Many may still be scratching their heads at why exactly
Blockbuster decided to
delve head first into the world of
digital downloads this late in the game with such a weak (on paper, anyway) offering. CEO Jim Keyes recently sat down with
E-Commerce News to clarify a few things, and here's the skinny. For starters, it's not using a pure "streaming" method on the
MediaPoint; instead, it's using a "progressive download" in hopes of improving the quality of the experience for those without a pure, continuous connection. Next, it's solely relying on an à la carte way of delivering films in order to bring new releases to the home faster, and if you've taken a look at
Netflix's online availability of those very titles, you'll start to see the difference. Potentially most revealing were his quotes on future endeavors, where he candidly admits that its download services will be coming to undisclosed Blu-ray players "by the first quarter of next year." Whether or not the public will actually view that as a selling point, however, remains to be seen.
[Image courtesy of
CEOSmack, thanks Anthony]
posted Nov 30th 2008 2:51PM
I've checked out blu-ray rentals here in London, and good lord they are expensive. £5 just to rent a blu-ray is preposterous, especially when the DVD version of the movie might cost exactly 5£.
Ok, 1 more time and then you hopefully die!
Engadget really knows how to pick sides. Bias just seeps through the posts on this blog.
I for one would love to see Blockbuster give my brand new Sony S350 ($180 on Dell.com, baby!) a firmware addition to integrate my Blockbuster Online subscription. A subscription that I've been very happy with thus far, I might add. All the blu-ray might little heart desires at no additional cost. It made me all warm and fuzzy inside when I clicked the "enable blu-ray titles" button on my BB Online settings.
how the hell did you get it so cheap? care to share?
Black Friday sale! It went up to $200 on Saturday, and now it looks like it's all the way back up to $250 (Sunday). Also got the Logitech Harmony 880 for only $100 (finally, I can rid my coffee table of all those damn ugly stock remotes).
I actually have two S350's now, because I found the Dell.com sale like 5 minutes after I got home from Circuit City with the same unit (they were selling for $230 and I had gift cards). I'm just going to return the CC unit, pocket the difference, and spend the gift card credits on something else. Maybe a Monster HDMI cable... hahaha, just kidding.
Damn, those were 2 good offers, though I'm always sceptical about those universal controlers...
If you want to buy the monster cable look on ebay I have bought 2 very cheap and the real thing! : )
nothing beats buying a 90+$ cable in 20$ :D
also the S350 are going for (230-250) on ebay...
Good luck with that since data caps are slowly becoming the modus operandi for ISPs.
'modus operandi'? ROFL! why would you use a latin term? = 'mode of operation' classic.
In Australia our wireless plans do not give you more than 6gb download and the speed is capped at 1.5mb so care to explain how this at all will work in Australia?
One of the two major service providers for conventional wired broadband has a max data cap of 20gb (which includes uploads.. tyrants) and i am not even sure about the other (Telstra which is infamous for being complete dick heads). But in the end i suppose movie producers will stop this i mean putting a movie straight onto your hard drive for you makes it terribly easy for me to go and split it into 200mb pieces and upload the entire thing onto rapidshare or megaupload and distribute it.
they have medicine for that.
try to hold it in longer next time.
hmm maybe ps3. chough chough
You spelt cough wrong.
You should get that 'chough' checked out...
well i just got over a cough just a week ago.
Blockbuster is still around?
Yes they are. I'm assuming that since you probably stream your movies you think everyone else does as well? Some of us are okay with movie rentals from Brick & Mortar stores.
Call me crazy, but for some reason, I'm okay with being able to watch movies on my TV and not just my laptop....
Is it just me, or does he look a lot like Mike Huckabee?
Just you
Yea, just you. I don't see it either.
Is it just me, or does he look nothing like Mike Huckabee?
Fair enough. Point retracted. I shouldn't be commenting before my coffee, as usual.
I hope this means that they will plan on providing there services to Xbox 360 similar to netfilx. People can hate on blockbuster all they want, but the more competition the better it is for consumers.
Ps: If blockbuster wants to do anything else random, close to their idea of almost buying circuit city, they should provide Internet service, I am sick of comcast.
It definitely sounds like something Sony would jump on to give the 360 a run for it's money considering the Netflix integration. However, I don't see how this would prompt anyone to run out and buy Blu-Ray hardware. You technically don't need a BR player to get hd titles, you can forget about buying BR disks if online streaming appeals to you functionally and financially. In essence, their customer base are people who already are invested in the service or plan on buying a blu-ray player that can stream.....Which in and of itself makes no sense since those very people already probably have the tech in their homes to stream without any additional purchases.
It's definitely nice to see online entertainment options expanding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0&feature=related
Blockbuster says a lot of things...
So do you.. and sometimes I wish you just didn't exist..
wow, I really dislike you, iloveapple.
Maybe it should read: "Blockbuster CEO talks up 2Wire MediaPoint, says rentals coming to BD decks in Q1 2009....to U.S residences."
Looks like you missed the part about it becoming Mac compatible in 2026.
i Hope someone shoots you in your face
god damn it, again?
well not to belabor the point, but in my psychology class we learned that bringing attention to an undesirable behavior only strengthens the individual's belief that it yields an effect, thus he will continue to do it more. the best thing to do is just ignore this idiot and he will go away.
Hi Dave Chappelle
I am in Australia and I get a hell of a lot more than 6GB, don;'t know who the hell you are with. Try TPG - 20Mbit speed and 150GB for $69.
I have never had an issue hitting my limit with flix, I am looking forward to blockbuster getting this going here in Oz!
Sure we have a couple of these services already, but a couple more would be great :-)
I'm more interested in this...
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/120108dnbusblockbuster.3ef53b1.html
It's time for Blockbuster to pull up stakes and make like PC Magazine - go online only
Stream to PS3 please.
Why would Microsoft let an a la carte movie rental service compete with it's existing a la carte movie rental service via the Xbox Live Marketplace?
A la carte is not subscription, folks...
For some reason, he looks like an older version of John Key (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Key), the new Prime Minister of New Zealand for those who don't know.