So for us HD player owners what would it be next stop?, should we sit and wait or keep find the good movies on HD format and buy them regardless what the future of the war format will hold?.

The following information was posted in another forum:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- With the industry now having picked a winner in the face-off between the two competing high- definition DVD formats, Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), 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. "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.

When Warner Home Video announced last month that by the end of this year it will release high-def titles exclusively in the Blu-ray format, it joined fellow majors Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment in endorsing Blu-ray. Currently, the two remaining majors, Paramount Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Home Entertainment, publish in the HD DVD format.

Netflix currently stocks over 400 Blu-ray titles, having recently added popular releases such as "Across the Universe" (Sony), "Gone Baby Gone" (Buena Vista) and the Academy Award nominated "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.). Blu- ray titles scheduled for release in the next month or so include the Academy Award nominated "No Country for Old Men" (Walt Disney), "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" (Sony) and "Alvin and the Chipmunks" (20th Century Fox).

About Netflix

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is the world's largest online movie rental service, providing more than seven million subscribers access to more than 90,000 DVD titles plus a growing library of more than 7,000 choices that can be watched instantly on their PCs. The company offers nine subscription plans, starting at only $4.99 per month. There are no due dates and no late fees -- ever. All Netflix plans include both DVDs delivered to subscribers' homes and, for no additional fee, movies and TV series that can be started in as little as 30 seconds on subscribers' PCs. DVDs are delivered free to members by first class mail, with a postage-paid return envelope, from over 100 U.S. shipping points. Nearly 95 percent of Netflix subscribers live in areas that can be reached with generally one business day delivery. Netflix offers personalized movie recommendations and has two billion movie ratings.

Hi TCAS...........I have no money in mine as i got it free from Sears' mess up. If i purchase a Blu-ray it will be for burning files,storage,etc and that won't be any time soon with HDD's being so cheap.

I re-purchased my VHS movies for DVD's and i will not do it again

I'm not really worried about who wins. I like my HD-A3 for what i use it for.

If some of you want to re-purchase your movies again and spend thousands of $ then move power to yeah.

Best Buy also made a major announcement regarding Blu-ray. I pulled this off of Yahoo Finance. I believe this news dropped yesterday morning at around the same time as the Netflix announcement.

Link

Netflix/Bestbuy news are already posted here (since yesterday):

Netflix: Netflix chooses Blu Ray
Bestbuy: BEST BUY to recommend Blu-ray
HD DVD Respond: HD DVD responds to Netflix and BestBuy monday news

Tough question. The war isn't over yet. We will see some more new releases in HD DVD. But who knows in 2009 (or earlier), maybe Toshiba can twist the studios, maybe Toshiba throw the white flag. Regardless, with only one format, you will only enjoy a limited number of movies in high def.

Yes, this is a tough question indeed to answer. As far a I am concern this war is far from being over. I believe that it's going to take maybe 1 to 2 years to maybe see a decision in this war. There is still a vast market that are content with their dvd's, let alone trying to worry about a choice on which to support. Dealing with a struggling U.S. economy, the end of analog broadcasts and jumping into HDTV for the first time could delay any choice being made for some time to come.

Look, this is pretty simple. HD DVD has two studios supporting it. Blu-ray has the rest. Retailers and rental outfits alike are now pushing Blu. Disney is backing Blu. And when I play my DVD's on my PS3, they upscale quite nicely, thanks.

With so much support behind Blu at this point, HD DVD has *NO CHANCE OF WINNING*. Period. What do you think is going to happen here? All the studios that are now doing Blu are suddenly and magically going to switch over to HD DVD? There's absolutely no way this is going to happen. At this point, it's artificially prolonging a war that's been won, IMO.

Sure anything can happen, big company's have no loyalty to it's consumer.

This is one example of Sony's attitude. Considering what was spent on these players in the early stages, I would be a little miffed.

Does anyone REALLY, TRULY believe that the HD DVD camp can somehow turn this around? Seriously?? You've got 2 studios left. One of which was on Blu-ray before. The war may not be COMPLETELY over with HD DVD dead and buried, but, IMO at this point it should be. Look, I was a huge HD DVD supporter. I was hoping they'd somehow convince Disney to switch. (Yes, I keep mentioning Disney because if you want mainstream users with kids, you MUST have Disney in your corner else you lose.) I really think the best move for HD in general is for HD DVD to bow out, cut their losses, and work with Blu-ray mfg's to incorporate HD DVD playback in ALL future players so that those who bought into HD DVD won't be left holding useless discs. I just don't see ANY hope of HD DVD surviving.

Remember Mike Huckabee believes in miracle to still will the Republican nomination. We HD player owner also are in the same boat, I have no doubt the war is not yet over and anything could happen during the course of next several months.

Yup, microsoft could suddenly decide to take their 44 billion dollar yahoo offer over to Disney, Fox, ect. and buy them out as Sony has done for their other studios. Anyone on both sides can be bought and sold for a price. Yeah, I know that's lunatic fringe logic but hey anything is possible in the business world. Then again even if Blu-Ray wins it could still easily be dead in the next couple of years and I for one definitely would not want to be in that category. The difference between the two formats is that I believe that HD-DVD can co-exist with DVD and just be a high-def supplement for those who want it. Blu-Ray on the other hand has so much invested into it that in order to make it a viable format it truly will have to replace DVD before the next big thing comes along. Furthermore they have the big obstacle of convincing the majority of households to go out and get HDTVs. While HDTV sales are doing better they still only account for about 35% of the market.

GOOD NEWS: For those of who own The Toshiba HD Players "A3, A30, A35 and D3" Toshiba has new firmware update out version 2.0.


http://tacp.toshiba.com/tacpassets-i...ngfirmware.asp

Yup, posted that in another forum.

You guys should subscribe this thread: Post new drives firmware and tool ANNOUNCEMENTS here.

I subscribe to the thread and when CDan posted the firmware there I got it in my email inbox a few minutes later.

Click here to subscribe to the firmware announcement thread: http://club.cdfreaks.com/subscriptio...ption&t=223975

I like your spirit.

I know that with only two major studios backing up the format, and with largest retailer and bigest online rental drop the support, it's only a matter of time, unless Toshiba (or Microsoft) come up with something major. There is still a possibility to be honest, no?

I own both formats thanks to my PS3 and three Blu-ray/HD DVD drives for PC but I'm favoring more blu-ray because of two reasons:

- I can get more movies in blu-ray format especially since I have kids (Disney)
- I found it interesting tweaking, burning and using the tools on my blu-ray burners just like my interest in CD/DVD burning.

Too bad that HD DVD doesn't have a burner out so I can't use tens of HD DVD-R still sealed in the closet. Otherwise I will be all over my Transformers and Kingkong HD DVD discs and probably get a HD DVD player to test them out. I know BD/HD burning is still an expensive hobby but back then 3-4 years ago, DVD burning was an expensive hobby too.

Now anyone hear if Transformers and other great HD DVD movies will be out in Blu-ray format?

yeah what happened to that. I never knew you switched sides

And once again > If some of you want to re-purchase your movies again and spend thousands of $ then move power to yeah.

I don't think Blu-ray Disc Associaton equals to Sony alone? According to the article, Betanews folks went to BDA booth at CES and not Sony booth. Unless I missed something?

Anyway, I will not be surprise if those early adapters sue the industries or CEs by the end of this year if they can't enjoy the PiP and/or BD Live. Although from what I read in other forums, the format supporters argue that PiP and BD Live are minor "extra features" and they don't really care or will not be missed. However from recent movie reviews of Fox's "Sunshine" which is Profile 1.1 compliant, the "in-movie-experience" of PiP is amazingly good (at least for early PiP feature).

Also note that the review states, for those who don't own a Profile 1.1-compliant players, you can still watch PIP segments as a stand-alone supplement in 4:3 viewing mode only (not in-movie).

I don't have Sunshine but looking forward testing the PiP on my PS3.

There's many people spend thousands of $ already (maybe tens of thousands if you count their hidef hardwares). Not the majority of people in this forum I think, but just look at AVS or hidefdigest forums and check their sigs, many of them own 50-100 Blu-ray and HD DVD movies and even a lot more!

Sure, it's a possibility, but, so is me getting a random check from Billy G for a million bucks. I'm not saying HD DVD is a bad format. Far from it. I actually like it much better than Blu-ray. However, it's simply positioned better in the market to become the successor to DVD. And that's what we're really talking about here. HD DVD vs Blu-ray is all well and good, but, if mainstream doesn't adopt either one, then what's the point? At some point you have to abandon this silly war and focus on the larger picture. Look at Bob with the "hell no, I ain't rebuying my movies" attitude. THAT is what the studios and hollywood needs to overcome, not this petty nonsense about which HD format to use. So, if we can get to ONE HD format I think there's a better chance of getting Average Bob (LOL) to perhaps start buying newer movies in HD. Then if there's a massive sale on "older movies", once Average Bob sees the real advantages of newer movies in HD he may, possibly, buy a couple older movies here and there.

I started out with my 360 and the HD DVD addon. A few months later I got the PS3 for Blu-ray. Then in early January I bought myself an early B-day present...the LG dual format drive. That thing RULES! However, I have WAY more movies in Blu than HD DVD, even including the Harry Potter collection I got on HD DVD for Xmas. (See, Bob, I did support HD DVD...right up to the end, IMO). The simple fact is, as you said, there are more titles to choose from on Blu. That makes sense, doesn't it? Considering you have 6 studios on Blu and only 2 on HD DVD. That obviously gives you a larger market share. I've not invested in Blu burning equipment yet. I'm letting the cost settle a bit first. However, I have all the necessary tools installed for when I do slap a burning drive in my HTPC. HD DVD really blew it on this one. If they had released burners *WAY* earlier they might have had a better chance.

Only if Paramount and Universal smarten up and switch to Blu. Paramount WAS dual format before August, so, it's not a stretch to think they'd support it again now that the market is turning. Universal is certainly not going to be the lone hold out. If they can get one of those studios to even go dual format, then HD will finally be able to get a foot in the door with the Average Consumer IMO.

More power to them.

Out of all the people i know in the USA and a few overseas i'm the only one that has any type of HD player. Not because they don't have the money but no interest in HD.