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Netflix to support HD-DVD and BluRay concurrently
The more a company relies on optical media, the more the impacts of BluRay vs HD-DVD will impact them. When your sole product is movies on just that, it's a very big one. Netflix is prepared, however, and is ready to embrace both standards and incorporate both into their business. As the year progresses, Netflix will carry many movie titles available in both HD-DVD and BluRay formats.
"High-definition DVD is the next wave of excitement in home entertainment and we'll be there at its inception," said Netflix Chairman and CEO Reed Hastings. "With far sharper images, better sound and more features, we expect high-def will greatly enhance DVD's consumer appeal and extend its popularity over the next decade or more."
It seems that at first, more titles will be available only in HD DVD, due to them being made available sooner, but that as time goes on there will be no difference, and equal line ups will be had for both. It is good to see companies already being prepared for this, because it will make it all the easier on consumers. What about the consumer who doesn't know what they have, though? Hopefully, companies will understand that mistakes will be made and that returns due to format standards may occur.
"High-definition DVD is the next wave of excitement in home entertainment and we'll be there at its inception," said Netflix Chairman and CEO Reed Hastings. "With far sharper images, better sound and more features, we expect high-def will greatly enhance DVD's consumer appeal and extend its popularity over the next decade or more."
It seems that at first, more titles will be available only in HD DVD, due to them being made available sooner, but that as time goes on there will be no difference, and equal line ups will be had for both. It is good to see companies already being prepared for this, because it will make it all the easier on consumers. What about the consumer who doesn't know what they have, though? Hopefully, companies will understand that mistakes will be made and that returns due to format standards may occur.
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User Comments (14)
Post a comment| DragonMaster on January 24, 2006 8:29 PM | That's bad for BluRay. I'm sure that both discs will have
the same content but that the BluRay version will be more
expensive.
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| paulwuzhere on January 24, 2006 8:45 PM | Netflix is a great service that always has fast deliveries
and quick response. I hope Blu ray catches on. I will always
support samsung. And as for Netflix's movie download service
I hope there a no download limits and they are a good
quality. Also their movie, games on-demand.... NO. I will
not even think about messing with that. To much hassle
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| Need_a_Dell on January 24, 2006 9:49 PM | Doesn't sound like all that bad an idea. This way, there
will be profit for Netflix no matter which format wins! 
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| Race on January 25, 2006 12:23 AM | Netflix is doing the only thing it could do, due to the
format war. This is probably an indication of what other
retailers, etc. will do.....there will not be a universal
format decided upon, and it will be the consumer who decides
the winner. (Now that I think about it, I kinda like it this
way) However, I do think HD-DVD has a timing advantage in that it will be available approx. 6 months ahead of BlueRay.
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| PUTALE on January 25, 2006 2:37 AM | that's nice to see it, but I guess netfix might be a tad
early in the game. I think eventually we will settle for 1
big format, it's just too troublesome to have both formats.
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| flipi on January 25, 2006 3:16 AM | If only they would merge and finally build a standard for
future laser products, so that we, customers can enjoy it
without having to buy a device for each class of products or
have to go to a cinema to watch it because they are to
expensive. Netflix is a bussiness, and as any bussiness it
keeps its pace with the technology.
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| shounen on January 25, 2006 5:20 AM | Finally there is one company that supports both and sees
future in them and as said before netflix will profit anyway
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| JMMD on January 25, 2006 6:23 AM | Glad to see Netflix supporting both format. I'd like to see
Netflix carry some DVD-A and SACD titles as well. It would
be nice to try them before buying.
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| asphix on January 25, 2006 7:10 AM | Its good that they are supporting both formats, but I really
dont see that they have a choice. If they went with either
one or the other, they would severely limit their customer
base in terms of next-gen DVD rentals. I also suspect rentals will be extremely popular within the first year of this new technology. People will ride the fence before ultimately deciding on one format or the other. With rentals you can still enjoy the media without the commitment of purchasing it yourself.
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| barfarf on January 25, 2006 7:29 AM | Money is money. As long as profit is theere NetFlix will go
after it. No reason not to support both format at least
publicly but in reality the waiting line could be long.
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| MonkeyMan on January 25, 2006 8:04 AM | At least Netflix isn't choosing sides between HDDVD and Blue
ray, because I think they know that choosing both, would be
a smart move, because it would make them more money either
way. At least they are making a smart business move. Great
job Netflix!!!!!
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| sngx1275 on January 25, 2006 9:22 AM | Originally posted by asphix: I also
suspect rentals will be extremely popular within the first
year of this new technology. People will ride the fence
before ultimately deciding on one format or the other. With
rentals you can still enjoy the media without the commitment
of purchasing it yourself. They are still going to
have to have a player for this, so in effect they've already
made the decision, so they can't rely on rentals to help
them decide which side of the fence they want to be on.
Unless they have a player that plays both, then in that
case, it doesn't matter which format
'wins'.Netflix isn't really taking a gamble on this either, I'm sure they will have limited numbers of each copy in each format, it will just increase wait times. Within the first week they'll have a preliminary idea on what is more popular, and can further refine this as time goes on, and making purchases accordingly.
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| nathanskywalker on January 25, 2006 11:40 AM | Actually, i would suspect that they will utilize both
formats. I have no proof of course, but do to the rather
large number of tv series they rent out; i think it would
make sense for them to put several tv shows on a single
disk. As tv shows usually do not have quite the quality of
special effect produced by hollywood(for theater and home
video, that way you would not be losing out on the quality
and would have a large portion of any given tv series. Now
Hd , of course could be used for videos that have more
special effects and such. Or movies that are just plain
dependant on good qualiy...The matrix, Star wars III, and
such. And this is good to hear. I love netflix, in my town
we exactly one video store. They now charge $3.75 for one
day rentals. Let's just say i think they will being losing
alot of buisness to netflix...
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| mentaljedi on January 25, 2006 12:20 PM | Smart move by Netflix. I would have done the same thing in
their position. Now the only question is when will this all
be sorted out? I won't say IF cos it HAS to be sorted out or
we'll be in deep trouble.
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