02/11/2008, 4:30pm, EST
Monday, February 11thBest Buy to push Blu-ray over HD DVD
Large-scale retailer Best Buy this afternoon unsettled the HD video industry by announcing that it would promote Blu-ray over HD DVD. The chain had originally claimed to remain platform-neutral but now says Blu-ray will be its "preferred" format and will reflect this choice in its stores. Blu-ray movie players and titles will be given more prominent positions than HD DVD, while store staff are more likely to recommend the new format. The sudden shift is a reaction to customer demand, according to Best Buy president Brian Dunn.
"Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way," Dunn claims.
Best Buy's decision compounds HD DVD's losses for today alone, as Netflix dropped HD DVD this morning in an attempt to drive HD movie sales by choosing only one format. Since Warner Bros.' announcement that it would shift to Blu-ray exclusivity in January, Blu-ray has continued to lead sales and has resulted in several stores and services either de-emphasizing HD DVD or introducing HD for the first time through Blu-ray.
HD DVD's chief proponent, Toshiba, has not responded to the Best Buy move but was formerly the subject of a promotion that sold the HD-A3 movie player for $200, which remained the lowest price for an HD DVD player until the Warner announcement pressed Toshiba to make a price cut to $150 in a bid to remain competitive.
Filed under: industry
Other story tags: blu-ray, Toshiba, HD DVD, Best Buy, Warner
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Netflix said they will continue renting all existing HD-DVDs they have in stock until they reach the end of their cycle life. Nowhere in their announcement did they say they were changing your queue to normal DVDs.
"Netflix subscribers can still rent the remaining HD DVD titles until the discs’ natural life cycles take them out of circulation. The company plans to fully abandon HD DVD by the end of the year."
See the story at
http://www.macworld.com/article/132047/2008/02/netflix.html
From the e-mail announcement I received from Netflix today...
"Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens."
(I heard they also might start carrying iPods soon).
They make a bold move like this, yet they won't carry a reasonable assortment of Mac software. At MacWorld (oh yes. they were there) one of the reps said something to the effect of "the company doesn't want to take the chance... Tell your local Best Buy management..."