Tag: movies

Why Warner Bros. Swapping HD DVDs for Blu-ray Discs Won’t Work

April 22, 2009April 22, 2009 Bob Caswell 2 Comments

HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray Warner Brothers had come up with a slick promotion to get some much needed buzz around Blu-ray. My consensus: great idea but flawed execution. Here’s how it works (and why it won’t work):

You send in the cover art sleeve (keep the disc) and the UPC from your HD DVD movies. And for $4.95 per movie, plus $6.95 S&H per order, you’ll be sent back brand new Blu-ray copies of any movies you have in HD DVD. There are a few restrictions (only 1 copy per movie and only up to 25 movies per household) but nothing really that prohibitive.

Amazon, Internet, Media, Netflix, Shopping, Sony, Tech News

Netflix Eliminating Profiles: Tells Us We Don’t Own Our Data

June 19, 2008 Bob Caswell 34 Comments

Last night Netflix sent out an email (full text below) explaining that it will be getting rid of profiles. For those unfamiliar, the profile feature allows one account to have multiple profiles. For example, you could pay $13.99 to get 2 DVDs at a time sent to your addresss but have one DVD come from your queue of chosen movies while the other DVD comes from another queue of movies.

Media, Netflix, Tech News, Web 2.0

Amazon Giving $50 Credit to Its HD DVD Buyers

April 9, 2008August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 5 Comments

Amazon I purchased my HD DVD player with 10 movies for $174 way back in November. Today, to my surprise, I received the email below. This is much better than the company’s first attempt at treating me as a “valued HD DVD customer” and comes after Best Buy made a similar move. In related news, Amazon also has a Buy 2 Get 1 Free Blu-ray movie promotion happening right now.

Amazon, Media, Tech News

Amazon’s Attempt at Helping Its HD DVD Customers

March 22, 2008August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 9 Comments

Earlier this week Best Buy announced that it would offer $50 gift cards to its customers that purchased HD DVD players before February 23. Not only that, the company is giving some trade-in value for HD DVD players or movies, regardless of where they were purchased. Apparently Amazon wanted in on the good PR and has come up with its own way to hook up its HD DVD customers.

Here’s the deal I was emailed from Amazon since I’m a “valued HD DVD customer.” Links are placed exactly as they were in the email:

Amazon, Media

Dear Microsoft: Get Netflix on the Xbox 360 and I’ll Buy One

February 25, 2008 Bob Caswell 11 Comments

Netflix Last week plenty of rumors were floating around about a potential Microsoft / Netflix partnership. The announcement was supposedly going to happen during the keynote address (by Xbox Live exec John Schappert) at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco last Wednesday. The concept: make it so Netflix’s 7,000 available “Watch Instantly” movies would be viewed easily on your TV via the Xbox 360.

Gaming, Media, Microsoft, Netflix

Netflix Chooses Blu-ray, Big Blow to Any Chance of an HD DVD Comeback

February 11, 2008August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 8 Comments

Netflix Notwithstanding the price slashing Toshiba has been doing (HD DVD player with 7 movies for $129 compared to Blu-ray players starting in the $300’s), Netflix choosing to drop HD DVD by year’s end in favor of Blu-ray exclusivity is quite the blow to the HD DVD crowd. Thanks a lot, Netflix. Give me an online streaming experience in HD by year’s end, and you’re forgiven. See below for full text of the email going out to any Netflix HD DVD users:

Media, Netflix, Tech News, Web 2.0

2008 Super Bowl Ads: Watch Them Online on Hulu or AOL

February 2, 2008 Bob Caswell 4 Comments

I admit it; I’m really not into football but am one of those that tend to tune into the Super Bowl mostly to check out the commercials. I’m not alone, apparently.

TiVo, the company known for its digital video recorder by the same name, usually makes it so that consumers can record TV minus the commercials. But last year Todd Juenger, TiVo’s vice president and general manager of audience research and measurement, explained how it was actually the commercials themselves that consumers were watching:

Media, Tech News, Web 2.0

Could HD DVD Make a Comeback? Pricing Now Close to DVD

January 28, 2008August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 7 Comments

HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray Even if plenty of news is out already assuming HD DVD is dead, other sources are pointing us to facts that show the battle isn’t over yet. After all, you can now get HD DVD players with 7 movies for $126 whereas Blu-ray’s alternatives are, at best, nearly three times as expensive with players starting in the $300’s.

Most all coverage, positive or negative, is relying on data from the NPD Group. Interesting, then, that the NPD Group had to issue a statement addressing how its numbers were being used:

Amazon, Media, Tech News