Blockbuster Online Hi Def Rental (1 Viewer)

Anyone have experience with this? I signed up yesterday thinking it would be a good way to see hi def content without buying a bunch stuff I don't want.

I put 37 BD titles in my Q and only 4 of them are 'available'.

And, perhaps I'm being impatient but almost 24 hours later (with the 'available' titles up top) they still haven't shipped.

I have used both Netflix and BB. I dropped Netflix because it was slower for me. The BB Total Access works well at my location. I haven't had that problem with BB although I have mainly rented HD DVD movies.

Let me add my 2 cents.
I had Alien vs. Predator (yeah, I know I know...lol) Blu as my #1 in my Q for over a week, with King Kong #3...they shipped me The Haunted Mansion (my #5) and 2 SD discs I had WAY at the bottom of my list. Meanwhile, the Speed blu I had above the SD went from available to short wait when I should have gotten it before those SD discs. I ain't a happy camper with BB right now.

I've rented a few HD and BD discs from them, but they've also shipped some SD titles ahead of some of the high-def stuff for some reason.

this is addressed somewere in their faQ.


the not shipping after joining is an issue too.
so far anyone i spoke to has told me it takes 2 or 3 days before the first set of discs ship.

dont know why.

another issue is the availability of hd and br titles.

i have about 15 in my Q and only 2 are available. the others are either coming soon or on a "wait" status.

clerks 2 and devil wears prada are still coming soon.

I've had trouble with some HD-DVDs in my BB queue, but I also encountered that with Netflix before I switched. I don't think either online service quite has their act together when it comes to the new formats.

Brent, I am in total agreement with you, Both services do the talk but not the walk if you know what I mean.

My opinion is that they have only a few hundred HD-Videos and are testing the market to see if the demand is their for them to spend the extra capital on the new merchandise, they are testing the waters, that's all.

Netflix gets the movies to me the next day, and all of the US HD-DVDs are available, save for the high demand ones like World Trade Center

I got an email this morning and X3 is on the way.

As more people request the hi def discs they will have to constantly reevaluate stock. I signed up for the cheapest plan so if they can get me 2 BDs per month I'm good.

I'll save everyone by not getting out my soapbox and beginning my Blockbuster sucks tirade, but Blockbuster does not have their act together.
They have very few HD discs in inventory. I'm in Houston, a mega-metropolis, and have had many issues with shipping times as well. Also, I've been told that just because a selection is listed as available, that doesn't mean that it's available in your area. It simply means that somewhere in the country they have one sitting on a shelf.
The Total Access program of returning a movie to your local store is a great idea, however it does not work as described. They say once you take it to the store it's as good as checked in, but they do not ship your next selection for at least three days. The previous DVD sits in the queue until it is physically received at the warehouse but, despite promises to the contrary, they do not ship the next DVD.
Netflix may have some inventory issues on their HD discs, but they at least accurately state which are available and which require a waiting period. They also continually ship on a regular schedule so that I receive my next DVD two days after mailing the previous one.
Now if you'd like the soapbox version, it's sitting right here and I can jump on it very quickly.

jim go ahead and jump on.

i have the same problem you describe.

Has any one find out N & B HD inventory??

Ive had 0 problems with Netflix thus far

I rent 99% HD DVD

Just got Derailed HD & Breakfast Club HD delivered today from BB. They do have them...but not in great detail. There is a delay I agree when you bring a mailer back to the store for the free rental. I had to wait 2 days before my current shipment was mailed out. Still, I can hardly complain....it's a great price and nice to get those free in store rentals too.

ralph your question doesnt make sense.
what are you asking for.

sig is a bit long too.

BrettB, with the caveat that it was shortly after the service launched, I had so many issues exactly as you describe with standard def rental from Blockbusted that I canceled. They have a screwed up sense of what "available" means. I'd surmise JimJum27's comments regarding this are accurate: "available" to Bbusted means that the company rents that title . . . somewhere, not that they have it in stock and ready to ship to you.

I've been renting HD DVDs from Netflix for about 5 months now and their service and delivery have been as strong in that regard as it had been in the 2 previous years of standard def rental. Only one ball drop: they sent me the standard def Full Metal Jacket instead of the HD DVD. After reporting the problem, the replacement was on its way to me ("processing") before they'd even received the SD back.

And I think Ralph is asking if anyone has found out about Netflix and BB's HD DVD inventory. Dunno 'bout BB, but in my experience, Nf has HD DVDs available to "Save" within weeks of their announcement. Heck, they've still got Shawshank 'saveable.'

Go Reed Hastings.

Well, I'm loving it so far. In fact I upped my plan to the $7.99/3 per month version. Taking the envelope to the store and getting a free rental is awesome. There is an e-coupon (1/month I think) that is good for a game rental as well. Was playing Resistance/Fall of Man the other night... wife isn't too happy.

The titles I've gotten so far shipped immediately even though they were listed as short wait.

Oklahoma: I asked about HD in the stores the other day and the guy told me that right now there is only one store (Rockwell/Hefner) that has them. Just called to confirm... he said they have about 45-50 of each format. So now if I drive a little further I can pick up free BDs. Yukon should be next.

Just posting my experience with BB after reading other post and finally buying an HD/DVD player. I have the $17.99 unlimited amount of movies a month plan and I love it. I have two small children and we have watched more movies in the last month then we normally do in 3 months. I haven't always received the 3 dvds that are at the top of my list but if they are not exactly what I feel like watching I just view the ones I want then take all three back to the store and pick out three more. By the time I get through those three my other three have arrived and we are at it again. I also use my free E coupon that I get once a month to rent a video game either for the Wii or 360 while we are there picking out our movies. In the end I don't think the system is perfect but for $17.99 a month I just don't think it can get any better.

Overall, I've been pretty happy with the availability of Blockbuster rentals. Obviously, it would be ideal if they stocked more copies and carried the entire selection of HD movies, hopefully that is their goal. I was disappointed today to see The Departed move to the dreaded Coming Soon availability status.

My queue is entirely full of HD movies and all of the movies that have shipped are near the top of my queue, so I'm not sure what is going on with the others. My recent rentals this past month include Descent, World Trade Center, Pulse, Miami Vice, Open Season, Slither, Serenity, and Running With Scissors. The Marine and Invincible shipped today.

I also like the fact that I can return the movies in store to either get new releases not available in HD yet (like Flags of our Fathers), or to pick up more HD movies. I think I posted this before, but someone on AVS Forum put together a list of Blockbusters that are renting HD-DVD and Blu-Ray: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=788831

I am sure that BB is performing heavy analysis of the online rental trends, in order to decide on what to roll out to the physical stores

My thanks to all of you renting HD titles, as this will really push the physical stores to start stocking them

I feel this will be much better than the days of VHS and DVD in the same store - I think that HD and BRD will arrive faster and in much more volume this time around