Warner/Blockbuster market plans DVD (1 Viewer)

[RichardMA]

According to a flunky at my local Blockbuster, movies offered in both PS and FS by Warner, whoever, will only
be available at Blockbuster in FS. Why? Because they get
alot of complaints from people renting DVDs and finding out
they are WS and it's too complicated to have both formats
on the shelf (both they and the cretin customers are too
stupid to read the banners on the boxes). Of course, this
is a stupid argument as most DVDs prior to six months ago
were WS and people still rented them.
So, what this means is, no more WS rentals for movies
from Warner, only purchases, if you frequent Blockbuster.
They just lost about $500/yr from me and I am really upset
with Warner, considering they did the right thing way back
in 1997 by creating the DVD market, unlike other studios
who sat by and watched. But for Warner to have done this
format splitting is really bad.

 

[Aaron Cohen]

This is very upsetting news. It doesn't affect me as I stopped renting movies entirely about two years ago and only buy now as I was sick of renting a movie and it being scratched to the point of unplayability. But even though it doesn't effect me, it's still pertty sickening.

Bah, when I would rent from Blockbuster, I would hear several complaints from customers while I was there about why anyone would want to watch a movie with black bars covering up "MOST" of the picture. They would say "full-frame equals the full picture!" They would be returning dvd's and renting the VHS copy of the movie. The employee there would do nothing to inform them of the benefits of widescreen and instead just agree wholeheartedly with them.

I wouldn't be surprised to see other dvd companies putting out more and more full-frame editions of discs in the future that Blockbuster will specifically carry instead of the widescreen version of the same film.

By the way, has anyone seen this mentioned online? Is this official?

Full-frame must end!

 

[RichardMA]

Official? Who knows? They won't admit it if you ask
them, I'll bet. But so far, they've done this with
4 Warner titles I've come across.

 

[MikeDE]

I rent so much from Blockbuster that they sent me a gold card in the mail last week. However, if a lot of the good movies will be in P&S they wasted the yellow plastic. Seems like we already fought this battle with them a while back.

Mike

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Actually, it's more because Warner has told BB "We don't need you, F*ck off" (essentially, not direct quote )
So they're hoping the consumer backlash will spill over onto Warner

 

[Richard Harvey]

Remember, though, that Warner's own data probably shows that the true "enthusiast" will buy the disc anyway, and the "6-pack" will only rent. They are probably simply following their market data, which all of us created by buying something like 8-12 DVD titles per DVD player sold on average. I don't know about you, but my numbers are tenfold that amount at least.

Rich

 

[Clinton McClure]

You don't even have to rent from Blockbuster to qualify for their gold cards. I have not been there in 6 years but still get a gold card in the mail at least every 3 months.

 

[Shane Bryant]

According to a flunky at my local Blockbuster

I think the first line of your post gave away that this may not turn out to be entirely true

 

[Justin Lane]

Richard was this "flunky" a manager of some sort or just a normal storeworker (i.e. a high school student)? Even if just a manager I find it very unlikely that they would have very reliable access to information regarding company purchasing practices/relationships with major Studios.

J

 

[Patrick G]

What the hell is a blockbuster gold card?

 

[Mick B]

A sign of things to come. At my local Blockbuster yesterday was a giant poster in the front window advertising Sandra Bullocks newest video release and at the top of the poster,
taking up almost a quarter of the page, was the words, "Full Screen". Here we go.

Mick

 

[Benson R]

I think everybody should chill out until a source is produced or somebody else confirms. Blockbuster used to stock only fullscreen but seemed to have reversed themselves about 6 months ago. It seems like it was a decision on the corporate level since all the Blockbusters I frequent now only stock widescreen. It would seem very odd for Blockbuster to reverse a policy than go back to the way it was less then a year later.

 

[Gavin K]

Also, all of the artwork for the Spiderman rental card/free DVD offer pictures a FULLSCREEN copy of the disc. (and they raised the price 5 bucks from their last few offers) :frowning:

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. This for me is the biggest problem with dual format releases: rental houses will typically stock only one and chances are huge it will be only full screen. That said I still think (given we're forced to endure P&S) it's a better option than wasting bandwidth on the OAR version in a single release. But frustrating nevertheless.

 

[Mike Peveler]

I was going to rent Death To Smoochy but all my BB had was pan & scam no rental from me. I also asked the manager if he could call or e-mail my complaint to someone. My next course of action will be to track down their district then regional managers. Just trying to stir the shit storm, the squeaky wheel sometimes gets the greasin

 

[streeter]

I just got a gold card in the mail as well. I rent at BB a lot (there's no independent in town) but rarely pay anything except for the 10-week rental card. I'll pass on the Spider-Man offer but I'll definitely do the Star Wars Episode II deal if that's actually happening.
I just signed up with Greencine.com so I'll use BB exclusively to rent new releases.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Regardless of the accuracy of the rumor, I am glad once again for my local video store on Mockingbird Lane. They stock pretty much everything and (as far as I know) its OAR, so long as the format is available on the media.

 

[Matt Pelham]

Every single Blockbuster in my area (and there are plenty!) has followed a similar pattern.

Phase 1: Only widescreen (this was when they first started carrying DVD and most releases didn't come in P+S)
Phase 2: Only Fullscreen. (This was summer 2001 and lasted for about 4-5 months, resulting in the infamous Blockbuster online petition)
Phase 3: Back to only widescreen. (Every single title that has had a dual release in the past 8 months or so Blockbuster has stocked exclusivly the widescreen version.)

I was hoping we would stay how it is now, but this is cause for some concern, even if it isn't offical now.

 

[Craig W]

If they would just offer both versions this would not even be an issue. I really don't care as long as I have a choice. If some Joe Schmoe wants to watch a Fullscreen title in his own house what business is it of mine or the collective whole of this forum how he watches it?

Just give me an option and let us be done with this never ending BULLSHIT ranting.

 

[Benson R]

I do understand the dilemna in stocking both. I can picture a fullscreen copy winding up behind the widescreen box and renting that. Then they have to deal with a customer returning it. When I come back and they are out of all copies even though it was my fault for not double checking they will have a customer who is not happy. I think they are going to stay widescreen only in most locations because I think complaints were few and far between when everything was mostly widescreen.