Beverly Hills (CA) – Netflix believes the winner in the HD format war has been determined and said that it has begun stocking Blu-ray discs exclusively.

The company said that its move is prompted by the decision of four out of the six major movie studios to publish high-def DVD titles only in the Sony-developed Blu-ray format. The online movie rental company intends to phase out HD DVDs by the end of this year and, as of now, is purchasing HD titles in Blu-ray only.

The firm’s current HD DVD inventory will remain available to customers until the discs' “natural life cycle” takes them out of circulation in the coming months.

   "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," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, in a prepared statement.

"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,” Sarandos believes.

Netflix said that the majority of its customers looking or HD movies have chosen Blu-ray, and “only a portion” went with the HD DVD format. The company claims that it has more than 400 Blu-ray movies available for rent at this time.

HD is dead.

Feb 11, 2008 10:30     

HD is dead, you can't rent it from netflix or blockbuster... if you have to buy it, you have to spend 25-28$ a movie... All the retailer are fire sale their machine at cost to get rid of them. I can bet you that bestbuy and walmart and circuit city are not stocking new inventory for HD DVD players. Toshiba won't agree with sony to make one format and now they lost the war. Doesn't matter who has cheaper machine or better format.... the one that has the most content wins.

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When will Toshiba let their customers know HD DVD:

Feb 11, 2008 13:09     

When will Toshiba let their customers know HD DVD is dead and stop leading people to believe otherwise. They had to have known since Jan. 12th 2008, that HD DVD was dead. So all their resent marketing has been nothing more than a plan to prevent mass returns. They should have done the right thing. I don't see anyone ever trusting Toshiba ever again.
Steve report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

one more nail in the coffin

Feb 11, 2008 13:55     

Well this is a great move, the sooner we end this stupid war the better. Woot for Blu-Ray. ^_^
Race234 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Blu-Ray

Feb 11, 2008 14:40     

While i'm fine with whatever format wins the prospect of having to pay Sony for every disk I buy is scary. Sony's not known for letting people off cheap. I predict you will never see new BD movies for under $30 thanks to royalties that will need to be paid. The days of new $19.95 or $25 movies are over.
Action Jackson report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

blue ray.

Feb 11, 2008 16:28     

on top of netflix choosing blue ray... best buy is now recommanding people to just buy blue ray.... once again, which one wins is nothing to do with which format is better, which company is less evil, and which company is cheaper. the only factor is which format are the new movies coming in... if movies come in a SD card ...you probably have to buy a SD card reader.......no choice there. The bad part is that they have fire sale on the remaining non-sold inventory and people are still buying it thinking that it will last for a few years of HD viewing which is not going to happen... and for 120$..it's a expensive up conversion machine.

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To Action Jackson

Feb 11, 2008 18:35     

No offense, lurk moar on the internets, as Blu ray discs can be had in the range of 9.99 - 19.99 for serious releases, not just loss leaders. I'd say the actual average lies somewhere between 14.95 - 19.95 overall. You should shop around just to see for yourself. The blu ray forum has a "deal" tab and many folks are scoring discs in B O G O fashion. Personally, Ive amased a pretty nice library in a few months with Amazons BOGO offers. No tax, free shipping actually sweetens the deal. The prices are actually trending downward to increase the public interest... Check it out for yourself!

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