Blockbuster OnDemand en route to Samsung HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and home theater systems

Questionable longevity or no, Blockbuster's taking some strides to get itself firmly into the video on demand business, and this latest announcement will go a long way with that. The company announced that it's integrating its OnDemand service into Samsung HDTVs, home theater systems, and Blu-ray players starting Fall 2009. Better still, those with LED HDTVs series 7000 or above, LCD / Plasmas series 650 or above, and select 2009 Blu-ray players / theater systems can get the service later via firmware update. It's still got a ways to go if it wants to catch up to Netflix, but every little bit helps, right?

[tony @ Jul 14th 2009 1:29AM]

Um, Blockbuster can just suck balls and die. The reason why they are failing is because most people would choose not to go to them if they had a choice. Well guess what? They do now (Netflix and other online services) so people are happy to never have to deal with the lameness of Blockbuster again. As far as I'm concerned, the sooner they are gone the better.

[arkweld @ Jul 14th 2009 2:23AM]

Netflix can take a flying fuck off a tall building.

When Netflix jacked up Blu-ray rates so the charged over $5 over the same Blockbuster plan they lost any goodwill they might have had from me.

If you want to pick a bad guy here then Netflix took that crown.

[Amun @ Jul 14th 2009 2:35AM]

Well... BB might have something decent as an alternative to netflix if they didn't try to charge you four freakin dollars just to watch a movie. Now... maybe if they managed to have excellent digital versions of every movie ever made (more/better selection than netflix), then I might be willing to shell out $4.

[James @ Jul 14th 2009 4:34AM]

I like those red box things at Safeway and other grocery stores. They have most new releases and are only a dollar a day plus there is no wait for shipping or stupid membership fees. I had a netflix account and it was great in all but i just dont watch all that many movies so after a month of not actually watching anything that came i canceled it (plus having 10 blu rays at the top of my queue for months and never getting one). Paying per movie might be a better choice for many people over a subscription specially if you only watch 1 or 2 movies a month.

[Nikesh @ Jul 14th 2009 7:18AM]

I want Blockbuster to succeed for the sole reason that it would be good competition for Netflix. Without that competition we will undoubtedly see unnecessary price hikes from Netflix and poorer service.

[dan2600 @ Jul 14th 2009 11:15AM]

Nikesh is the winner! I totally agree! I really hope Blockbuster can start offering cheap Blu-Ray's so netflix has to lower their price. I canceled Blu-Ray on my account because out of the 9-14 movies A month I got...maybe 1 or 2 would be Blu-Ray...so to pay an extra 20% for something I use 7-11% of the time makes absolutely no sense to me, I also hope they up the resolution of the streaming service.

[gerrrg @ Jul 14th 2009 1:28AM]

Bleh...that's a disincentive to buy another Samsung.

[a13xx94 @ Jul 14th 2009 1:29AM]

Blockbuster = FAIL

[Gregorian @ Jul 14th 2009 1:33AM]

It's one of those things that in a couple of years time, whether it's successful or not, will be completely out of date and useless.

It's better to get things like this through your XBox or PS3, where the service can be updated or dropped, and other services can also be accessed.

[Reallynotnick @ Jul 14th 2009 1:40AM]

Select BD players? Which ones are those?
I hope my 1600 can but I doubt it. Though I doubt I'll ever use it, choice is nice.

[John Stracke @ Jul 14th 2009 9:03AM]

The big question is whether, if they give us Blockbuster, they'll take away Netflix.

[Bran @ Jul 14th 2009 2:12AM]

What in the world is Panasonic doing? It appears they are dropping the ball on their current hardware. Amazon Unbox and Youtube seems kind of lame compared to streaming Netflix, Blockbuster and Pandora. Everytime I hear about Samsung updating their players with these features, I can't help but feel a little jealous sitting here with my Panny BD60.

[nyq @ Jul 14th 2009 2:22AM]

hmmm... yeah... so wait my blue ray player does what now again?
Oh yeah! thats right! you said it streams movies.... kinda like a dedicated media center... that takes away from my need to buy blue ray discs, plays video but not upscaled, and does not display video or audio in either of the glorious paramounts im supposed to have been sold on when i bought the blue ray player!
Wow thanks, thats wierd, I could have sworn you just whispered that i payed so much extra money for a device to bring multi-functionality in the convenience of one box, which ultimatly i would choose only one option from and settle for continuously.
is this a way to make you not feel to bad you didnt go out and get a ps3?

[sam @ Jul 14th 2009 3:27PM]

PS3 support is key. tons of current netflix subscribers would switch today if they could stream HD through the PS3...

[Steven @ Jul 14th 2009 2:23AM]

Blockbuster is the Yahoo of movie rentals

[James @ Jul 14th 2009 4:36AM]

Everybody knows them, nobody uses them?

[Gregory Pierce @ Jul 14th 2009 9:01AM]

Everybody knows them, fewer and fewer people use them and new
competitors keep entering the field and surpassing them.

[Ichabod @ Jul 14th 2009 2:29AM]

I agree with Steven above. Blockbuster is late to the game. they are trying to adapt and outdated business model and evenue stream into something that is relavent.

[Rob @ Jul 14th 2009 7:35AM]

Blockbuster is the Circuit City of the video rentals. They have done so much to make their subscription service less and less appealing. I need to cancel my membership cause it's not worth it at all.

[Carl @ Jul 14th 2009 8:27AM]

while i'd have no interest in this its nice to see them adding functionality through firmware upgrades. For someone who likes having new tech its hard having a 1 year old 120Hz LCD. I mean, its now half what I paid for it. But such is life.

[barth @ Jul 14th 2009 9:14AM]

It's too bad they're doing this on Samsungs. They seem to be some of the highest priced LCD lines when I'm shopping around.

[DigitizedSociety @ Jul 14th 2009 10:01AM]

It seems as though Blockbusters offering will be more inline with Amazon video pay per stream/download. Which means all that they have done is made it so that my lazy ass doesn't have to get up and go to the nearest blockbuster to pay $4 per movie rental.

[Kurt @ Jul 14th 2009 10:07AM]

Samsung indicates that both Netflix and Blockbuster online services will be found on the Blu-ray players and home theaters that support them. The TV sets, however, sound exclusively Blockbuster, at least for now.

[jambino @ Jul 14th 2009 10:27AM]

Bluckbuster is still in business? Aw, good for them. Go get 'em tiger!

[Los @ Jul 14th 2009 10:43AM]

You're a moron if you say F you Blockbuster, love live Netflix, or the other way around. Why?? Because any competition is always a good thing for you! No matter which side you chose, with competition, the other brand will have to keep it's rates low. Thus the guy who was saying F Netflix for charging $5 more for Blu-ray, well, maybe now with Blockbuster coming to VOD (and lets assume they charge less for Blu-ray VOD), then guess what Netflix will have to do if everyone begins to use Blockbuster?? (In case you're too much of moron, I'll spell it out for you: Netflix will lower their prices on Blu-ray to stay competitive) I mean, come on people... have a little bit of common sense. This would be one of the dumbest things to have brand loyalty for. As long as the picture quality/sound/download time/etc is all the same, who really cares which of the two companies you rent the movie from. Not calling everyone here a moron, but the ones that understand that, know that I'm not talking to them.

[dan2600 @ Jul 14th 2009 11:24AM]

so the point of buying a blu-ray player and HDTV is not to watch 20-40Mb/s true HD 1080p Blu-Ray movies, but to STREAM 2-3Kb/s movies....

SD DVDs had a bitrate max 10Mb/s....

Bitrate > resolution IMHO

first we accepted lower bitrate music from digital distribution music stores....now we accept lower bitrate video from digital distribution.

Is it just me or is the whole digital distribution thing moving things BACKWARDS in terms of digital quality.

just saying!!

[MBS @ Jul 14th 2009 12:33PM]

Why do blockbuster even bother to release these things; they will never come to fruition.
Just like the 2wire set to box they announced ~6 months ago without a peep since.
Just like the kiosk where you could rent movies and download to your portable device they announced ~1.5 years ago.

They can pretend they are going to copy all their competitors' ideas as much as they want to but blockbuster has long since gotten rid of anybody to implement any of these ideas for them so it's just not going to happen.