Comments on: More people renting DVD and Blu-ray Discs?

Overall sales of DVD and Blu-ray Discs were down big in the fourth quarter of 2008. That portends a larger trend of consumers renting movies rather than buying them.

[Digitalvinyl]

Renting is clearly the best current way to watch movies because of the huge selection. How many dvd's will you ever really watch more than 5 or 6 times? The future is on-demand, but until the library gets significantly larger, renting is the best option.

[somone_else]

5-6 times would make it cheaper to buy than rent (at least at most rental places)

[R1one]

Whats the point of buying to see once in a blue moon blu rays or DVDs when i can do it the Netflix way! I have stop buying 3 years now. I just hope Blockbuster will still be in business so there will be some price or benefit competition between the two. I just ordered the netflix Roku player. Now if you don't know abt them then you better read on abt it online

[Inconnux]

I might consider a dvd but bluray is far too expensive. Until it drops to DVD levels I'm not interested

[jskrenes]

I rent DVDs from our grocery store. They're a buck a night. I don't have the desire to watch most movies more than once.

[P698D9M]

If the Movie makers and Sony want us to rent/buy Blue Ray why not have the release dates of the Blue Ray sooner than the standard version DVD. I have found in several cases the release dates of Blue Ray can be later than the standard DVD. Also as a big user of NETFLIX I find that the Blue Ray edition can have a very long wait and I change my request to standard DVD and the estimated delivery generally changes to something shorter. My PS3 Blue Ray player has been a waste of money at this time.

[gsw01]

I only watch blue ray disk on my TV and PC. I just bought a dell 1737 notebook with 1920*1200 rgb led display and blueray drive( <$1250). I have never seen a more vivid videos on anything else. It also looks great my on 40" sony 1080p( ps3+ playon for hulu and netflix) and dell 3007wfp (with xps420 desktop). I just wish apple can get with the program so it can help bring the cost down. But maybe i should not get my hopes up since apple fanboys will buy apple notebook with no Ethernet, integrated battery, OS that supports 10 games, buy 200 windows license to run apps, buy ms office because ms sucks, probably will support blue ray in 2012,etc.

[ThatIsWhatSheSaid]

With the economy the way it is, I'm happy to find junk for free at compressed, lower resolutions. I admit I love crisp picture and sound, but opportunity cost reigns supreme.

The movie studios are becoming like the airlines - increasing costs and completely ignoring classic liberal economic values. I swear a few years ago you could normally find a two-disc/collector's/director's/special edition of a film on DVD, with all the bells and whistles, on sale for around $12-15. This past holiday season it seemed that the annual equivalents were $25, if we were lucky. Use common sense, studios! If demand is low, lower the price! Adam Smith is rolling in his grave.

[lobo65]

I buy Blu-Ray discs all the time. Yes the new releases are too expensive, but I save money by buying them used from private sellers on Amazon. I rarely wind up paying more than the new release price of DVD's.

[drriver]

I buy blurays...I got Transformers not long after it came out for $14.99 on amazon. Just resist the temptation to go to Best Buy and you'll find that new release blurays on amazon are about the same price as a new release DVD at Best Buy. I don't agree with comments to the effect that blurays offer "marginally better" picture/sound quality. If your TV is 40-50 inches and beyond, and supports 1080p, a bluray is about as close as you can get to the theater IMHO. For people who don't care much about picture or sound quality, I'm sure bootlegs are fine, but there are plenty of folks out there for whom the core reason behind acquiring blurays is the crisp picture and sound --- for us, it's not just the content, it's the presentation of that content in the best way possible.

[Rick Cavaretti]

First and foremost, it's the economy.

[Jefferson101]

Pirate Bay is AWESOME! I don't know why people complain about the quality of the download. I just download the movies in hi-res at 1080p and they are perfect. Free movies for all! I also have a Ps3 but only own 2 blu-rays that I got on sale from circuit city's going under. Long live free ****!

[MintyRose]

I'll admit it - I'm an avid DVD renter, hooked on Netflix. I don't buy movies and I don't even have TV or any cable of the sort. Netflix for me is a kind of luxury that, yeah, I can't really afford anyway, but it's that one thing that I splurge on, even though it's SO inexpensive. This is the complete opposite to my roommate, who has over 600 DVDs on her shelf - she enjoys the ownership, what the movies she owns says about her, and the ability to watch it repeatedly if she likes. As for me, I just like to check out the films, catch up on old ones I haven't seen, and, if it's an absolutely phenomenal movie that would be just silly to pass up, I'll shell out the $10 - $15 (on sale) for the DVD.

Same goes with me for books. I'm THRILLED that they've now come up with a Neflix-type site for books. I feel the same way about BookSwim.com that I do about Netflix now - and it's relatively the same pricing, something like 3 books for $10 a month. I feel like borrowing media is going to be the wave of the future and yes, may effect the film and book industry somehow - but for these times, goshdarnit, I'm going to get my books and movies the best and cheapest way I can.

[moviegeek65]

pghcraig wrote:"DVD was a $30 disc when it came out too. It was also a $6-7 rental at most chains, and the players were as much as BR players are now."

I don't know where you shopped at but in 1999 I was buying DVD's for $24 and renting them for $3,I agree the players were expensive but not as much as BD players.The first DVD player I bought in 1999 was $200,my BD player was $300.
The prices of BD players and media have fallen but not that much to spur mass acceptance.

[Joseph Dubin]

A few thoughts on why sales are down:

1) Hollywood has turned out less "blockbuster" hits,
2) Most titles can be seen in HD when they come on cable,
3) Collectors can dub good quality copies onto DVD for just 25 cents a disc (more than adequate for titles like "The Changeling", Doubt, ""W", etc.).

[azzuro2006]

Renting is a no brainer if you ask me. Most people don't watch a movie more than once. I am about to get an Apple Tv and intend to use it JUST to RENT movies and watch TV shows that are not playing on my cable plan - the HD content doesn't look as good as BD but I think the quality will be more than good enough for most people. If you look at the cost of renting versus buying, in most cases you need to watch that movie more than 4 times before it makes sense to buy. I think that for 90% of people, 90% of the movies are watched less than 4 times. I prefer to rent on-line because its spontaneous and close to instantaneous - you don't have to go to a video store, check to see if that have it, and then go back again to return it. I see Blu Ray becoming a very niche product unless the prices truly crash - much more so than DVD prices crashed because the quality jump is not as big and downloads are becoming a very serious competitor - meaning the rental model doesn't need physical media anymore.