Thanks to Loppdawg69 for the Netflix email (see the extended news page).
BestBuy, the largest U.S. consumer electronics chain, said on Monday it will recommend that consumers choose Sony Corp's Blu-ray high-definition video format. The decision gives Sony yet another victory in the battle with Toshiba Corp's HD DVD to be the high-definition DVD format of choice. A few hours earlier, online video rental company Netflix Inc said it would exclusively stock Blu-ray DVDs after some of the world's biggest movie studios decided in favor of that format. Best Buy said it believes consumers will benefit from the choice of one HD movie format.
"Because we believe that Blu-ray is fast emerging as that single format, we have decided to focus on Blu-ray products," Brian Dunn, Best Buy's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement.
BestBuy, the largest U.S. consumer electronics chain, said on Monday it will recommend that consumers choose Sony Corp's Blu-ray high-definition video format. The decision gives Sony yet another victory in the battle with Toshiba Corp's HD DVD to be the high-definition DVD format of choice. A few hours earlier, online video rental company Netflix Inc said it would exclusively stock Blu-ray DVDs after some of the world's biggest movie studios decided in favor of that format. Best Buy said it believes consumers will benefit from the choice of one HD movie format.
"Because we believe that Blu-ray is fast emerging as that single format, we have decided to focus on Blu-ray products," Brian Dunn, Best Buy's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement.
You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.
While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.
Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens.
You can click here to change your format preferences.
We're sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.
-The Netflix Team
info@netflix.com
Today alone put a few more nails in the HD-DVD coffin. It's hard to imagine any sort of comeback now even if they start to give the players away.
Why, you wouldn't have any new films to play on it so what would be the point?
that read is quite confusing - it's either HD DVD or Blu-ray, right?
probably best to say HD movie format, instead
that read is quite confusing - it's either HD DVD or Blu-ray, right?
probably best to say HD movie format, instead
I agree. I remember when I read the source article I choked on that one too. I just edited my article.
LOL - wanted HD DVD to win but i'm also happy that ONE format is winning so that i can start my HD movie collection again
Are crazy? haven't you seen single comparison table??? Blu-ray is way way better than hd dvd...
What makes Blue Ray better exactly? Space? Higher Bitrate?? It's been proven time and time again when you have a release thats on both formats that they look identical....
So being boned with profile 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, and probably 2.1 or 3.0 makes the format better????? Expensive players so it must be better.
Netflix made a very bad decision here, but it's OK. I am not going to cancel with them. I will continue to get my HD DVD movies until they stop sending them. After that I will just continue with DVD. I will not buy Blue Ray. I will also continue to buy HD DVD movies when the 50% off and BOGO sales happen.
Thankfully, my HD DVD collection will still play. I will wait on the set-top box from netflix and then just stream movies.
Are crazy? haven't you seen single comparison table??? Blu-ray is way way better than hd dvd...
No, it's not better. As was mentioned before, the image is exactly the same, the space is a non-issue with what was going to be the newer HD discs and HD DVD was a fully functional format. Even the Blu-Ray camp admitted they released the format early without being complete because HD-DVD was coming out and they had to release something. It's moot anyways. We're stuck with Blu-Ray and it will evolve into the next gen movie format.
What makes Blue Ray better exactly? Space? Higher Bitrate?? It's been proven time and time again when you have a release thats on both formats that they look identical....
Well.. Except for storing data on the discs. They're hardly identical there.
I'm just waiting for the prices to come down a bit more on the recordable discs. I guess they will eventually, especially if the business start daring to focus on a single format for better production volumes.
wow thats NEWS
Hardly anything to do with that. They possibly got paid, or actually see a blu future, like... every other one
however, you think we get p'd off about which format to choose? retailers have to be very careful about who they back. consumers are muppets - a simple unified approach is key to marketing so taking a stance one way or another is, imo, mandatory for a company like BB. They had, therefore, two options - back HDDVD or BR. Which one would you choose given recent developments?
And with market support.
Price of a product has nothing to do win the profit margin of that product. I do agree though that those hdmi cables are way over priced.
Price of a product has nothing to do win the profit margin of that product. I do agree though that those hdmi cables are way over priced.
Wahhh? Wait...
Your saying the "Price of a product has nothing to do with the profit margin"?
Wtf are you smoking.... thats the whole point of the profit... MFG cheap, and sell high.
I hope you don't own your own business.. rofl.
Your saying the "Price of a product has nothing to do with the profit margin"?
Wtf are you smoking.... thats the whole point of the profit... MFG cheap, and sell high.
I hope you don't own your own business.. rofl.
What he's saying is that an item with a $500 price tag won't necessarily net the retailer as much profit as an item with a $50 price tag. Use your head before posting.
Umm what? Ok, maybe not *necessarily*, but pretty much every time more expensive products make the same % profit, and therefore more profit.
What's your source and figure for "pretty much every time?" You are making assertions, but you don't seem to know what you're talking about. Keystone markup isn't all there is! There are plenty of microeconomics books out there, and some of them are even on-line.
Umm what? Ok, maybe not *necessarily*, but pretty much every time more expensive products make the same % profit, and therefore more profit.
Actually, with electronics it's usually the opposite. More expensive items use net LESS. They're just darn expensive to make in the first place.
Do you think a Car gets more or less profit than a can of beans?
Exactly, a car retailer isn't aiming for 2p profit per item. A bean retailer does. I don't have sources to back up the blindingly obvious.
I'm not talking theory, I'm talking real life.
Um... Duh?
If nobody's putting out HD-DVD, Netflix can't very well provide it, can they?
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