The Internet and mailbox movie delivery super-service known as Netflix, having seen a “clear signal from the industry” has decided to stop purchasing HD-DVDs and will exclusively support Blu-Ray.

Netflix plans to phase out their remaining stock of HD-DVDs by the end of the year. Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, had this to say about the situation:

“The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition. We’re now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, 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. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer’s preferred means.”

Even though only a very small percentage of people even rent hi-def movies in the first place, a majority of those rentals are Blu-Ray. Personally, I don’t think this is really that clear of an indicator that Blu-Ray is better, or even preferred over HD-DVD.

What I think is going on is that all of these PS3 owners are sitting around with nothing to do since most of their games suck. They figure they need to get some use out of their overpriced gadget, so they rent a movie or two. Here, look at this ad while I put on my flame-retardant thong.

Okay, I don’t seriously think that, but I do think that more of this is happening than the studios realize. The masses haven’t decided on Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray just invaded your home when you bought that game console. You’ve supported Blu-Ray without actually pledging your support for Blu-Ray.

I honestly don’t care who wins the HD format war. I think both sides are trying too hard to shove the “next generation” down our throats, and I’m content to just watch DVDs until they start showing movies directly to my brain.

Source: Netflix

Tags: Blu-ray, dvd, Exclusive, format-war, hd, hd-dvd, hi-def, high-def, high-definition, Netflix, PS3

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1 Comment »

1. Krispy Demon on February 13, 2008 9:19 am

   Maybe Sony was smarter than I gave them credit for sticking an overpriced and underdeveloped media system in their gaming console. I guess it’s good for Sony, since their format might actually pull it off, I just wish they actually, you know, at least pretended to care a little about the people that purchased a gaming system for the gaming. Then I may have felt a little bit worse about selling my PS3.

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