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So I guess I've been lucky.

64.74.212.75

jsm

In Reply to: RE: It's not surprising posted by racerguy on April 23, 2008 at 08:03:49

I have rented a lot of esoteric foreign language movies from Netflix. These cost a lot more for them to buy then standard DVD movies, and I bet the customer base for them is in the single digits. They didn't charge me more to rent them. It's part of being a "full-service provider."

I just don't buy the argument. The rate that HD sets are selling is going to translate into a increasing rate at which BD players sell if the makers of them ever get their act straight and stop futzing around. Already BD movies don't cost that much more (possibly less than the average DVD in the Netflix inventory if you adjust for inflation), and Netflix was already buying just about every BD and HD DVD movie out when the customer base was even smaller. It's a way to make more money with a pretty marginal (in my opinion) excuse. Some good competition will set this straight. But...truth be told, there is so little coming out these days that I care to watch that it probably doesn't even matter for me.

Joe

Follow Ups:

not really - Jack G 05:54:18 04/26/08 (0)
> > > I have rented a lot of esoteric foreign language movies from Netflix. These cost a lot more for them to buy then standard DVD movies, and I bet the customer base for them is in the single digits. They didn't charge me more to rent them. It's part of being a "full-service provider." < < <
Well, that's not quite right. If those "esoteric foreign language movies", are region 1, then they are just run of the mill discs with unusual movies on them. Do they rent other region discs?

> > > The rate that HD sets are selling is going to translate into a increasing rate at which BD players sell if the makers of them ever get their act straight and stop futzing around. < < <
That's quite a leap in faith. Remember, many/most HDTV owners don't have a source of HD, and many think they do when they don't.

> > > Already BD movies don't cost that much more < < <
Much more than what? DVDs? Houses? BDs usually list for $30-$40. Even Amazon sells most of them for about $25+. Sure you can find some on sale sometimes, but you can get some DVDs on sale for MUCH MUCH cheaper.

> > > Some good competition will set this straight. < < <
BD has no competition now. That's why sub $200 players aren't expected to come out until the end of 2009.

> > > But...truth be told, there is so little coming out these days that I care to watch that it probably doesn't even matter for me. < < <
I agree with you here. MY HD buying has dropped dramatically over the last 6 months or so. Sadly, 2 out of the last 3 BDs I've bought won't play, so I'm not overly motivated to buy alot more, even if I wanted to.
Jack
RE: So I guess I've been lucky. - racerguy 20:55:50 04/25/08 (0)
> > I have rented a lot of esoteric foreign language movies from Netflix. These cost a lot more for them to buy then standard DVD movies < <

They generally don't cost more. DVDs are relatively easy (and cheap) to duplicate. Netflix makes a lot of the DVDs it rents out. OTOH, Blu-ray discs are still expensive to make, and by comparison there are few duplicators.

> > The rate that HD sets are selling is going to translate into a increasing rate at which BD players sell if the makers of them ever get their act straight and stop futzing around. < <

This argument is somewhat fallacious, I think. Just because someone buys a TV that is HD-capable doesn't mean they will also buy a Blu-ray player, especially if the player costs almost as much as the TV does. All indications I've seen are that Blu-ray will remain a niche market.

> > Some good competition will set this straight. < <

Which competition would that be? Blu-ray is now the only game in town, so no cost-savings from format competition. Competition from Blockbuster? Netflix got big because Blockbuster was awful (and still is).

I don't like the idea of paying more to rent Blu-ray discs, but the fact is that Netflix _can_ charge more for this service, so it doesn't surprise me that they _will_ charge more.

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