, and i would wager that its due to some binding contract. you know whats even better though? Disney has a NON-exclusive contract with BluRay and they still refuse to release any movies on HD-DVD...they dont want to bother. the moral of the story is this- Laserdisc will soon be on the same level as HD-DVD because HD-DVD will fall from grace to the pits of the media moratorium. and dont reiterate your point, i know that you want a choice at a personal level, i get it, i will admit i misunderstood you the first time, but now im just letting you know my thoughts on Netflix's supporting both formats.
Well not only does your choice cost Blockbuster money, it costs you money. One format surviving benifets everyone. I dont know about you but I sure dont want to buy both a Bluray player and an HDDVD player just so I can watch 2 different movies. I also dont know why you expect Blockbuster to have to stock twice as many movies to support a format a miniority of people use. That would raise prices for everybody. Blockbuster isnt going to do that and neither is any other company after they figure out what sells best.
If Blockbuster wants to support Blu-ray exclusively, it's their right to do so, they are a business after all. On the other hand, their business is a rental service, and when they decide to not carry a format, those people will go some where else to get it. The way I see it, and obviously a lot of people feel the same way, that it is too soon to decide what format is going to eventually win...assuming there is only going to be one format come out on top. I'm not bashing Blockbuster or think they must be a bunch of retards, obviously they are doing something right to still be around. I'm just stating that if I was the CEO of Blockbuster, I wouldn't count out HD DVD just yet...unless Sony was paying me millions of dollars to do so, then I would have to reconsider :)
Xero get a clue! The all mighty dollar speaks. And no consumer can speak louder than with his money!
I do not have a regular membership with BlockBuster, but I do rent from them on a regular basis. Well untill now.
BlockBuster should NOT take sides, but support BOTH so that A MAJORITY of their customers will be able to have the HD Content they desire. By taking a side, they punish EVERYONE who purchased HD-DVD equipment.
Personally I have NO High Def DVD format equipment. I plan to stay out of the format war untill there is a standard.
LMFAO @ Jyspon and Xero!!!
As long as you're using online services, they stated they would stock HD-DVD online. They have limited space in their stores, and the amount of people looking for HD movies is already pretty small. You can't expect them to keep 3 different versions of every movie.
I have to agree with Xero though. HDDVD is dead, and has been for a very long time. It's been pretty obvious that Blu-Ray would win, even a year before any players were released.
Anyways 70% of there customers were renting Blu-Ray. That's a pretty large majority that will probably continue to grow. I could see maybe buying a HDDVD player for my 360 because it was cheap before. I would call anyone that's buying a HDDVD player now an idiot, you might as well give me the money.
Xero, I'm confused. You wrote "im no sony fanboy", which is funny because in your post at http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/22/ps3-price-cut-by-20-now-includes-hdmi-1-3/2, assuming you are the same Xero, you say you are a fanboy and claim that sony is genius. So which is it?
And how, exactly, will loosing your patronage affect Blockbuster?
"I loose my mighty patronage upon you, Blockbuster!"
Losing your patronage might affect them... but loosing it?
And don't call it a typo. It happens well the hell too often around here to call it a typo.
And that "well" was a typo. ;)
ohes noes!! i"ve incoored the wraithe of teh mitey spel checkar!!11! nooO000!!11!!
Maybe my understanding of Netflix is misunderstood... they are online only correct? Didn't the article state that Blockbuster was going to continue to offer HD DVD online in addition to Blu-ray? "HD DVD titles will continue to be offered online"
Not that I care either way. Just get one of them out of the way so I can buy a player at what ever the price is going to be. I don't want to worry about it not working next year because my format is dead :P
for those who would like the priviliege of calling me a double talking hypocrite, let it be known that i am not the same Xero from the other topic. this topic is the first ive ever posted on engadget before. :)
calling this a "war" is like saying "the French can put up a fight if they wanted to." Just not happening. ;) and as far as Blockbuster doing something "right" they are only around due to extreme budget cuts and marketing refocusing. they are still doing awful. i think their stock is 12dollars a share? bad juju. they are smart to pick a side. and as someone said earlier, there is no benefit to having both formats. let me clarify something, as a former manager at a BB. They dont just spend 25 dollars for an HD movie, or 20 for a dvd. they pay nearly triple the price OR pay a slightly higher price and profit share with the studio for the first couple of months. they cant just buy 20 HD-DVD's, rent them out a combined total of 100 times and be even. they would still owe some or they would have made a marginal amount off of them depending on rental fee. they needed to choose a side and they chose the popular one.
The writing has been on the wall long before this decision by Blockbuster!
http://www.dvdempire.com/Content/Features/hidef_wars.asp
its interesting how Xero, who isnt a fanboy, in his original post claimed that Sony is the reason for DVD taking off and becoming a success. DVD was gonna be a success with or without the PS2 including a crappy low-end DVD drive. It just helped persuade people to buy PS2s... lets not forget that MS's Xbox also had a DVD player in it too.. There are soo many things that are untrue about your version of the history of the way HD-DVD and Blu-ray came into conception that it simply shows you are running at the mouth with having no knowledge of the history. Stop talking about stuff you dont know and do some research.
Hey Nick,
Xero pretty much right on with his DVD rollout comments. DVD did get a big boost from PS2s. Very big. Further, the PS2 DVD was not crap. It was a reasonable entry level player for a lot of people (myself included). It was a very good deal at the time (although the GUI and remote was lacking). Go back and check DVD player prices and the number of players out in the public's hands when the PS2 came out. Then check the numbers 6 months, then 12 months later (before the Xbox hit the shelves, as the PS2 went to market in 11/00 and the Xbox hit the shelves in 11/01). I think you will see that Xero's version of history was right, as least in terms of the PS2 giving DVD a huge surge in market penetration.
why do you want a choice though? sure maybe you went out on a limb and bought an HD DVD player and thats why you would prefer that format, but really, would you want two different types of DVD type formats? isnt it so much simpler having one format? sucks to be an early adapter huh.
I know what you mean. They lost my business when they chose VHS over Betamax.
I have heard that Blockbuster not only will carry blue ray, but will totally do away with regular DVD's. That seems to be non-american, like a monopoly on the big business end ( sony ). If I'm misimformed pleases correct me, but I just spoke to a blockbuster employee.