With the industry now having picked a winner in the face-off between the two competing high- definition DVD formats, Netflix, Inc., the world’s largest online movie rental service, today said that it will move toward stocking high-def DVDs exclusively in the Blu-ray format.
Citing the decision by four of the six major movie studios to publish high-def DVD titles only in the Sony-developed Blu-ray format, Netflix said that as of now it will purchase only Blu-ray discs and will phase out by roughly year’s end the alternative high-def format, HD DVD, developed by Toshiba.
Since the first high-definition DVDs came on the market in early 2006, Netflix has stocked both formats. But the company said that in recent months the industry has stated its clear preference for Blu-ray and that it now makes sense for the company to initiate the transition to a single format.
“The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition,” said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, in the press release. “We’re now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer’s preferred means.”
Added Mr. Sarandos: “From the Netflix perspective, focusing on one format will enable us to create the best experience for subscribers who want high- definition to be an important part of how they enjoy our service.”
While only a portion of Netflix subscribers have elected to receive high- def DVDs, a majority of those subscribers have chosen Blu-ray over HD DVD. As part of the transition to Blu-ray, the company said it will acquire no new HD DVDs but that its current HD DVD inventory would continue to rent until the discs’ natural life cycle takes them out of circulation in the coming months. Netflix currently stocks over 400 Blu-ray titles.
Sourec: Netflix, Inc.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Eric” for the heads up.]
We hear that you can get XBox HD DVD players really cheap nowadays. 
Surely it is game over now for (Microsofts choice) HD DVD.
Ho ho ho…
“We hear that you can get XBox HD DVD players really cheap nowadays.”
A friend of mine just bought one a few months ago, plus a bunch of discs… I *tried* to tell him…
Once again M$ backs the losing side, even after cash incentives.
Love the Take guys!!! HA HA HA
This is the revenge of Beta Max. I’m loving it! Suck it Microsoft.
Apple axes them both with iTS and TV!
I’ve been renting Blu-Ray discs from Netflix for several months now, and it’s fantastic to be able to take advantage of my player without having to pay the completely out of line $25-35 per movie that they’re still charging to buy these things.
My one gripe with Netflix is that I often must wait weeks for a blu-ray version to become available. Hello, if there are that many people renting them so as to cause these long delays, maybe that means demand is high enough that they should have more in stock?
Perhaps Apple TV will be the way to go for me in the not-too-distant future . . . Of course, I’ve got to convince the wife that the iPod touch is worth the money before I start in on my next gadget.
That suck…. I hope HD DVD wins… BR suck!
Excellent! People finally got wise and supported the superior standard… unlike the huge mistakes of supporting VHS and DOS.
Methinks there’ll be a new Sony BDP-S500 Blu-ray player in my living room sometime soon…
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId;=-1&productId=8198552921665227485
Anybody want to buy a nice 1 year old Denon DVD-1930CI upsampling DVD player?
I made the choice to go Blu-Me according to the articles and opinions I read here. Thanks MDN.
Just my $0.02
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the death knell for HD-DVD.
WHOPEEE!!!!
I actually made the right choice late last year with Blu-Ray.
Although, I must confess I still have a working Sony Beta-Max Hi-Fi.. it was great for recording long long long party mixes on….
And of course, made Sony tons and tons of money in the broadcast realm.
XBox 360 is about the only thing Microsoft did right. You should read the Time article on it from a couple years ago.
While they choose HD-DVD, they were smart enough to make it an add-on unit. Now with the demise of HD-DVD, all they have to do is replace them with Blu-Ray drives. The 360 itself does not become obsolete.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m Apple all the way and would love to see MS crumble. I just don’t understand why they can’t use the same logic from the 360 on their other applications. They might actually make something decent and give Apple some competition.
s’been fun watching all the guys at XBox sites go into a state of denial over the coming demise of HD DVD. they cannot believe that the HD format war is coming to an end and they backed the wrong side. the ones who actually bought the HD DVD add on are getting defensive over their purchase instead of just saying “mea culpa” and getting on with their lives.
Stockholm Syndrome is a terrible thing.
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@karrde97–
Sure, you could say the X-Box 360 was done right, as long as you consider losing $billions, before seeing only a slight profit margin comparably in recent quarters, a success.
LOL. BR all the way baby. Bye bye MS-XBOX.
I can hardly see why BluRay is superior to HD, I mean, they both play 1080p, right? I’m glad MS is on the losing end, but given HD’s backward compatibility to regular DVD, with upscaling, I would have guessed HD-DVD to come out the winner. A decent DVD-upscaler costs $100, and the HD-DVD players from Toshiba are $150 or less, now with 5 to 7 free movies. It seems a no-brainer since you can just use the Toshiba HD as a DVD-upscaler, at less cost than buying a good DVD-upscaler to begin with.
I can’t wait to read the book on how BR beat HD-DVD, cause it seems to have been all about getting studio support and not about what consumers actually need.
I hope iTMS gives em both hell.
I’m not completely convinced that BR was all that over HD but I am so glad that this battle is apparently all but over. By this time next year, BR players should be under $200 and all the computers/home media centers/TVs/receivers, etc. should be standardized on 1080p which should tide us over for a decade or so.
Also, finally having a HiDef video standard will kill CDs and CDs’ god-forsaken, still-born, stepchildren, Super-Audio CD and DVD Audio. Now, artists can just sell a combo BR & HiDef Audio disc.
HiDefAudio??? Standard audio CD is not going to die as a consequence of the end of the HD format war. Having HD video standard will make absolutely no difference on the popularity, availability and record label’s support of audio CD. The format is over twenty years old and there is no apparent need for an upgrade. Audio quality of it is still more than acceptable for all but microscopic percentage of music-consuming public. The only obvious trends, as a matter of fact, seems to be not towards better-quality optical media (the “god-forsaken, still-born, stepchildren”, SACD and DVD-Audio), but towards (arguably) lesser-quality, compressed, downloadable audio formats (AAC/MP3). HiDefAudio will end up neither stepchild, nor still-born; it will end up a miscarriage.
As for the history of the HD war, one of the most likely reasons BD won is most likely larger capacity. Some studios were looking into the future and were not too thrilled with somewhat marginal capacity increase from existing DVD solutions. Another one might be BD’s format flexibility (native AVCHD support).
Either way, the war is (for all intents and purposes) over. Let the troops go home. Let us now see some BD players for below $150.
The problem with Higher Quality audio formats (SACD -DVD-A) was not the format really…
It was the content; crap in crap out…
The format wars were over the minute Blockbuster adopted BluRay only. NetFlix is just slow on the uptake.
I have a HD DVD Player and I used to have netflix. I was thinking about returning to netflix but after they did this, I am not. I still support HD DVD and will not upgrade to blue ray.
Both formats will soon die. High def streaming will be the way to go. The reason Apple picked Blue Ray was microsuc didn’t. Apple wanted a long enough delay, a long enough lead time to HD Online to be able to take off.
I still wouldn’t rush out and buy a Blue Ray player (unless it’s a PS3) Blue Ray will be dead in a few years. Current DVDs are good enough for me. Picture quality does not improve the story line or acting.
@ OldMacFan
Come on… Don’t you want to hear Ashlee Simpson in lossless 7.1 surround sound? It really brings out the warmth in the vocorder.
The only problem with BR is the players. There are absolutely NO standards in todays BR players. Of course Sony only recommends the PS3 as the best BR player available. They keep updating the software, but the players’ firmware is unable to be updated. Sony needs to standardize it’s software first.