The battle versus Blu-Ray and HD DVD rages on! Blockbuster has announced that they will be stocking Blu Ray exclusively with the exception of the test stores that currently offer HD DVD, they will continue to do so. We get the following news from Engadget:
In a huge blow to Toshiba, Universal, and the rest of the HD DVD devotees, rental giant Blockbuster has decided to stock only Blu-ray discs in the vast majority of its nationwide locations, although HD DVD titles will continue to be offered online and in the 250 (out of 1,450) stores that have been testing both formats since last year. Blockbuster VP Matthew Smith revealed to the AP that the decision to go with Blu-ray — which will reportedly be announced tomorrow — stemmed from an overwhelming customer preference for those titles in the test markets, accounting for over 70% of all HD discs rented.
Interestingly enough, it seems that content — and not price — was the deciding factor for consumers, with Blu-ray-only hits such as the Spiderman and Pirates of the Caribbean films apparently outmatching equivalent HD DVD exclusives. While it’s still a little too soon to declare Blu-ray the outright winner, this Blockbuster decision only contributes to the momentum that Sony’s darling has had of late — momentum that at this point, might be too difficult for the other guys to counter.
I am taking no part in this battle, I am Switzerland on this one. I am watching regular DVD’s and will not think of an upgrade until all of this bullshit dies down. I personally have no problem with DVD’s and I will probably continue to watch them, until they stop printing the discs. I have seen HD-DVD movies on a full setup first hand and I will say that the clarity was amazing. I simply do not want to choose right now, for fear of being stuck on the losing end of this battle with a player that I cannot get rentals for.
I do not think just because Blockbuster announces that it choosing Blu-Ray that the fight is over. The porn industry is rumored to be going HD-DVD, and in my opinion porn is a stronger player than Blockbuster in the format war. Blockbuster will also have HD-DVD available for online rental so declaring anyone a winner right now would be a mistake.
Yes both formats are backward compatibale with dvd and some if not all blu-ray and hd dvd players will upconvert your dvd’s to high def,I don’t know why everone says u will have to replace your dvd collection when they will still play on either formats players.
I totally agree with you Doug! Well written!
Like someone said before … not really ready to go through another phase of replacing my dvd collection after the switch wasn’t to long ago … i’ll wait til this new format war is over … i heard that both players are backwards compatible? is that true???
I still contest that this is not a format war. This is a Civil War of Next Gen DVD Formats™.
People are picking sides. In the first format conflict, most movies if not all were available on both until the decline of Beta.
Now we have entire studios on one side or the other.
Walking around Best Buy and Circuit City, I can’t see any difference between a normal tv and the HDTV’s that they have.
I haven’t compared the difference between a DVD and an HD/Blu-Ray side by side, (I’ve heard people say it’s quite a difference) but I’m betting it’s not astounding enough to warrant the price.
Give me DVDs, I just don’t care about the next generation at this point in time. Especially since the extra content is equivalent or less to the content provided on current DVDs.
I just got switche4d over to DVD and now they wanna milk more money out of me. No thanks ass holes
This is one of the reasons I laughed when Sony chose to put Blu-Ray on the PS3 because they thought it would ship consoles like DVD the PS2. It didn’t work because the demand just isn’t there.
We all started replacing our VHS collections with DVDs less than a decade ago and I, for one, sure don’t want to go through and replace the over 100 DVDs that are a part of my collection, that’s a lot of money right there. Yes, Blu-Ray and HD DVD sure look pretty on one of them fancy new big HD screens that the industry keeps pushing on us but I think DVD is just fine on my ol’ reliable 20 inch standard TV that I don’t plan upon replacing until it kicks the bucket, or I can afford to drop a couple grand on a TV. I think most of consumer America is thinking along the same lines.
I think dvd will prob stick around a lot longer then vhs did, but with hd dvd and blu-ray u can still play your dvds on them so when prices for the blu-ray players or hd dvd players go down to the price of dvd players now there will be a lot more sold, then i think dvd’s will no longer be made, As for digital distribution thats not going to happen unless the speed of the internet improvess by a lot and everyone has the internet, its not like music where u can d/l 1 song for a lot less money then buying the whole album, u are still going have to buy the whole movie so they r not going to give a huge amount off b/c u r d/l it, plus there r a lot of people who just like owning the dvd and case and showing people all there movies i would feel ripped off having it on a harddrive or on a burnned dvd it just dosen’t seem the same as owning a real copy of the movie.
“dvd 2.0” hahaha i love that!
Yeah, what Clarkehead said.
Yeah, what Ramen said.
I’ve said ti before and I’ll say it again. The format war for “DVD 2.0” is fruitless. Neither side will ultimately win because most consumers don’t care/won’t accept either format over standard DVDs. Blue Ray and Hd discs don’t offer a significant enough benefit to warrant it especially not the way DVD did over VHS.
Look at other formats. Most specifically, the Music industry. Tapes were popular, these equate to VHS. Then we got “More durable tapes with instant track skipping”, aka CDs. These equate to DVDs. They offer a huge convenience factor over thier predecessors so they are quickly adopted.
The next step in the music buisiness was of course, the MP3. Now we not only get the convenience of a CD’s single track mechanics but we can’t avoid the “hardware” (the disc) part of the equation all together and jump straight to the content. You can buy a new MP3 (or equivilant) anytime, essentially anywhere.
This brings us back tot he movie buisiness. Downloadbale content is the future. People don’t want more space consuming discs, they want convenience of digital and on demand.
Porn isn’t the great force it once was like in the VHS / BETA days. Now you can get Porn 24/7 in every flavor imaginable.
I think the sheer number of BD players out there via the PS3 has a big impact.
I have a Toshiba HD player and love it. Its a no loss scenario. The unit plays HDs with the improved video and awesome sound wonderfully. It also is a kickass SD player with unparalleled upconversion. And as if that weren’t enough it also is an audiophile reference level CD player.
It is my main HT DVD player.
No need to sit on the sidelines even if HD dies.
Blu-ray is awesome to see…haven’t had a chance to see HD-DVD but I’m sure it’s awesome too! But yeah I’m going to wait as well. This format war is so stupid…wish theye would get it over with and let the prices start dropping! And it will drop fast just like DVD players did.
Right now I’m running a up-converting dvd player to 1080i on my HDTV LCD and I must say it’s awesome…not as awesome as Blu-ray or HD but it will hold me over until this format war is settled. Besides it cost me 60 bucks vs. 300 or more for those other formats!
I agree with you about sitting on the sideline. I don’t think that it is worth it to buy a 500 – 1000 dollar HD-DVD or Blu-Ray DVD player when you don’t know if it will be obsolete in 2 years.
Personally I would like to change to downloading movies before I buy the next generation. Of course in 10 years when the player only cost 50 bucks I will be willing to get one.