Poll: Did you cancel your Netflix account after the Blu-ray exclusive decision?

by Darren Murph posted Feb 12th 2008 at 11:45AM

In the aftermath of yesterday's blockbuster (ahem) move by Netflix to only stock Blu-ray titles in the future, we heard quite a bit of ranting that contained words like "finished" and "canceled." Still, we're interested in utilizing our super-duper scientific polling mechanisms to truly get a gauge on how many cancellation e-mails Netflix can expect thanks to its decision. Don't be left out!

Filed under: Industry, Polls, Blu-ray, HD DVD

Tags: blu-ray, blu-ray exclusive, Blu-rayExclusive, exclusive, hd rentals, HdRentals, netflix, poll, polls, rental

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Highest Ranked

Eric @ Feb 12th 2008 11:54AM

Nope, I upped my account to one more disc a month! :-P

Neutral

David S @ Feb 12th 2008 12:16PM

I did the opposite, downed my queue 1 disc at a time. Going to take the money I save and look for another 1 disc per month plan that will be exclusively HD-DVD.

I'm not sure if I want to drop NetFlix 100% or not. I mean I love their standard DVD service. Just can live without the HD-DVD snub. Since no one really knows when Universal or Paramount will go change sides and I currently have the ability to watch their high def movies... Makes no sense to pay NetFlix for movies they won't carry.

Highest Ranked

Marshall @ Feb 12th 2008 11:56AM

I think the Netflix decision actually has a bigger impact than the Warner Announcement.

As an HD-DVD owner who raely/never buys moves, I'm disappointed, but I love me some Netflix. I've tried them all (Blockbuster Online, Redbox, local stores) and Netflix is simply the best by far.

The Best Buy thing, I couldn't care less about. They've blindly recommended Sony since I worked there in 2001, so this is business as usual. But Netflix, that's a real coup.

Marshall
----------
The Real HT Info Podcast

Neutral

CharlieX @ Feb 12th 2008 12:04PM

I do feel a little bad for early HD-DVD adopters. But that's the price you pay. I think that even though HD-DVD may have some advantages as a format, it's good that the big companies are just throwing in the towel and picking a winner. Good or bad, I want to build a HD library that 1 machine can play back for me.

Neutral

Student Driver @ Feb 12th 2008 12:08PM

Well, I will probably go back to Netflix since this announcement. Why? Focusing on one technology should mean they will stock more of it, and when I get a PS3 I would rather rent stuff I already own, or back catalog titles, so I can see them in HD. With Netflix, this is cheaper and far more convenient than going to a local rental place.

Highly Ranked

Lumpmoose @ Feb 12th 2008 11:56AM

I've been using their HD DVDs for months now (and have been a subscriber for years), but have decided to get a PS3 since the January Warner decision. Don't blame Netflix. In fact, commend them and Best Buy for trying to push this debacle to a resolution.

Highly Ranked

HD Tom @ Feb 12th 2008 12:03PM

Very true. I'm not blaming them at all. Frankly, I wish Toshiba just gave up at CES just to get things overwith.

Highest Ranked

daschupa @ Feb 12th 2008 12:53PM

Netflix isn't like Best Buy, they don't sell players so they aren't doing this to help the consumer. When people go to rent, they already have an HD player already. If anything they are punishing the people who bought an HD system thinking that it was going to stick around. I can respect Best Buy (a phrase I thought I would never utter) because HD is a sinking ship, but Netflix shouldn't drown the passengers while they are at it.

Neutral

Wilson @ Feb 12th 2008 3:31PM

I did the exact thing you did. My PS3 arrived last week and I restarted my Netflix account and am now focused on BluRay. I have the HD-DVD add-on for Xbox 360, but after the Warner announcement, I disconnected it and it's now sitting in a closet. I've had it a year and got my money's worth with Netflix rentals.

Highly Ranked

daaper @ Feb 12th 2008 4:28PM

@ daschupa,

You're right, they don't sell players. However, they are sinking money into new media with the good possibility that only one will be used in the next few years. I might feel differently if I were on the losing side, but I commend them for picking one and moving on. I'd rather a surplus of one media than a shortage of both...

Neutral

Deadhouseplants @ Feb 12th 2008 11:59AM

Wow, look at all the cool people who don't use Netflix. Anyway, I just hope this move eliminates the long waits in our queues.

Neutral

anon @ Feb 12th 2008 12:04PM

No kidding. I got so sick of waiting for my Die Hard that I took it off my queue and went to Blockbuster for the first time in 2 years to pick it up.

Neutral

Patrick @ Feb 12th 2008 6:06PM

LOL...and exactly HOW will this move by Netflix shorten the wait on movies?
For the record, I get both HD DVD's and Blu-rays from Netflix.

Neutral

Deadhouseplants @ Feb 12th 2008 6:18PM

Sigh. Okay, say Netflix allocates 1 million dollars to buying discs.

Before this decision, Netflix spent...
$500,000 on Blu-Ray = 20,000 discs of Blu-Ray titles
$500,000 on HD-DVD = 20,000 discs of HD-DVD titles

After this decision, Netflix spends...
$1,000,000 on Blu-Ray = 40,000 discs of Blu-Ray titles
$0 on HD-DVD = 0 discs of HD-DVD titles

More money for Blu-Ray, means more discs, which means less queue times.

Yes, I know Netflix spends lots more on disc allocation, I just wanted to go the economics class route and use clean figures.

Neutral

HD Tom @ Feb 12th 2008 12:02PM

Haven't canceled yet. As soon as I get a Blu-Ray player, I will cancel and switch back to B-buster, so I can get disks from the store as well as quicker turnaround times.

Neutral

ramii @ Feb 12th 2008 12:17PM

I don't have the service, but i was going to join since i canceled my blockbuster account. Well, now i will definitely not join netflix especially with all the complaints i hear about their wait time being very long!

Neutral

Blake H @ Feb 12th 2008 12:11PM

Canceled within about 5 minutes of reading the news, and I let Mr. Swasey know how I felt about it.

Neutral

Deadhouseplants @ Feb 12th 2008 12:12PM

Off topic, sort of. I'm just curious to if anyone else has noticed this or not. Go to Netflix, and look up Lost: Season 3. It says it is in both DVD and Blu-Ray. However, it doesn't seem to offer Blu-Ray as an option to rent.

Since this is the internet, I will also interject that yes; I have my Blu-Ray option turned on, and yes; I am a member of Netflix.

Neutral

kb98121 @ Feb 12th 2008 12:23PM

The first time I added season 3 I did the last 3 discs individually and they came up DVD, I deleted them and added the entire series and they popped up Blu. Not sure why.

Neutral

Dragnipurake @ Feb 12th 2008 12:13PM

I had not committed to either format, so the Netflix announcement doesn't really impact me directly. Honestly, even if it did...we've tried the other options, and Netflix is just consistently better.

Highly Ranked

leland @ Feb 12th 2008 12:21PM

as an HD-DVD xbox owner, I mostly relied on HD-DVD rentals from netflix. Netflix isn't stopping HD-DVD rentals till the end of the year - so, I've moved all the hd-titles I want to see to the front of my queue and will be done long before they stop offering them.

I'll be waiting another year or two till combo players come down in price or warner/paramount/universal have their libraries in blu. At the moment i'm investing time and energy into HD downloads thru bittorrent which stream to my xbox in 720p and 1080p, so I may just avoid it entirely.

I will happily not support Blu as long as possible, at least until they change those ghey blue boxes to something that doesn't look ridiculous on my shelf. and doesn't remind me of the $200 brick on top of my xbox.

I really wish the format bitching would end, this could've gone in HD-DVD's favor just as easily, if toshiba could have sealed the deal with fox before sony got to them. So stop acting like blu is winning because it's a "better format," it was one lucky business move.

Neutral

Adam @ Feb 12th 2008 12:21PM

I would expect an announcement from Blockbuster very soon too. Currently, you can rent HD-DVD, but I reckon that won't be so for much longer.

Neutral

Wayne @ Feb 12th 2008 12:22PM

The first poll option should say "irrational" and not "irate".

Cancelling Netflix isn't going to make them suddenly change their mind. Blockbuster isn't going to be any different.

It's the classic case of, "If I can't have it, no one else can", wich only burns the person making irrational decision in the end.

Neutral

Jake @ Feb 12th 2008 12:55PM

I'm not sure it's irrational to cancel Netflix over this.

A lot of HDM owners (Blu and HD) have relied on Netflix and other rental services to supply them with content, so that they didn't (don't?) have to sink more money into either format before a clear winner was had. Whether that point is upon now or not, if you are an HD-DVD owner who was relying on Netflix for content, it no longer makes sense to stick with them since Blockbuster (for now) still has HD-DVD discs.

In other words, if you are "HD-DVD only" and you rely on renting for content (so as to not throw money away on buying HD-DVD discs) AND you want to make your HD-DVD investment work for as long as possible, switching to Blockbuster is the RATIONAL thing to do, not the irrational.

Highly Ranked

wreckedchevy @ Feb 12th 2008 5:12PM

exactly why i cancelled nothing personal i only signed up with them in november just for hd-dvd so i cancelled and signed up with block buster

Neutral

Wayne @ Feb 12th 2008 6:18PM

Thanks for clarifying guys. I guess I assumed that most HD-DVD and Blu-ray owners were already Netflix subscribers.

Neutral

John B @ Feb 12th 2008 12:29PM

This made no impact for me. With a family of five total, we rent a LOT of different DVDs, especially for kids. I'm the only one who even had an interest in HD DVD, so it doesn't make sense to do anything with the account when we'll all still use it.

No big deal here.

Hell, if anything this means that they'll be liquidating their HD DVD inventory. Hopefully, they'll still be $9.99 or less.

Neutral

shetaan819 @ Feb 12th 2008 12:44PM

hey guys, are you aware that Netflix is continuing to buy and stock HD DVD until the end of the year....why are you guys cancelling...?

Highly Ranked

vtjman @ Feb 12th 2008 12:50PM

actually my understanding is that they will stop BUYING HD-DVDs at the end of the month and will completely phase out their HD-DVDs by the end of the year. Could be wrongle

Highest Ranked

daschupa @ Feb 12th 2008 12:35PM

Yup, canceled it. The main reason with going with netflix was the ability to rent HD-DVDs. This made little sense, if people are renting them and you cant keep them in stock, maybe you should keep renting them. When I get a PS3, I'll just go to Blockbuster since this was the only reason I kept going to Netflix. *crosses fingers for a Netflix HD DVD firesale*

Neutral

lilpickle @ Feb 12th 2008 12:37PM

I have both HD and Blu players, but only about 10% of my queue is HD or Blu. So it doesn't affect me all that much anyway.

I love my netflix.

Neutral

Eva @ Feb 12th 2008 12:38PM

99% of the content I rent from Netflix is not in any form of HD, so why would I care?

Neutral

leland @ Feb 12th 2008 12:42PM

again, this is happening at the END OF THE YEAR, not tomorrow, so who cares.

Highly Ranked

p @ Feb 12th 2008 12:46PM

I believe they said they won't be stocking any new HD-DVD releases from yesterday. So yes, this is happening now.

Neutral

vtjman @ Feb 12th 2008 12:48PM

Actually the email I got from Netflix indicated that they would begin to change my HD DVDs in my queue to DVDs at the end of February, that isn't much time to watch the 26 HD-DVD only movies I want to see.

Highly Ranked

leland @ Feb 12th 2008 1:01PM

"Saved Queue" will be end of Feb. Queue will be end of year.

"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."

Neutral

h0mi @ Feb 12th 2008 2:19PM

read the article. In the next month or so, any HD-DVD entries in people's queues will be changed to regular DVD. This isnt a change that wont happen till december, this is going on pretty much immediately.
If I were a netflix customer I would be angry- their rationale makes no sense because the marketplace by virtue of HD-DVD losing the format war will "solve" the problem for them.

Neutral

cheese head @ Feb 12th 2008 2:30PM

Actually you're wrong, so I do care NOW.

"We're Going Blu-ray

Dear

You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

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.

You can click here to change your format preferences.

We're sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.

-The Netflix Team"

Neutral

Greg @ Feb 12th 2008 3:06PM

Umm, the end of February change is for items in your SAVED queue - stuff that they list as releasing in the future, it apears. Not titles they already have in stock. Those go away at the end of the year. That's they way I read it. Think: When a title is not yet released, you cannot ADD it to your queue, you put it in a SAVED queue.

I'm just glad they announced it ahead of time. When blockbuster upped my account costs by almost double in the timespan of two months, they did so abruptly and with not much warning.

Highly Ranked

Dave @ Feb 12th 2008 12:46PM

Switched from blockbuster to Netflix when I got a 360 and HD DVD drive. Now that they're dumping HD, I'll be switching back. Can't say I blame them, but I'm certainly not thrilled either. But without HD, they offer no advantage in my eyes over Blockbuster. Now if they start offering video game rentals through the same service, I might have to reconsider. But until then, convenience wins.

Neutral

su6oxone @ Feb 12th 2008 1:00PM

How dumb. Idiots who cancelled their netflix accounts. Where are they going to rent from now? Blockbuster? They already kicked HD DVD in the nutz a year ago when they decided blu was the future, not red. Akin to cutting off your right hand to spite your left hand. And they need somewhere to rent their SD DVDs from.

Highest Ranked

Jake @ Feb 12th 2008 1:22PM

Hang on, I have a spare clue around here somewhere... oh, found it!

Blockbuster online still rents HD-DVD, dude. ;-)

Neutral

MikeyG @ Nov 6th 2008 6:56PM

They need another vote option for those of us who will recommend NetFlix even more then before. I'm ecstatic that some companys are finally "growin' a set" and taking a stand. Blu-Ray is obviously/statistically the superior format. The consumer has spoken, at the time I'm writing this, there are 9.72M PS3's in the world (www.vgchartz.com). Let's just say that only 10% of them know that the PS3 is a Blu-Ray player, that alone matches the red camps numbers, but let's not forget about the more then 500K standalone Blu-Ray players there are out there. I hope everyone realizes this is all be prolonged because of a $150M bribe back in August.

Neutral

takeme2urleader @ Feb 13th 2008 12:49PM

The Blue-Ray pushers are just buying out these companies to use there product. And at the same time forcing consumers to buy there there product.

Neutral

OceanWhale @ Feb 14th 2008 12:17AM

First, it's Blu-Ray, not Blue-Ray. Second... proper grammar should be used. I assume you are of some sort of intelligence level. Every one of your "there" remarks should be switched to "their". Those two sentences had so many errors that it is sickening what the world is coming to.

As for the whole thread, I actually joined Netflix after the announcement.

Neutral

Ben @ Feb 12th 2008 1:13PM

I'm quite happy. It'll make me take my account off hold if they can focus on Blu-Ray and get better wait times.

Neutral

Chip @ Feb 12th 2008 10:15PM

Doesn't Netflix have unlimited shelf space? That's their whole freaking advantage in the rental space!! Many of the HD early adopters are the same people that gave Netflix their start and recommended the service to their friends and family, and this is a massive slap in the face. It smacks of payola and it's a real shame to see a once-great company lose its customer-centric edge.

Highly Ranked

andyg8180 @ Feb 12th 2008 1:14PM

im okay... it stung a little, but as i said before, its not like they were in a rush to ship out and keep up with the demand for Blu OR HD...

If HD is truly dead, i must say, i loved the HDDVD experience much more than Blu... Time to put on my sunglasses, cry a little cry, and go back to using my upconvert DVD player...

Highly Ranked

plozen @ Feb 12th 2008 1:19PM

I'm sure there were plenty of people who watch a lot of movies that are caught up on their Netflix HD DVD queues, so for them it makes sense to cut their losses.

Myself, I still have several movies that I haven't seen so I'm waiting until the cupboard is bare.

As for the process, it breaks down this way:

End of Feb. - All movies in your Saved Queue (read: movies that are not out yet or not on HD DVD yet) will be changed to standard. This only means Netflix will not buy any new releases (American Ganster, Beowulf, etc.).

End of year - All HD DVDs will be phased out by the end of the year. At that time, movies in your queue that you haven't gotten yet will be changed to standard def.

One other thing to note: Netflix also stated they would not be replacing discs either, so if all of their Heroes Season 1 disc 5 discs break or disappear, they will not be replaced.

Neutral

eleventeen @ Feb 12th 2008 1:37PM

I'm sorry but to me, this smacks of misdirected anger.

This is like people getting upset that Blockbuster didn't carry Betamax at the same time they carried VHS, even though it was clear towards the end of that battle that VHS was going to win.

I would say that this is what early adopters get, but I stood in line for 6 hours and paid 600 bucks for a phone that people could get the next day just by showing up at the store, or get for 400 bucks only a few months later.

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