While we fortunate Americans have been renting Blu-ray Discs from
Blockbuster for
a good while now, citizens of Taiwan haven't had the same privilege. Thankfully, all that's getting set to change, as the rental chain has committed to offering up 50 BD titles in each Taiwanese location before the end of this month. A new
partnership between it and Samsung will also place Sammy's BD players (the BD-P1500, in particular) in-store for patrons to experience the 1080p difference, and it's said that Samsung manager Li Je-rong believes that "with strong channel assistance from Blockbuster and Tsann Kuen, consumers will become more familiar with Blu-ray." As for pricing, expect to pay NT$150 ($4.93) for each Blu-ray movie versus NT$100 ($3.29) for traditional DVDs.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rob @ Jul 9th 2008 7:11PM
Wow, I didn't know renting from Blockbuster was a "privilege." If anything, they're a ripoff. $5 for renting a movie is too much. $1.99 should be more than enough to cover all expenses, and pay the studios for their efforts. I always find it unbelievable when I go to Blockbuster and hear that register ring for $17-27 for renting movies. Crap, it'd be cheaper to have their monthly plans, which I do and plan on canceling this month. Better yet, get Netflix for $16/month which allows you to stream them as well. Just my $0.02.
Jarvis @ Jul 9th 2008 10:22PM
By the way, not all Blockbusters have Blu-ray in America. A search on the Blockbuster website near my home in NYC, shows only 1 blockbuster with blu-rays and that one is pretty far from me. I've been waiting and waiting, hearing all these reports on Engadget about Blockbuster keep on lining their stores with Blu-ray, but no luck for me.
EQC @ Jul 10th 2008 4:59AM
Have you tried talking to the managers at your local Blockbuster outlets to request BR?
If you (and everybody else) keeps on renting DVD's, they won't have much motivation to stock Blu-ray...but if a few people start saying and showing that they'd rather check out BR movies, then they'll have motivation to change.
Jarvis @ Jul 10th 2008 9:28AM
@EQC I havent tried to talk to the managers, but I did try to talk to the employees, but I might give that I try next time I go there.
I've actually mostly stopped renting DVDs from them for about 2 years now after I got my ps3 and saw how amazing blu-rays were. I mostly exclusively either buy Blu-rays or watch them through Netflix or Blockbuster Online (but I stopped that as well). I want to be able to pix up a movie right away and Netflix or Blockbuster online doesnt provide me that.