Monday, February 11th 2008
Netflix Drops HD DVD
Netflix believes the winner in the HD format war has been determined and said that it has begun stocking Blu-ray discs exclusively. The company said that its move is prompted by the decision of four out of the six major movie studios to publish high-def DVD titles only in the Sony-developed Blu-ray format. The online movie rental company intends to phase out HD DVDs by the end of this year and, as of now, is purchasing HD titles in Blu-ray only. The firm's current HD DVD inventory will remain available to customers until the discs' "natural life cycle" takes them out of circulation in the coming months. "The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, in a prepared statement.
"We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer's preferred means," Sarandos believes.
Netflix said that the majority of its customers looking or HD movies have chosen Blu-ray, and "only a portion" went with the HD DVD format. The company claims that it has more than 400 Blu-ray movies available for rent at this time.
Source:
TG Daily
"We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer's preferred means," Sarandos believes.
Netflix said that the majority of its customers looking or HD movies have chosen Blu-ray, and "only a portion" went with the HD DVD format. The company claims that it has more than 400 Blu-ray movies available for rent at this time.
42 Comments on Netflix Drops HD DVD
It's not looking good for hd-dvd
And the blue corner is victorious!
How soon till the clubhouse closes:rolleyes:
This may be bad news for HD DVD. But rest assured. HD DVD is not yet out of this. I forsee a break coming for HD DVD in the near future.
I still believe that HD DVD was and still is the superior and cheaper High def format of the two. All this talk of HD DVD being a dead dog that people are trying to revive is just nonsense. This is still a slugfest for both formats. I think Microsoft may have a change in heart with what to do with its cash now that Yahoo declined its offer to buy them out.
But time past by and when the masses would spend millions and millions on blueray-s they will
drop HD-DVD, and the porn industries will drop it to!
Money talks!
:pimp:
Toshiba and other manufactures are really trying there hardest to make a profit on the products they have on the market before they have a dead product...Selling HD-DVDs at 10.49 per hd-dvd is really showing that they are trying to move product as fast as possible before their market completely dies (Cheaper than regular dvds). What's even more is that I was reading an article yesterday stating that retailers have more HD-DVD returns than they do HD-DVD products on their shelves. Funny funny...
@effmaster: One point that needs to noted is that the porn industry isn't HD-DVD exclusive or Blu-Ray exclusive. Support is happening on both formats. As is the case with Digital Playground warming back up to Blu-Ray with its latest title:
<edit>
and on top of that, I get a kick out of the fact that most consumers are unaware of the looming changes in BR, and that early BR players won't be able to access all the features of the newer BD profiles as they come out, unless you're using a PS3. BR format has still yet to cross that hurdle - and when it comes about that the consumers aren't getting the $$$$ worth from newer titles considering how much they've payed for their players . . . people are going to start looking at a competining format
biz.yahoo.com/bw/080211/20080211006384.html?.v=1
Now that Best Buy and Target are exclusive, Wal-Mart will be next.