Blockbuster chooses Blu-ray only for expanded rental availablity

sounds like someone got a fat check (cheque if you prefer) slid their way. Wrong section as already noted though good job on waving the Sony flag of awesomeness in the faces of those Nintendo and Microsoft console users :LOL:. Take every chance you get right? ;)
 
Good news, time for the worst format to die and let the best format live... for once :)

Besides, if it weren´t for Microsoft i don´t see how Toshiba could have any dreams of winning against the rest of the world.
 
tiny drop in a ocean...blu-ray (and hd-dvd for that matter) still has to compete against dvd

also, for the price of a rental at blockbuster, you might as well buy it used from them (when it comes to dvd's)
 
Viacom owns Paramount/DreamWorks. They use to own Blockbuster (1994-2004) but spun off their shares (82%) in the company.
 
Last time I Checked Viacom owned Blockbuster and if im mistaken owns Sony or visa versa:?:
*blinks*

Viacom owns Sony...? o_O

At any rate, Viacom divested its' interest in Blockbuster in 2004, so Blockbuster is operating as a separate entity now. ...and is not all that financially secure, which is likely what leads to their ultimate decision here. It's more costly to support both formats in all their stores, whereas it's easy to centralize for their online rental end, so they just choose a format early and run with it.
 
BluRay and HD DVD discussion is not part of the console forum unless it relates to gaming. Thus moved
 
The even more interesting part of that is the decision was based on the rental patterns in the original 250 stores, which showed a 70-30 preference for Blu-ray titles.

This is sort of a mirror image of the PS3 gaming situation --it's not that pricing is unimportant, but content is still king (and always will be, imho).
 
Considering HD-DVD stand alone players are outselling their BluRay counterparts. I dont think HD-DVD is going away anytime soon. I'd wait until after this holiday season and see what the stand alone player situation looks like before getting happy in the pants about either format.
 
Considering HD-DVD stand alone players are outselling their BluRay counterparts. I dont think HD-DVD is going away anytime soon. I'd wait until after this holiday season and see what the stand alone player situation looks like before getting happy in the pants about either format.

Considering that a player is a player, and stand alone doesn't really mean much unless you're desperately trying to look like you're "still in the game", I think it's safe to say that 3 Million > Whatever Toshiba and the HD DVD camp have sold. Period.
 
Considering HD-DVD stand alone players are outselling their BluRay counterparts. I dont think HD-DVD is going away anytime soon. I'd wait until after this holiday season and see what the stand alone player situation looks like before getting happy in the pants about either format.

That is not the issue here. Of course HD-DVD players will be available for those who want them, for many years to come. The issue is whether HD-DVD will end up like Sony Betamaxn - Betamax players were still available long after VHS won, but you couldn't buy or rent pre-recorded films on the media. It was the loss of support by video rental companies that killed it off as a mainstream movie format.

The loss of Blockbuster is a major blow for HD-DVD, although the current market is slightly different due to the fact that HD-DVD owners can still rent movies on DVD from Blockbuster (unlike in the Betamax vs VHS era).
 
Considering HD-DVD stand alone players are outselling their BluRay counterparts. I dont think HD-DVD is going away anytime soon. I'd wait until after this holiday season and see what the stand alone player situation looks like before getting happy in the pants about either format.

Well i can tell you the likely situation, Toshiba and Universal Studios will fight a hopeless fight to keep the format alive, backed by plenty of dollars from Microsoft, for example very cheap codec license fee? And the real losers is the supporters of HD-DVD. Universal Studios will release their titles on Blu-Ray when they have no choice.

But the battle is thankfully lost, anyone buying a HD-DVD player should know this, the outcome has been clear from the start, only HD-DVD´s almost flawless launch was a slight hope that it might stand a chance.
 
SPM said:
The loss of Blockbuster is a major blow for HD-DVD

Nope, Blockbuster and rentals are much less important than they were in the tape days. Most VHS and Betamax tapes were very expensive, renting was the only option for the majority of people for the majority of movies. DVD threatened that revenue stream, and made owning the media very common.

It is ironic that some people here are using Blockbuster as the picker of an optical media successor, when Blockbuster shunned DVD. Yes, DVD became mainstream w/o the support of Blockbuster.

This is bad news for HD-DVD, but it's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of optical media.

-tkf- said:
But the battle is thankfully lost, anyone buying a HD-DVD player should know this, the outcome has been clear from the start, only HD-DVD´s almost flawless launch was a slight hope that it might stand a chance.

By that token Sony should fold up the PS3 games shop. :rolleyes: This battle is far from over.
 
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