Video Asylum

Posted by racerguy (A) on April 25, 2008 at 20:55:50

In Reply to: RE: So I guess I've been lucky. posted by jsm on April 25, 2008 at 16:45:39

>>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.