News Blockbuster opts for Blu-Ray

[Da Dego]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/06..._for_blu-ray/1

Who says money can't buy you love? America's largest video rental outlet, Blockbuster Video, has opted to go with Blu-Ray.

[<A88>]

Dare I say it, but I think BD's going to win this. What with the widespread availability of it compared to that of HD-DVD and the fact that all 7 PS3 owners are already into it, Sony and partners seem to have done enough to raise awareness of their format. As much as I'd like to have seen HD-DVD win this format wars, I think low price isn't as big enough an incentive as it used to be.

<A88>

[bloodcar]

I've been personally boycotting Blockbuster for several months now. The brick and mortar movie/game rental service is absolutely rediculous nowadays. Hell, to even rent a 360/Wii/PS3 game you have to have a major credit card that is not tied to a bank account. On top of that, you're looking at paying 1/5 of the price of the game just to rent it. I have better service and bang for my buck using Gamefly and Netflix.

It's just too bad they didn't pick up on HD-DVD as well.

[Trekari]

Please change your article to reflect the truth:

Blockbuster said that it will continue to rent HD DVD titles at its original 250 pilot stores for high-definition movies, though it is unclear if it will continue to carry new releases or rent out its existing inventory.

Currently you state is will carry "Blu-Ray only"

[KalGriffen]

The local Blockbuster has carried both formats since the first of the year. When I asked, an employee told me that both formats rarely get rented, but HD-DVD went out the door three times as often.

[Da Dego]

Originally Posted by Trekari

Please change your article to reflect the truth:

Blockbuster said that it will continue to rent HD DVD titles at its original 250 pilot stores for high-definition movies, though it is unclear if it will continue to carry new releases or rent out its existing inventory.

Currently you state is will carry "Blu-Ray only"

Ok, 250 stores vs. 1450+ stores that will only carry Blu-Ray. Blockbuster will not augment the HD-DVD collection further in those 250 from the things I have read outside of this one source article. To me, that's pretty much exclusive.

I do see what you're saying, but I'd hardly say that what I wrote is untruthful.

[Trekari]

Let's see:

"America's largest video rental outlet, Blockbuster Video, has opted to rent Blu-Ray only."

and

"The company's choice to support Blu-Ray not just over HD-DVD but to the direct exclusion of the rival format will carry a lot of weight."

That is untrue. There is no two ways to put it. Your claims are false. They may be MOSTLY true, but MOSTLY true is not the same as true.

Furthermore, from msnbc.com: Blockbuster will continue to rent HD DVD titles in the original 250 locations and online, the Dallas-based company said.

So I will once again request that you change your article to reflect factual information. Not what you think is 'basically' true.

[Da Dego]

Upon reading something straight from the company itself, I'm agreeing to alter the article for a couple reasons. What you're saying (to me) doesn't justify a rewrite in and of itself, but further info has illustrated that Blockbuster may alter its selections again with further uptake, which to me is something that should be reflected...so I might as well clarify the other points you are bringing up as well. I hope the edited article fits your taste a little better.

On a side note and outside of the staff/reader position, don't you think you could've toned that attitude down a bit (or a lot)? I don't mind people saying "Hey, I think you missed this" but I don't think it quite warrants that type of tone. A little polite courtesy goes a long way...

[Trekari]

I could've, yes. I'm sorry if it felt over the top to you, however I do hope you understand the frustration an HD-DVD supporter would feel when major news outlets spin (intentionally or otherwise) news like this.

Blockbuster is losing quite a bit of ground to Netflix, but regardless of that fact, I don't want MY $500 investment to be the format that fails. Every time someone who is on the fence about the issue reads "Blockbuster won't carry them at all" sort of news, it un-necessarily skews the truth further towards Blu-Ray being the winner already.

News should be accurate and truthful without spin. Perhaps in posting that article you had your own agenda to set - maybe in the back of your mind you support Blu-Ray yourself and that subconscious opinion slipped into the article. EVERY media company/news company in the world has SOME sort of agenda. Whether you intentionally did so or not is not for me to decide.

All I wanted was an accurate, no-nonsense/no-spin reporting of the facts, which I quoted earlier in the thread.

1) Blockbuster was still going to rent them in the 250 stores they started with AND online.
2) Therefore they have not chosen "Blu-Ray only" and they did not choose Blu-Ray exclusively over other formats.

Whether you agree with my position on it or not, my examples are absolute truth without spin or fluff. I don't think it's a bad thing at all for people to feel they can absolutely, 100% rely on information they read here as being the complete truth. I hold bit-tech to a high standard. *shrug* I have to - it's one of the TWO hardware sites on the entire 'net that I rely on for information.

[completemadness]

Originally Posted by Trekari

EVERY media company/news company in the world has SOME sort of agenda. Whether you intentionally did so or not is not for me to decide.

yes quite simply its called ratings

What is more interesting to read
"Blockbuster has chosen to go with BD ATM, but in the future may swap to HD-DVD, and they will rent the HD-Dvds they have already purchased"

or
"Zomg blockbuster has gone with BD, a bit hit for HD-DVD, perhaps the format was is coming to an end"

Seriously, if it means much to you, go find the original transcript, bit-tech like just about all other sites do put a spin on things, to make them more exciting, and also to keep you interested in the news your looking at
Take new you read on the web with a pinch of salt, and if your interested, go find out the truth

And also, not to dig at you, but the way you phrased your comment (purposefully or just because of the way people will read on the Internet) you do come across as very demanding, and some people may have found it quite rude, everyone makes mistakes from time to time, but just say it in a nice way and it will often go a long way

p.s. (none of this is meant as an attack at bit-tech, but what you read on the net really does have to be considered carefully (hell even newspapers, possibly worse) because its very easy to miss a couple of bits and suddenly the whole meaning is changed)

i mean, hell i read all of FireFox Myths the other day
After i read this i was very surprised, and somewhat worried, after poking around a bit i found Re: FireFox Myths and after checking the first article, i realised how the author, just by simply quoting certain figures differently, had manipulated the whole truth of the article
p.s. http://www.webdevout.net/firefox-myths is a good list which is much more believable, and seems pretty unbiased

[Da Dego]

Well, it wasn't actually meant for a spin...personally, I think both formats are a load of crap but choosing between the two I'd rather HD-DVD win.

I guess my choice of wording is a) Titles need to be concise - not for spin purposes, but for readability, and b) In my interpretation, this is pretty serious.

Now, I probably should have worried a bit more about how much of my personal interpretation did enter, but I look at it this way:

1) Blockbuster says "We're rolling out Hi-def in a big way - 1700 stores!"
2) BB says "By the way, none of these new additions will be HD DVD"
3) BB says "Blu-ray titles will move into 1450 new stores due to consumer demand"

From a business perspective, of COURSE they will keep the 250 stores with HD DVD. Those copies have already been purchased, it's silly to pull that. But what they have said is that they do not view HD DVD as worthy of continued investment. a 1450 store rollout and it will have no HD DVD. To me, that's choosing a horse and going with it.

What is very important is that buried in their press release (while we're all arguing about whether these 250 stores with an already sunk cost will continue to leave them on shelves) that nobody really picked up was the company saying "We're going this way for now because it's consumer driven, but we could change it if there's sufficient demand." That says 2 things - #1, the horse isn't really as chosen as it appears to be, and #2 the demand for Blu-ray titles over HD DVD is, at least according to blockbuster corporate, so great as to warrant no further investment in HD DVD at the current time.

Again, part of this was poor explanation on my part in the article, which I don't mind being corrected on. Your comments ARE right, but not because I was trying to put spin. I'm simply distilling it one more level - to me, of course they'd keep renting the HD DVDs...they bought them, didn't they? They're stuck with them now and keeping them on the shelves only helps recoup the investment. But them saying "We're not spending any more on this" for a nearly 1500 store roll-out...that to me is saying "we're choosing the other one." At least, that was my thought on it.

To me, emphasising that 250 store fact is more putting spin on things - it simply makes business sense to leave something out there you have already paid for, it's not costing you more to leave it on the shelf. But too much attention is like saying "it's doing well in those 250 stores and online..." and in reality, it obviously isn't or BB would be rolling it out to more stores. What seemed of value to me was the indication of future action, which is to be solely Blu-ray (for now, at least).

Anyhow, sorry for the confusion, but I assure you - if I were putting personal spin on it intentionally, it would lean with a focus toward the HD-DVD portion. I don't like formats that are strictly controlled by media giants, I'd rather they be backed by computer companies.

[devdevil85]

In my opinion, I hope they both can live in harmony and competition drives prices down and also brings more advancements, but we all know that will never happen.

[Spaceraver]

Reminds me of the "Think before you fap" article.. I'm still with DVD. It works and is inexpensive. Actually don't care about the 1080p/i crap. I dont even own a TV ffs.

[completemadness]

Originally Posted by Spaceraver

Reminds me of the "Think before you fap" article.. I'm still with DVD. It works and is inexpensive. Actually don't care about the 1080p/i crap. I dont even own a TV ffs.

ha ha my thoughts exactly (except replace TV with HDTV)

and Da Dego, i agree, BB has 250 stores with HD-DVD stuff, now if they choose BR right now, whats the point in pulling the HD-DVD titles, you've already paid for them, BB will just lose money if they pulled them off the shelves

I think it may have a little spin, but that might just be down to Bits style of writing, which does usually involve siding with the writers opinions, but that doesn't really matter
if you want to know the truth, read the actual news report, if you want to know roughly whats going on, read bit's summary

Personally, id prefer BR, due to larger capacities, i don't know why everyone is so anti-BR, probably cos Sony is significantly responsible for it, but tbh, i don't care, the price of HD stuff is still way too dear for me, and its not really worth it
I think people have proved this just due to youtubes/daily-motion/whatever's success

[Chuckysan]

I must have missed something ...

Wasn't there an article and major press release just a few months ago about Walmart going exclusively with HD-DVD. Why would Blockbuster decide to alienate all those Walmart customers?

[David_Fitzy]

The new Blu-Ray titles wiill be rolled out to 1450 new stores

Playing too much nintendo I think Freud would say

[Colonel Sanders]

I remember hearing on the news today that Blockbuster was renting both HD-DVD and blu-ray, but decided to cut back on HD-DVD because about 60% of the HD rentals were blu-ray.

As for wal-mart, they look surprisingly unbiased so far. I just went to walmart.com and did a search for "blu-ray" - 254 results, HD-DVD returned 247 hits.

L J

[Neogumbercules]

The shock, the horror! I'm not gonna buy EITHER until one is far and away the winner. I don't want to have to hide my HD-DVD/Blu-Rays in the garage like oh so many ashamed beta max users.

So where are all the people who were calling it done and sealed when Wal-Mart decided to carry cheap-O HD-DVD players? You have to excuse my brashness, this is my first "format war" in my lifetime so it's all new and exciting to me. Ok, well I was alive during the beta max/VHS war, but I wasn't gonna put down my transformers action figures to worry about that stuff.

[Tim S]

Originally Posted by Chuckysan

I must have missed something ...

Wasn't there an article and major press release just a few months ago about Walmart going exclusively with HD-DVD. Why would Blockbuster decide to alienate all those Walmart customers?

You're right, but what Blockbuster has said is that it is going to Blu-ray for the time being because that is where the demand is. Wal-mart hasn't started shipping cheap HD DVD players yet, but I'm sure when it does, we'll see Blockbuster adapt to the market again.