Netflix says demand for HD discs are dead even

Netflix, the US' largest online DVD rental service has said that its demand for HD discs, HD DVD and Blu-ray, are just about equal but also reiterated what most knowledgeable consumers know already, that the sales and rentals were tiny as compared to standard definition DVDs.

CEO Reed Hastings said that the company was still seeing low demand for HD discs but that demand was equal for both rivals.

[sonarus]

blockbuster begs to differ

[IRISHCALIBER]

Did you not read your articles at the time Blockbuster made that decision. I have been in contact with many officials from the company, and believe me as with every dedicated change Blockbuster has made over the past couple of years they are deeply regretting everyone of them. They keep putting all their eggs in one basket, and it is hurting them deeply. Many stores have been closing around the country due to very poor rental revenue. Many of their rentals are online exchanges which brings the store zero dollars. My Blockbuster is in an affluent area and the Blu-ray shelves are full and never rent, even the employees say that more people want HD-DVD. Personally I rent my HD-DVD on Blockbuster Online. I myself have contacted management of Both online and corporate about their blatant touting of Blu-ray, hell even my receipt has a half ripped off Blu-ray slip at the bottom promoting the future of HD. Hell, If I wasn't raping their online service with store exchanges and liberal late fees I myself and many others would boycott them all together.
VIVA LA BLOCKBUSTER

[SmokeyMcBear]

of course they are even, netflix is the only place to get hd dvd, while you can just walk into a blockbuster and rent a bluray

[IRISHCALIBER]

I rent my HD-DVD at Blockbuster Online! I exchange my online rentals for free movies in store and they automatically send me my next movie online. Pay nothing at the store and rent all you want online for $17.99 a month works out to be about $0.75 a rental, can't beat it. Blu-ray is losing hard, I was in Best Buy the other day buying 300 on HD-DVD, and saw a small group of people standing around a Blu-ray isle display and there was an employee in the middle spewing Blu-ray propaganda, so I stood and listened for a moment amazed that these people were believing the crap this guy was saying. I then felt the need to speak up and asked him why Blu-ray over HD-DVD and you know what he said; "The picture was better", I started laughing then asked him if he knew that 1st gen Blu-ray used Mpeg and current Blu-ray used the same as HD-DVD, VC-1 encoding, and that they are identical with the exception that Blu-ray is much more expensive. He then started to trip over his words stating that he had heard that, so when asked again why do you like Blu-ray he said; "I always buy Sony products", I could have told you that I said, I then noticed a lot of the people watching this seemed thankful and enlightened has they had no Idea other than what this trusted salesman was telling them. Ignorance and propaganda is all that Blu-ray supporters have to work with. It's a shame!

[DeadIIIRed]

You're forgetting to mention that Blu-Ray has a larger storage capacity for one thing. Is that the ignorance you're talking about? Do you manage your own Blockbuster or something? So you went to a best buy and told off a employee who was promoting a winning format? Sounds like you're leading a one man crusade for a losing format and aside from your "HD-DVD is better than Blu-Ray" rants you know that it's true. You wasted your money.

[Anything but Cute]

HD DVD, Blu ray will be ready for you.

[segasage]

is going out of business, didn't you hear about that marketing ploy, when they boycotted hd-dvd for no reasons?

especially, when netflix is kicking their arse online. somehow they still offer hd-dvd movies online..no figure....

this is a long war and is far from over, the consumers will pick the best affordable hardware. [in the end]

[Rageanitus]

hd-dvd only has a chance in the north american market.

[alexander22rednaxela]

HD-DVD is popular in europe, and I live in Europe.

[HateBoy]

I live in europe too, and to be frank hd-dvd isn't even heard of, the only formats that "exist" are dvd and blu-ray (bcause of ps3). In Sweden, where i live, the battle between the formats never started, blu ray just kinda won, thanks to the ps3. Point aside, most people here don't have any idea about any of the competing formats... its just dvd for now.

[Syko]

I really want to get a HD player. But the movies are still expensive and if I start buying movies on a losing format, I would be as pissed off as Chuck Norris after the nurse slapped him in the delivery room.

This news simply tells me it is still to early to buy one. Until one is clearly on its way out.

[LoydX-mas]

Unless one or the other has a player around $100.

Then I wouldn't regret my purchase at all. Even if one format died today, they both have around 400 titles to choose from and it would still be a great upscaling player.

[i Shank u]

agree. if i really feel an itch to watch an hd movie, ill get a cheaper upscaling DVD player that will do fine. and i dont have to rebuy a single movie

[Sayai jin]

No suprise. For the person who said "Blockbuster begs to differ thats because they only sales blu-ray.

[Syko]

Other skirmishes along the way have been mostly about price cuts in the hardware, or spinning the retail numbers one way or the other to suggest faster sales or more units shipped of either the hardware or software titles. But more recently another heavy-hitter in the retail space, Blockbuster appeared to have chosen a side, and that side was Blu-ray Disc. And while there is truth to the news, it doesn't paint the complete story.

According to Blockbuster's official press release, Blockbuster is indeed expanding support for Blu-ray Disc with Blu-ray titles to be stocked in up to 1700 retail locations that currently stock neither HD-DVD nor Blu-ray Disc titles. But the 250 flagship stores that already stock Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD titles will continue to stock both formats, and (more importantly), Blockbuster's online "Total Access" service will continue to support both disc formats.

Blockbuster competitor, Netflix has supported both formats since their inception (and continues to do so), so a decision by Blockbuster to abandon support for HD-DVD entirely would have gained them very little, and would have enabled Netflix to exploit this to their advantage.

So for now, if you're waiting for a clear winner in the next generation format war, be prepared to keep waiting. But if you've already bought a player of one or both formats, you'll find a pretty extensive selection of high definition titles at both of the online rental giants.

Source: http://www.bigpicturebigsou...

[M1am1U]

that most people are still very reluctant to back either format. People have spent years building up their DVD collection. The prospect of replacing some or all of them is pretty intimidating to the average person. Heck, some people are still upgrading their VHS collection to DVD's.

[The Real Joker]

I rent both from nexflix. Its a great service and I am a fan of HD period. I would like the war to end but who wins is not important to me since I have both.

[Anything but Cute]

So all the HD DVD supporters here can go kiss the ass.

[tplarkin7]

I don't care for Netflix. They have questionable DVDs and they advertise them on the front page (unless they've changed in the last 2 years).

[Da Ghostdog]

Post news about HD-DVD equal or being over Blu-Ray in any fourm gets slander.

[SmokeyMcBear]

ok for all of those that say OMG BLOCKBUSTER RENTS ONLINE TOOOOOO!!!!!!... well lets see how those online stats are, whats the breakdown between whats being rented online at blockbuster.. anyone have those numbers??

[xfrgtr]

This is what blockbuster said:70% HIGH DEF demand was bluray,30% HDDVD;that's why they dropped the losing format.
"Blockbuster VP Matthew Smith revealed to the AP that the decision to go with Blu-ray stemmed from an overwhelming customer preference for those titles in the test markets, accounting for over 70% of all HD discs rented."
http://www.engadget.com/200...

[xfrgtr]

7-Sayai jin,exactly, great news for Bluray since Netfix is one of the few places where you can rent HDDVD,so 50%bluray and 50%hddvd is good news for bluray since you can find them everywhere and especially at blockbuster while hddvd is an endangered specie.

[sak500]

Sony must have paid blockbuster otherwise no one is that stupid to go for one format so soon in their lifecycle.

[sweeper]

I own Both and it seems to me that HD DVD puts more content on the dvd. so the capacity thing is really nothing to me until they utilize it and come out with a trilogy or something on 1 disc, the capacity thing is a joke everyone says Blu Ray has more capacity capacity then lets see it on a movie. I like both formats but HD DVD is actual better than BLU ray except support and that will change soon O and CAPACITY what a joke. Again I own both and it would suck to see BLU RAY win the quality sucks like a upgraded DVD. THAT IS MY HONEST OPINION

[sak500]

I agree. But the thing is lack of marketing on their part. Atleast where I am. I'm live in Dubai and I have yet to see any advertisement done for HD DVD players or movies for that matter. Only a month or so back i started seeing 360's HD player in the market but its still very expensive here and the store selling it did not have any HD DVDs to sell. They told me to check stores like Virgin. But BD movie posters are all around these kind of shops. It doesnt matter if you have a better and cheaper technology, if one doesnt know about it then its a dead sale.

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

Funny that they don't give any numbers...

I mean, if in one day, a store have 100 DVD rents, 4 BD and 2 HD-DVD it's for sure that BD and HD-DVD is almost equal in demand. But, Put a store that made 10 times this rents and then consider a month. Still, the number is close, if compared with DVD, but between HD formats only, the margin is 2/1.

I'm not saying that is the case anyway, but still funny that the guy don't give any numbers for us to take our own conclusions. Just say that both formats have the same-almost-equal-low-demand don't really means anything, since we don't know if this "equal" consider DVDs on the comparison, so the gap could be anything...

And, anyway, "rent" is not the numbers to looking at this moment. The actual owners of HD format players are most people with a Home Theater, that buy their own movies. Rent still important, it will most likely show better the market preferences in the future, but only when the players are already out there running, cause right know, the both formats together are enough to only means "low demand" for rental services.

[heroman711]

would have been more interesting to watch if microsoft would have had hddvd, then both ps3 and 360 would be too expensive and then we would have to see which one would be better

[TheExodus]

Blu-ray is facing stiff resistance, by PS3 owners! Let me be the first to say it, "Blu-ray is dying because PS3 owners have turned their noses up to the format."

Sony has Trojan Horsed Blu-ray into nearly 2 millions homes across North America now, but demand for both HD formats continues to hover between 1:1 to 2:1 in Blu-ray's favor? Just stop for a moment to think about that: 5 times the players for nearly equal demand? If you want to know why Paramount switched sides, there you have it. PS3 fanboys are avoiding Blu-ray like it was homework.

[junk56]

... i dont know anybody. ANYBODY that uses netflix
heck, this is the first time ive heard of them.