HD Rentals: The Art of the Impossible

Dave Scarpa · 02-08-2008, 08:58 AM

Whether it might be My New Software update to the Apple TV, or the HD offerings of Direct TV, I'm being forced to look elsewhere for recent HD movies. It has become nearly Impossible to get any Recent HD offerings from Netflix. So I joined BB Online hoping for better Results, just as Bad. Getting any movies within 3 months of release does not seem to be Doable anymore. I Would rent far more HD-DVD and Blu Ray than buy, my hope when I got the A2 and now the PS3. But I see this was false Hope as attaining these as rentals are nearly impossible. I've been getting most of my new stuff from Redbox in SD and upconverting it, and that was not my Desire in the HD age. Anyone else battling for HD rentals now want to give me some tips?

Jim_K · 02-08-2008, 09:11 AM

I feel your pain. I've been with Netflix for over 5 years and I'm getting to the point were I'm going to just cancel it very soon. I'm still waiting for the Simpsons movie 3 months later, new releases on Blu-ray? I haven't gotten one since October.

My only other option is I have a Hollywood Video that stocks both BD and HD, problem is they only get one copy so unless you take Tuesday off from work and get there when they open the doors you might have to wait a week or two after it's released to get it.

Jacob McCraw · 02-08-2008, 10:31 AM

I know exactly what you mean. Ocean's 13 is finally coming today from Netflix on BD. The first 30 in my queue are long to very long waits.

Anybody know how many BD or HDDVD copies Netflix usually acquires?

Chris S · 02-08-2008, 10:36 AM

I've basically given up renting HDM from Netflix at this point. There hasn't been a title available in my list in HD for almost 2 months and a lot of the titles I have listed have been out for more than 3 months. Just a couple weeks ago I reset my preference back to SD because of all these issues.

GlennH · 02-08-2008, 10:41 AM

Sounds like a strategy of buying online with preorder discounts, then selling online to recoup a majority of the cost may be an option. Of course, that takes a lot more work.

I used to do this with some DVDs, using Amazon Marketplace. Often I could get as much or more back from resale as I spent new, making it a "free" rental. But the constant care and feeding of the process (listing, e-mailing, packaging, and mailing) gets tiring after awhile.

**HTF Ads**

schalkt · 02-08-2008, 11:53 AM

I'm (somewhat) glad that I'm not the only one frustrated with Netflix. At one point, I had 20 Blu-ray/HD-DVD's in my queue, and only 2 of them (Casino and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)didn't have a wait associated with them. And those two that were "available" were sent to me from across the country (meaning I had to wait an extra 3 days to get a disc).

I actually called Netflix about this to see what their answer would be, and it was the pretty standard answer: they're looking at the demand and trying to meet it, but they couldn't tell me if they were planning on beefing up their supply anytime soon.

I was tempted to try BB online, but it sounds like that's in the same boat.

I haven't tried any online offerings yet, but from what I've heard the quality isn't going to quite as good as Blu-ray/HD-DVD anyway.

Scott Jentsch · 02-08-2008, 12:24 PM

I guess I've been very fortunate with Netflix. Since I started renting HD DVD's back in November 2006, I've had few problems getting discs. I don't get real bent out of shape about getting new releases since there are so many movies to watch, but when I've wanted to get a new release, I haven't had too much of a problem.

One trick that I've used with success is to make sure that they have a disc returned to them the day before the new release is released. Almost every time, I've gotten the new release sent to me and it arrives on the day of release.

I've just begun renting Blu-ray discs, and just recently got 3:10 to Yuma and The Assassination of Jesse James is being sent out today. A quick look through my queue shows that few have any kind of wait. I added this past Tuesday's new releases to see what their status was:

The Brave One: Short Wait
Crimson Tide: Available Now
The Jane Austen Book Club: Short Wait
Across the Universe: Short Wait

FWIW, The Assassination of Jesse James was on Short Wait last night, but it's shipping today, so I've been fortunate in that I haven't had long waits.

I think one of the keys is patience. If everyone requests new releases right away, there's no way to satisfy that peak demand all at once without having a huge number of titles, which doesn't make economical sense for a rental organization. However, if you have had titles on your queue that have been waiting for a long time on a consistent basis, that's something worth griping about.

I actually had an HD DVD come in from Hawaii or something like that once because they said that they didn't have any stock in their local distribution center. They are willing to ship the discs around, but I would imagine it's not their first choice.

It would be interesting to see a geographical breakdown of the titles that are on wait -- some enterprising individual could make a Google Maps mashup to integrate everyone's Netflix Queue RSS feeds. There was a time in my life when that would be a great little free time project... so much for that!

Dave Scarpa · 02-08-2008, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schalkt

I'm (somewhat) glad that I'm not the only one frustrated with Netflix. At one point, I had 20 Blu-ray/HD-DVD's in my queue, and only 2 of them (Casino and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)didn't have a wait associated with them. And those two that were "available" were sent to me from across the country (meaning I had to wait an extra 3 days to get a disc).

I actually called Netflix about this to see what their answer would be, and it was the pretty standard answer: they're looking at the demand and trying to meet it, but they couldn't tell me if they were planning on beefing up their supply anytime soon.

I was tempted to try BB online, but it sounds like that's in the same boat.

I haven't tried any online offerings yet, but from what I've heard the quality isn't going to quite as good as Blu-ray/HD-DVD anyway.

Well the Apple TV Downloads will be 720p still better than standard Def. I believe Direct TV's are 1080 but I have'nt tried any On Demand PPV offerrings from them yet. But I'll have to go this route if I ever want to see anything Near HD. Plus some New Movies like this week's The Brave one came out Day and date with the Disk release.

Doug_H · 02-08-2008, 12:50 PM

I have to say I have been very lucky with HD-DVD on Netflix. I only use them for HD-DVD as I use Blockbuster for Blu and SD discs.

I am going to cancel soon however as I have been much more prone to buying just in case HD-DVD is discontinued. I have gotten a lot of really good deals on Amazon but more often in the software for sale area here.

schalkt · 02-08-2008, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Jentsch

One trick that I've used with success is to make sure that they have a disc returned to them the day before the new release is released. Almost every time, I've gotten the new release sent to me and it arrives on the day of release.

I've noticed this trend too. If send a movie back on Saturday and Netflix receives it on Monday, there's a good chance of getting a new Tuesday release sent that day.

Granted, that's about the only sliver of success I've had getting an HD new release though.