Sony’s Blu-Ray getting a huge boost by Blockbuster
The battle for supremacy between the two next-generation DVD formats swung sharply in Blu-ray’s favour on Monday when Blockbuster, the leading US video rental chain, increased the number of stores stocking the discs. Blockbuster said it would offer Blu-ray, a Sony-backed format, in 1,700 stores, compared with about 250 for HD-DVD, the rival format backed by Toshiba and Microsoft. Demand for Blu-ray was “significantly outpacing” rentals of HD-DVDs, it added. The move is a blow for Toshiba, which has said sales of HD-DVDs were falling short of expectations. Sony and Toshiba are in a race to become the standard for next generation high-definition DVDs, in a contest reminiscent of the VHS-Betamax battle in the 1980s.
Blockbuster said it planned to offer both formats through its online rental service, but would stock Blu-ray exclusively at 1,450 of its shops. “We intend to meet the demands of our customers and based on the trends we’re seeing, we’re expanding our Blu-ray inventory,” said Matthew Smith, senior vice-president of merchandising at Blockbuster. It is losing market share to rival online services, such as Netflix, which do not have stores and instead send DVDs to consumers by post. The group is also facing a growing challenge from download video services. Apple, maker of the iPod, is in talks with Hollywood’s leading studios about joining an online video rental service, which would be run from its iTunes store. I think it will take few more months or even years for these HD formats to get a bigger share on the market – their price is still way too high for common consumers…
Source: Forbes, Financial Times
Comments(15)
Sweet, screw HDDVD, bluray ftw!
Have a Nice Day!
$ony can go $uck itself and take that piece of DRM TrojanRay with it.
Note to self: Never have anything to do with Blockbuster again.
I hope this comes back to bite them in the ass.
people who can afford to buy a BR player, don’t really go to blockbuster..
Im just curious .. does blockbuster rent out other infected medias ? -> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=857067&page=1&pp=30
Since apparently the “precious” BD’s seem to rot :S
“Bluray: “I thought you said no chemical warfare!”
HD: Mwhahahhahaha”
Sony needs some good news since the PS3 is flopping like a fish out of water.
Ever since I heard that blu-ray disc’s are decaying fast, I don’t trust them now. Well I don’t trust regular dvd’s cause they say that regular DVD’s only last 10 years, then you have to make a new one.
rofl bluray ftw!!!
BD dont rot is was a problem with ONE of the movies its happend to some dvd’s and will also happen to HD dvd its when its not done right.
I hope others will follow them so the war can end soon so I can get a player as im only going to buy whem im sure who win.
Some good news for my ps3
Blueray sucks ass. HDDvd RULES!!! Well not really. Who the fuck cares! You know your stupid if you buy either. You can already buy combo drives. I hope they both bomb and something better comes out.
hddvd seems much more logical to me….the players are cheaper you can play standard dvds on hddvd players plus it improves the standard quality a little bit…the only edge blueray has is more movies and that sony is behind them…
One reason Blu-Ray will win is that it has brand staying power. “Blu-Ray” (the word) is something that consumers can get their head around. “HD-DVD” is just 5 letters strung together. How Toshiba could be so dumb to think that “HD” would make it as a brand is beyond comprehension.
That the industry should once again have foisted this double-standard scenario à la VHS/Betamax upon the public is an outrage and they all deserve to have to face shareholder wrath for poor profits.
VHS won the day (not because of brand pull obviously) but because the pron industry chose it as their standard and that industry was the largest consumer of blank VHS tapes at the time.
Porn has hardly switched into HD/Blu-Ray yet, but when it does, the standard they choose will certainly have an effect.
Blu-Ray really deserves it!