There obviously is a lot of news regarding Blu-ray these days, with analysts still unsure when, if ever, Blu-ray will topple the DVD format's control of the home video market.
For the week ending Feb. 22, Nielsen VideoScan research indicates Blu-ray had 10 percent market share, with sales up 29.31 percent compared to the same time in 2008. It seems Blu-ray is slowly taking market share from DVD, but it's not happening at the rate Sony and other Blu-ray supporters would obviously like.
A recent editorial posted on CNET mentioned how the author refuses to rent DVDs and stream movies, but is willing to rent Blu-ray movies.
"I've had too many lackluster experiences with streaming films," the author said. "More often than not, if I stream a film through my cable video-on-demand box, it will look grainy, and its quality is the same as DVD even though it's advertised as an HD film. I watched 'W' recently via a stream, and along with an absolutely ludicrous story, I found that the film's visual and audio quality were downright awful. But the worst part was having paid $4.99 for a DVD-quality film that was supposed to be in high definition."
It's an interesting stance, and it made me wonder if there truly is a market for people looking to rent Blu-ray movies as opposed to purchasing them from retailers.
The last time I went to Blockbuster I noticed that the store's collection of Blu-ray movies available to be rented has grown if compared to last year. When I asked one of the cashiers at the front of the store, he told me that although Blu-ray rentals have increased, demand still appears to be relatively small.
Since only a small number of Blockbuster subscribers currently own a Blu-ray player, it's not really surprising to hear that there has been little buzz about Blu-ray rentals.
It's true the price of Blu-ray movies has decreased, but movies still cost more than DVDs, and are apparently more than what most consumers are willing to spend. But if it were possible to rent movies from Blockbuster, Netflix, and rental kiosks in shopping malls and grocery stores, it's likely Blu-ray owners would begin to rent content, analysts believe.
If you don't already rent Blu-ray movies, would you be willing to do so?
