Blockbuster Making Room for HD DVDs

[purplefdu]

We went into Blockbuster the other day to rent a movie and like half the store was cleared and stacked all to one side. When we asked the nearest geek what was up he told us they were getting in HD DVDs and weren't sure how many so they opted to make more room not less. Hopefully it doesn't interfere with the regular DVDs for those of us who haven't upgraded yet.

[Stubblecat]

I'm hoping they were referring to Blu-Ray and not the actual HD-DVD.

Although being Blockbuster... I'd sort of expect that. They'll probably find a way to make sure all the discs were pan & scan as well.

[aperio]

I'm going to take an educated guess that it was more than likely a less-than-technical-savvy Blockbuster employee thinking HD DVD is the same thing as Blu-Ray.

[Stubblecat]

Wait a minute... Blockbuster wouldn't hire people who know nothing about movies or video media!

Next thing you'll tell me is that the girl at the Wal-Mart entertainment department doesn't know the difference between widescreen and fullscreen.

[Ricky]

Whatever the format it's still pretty scary news. It's only a small percentage of people who have upgraded, and I hate when things like this make me feel forced into changing. I'm just not ready and not trusting of the stuff yet.

[Stubblecat]

I wouldn't worry about it too much right now. Blu-Ray will most likely remain a niche market for the next few years. It won't grow as fast as DVD did, because while DVD was a vast improvement over VHS, BD's improvement over DVD won't be all that noticable to the majority of people.

I mean, in order to truly enjoy it you have to buy a very expensive TV, a new player and those pricey HDMI cables and the like.

Here's where you have a timeline though: I can't remember the exact details, but I think that by 2012 or so all television broadcasts are slately to go digital in the U.S. I think the due date is a couple of years later here in Canada.

At that point I can imagine that the hi-def technology will be commonplace and comparitavely affordable.

[aperio]

Actually I think the HD broadcast / analog shut-off date is February 2009 here in the states.

HD tv's are definitely more affordable than a few years ago and it seems a majority of the people are upgrading to LCD/DLP/Plasma so I think likely most people are starting to see the vast improvement. I'll be happy when the prices drop a bit more though, that's for sure.

[EgonSpangler]

I'm not too worried; I figure that standard-def DVDs probably still have a good 4-5 years of life left in them. It's going to take a long while for Blu-ray to claim the majority of the market share - people are slow to upgrade.