Just a quick pointer to some good news coming out today regarding Blu-ray. As some of you may have read, Blockbuster announced that Blu-ray disc will be the exclusive HD movie format for 1,450 of their 1,700 stores in North America. This is a big win for the Blu-ray format, as Blockbuster noted they based their decision on consumer feedback:
“The consumers are sending us a message. I can’t ignore what I’m seeing,” said Matthew Smith, senior vice president of merchandising at Blockbuster, to The Associated Press.
By mid-July, they will have over 170 Blu-ray movies in stock. You can read the official Blockbuster announcement here.
This is great. It was a one sided race. HD DVD never had a real chance. Even though Bluy ray might cost a bit more, theres a reason: Better support and better hardware. I rent all my Blue Ray movies from Blockbuster, so I’m a happy man. Cant wait for 300 to come out on Blue ray.
yes thats great news
Herby,
Your damn right!
I love games and movies, my wife loves movies and (simpsons games?). Any way, I own more BD movies than ps3 games not because of the lack of games but because of the mutual love for movies.
Also I like to waste my money on shinny things LOL
Netflix give Herby more BD movies!
Herby,
Your right!
I love games and movies, my wife loves movies and (simpsons games?). Any way, I own more BD movies than ps3 games not because of the lack of games but because of the mutual love for movies.
Also I like to waste my money on shinny things LOL
Netflix give Herby more BD movies!
and good times were had by all! great news!
@herby,
I’ve made the conversion from DVD to BD, I was a little unsure at first after watching my first few BD like Mission Impossible, Enemy of the State and Black Hawk Down, but The Prestige and Pirates made me believe. I just can’t wait for the day Lord of the Rings Extended Edition arrives. Time for this silly war to be over. This Blockbuster arrangement may not affect me since I only buy my movies, but it’s another nail in the coffin for the opposition. What hope do they have left now? We’ll be having our Matrix trilogy once BD-J is out and Spider-Man is yet to come out. Universal, please go neutral too, there’s a few movies I’d like to get of yours, thank you.
I’ve told people since they announced that the PS3 would have Blu-Ray that it would be the next format for movies and games…..
Just look…DVD’s didnt take off until the PS2…as it was the cheapest Progressive Scan DVD player on the market…Once it launched DVD’s took off because of the install base.
Now with PS3 having Blu-Ray in it,and being the cheapest upscaling Blu-Ray/DVD player on the market, the Blu-Rays are going to take off like the DVD’s did.
For some idiotic reason, my ps3 freezes up during gameplay. I only have madden 07(blu-ray), but my ps2 games work fine on the system. i rented another madden 07 only to get the same result. when i use the HDMI output it shuts down like its overheated when its trying to play regular dvds. i don’t get it, but i need some relief. got answers?
BD-ROM ftw!
Thats fantastic, now hopefully Apple will bring out a new macbook pro with a bluray drive. and maybe you guys can focus on games for the ps3.
yeahh
Nice
@40cal
According to Netflix 300 comes out on Blu-Ray on July 31, 2007
Also I am like you I love Movies and games. My wife is not much of a gamer but she loves to watch movies at home. In past years I have only watched a few movies on the big screen(Star wars and Superman Returns) that should be watched. The last few times after leaving the theater I have a pang in my stomach like having been ripped off. I rather stay home and be able to take a piss if I feel like it, also it is alot cheaper.
I bought my HDTV a year before the PS3 came out and the last thing I was waiting for to make my HD heaven was watching movies in HD. So the fact the PS3 was BD compatible was a huge selling point for me.
@Gavi my PSN friend ;)
I know what you mean. My first BD movie that I saw was the Italian Job. It looked horrible. But I read some reviews on highdefdigest.com and they said this title was one of the worst example of a BD movie. Things are much better after those first releases. I loved Prestige. I can’t wait for LOTR either. Even though I have seen it on DVD a bunch of times. I also got to see it on TNTHD and it looks awesome in HD. Matrix is going to be sweet.
Great news.
This is just the beginning of the domino effect. I’ve heard things like Target going Blu-ray exclusive for hardware. And someone else mentioned a big announcement from the BDA on this coming Wednesday.
we need blu-ray movie to have a font for the cross bar, like with game when you are on the main menu it display a font about the game with some music !
we need that with all blu-ray movie!
Its feel cheap when a blu-ray is in the PS3 and you go to Video folder and you see only a disc icone :/
I feel good about this, it makes my 39 Blu-ray movies look like a safe bet now :). Good job Sony, all you need to do now is lower the price of the Blu-ray player for the mainstream consumers. I say $200-300 will be the sweet spot. As for me, I haven’t purchased a single DVD since the PS3 came out.
Geeez, how long do I hvae to way for this avatar to show?
Yeah cool but I still want my in-game XMB update.
Stealing from Porsche’s tag line… Blu-ray — There is no substitue!
Great I really hope Blu-Ray wins the HD format war. But Sony you must not be so narrow-sighted and be satisfied with beating out HD-DVD! Beating HD-DVD is small beans compared to beating regular DVD. You need to lower the price of BD discs to that of regular DVDs (perhaps cheaper than DVDs) and heavily market the new format!!!!
ROFL at people who actually think this matters. HD DVD, Blu-ray – neither format matters to anyone but the extreme enthusiasts.
I don’t see John Q. Public busting arse to go buy a BD player or a HD DVD player. For the vast majority of people next gen DVD is still too expensive and they’re not quite inclined to go through the process of upgrading their DVD collection which they had to upgrade from VHS.
Go ahead, flame me. I expect it. But I also know the truth unlike most everyone else here. This next gen “format war” has gone on this long because the VAST MAJORITY OF CONSUMERS DON’T CARE YET. Sony overestimates the consumer desire for Blu-ray; Microsoft overestimates the consumer desire for HD DVD;e Nintendo just laughs at the “format war” and rakes in their 331K unit sales.
This is another case of Moore’s Law applying to new technology and people being content with what they have.
Good work.
thats awesome i hope my blockbuster up here in Canada ill carry them
Good news for BIG BLU !
thats good to bad i dont have an HDTV to actually enjoy these movies. hey sony how bout sending me a free bravia lol
I could see that coming, 170 companies aren’t supporting this format for nothing you know?
Congrats to Blu-Ray!!!
YESSSSSS!!!!!
I’ve been bugging my local Blockbuster store if they’ll ever rent blu-ray. Now it’s official. Thank You Blockbuster.
good news. now some games!!! oh wait?? ninja gaiden comes out next week. yay
Of course BB chooses the winning format. It would be ludicrous to choose hddvd! ;)
Off to watch Pirates Of The Caribean: Death Mans Chest with reference class BD player (PS3)!
I read this yesterday, its very good news on PS3 front :)!
Captiosus you are so wrong…did you even notice that HD tv’s are flying out of the stores like hell?
HD tv are getting cheaper and cheaper, people who are buying a new TV set are buying a HD tv. And to take advantage from all the features that a HD tv is offering you need a next-gen carrier, and Blu-ray is the best alternative. Its the best HD format, no doubt.
That Nintendo now is leading the race, sorry but in my opinion the Wii is not even a next gen console, yeah, it has the Wii-mote but is that next gen?
No, it isn’t, it is another way to control a game, but revolutionary? No it has been don before.
Ant the Wii mote control is not exact.
The Wii is a console for non gamers and the hardware is nothing more than a Cube 1 1/2.
The Wii is a hype and can never stand up agains the power of the PS3….never.
Real gamers will choose for the real next gen consoles, not for the Wii with last gen graphics.
That crap talk about a new experience with the WII mote has been already retrieved. The best way to controle a game is with a gamepad ore mouse and keyboard. The controlling manner the Wii does has been tryed before.
What the Wii concerns what do you see? Nintendo again is responsable for the most games and the third party devs are porting PS2 games and Cube to the Wii, easy money, the only thing they have to do is to add the Wii-mote controll in the games. But the controle of the Wii-mote is not exact.
The most game for the Wii are party games and there will be alot more of them.
The Wii is not the console that will be one top on the end of this gen. I’am shure of that.
Whoever thinks high definition movies are for the long run its true.. and ask for saying nobody would replace there dvd section i already sold 100-of my 800 movies just to be getting blue rays i have a total for 25 blue rays soo yea.. u figure out the calculations? :-)
[…] el foro oficial de PlayStation David Karraker ya lo anuncia con bombo y platillo pues sabe que se han apuntado un buen tanto con […]
Talk about Universal, I quote a statement from Ken Graffeo
“Consumers who are buying Playstation 3 are buying it as a game console. They’re simply not buying it for watching as many high-definition movies as Sony said they would”
(http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199903402)
seems he just doesn’t like BD because he does not approve a movie should used to play by a ‘multiple function’ player. I believe this speech really can’t be acceptable, at my first time watching DVD movie, I was using PS2 – it’s just a simplest and quickest way that I thought, why won’t I do the same way in HD movie? the true is there are many BD movies sold to many PS3 users.
Universal’s misgiving is more complex than his statement, he got too more reasons to refuse BD – of course not just direct against a player… does anyone know what and why?
It’s not impossible to make Universal turn back but you have give it a maximum effort , it can’t just take some statistics and say ‘we’re winner, come to join us’, Universal wants “a great favor”, if BD can give it more than HDDVD, he definitely would make a reconsideration…
by the way , I really love his movies, without them, BD’s victory is too early to pronounced for me.
Yes! I love Blu-ray! Blu-ray ftw!!!
Sweet, now I get to drive to the closest Blockbuster instead of the one that’s 15 minutes away to rent BR discs.
Now if they could just do something about their online sorting system so it’s easy to pick BR discs…
Without reading every comment… I have to say that Blockbuster didnt pick blueray, they are just adding it to more stores. They still are offering both Blue Ray and HD to consumers and base their decisions off rental patterns.
They simply said that users want Blue Ray, so we’re adding it to the local stores.
They are still playing the neutral zone and stocking both as not to ostracized a group of their users.
@YoYo-Pete,
I don’t think you read the article properly. BB is refusing to sell HDDVD in all but their original 200 or so stores. They are clearly choosing Blu-Ray, and not HDDVD.
With the 1.8 update, the PS3 is truly the best Blu-Ray player on the market, especially for the price. Blu-Ray helps the PS3 to be even better of an investment.
As for the 360 getting a Blu-Ray drive add-on…that would be lovely. I’ll go over my friend’s house and see him watch Blu-Ray movies on his Sony Bravia LCD….
GO SONY.—12
^^^^^ That is, my friend with a 360. :)—-12
Has anyone heard about these apparent spots that are appearing on the Blu-Ray disks? The main culprit, apparently, is “The Prestige”.
I’m a staff member over at a Playstation specific forum called Absolute-Playstation.com (http://www.absolute-playstation.com) and I was wondering if someone from Sony could confirm or shoot down these “rumours”.
If these “rumours” ARE true, what are you doing about it Sony (and the rest of the people who helped develop the Blu-Ray fotmat).
Apart from that, Blu-Ray is sooo gonna wup HD-DVDs A$$, lol.
Keep up the good work Sony :-)
I could care less. It won’t be to long before apple does the same thing to movies that they are doing to music. I think both Blue Ray and HD-DVD will be obsolete. Check out all the new movie sites you can go to now and download movies. I say here soon there will be some new i-thingy to play them. It will be great because it cuts the cost of production. As for video games I think it was stupid for MS to not use Blue Ray. That is were Blue Ray will do best at.
oh thank goodness… I was so tired of having only a few titles to pick from in the blu ray section. I think blockbuster has been waiting to make a decision on which one they were going to pick. Blu ray and HD-DVD were right next to each other, and which ever sells(rents) the most win..
@Jay290783
We have heard about this issue. It actually affects a very small batch of “The Prestige.” People who bought the disc can contact the manufacturer, Disney, for a replacement.
Thank you for the prompt reply sir.
It’s great to know that your company DOES read these messages and reply personally to them instead of some generic replies like what sometimes happens.
On a slightly different note, how do we go about arranging an electronic interview with either yourself or a regional executive of SCE?
If you could provide contact details could you send them to JAForrest@absolute.ws please?
Thank you very much sir
Mister Karraker you are absolutly right, I have heard it to. I did some research.
It was a production faillure in a series of Blu -ray disks at the factory, They did not attached the coating at the proper way. It was a faillure of the coating machine.
I never heard of this problem before regarding Blu-ray disks. The PS3 is out in the USA and Japan fore about 8 months and for 4 months in Europe, nobody has reported the same problem on the Internet. And I asure you that if there was a structural problem with Blu-ray disks it would be on the internet in a second….
This problem has been also occurred sometimes by CD’s and DVD’s.
It is a incident no structural problem.
Time to move on, another Sony bash down the drain……..
yeah blu-ray ftw! you guys should buy PLANET EARTH on amazon…on sale for 66 bucks! amazing doc!
This is great news.
Great news!
But I can’t enjoy the same like you do here in Sweden.
I probably have to wait before I can even rent a Blu-ray disc. Right now where I rent my films there is only HD-DVDs and no Blu-ray for rental.
this is definitely a step in the right direction. you guys have helped create a stellar format and i hope it proves to change the tide of previous format launches. luckily i’m around and have a job that allows me to help with the cause. keep up the good work. [: