Comments on: Why it's time for Blockbuster to give up

Now that Netflix has inked a deal with Microsoft, Don Reisinger thinks Blockbuster is out of options. But does Blockbuster have something up its sleeve?

[sonymaster101]

rosulution is 720p for "hd" downloads. but the audio and video quality are horrible compared to bluray or even dvd. having only stereo audio ~128kbits p/s and low quality video ~7 mbits p/s compared to blu rays 40 mbits per second, and 1080p. U r right. the facts simply are it will be 10 years before the us has the infrastructure capability to be streaming content to everyone much less hd content. the internet simply wasnt built to do it.

[atlastech]

Brick and morter will always have it's place. There will always be people who like to go to the store on a whim, just to get out of the house. I like swinging by BB when ever I feel like it. I have the option to download and I had netflix at one time.

With BB I am never, ever without a movie. I can get a new one when ever I want. I don't have to wait hours for a movie to download.

Movie downloads are far from perfect. Besides the wait time, you have additional hardware to worry about. Hardware that you don't want to by if you already have a DVD player and/or a BD player. What kind of bandwidth are you going to need to have a relatively fast download time?

Call me when I can download a movie in HD, with advanced audio, in less than 15 minutes. By the time that happens, BB will have their own service in place for those who wish to download, while still providing brick and morter store to the rest of civilization.
Until everyone has fiber to the home and the hardware to support it, DL is just that...an option, not the next coming.

[AXG]

Netflix has done nothing great and their business model sucks. Has the author of this article ever had service from Blockbuster and Netflix? I don't think so. This article is heavily biased.

On the Blockbuster website, when adding movies to the queue, the website shows latest movies by release date. On the Netflix website, there is no such functionality. Their latest releases somehow keeps bringing up 2006/2007 movies in July of 2008. So far, I have been able to watch only few movies released in 2008 because their website doesn not show the latest releases by date. Waiting time for new releases is unacceptably long. I have had Cleaner and Vantage Point on the top of my queue for several weeks now. With Blockbuster, the new releases were delivered within the same week they were released.

The instant watch is just a piece of crap. It is very good if you want to watch 10 year or older movies or flop movies or movies which have already been done to death on network television. Whether they serve this crap via Xbox or a dedicated box of PC is irrelevant.

Next billing cycle, I will switch to Blockbuster.

[AndreottiSD]

Gimme a break, downloadable HD movies are a thing of a distant future. Roku player is a joke, and by the time it's perfected who knows what the market landscape will look like? Maybe Sony or Universal will sell/rent their own movies online.

I switched from Netflix to Blockbuster a year ago and incredibly happy with the move. Blockbuster has all the benefits of Netflix (plus the movie turnaround time is MUCH shorter for BB) and being able to rent movies from the local store is something NF can never compensate with its marketing ploys.

[sellis16]

Funny, can't access this fifth page unless I log in. Too much lash of Don Reisinger ?

C'mon Cnet, open the floodgates. He didn't investigate properly (with regard to the benefits that Blockfbuster offers) -- he asserted an easily supported, "the Man is bad," view.

[sellis16]

I meant "the the 'Man is bad'" view

[sellis16]

I meant "the the 'Man' is bad'" view

[sellis16]

I am obviously trying to punctuate correctly and having a hard time with this small print.

CNet, you offer no option for a person to go back and edit his or her writing? A simple "edit" button to correct error after viewing online? Like a lot of sites do?

Viewers, sorry for the useless posts here. Still think Don Reisinger is a tool.

[Brucifer67]

Several on here got it right on the nose. Netflix vs Blockbuster? DVD rental thru mail vs downloadable subscriptions? I see like this. I love my XBox and my pc's but when I use a 3chip DLP projector on a 14 foot screen the last thing I want to see is a movie streaming from my pc on it with square pixel blocks because the video quality is aweful; to say the least. I will ALWAYS rather have a DVD in my player, regular or HD BluRay, than a download.
Streaming the movies is conveinant but NOT worth losing a local store to pick up a DVD escpecially if you are out of town. There are many sides to the argument but I will agree that it is all going to streaming the movies and DVD's for rent will slowly dry up. This will save the movie studios the worry of others copying the discs, God forbid they lose a dime. And another thing, anyone who has been with NetFlix for a while will know they are crooks. They should have their ***** in a sling for the throtteling they do to their customers by slowing down on their rentals so they can't exceed a certain amount. I never had a problem with NetFlix until they changed their policy (after they got sued and lost) that states they can slow down on old users BUT they can also legally keep their advertisement of: UNLIMITED rentals depending on your chosen plan. Throtteling in the fine print IS NOT UNLIMITED to me! If BlockBuster had the warehouses like NetDix they might pull it off . For me it is Blockbuster. Streaming video is great if you like it but do not take away the DVD's thru the mail and you better pray Blockbuster stays in business because you will suffer the ills from NetDlix having no competition. Their customer service stinks already.