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Netflix goes with Blu-Ray

This just came in, I never saw this coming…

We’re Going Blu-ray

Dear J-Funk,

You’re receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don’t worry, we will contact you before this happens.

You can click here to change your format preferences.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.

-The Netflix Team

5 replies on “Netflix goes with Blu-Ray”

I’ve seen this more than few times, and I still don’t quite get it. There had to be some incentive for them to announce this, like getting massively reduced priced BR discs or something.

So for those of us who purchased Apple TVs after the MacWorld Keynote, I’m assuming we’ve beaten this whole High Def race between BR and HD-DVD. I’m sure, however the quality is not at Blue Ray’s level – or does anyone know for sure?

The story I’ve heard is that it is above the 420 resolution of DVD so they can call it HD, but it’s not up at the same level as Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. I’m also still waiting on my upgrade to my series 1 Apple TV….

Apple’s downloads are 720p, whereas Blu-ray and HD-DVD are 1080p. Yes 1080 looks better because of the increases resolution, but more importantly the data contained is a lot more. Blu-ray / HD-DVD can have 50 GB of information, an HD movie download about 4 or 5 GB. Close-ups look sharp but you typically lose the detail with wide landscape scenes. iLounge just did a great comparison:

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/apple-tv-20-vs-blu-ray-dvd-hd-cable-the-comparison/

Basically nothing beats blu-ray/hd-dvd, but I rented “No Reservations” last night on Apple TV and it looked great. And you can’t beat the convenience and impulse buy factor. Plus the movie can start playing 30 seconds after ordering while it downloads in the background, very cool.

I’m very glad to see HD-DVD implode. It was a fair fight but I am glad one standard is finally emerging. Maybe one day my HD-DVD of King Kong will be a collectors item I can pimp on EBay.

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