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US NEWS: Best Buy, Netflix side with Blu-ray

Andrew Everard 12 February 2008 12:54

Bestbuy Two major US companies have increased their support for Blu-ray, in moves which seem likely to further threaten the rival HD DVD format.

Retailing giant Best Buy say that its stores will be "prominently showcasing" Blu-ray from next month, while online movie rental company Netflix will be ditching HD DVD by the end of this year.

Best Buy, which has more than 1200 stores in the USA, Canada and China, says the move has been taken to give consumers direction and clear up format confusion. Brian Dunn, the company's president, says that "Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way. We’ve listened to our customers, and we are responding.

"Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format. Our decision to shine a spotlight on Blu-ray Disc players and other Blu-ray products is a strong signal to our customers that we believe Blu-ray is the right format choice for them."

The company will continue to stock an assortment of HD DVD products for those customers who choose to swim against its tide, but Dunn says that "Best Buy has always believed that the customer will benefit from a widely accepted single format that would offer advantages such as product compatibility and expanded content choices.

"Because we believe that Blu-ray is fast emerging as that single format, we have decided to focus on Blu-ray products.”

Netflix Shipping-Center01 Netflix, which has over six million subscribers for its mail order operation, has announced that it will no longer buy HD DVD titles, and expects to have phased the format out from its online rental service by the end of this year.

The company says that “We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format. 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."

Technorati Tags: Blu-ray, HD DVD

Comments

rjbreslin February 12, 2008 13:38

Excellent news. Hopefully this whole format war can be wrapped up soon. Universal and Paramount get your act together and at least announce neutrality.

jimmyswizzle87 February 12, 2008 14:42

Couldnt agree with ^^ any more. I put myself off buying a PS£ for ages thinking it costs far too much and nobody really knows the outcome of blu-ray. However, i now have been proved wrong and the PS3 (losing the '£') is now probably one of the few toys id actually like to purcahse next. Funny world, eh?

Gorge February 12, 2008 14:48

Although I own a HD DVD EP35, I feel that a single format would be better. What I don't understand is why the software suppliers go BluRay when HD DVD still outsells BluRay on places like Amazon. For example: In the overall DVD section: The HD DVD EP30 is the 3rd best selling player, then at 9 its a BD Sony S300 and at 11 the HD DVD EP35. So in terms of player sales nothing is decided, whereas on the content side all seems to be pointing the BD direction. Puzzling! Surely it cannot all be down to the PS3! Not when it comes to mass market. Are Sony buying all those film houses??????

Clare Newsome February 12, 2008 18:06

The PS3 certainly has something to do with it - entire HD player sales in the UK stand at well under 50,000, but many, many more PS3s have been sold....

niftynigel February 12, 2008 18:11

Gorge - Like everything in this world, when we start to analyse it, the truth is usually quite complex!

There's no doubt that the PS3 has had a massive influence on the inevitable demise of HD DVD. It's a shame, but there was never going to be room for both formats.

I would imagine that many are taking advantage of the deals that Amazon is doing for HD DVD players. They are a generally accepted as being good upscaling DVD players. Whilst this maybe a recomendation for some, they don't play DVD-Audio, SACD or Region 1 DVDs, so I suspect there maybe some disappointed people out there when they try to pop in their US copy of such and such DVD and it won't play!

On the BD side, I know quite a few people with PS3s. Only a handful have purchased BDs as a result. Nearly all of them purchased a PS3 for it's gaming and multi media abilities. Only one actually purchased it knowing that it would play BDs! Maybe a small sample, and not necessarily mirrors the wider world!

The only conclusions I can really make is that some owners of PS3 buy BDs, whilst the majority probably don't. Secondly, owners of BD players probably buy more BDs than HD DVD player owners buy HD DVDs?

This does make sense. One reason why HD DVD was popular was the price of the players. That's fine, but there is practically no difference in price of the software. Given that many cite the lower cost of buying an HD DVD player as the reason for their preference, then it stands to reason that HD DVD owners will buy less discs than BD owners! Not an absolute science, but largely true given the huge difference is sales between BD and HD DVD discs!

It's not even down to available titles. Until Warner Brothers actually goes exclusive, then the difference is only about 15% more BD titles compared to HD DVD.

Bullseye February 12, 2008 19:42

From a Hollywood insider more big news to be announced possibly by end of month.

Andrew Everard February 12, 2008 19:52

That sounds very general, and not very inside to me...

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About Andrew Everard

Andrew Everard, Audio Editor of Gramophone since November 1999 and What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision's Consulting Editor, read English at Queens' College, Cambridge a very long time ago! He started his journalistic career in 1982 on Haymarket's photographic magazines, and subsequently worked on What Hi-Fi?, High Fidelity, Audiophile and Home Cinema magazines, as well as contributing a monthly column to Japanese title HiVi.