Netflix says no to HD DVD

HD DVD's coffin gets another nail.

Word was out this morning that Netflix was giving up on HD DVD, but now Netflix is getting personal about it. I just received the following e-mail:

Dear David,

You're receiving this e-mail because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens.

You can click here to change your format preferences.

We're sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 [phone].

-The Netflix Team

While I'm often accused of being a Blu-ray supporter (I think this e-mail proves I'm not as one-sided as some people might think), the note actually makes me kind of sad. The fact is I'm much more of a renter than a buyer. I always thought (naively) that if I got a hankering to watch an HD DVD on my XBox 360 HD DVD player, I would be able to rent it from Netflix--even if HD DVD went down. Not so much anymore.

Is this the final nail in the coffin? Well, couple this Netflix announcement with Best Buy's announcement that it "will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format" and the end looks very near. Of course, HD DVD fans can remain in denial.

[MATTAND]

Feel kinda bad myself...

[commorancy]

Kudos to Netflix

It was inevitable that if the HD format war had continued, consumers would abandon both formats and wait for downloads. It's actually a good thing that places like Netflix and the movie studios are taking the hard line. That doesn't mean I prefer the Blu-Ray format. I just prefer that at least one of the formats survive and frankly I don't care which one. I'll buy into whichever format wins.. and I think most consumers are basically in this boat. Kudos to Netflix for making the hard choice.

--
Brian W.

[7aji88]

I think it's safe to say: Finally it's over!!

with WB and Net Flex only using Blue Ray, I think the new HD format war should be over and consumers can buy their new players.

[Wes3000]

Blockbuster, and now Netflix...

You cannot even RENT an HD DVD! It's all Blu-ray. It's all over. We just need Toshiba to turn out the lights and let the last 2 studios out of their sinking cages.

[AnthonyNYC]

Netflix is only hurting themselves!

I too received the note today and wrote back, same as them, when my current que is empty i will be cancelling my Netflix account.
This way i can continue buying HD-DVD's for my collection and instead of renting, i can preview the movies ONDemand before purchasing.
Costco has Toshiba HD-DVD players for sale today for $129 with free HDMI cable and 2 free movies inside box (plus 5 rebate) and right next to them is a BluRay player for $379 on sale with nothing extra, Sony knows HD-DVD would have become the new standard if left to free market economics, so it is doing everything and anything to scare people that movies won't be available for them.
I hope this scare tactic backfires on them, and people continue to buy HD-DVD players and force the studios to sell movies on the format or regular DVD stays the standard with upconverting players selling like hotcakes under $100.

Either way, So long Netflix, it was good while it lasted.
AnthonyNYC

[trryan2001]

Blu-Ray? No way!!!!

Do Blu-Ray machines play the current DVD format? No they don't. Do they deliver a better picture or sound than HD DVD, I don't think so, 1080p is the max. The HD DVD players play the existing format and upscale it to boot.

This is how the studios and Sony create a new market by making our exisitng DVD collections unplayable on the new hardware. I'm canceling my Netflix account before the next billing and hope a few million other consumers do the same.

[Barçafan]

SOME PEOPLE JUST DON'T GET IT...

For those that do not believe or refuse to accept it:

HD DVD is over, se acabo, finito. Don't you get it? As much as you might love and be loyal to HD DVD, they've lost. Move on, life must continue. Just stop crying and get a BD player.

And not, Netflix is not going out of business because a few sad and angry HD DVD supporters are canceling their memberships. By the way, there are MANY more Netflix members that have BD as the format for HD movies.

So, if you are so upset with Sony for being the winner, you can always watch standard DVDs and VCR tapes. But watch out, because some of those might be Sony movies...

[iconoclast04]

Why did Blu-ray win?

Did Blu-ray win because of customer demand? Well, maybe in part. Did it win because of superior technology? Not really, particularly since it's not even a settled standard yet. I would say the biggest reason is that Sony leveraged its PS3 and its movie studios to thwart the competition. That's fine. But it's also the kind of thing that rabid anti-Microsoft people would scream bloody murder about. Think about that the next time you start complaining about an MS 'monopoly.'

[labazzo]

I will still wait

I don't care who wins. I will not be buying a Blue ray player any time soon. If they can't play my regular DVD's and upconvert then no buy here. All my old movies probably will not be coming out on Blue ray any time soon. As long as Standard DVDs are made, That is what I buy. My upconvert DVD player does a nice job for me.

[portcityjames]

See how misinformed folks are.

One poster actually said that Blu Ray players don't play current DVD's. That is so misinformed that it's laughable. Before you knock Blu Ray, why not get all the facts. YOU CAN PLAY current DVD's on a Blu Ray player and all you folks canceling your subscriptions, you'll be back as soon as you finally accept the fact that HD-DVD is dead and you buy a Blu Ray player. I don't care how much you say you won't, YOU WILL. It may not be today or soon but if it is the standard, YOU WILL BUY ONE. And if you want to rent movies, you will either go to NETFLIX or BLOCKBUSTER. For some reason you folks think you canceling your subscription will make Netflix change thier mind. While your at it stop shopping at Best Buy, Target and Wal Mart while your at it as they all prominently have more Blu Ray then HD-DVD support. Grow up and accept the loss and move on. You guys sound like little sulking children. "If I can't play you can't use my ball". LOL.

[portcityjames]

Blu Ray players do upconvert also!!!

Do some research folks.

[planblove]

Wow you're so misinformed...

How can you be on a site like cnet and not know that blu-ray and hd-dvd BOTH upconvert older dvd's AND can run in 1080p mode? Seriously hd-dvd is a dying format, so what? If you heavily invested in hd dvd, shame on you for not doing your homework on this format war.

[sommer182]

Best Buy To Recommend Blu-Ray

Has anyone else seen this tidbit? MSNBC.com is reporting that Best Buy, while still carrying HD-DVD equipment and movies, will begine to recommend to their customers Blu-Ray as the better choice. Their retail displays will 100% tilt towards Blu-Ray. While I love my $99.00 HD-A2 and the ten movies I know own for it, this is another big nail in the HD-DVD consumer format. Maybe it will live on as a PC data storage drive format, I hope. I can honestly say the only Blu-Ray I will ever consider purchasing is a PS3, that can play my PS2 games, for less than $250.00.

The war is nearly over, only a few skirmishes remain. Toshiba had better hardware, but as in all wars it comes down to the people behind the equipment, and Sony was better at manipulating retail and consumers alike.

[jkjokeman]

HD DVD, it looks like the end is near

Well, i have my hammer and nails out
Jeremy lesser HD DVD players mean lesser free copies of King Kong lol~~~~

[jev55]

Not buying Blue Ray

I think the poster telling people that "they will buy a Blue Ray player" is being
slightly over dramatic. I still have family and friends that haven't yet
purchased a DVD player. I purchased an HD DVD player from Walmart before
Christmas when they were on sale for $99 and I'm very happy with it. I think it
makes an excellent upconverting DVD player at the least. I also think that
with Netflix set top boxes, Vudu boxes, Xbox Live, and the Apple TV also
offering HD downloads there may be good reason to just skip Blue Ray
altogether. I own an Xbox 360 and I think that the downloaded movies look
great and are a reasonable price. Also it only takes about 5 or 10 minutes
after starting to download the movie for it to be able to play. So please Sony
fanboys, stop acting like you own the world just because your format is
coming out ahead.

[stuntman_mike]

Not news...

Most people believed that Blu-ray would win almost since the war started. What research could you have done? Well let's start with sales research. BD was outselling HD-DVD by an average of a 3:1 margin in the States. The average margin was even higher outside of the US.

Sony owns a Movie studio. A pretty major one at that. That is at least one studio that would never go to HD-DVD until well after HD-DVD won the war. The other movie studios were fair game. BD always had more studio support even when they lost Paramount. Paramount's deal is only exclusive for a certain period of time. With BD still outselling HD-DVD, how likely do you think it is that Paramount would have re-upped with HD-DVD at the end of the year? Not very.

Movie professionals have pledged their support to Blu-ray from the beginning. Whether you think BD's storage capacity is not really an advantage or not is debatable, but the people who make the movies seemed enamored with it.

Lastly you have the PS3. When you have HD-DVD and BD fighting it out to sell stand alone players, any intelligent person should have seen that the PS3 would be a huge advantage to the BD camp. You have a game console that is coming form THE game console company. That sold close to 200 million PS2's. PS2 was a huge factor in early adoption of standard DVDs. I know that it was my first DVD player and it was many others as well. Even if the PS3 doesn't have the success of the PS2, how could you not think that it would not be a huge advantage of getting BD players out there to a large group of people who may not have even bought a BD player now or ever? They say to themselves, hey I can play BDs. Maybe I'll pick some up and see what it's all about.

And yes the XBox 360 has an HD-DVD add on, but spending another $200 on it makes it more expensive than the PS3 when it was at its most expensive. It also involves finding room for a rather large component, whereas the PS3 and it's BD player are integrated into one tower.

Anyone who didn't realistically think that we would eventually get to this point is either in denial, or wasn't thinking clearly.

[Renegade Knight]

Bad Thinking on the Part of Netflix

What matters to NetFlix is what their customers demand. If they all buy HD-DVD all the studios in the world won't save blue ray. The Studies like Netflix will follow their customers. All they are doing now is trying to push them in a direction they like. Odds are they will get lucky, but you never know.

[kevkeisha]

TOO PERSONAL (May The Best Medium Win!)

I can't believe how personal people get about companies that most of you can't even afford to buy stocks in! (LMAO) Personally I don't give a damn (I have both formats in my HTPC), but the fact is, even though HD-DVD got out of the gate faster with tighter features, Blu-Ray has always had the better specs. I don't think either will be as successful as standard DVDs. With affordable broadband speeds increasing exponentially (FiOS:15-30Mbps, Cablevision:15Mbps (standard!) & 30Mbps $14 more), it's only a matter of time before companies like Microsoft, Apple, TiVo and perhaps even Netflix start offering enough downloadable or streaming content in HD (1080i or 1080p) to rival the catalogues of newer formats such as Blu-Ray. I think this will happen sooner that people think. I mean there are eve Hi-Def televisions coming to the market with hard drives built in.

[krustykanuck]

Not buying any blue-ray player soon

I have my HD-DVD player that I got on sale at Black Friday for $130.00 and it works very well thank you. Unlike the buggy Blu-Ray players that are currently on the market (see the article on the lawsuit on Samsung by the Blue-Ray adopters). The machine paid for itself when I got about 7 movies with the unit (since these films cost about $20~30 a pop). Most of the Blu-Ray players are PS3's at the moment (and the only unit capable of upgrading to the newer standards - again see recent articles). Even if HD-DVD were to die out as a format I will still have my small movie collection for Hi-Def - and with price drops on actual HD-DVDs I may acquire a few more discs. If I were to buy a Blue-Ray player now it would obsolete likely within a year with all of the new content and Blu-Ray formats coming out. However, if Netflix doesn't want my business anytime soon that is their problem. They can do without my money at the moment.

[krustykanuck]

I agree that downloads would be in the future

I agree with "kevkeisha" that the future will really be downloads and possibly even large capacity flash drives once they become cheap enough.