Rent-a-Shacks everywhere have a nice business goin' on where they let people afraid of commitment still enjoy nice stuff. Come to think of it, does any of these rental place have HD DVD or Blu-ray players? Anyways, Netfix does about the same thing if you think about it - but did you know they
also have HD DVD and Blu-ray titles. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be doin' so hot and only account for less then 1% of all their titles shipped. Now, we aren't exactly math aficionados but that still seems like a decent number. According to Netflix's Wikipedia entry, they ship 1.4 million DVDs daily so that works out to be 14,000 HD DVD and Blu-ray discs everyday. Not too shabby if you ask us. Sure, we would like to see that number with one more "0" but at least some people are watching these superior discs.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jon @ Mar 28th 2007 10:47AM
Hmm...so Blockbusters High Def rentals must be nearly nill. I tried blockbuster and after 15 minutes of not being able to find a single HD-DVD...I cancelled the service.
Netflix has an HD-DVD category which makes it really easy to find all HD-DVD titles. My entire queue of over 60 movies is nearly entirely made up of HD-DVD titles.
greekjgg @ Mar 28th 2007 11:35AM
I have blu-ray, and the problem is they don't have enough copies of each title to ship in blu-ray. I only put blu-ray movies in my que, and all the hot ones are always on a "wait". This article is deceptive. They should also list the demand.
Last week I wanted Rocky Balboa, so I returned a movie so they could receive it tuesday the same day Rocky was released, but it was already on a wait list that same morning. Luckily I walked into Hollywood video, and they just received their 1 copy of this movie.
Big Sam @ Mar 28th 2007 10:59AM
The only reason I joined Netflix is to rent HD-DVD movies. I occassionally rents DVDs too, but my queue is stocked with HD-DVDs.
R. Mansfield @ Mar 28th 2007 11:34AM
Type help. In your sentence "Not to shabby if you as us," add an "o" and a "k" to make it read "Not too shabby if you ask us."
wei @ Mar 28th 2007 11:38AM
greekjgg: I have the same issue trying to rent new releases on HD-DVD. I'll return a title ahead of time and it'll skip me over. Sometimes even when an HD title is available and on the top of my queue, it gets skipped over. I guess maybe bc they dont' have it in stock in a depot nearby? Who knows? But it just doesn't seem like Netflix keeps enough of their HD discs in stock.
siva @ Mar 28th 2007 1:46PM
I don't know if Blockbuster rents HD-DVD or not but they do rent Bluray. I have a PS3. However, Blockbuster's method is brain-dead, while Netflix's is logical. In blockbuster your queue does not have a media-type column (attribute). Instead, they just go by the name of the movie such as Casino Royale Bluray or something like that. So, it is easy of a renter to make the mistake of just choosing the DVD rather than the Bluray. In, netflix, you can go once to your account properties and say what kind of HD player you have and then also say that you want that kind of disk everytime you put a movie in the queue. It will automatically choose the Bluray version for you if you do prefer. Also, this info is displayed in the queue in a column and it allows the renter to change the media type for a single movie in the queue. Very cool.
ColorGuy @ Mar 28th 2007 2:13PM
I also think that this article is deceptive. I have yet to get a blu-ray copy of any movie in my cue from netflix. I would wager to say the same is going on for my HD-DVD bretheren.
I believe there is more demand than supply.
David @ Mar 28th 2007 4:05PM
I joined Netflix for HD DVDs. I've had no issues getting anything I've wanted.
John Giannaris @ Mar 28th 2007 2:43PM
You are right colorguy, there is more demand then supply.
I tried blockbuster first for blu-ray as there system with returning to store is the best deal, however their wait was twice as long for blu-rays than netflix so I canceled. I heard they recently updated their queing system for blu-ray movies similiar to netflix. As soon as blockbuster puts blu-ray in their stores, I won't need netflix as they won't be as good as deal. Seems like they should be taking advantage of the equal playing field with blockbuster in terms of HD rental and build the customer loyalty now by resolving out of stock issues.
Schumann @ Mar 28th 2007 3:30PM
In the DC area, they seem to have enough BR discs :)
I've received everything Ia ded to my queue in the order it was in there - Including fresh releases of BR movies, and popular older discs. I didn't try to get Casino Royal, though (that wuold have been a godo test) - because I bought it soon after it was released.
Dante @ Mar 28th 2007 3:48PM
There's a lot more demand than supply. My HD-DVD titles in my Netflix queue are always at either Long Wait or Very Long Wait. Perhaps if they had more of the titles in stock and ready to ship it would account for more than 1% of titles shipped. If you keep a low stock you're not going to ship a lot.
NNTPgrip @ Mar 28th 2007 4:27PM
I joined just for HD-DVD, got a PS3 later and activated those on my account. I own zero discs in either format. Without netflix I wouldn't have bought either player. I have never had a problem with them so far.
I like the blu-rays better cause the coating is bulletproof and the PS3 loads them fast as hell. My HD-DVD player however decodes the DD+, TrueHD etc. in the player and sends it to my reciever though 6-channel analog hookups. To get that out of the PS3 I will need a receiever that accepts HDMI, and will not buy one until I see one that will do 1.3.
sensay @ Mar 28th 2007 4:54PM
I put Children of Men(HD-DVD) in my Q from last week before it was released and I still havent gotten it yet- it is listed as short wait
n2 @ Mar 28th 2007 8:33PM
This is why you never hear Sony talk about Blu-Ray numbers for movies or players. They're dismal. Instead they just say, we're selling more than HD DVD. But they forget to include, but still far less than DVD.
robert @ Mar 28th 2007 10:57PM
i got an hddvd player for my 360. and i got netflix for hddvds only! its magical! :D
Kyle @ Mar 29th 2007 9:04AM
I have had Miami Vice HD DVD at the top of my queue since release date and it has yet to ship to me. Netflix is definitely not buying enough copies of the HD films--otherwise I suspect the 1% would be much higher.
Chyldsh @ Mar 29th 2007 9:56AM
I really dont know what some of you guys are talking about. I have a Q with about 30 movies, half of which are B-Ray and all are available accept for 3 of them.
Mp3 @ Mar 29th 2007 11:13AM
I live in NY and don't have a problem getting Blu-ray movies from Netflix. They seem to always be in stock when it's time to send mine out.
The article title is deceptive. To say "only 1%" makes this sound low, but I'm sure there are more than 99 DVD players in homes for every 1 Blu-ray player (incl. PS3).
. @ Apr 7th 2007 9:03PM
changed my whole netflix to hd-dvd never been happier, my xbox now plays more hd-dvds then games... 4 hd-dvds every weekend