Best Buy backing Blu-ray beginning March

by Nick Doerr { Feb 11th 2008 at 6:00PM }

How many nails does it take to actually close a coffin? Best Buy has recently announced that all of their stores are going to begin recommending Blu-ray as the official digital format of choice. This new agenda starts in March and is in reaction to what consumers have clearly shown they want. COO Brian Dunn explained: "Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way. We've listened to our customers, and we are responding. Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format."

It's all because of consumers like you! If you're an HD DVD fanatic, though, they'll still stock your stuff if you want to buy it, but in a few years we wouldn't be surprised to see them vanish. Now, Universal, Paramount, and DreamWorks need to stop and smell the roses before they get locked inside that coffin.

Tags: best-buy

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Riley Freeman @ Feb 11th 2008 6:07PM

na na na na na na na hey hey hey goodbye (hddvd)

Tranando @ Feb 11th 2008 6:11PM

Another 2 notches on the Universal/Paramount pressure cooker. How much longer can they stay neutral???

nihillasohen @ Feb 11th 2008 6:49PM

They are red, not neutral. I think you will hear the announcement real soon about going neutral.

Mr. Pink @ Feb 11th 2008 6:27PM

All it's left for us to do is now sit back and wait.

eugene @ Feb 11th 2008 6:32PM

haha, I love the roll over effect on the Best Buy logo.

I'm hoping for a big fire sale on HD-DVD titles. There are some shows I'd never pay full price for, but if I could get them for under 10 bucks, I wouldn't mind picking up.

Chris Rah Osiris @ Feb 11th 2008 6:34PM

Best Buy, you make me proud. I still buy all of my BDs from Amazon though

George Arauz @ Feb 11th 2008 7:15PM

OH well, it was a fun format war while it lasted

Kokomadeta @ Feb 11th 2008 7:37PM

I don't believe this. Oh well, Betamax *was* the superior format, as is HD-DVD. Screw Best Buy anyway. www.bestbuysux.org

Stef Geiger @ Feb 11th 2008 7:57PM

Oh PLEASE explain to us how HD DVD is superior to Blu-ray. Seriously. This'll be great. Don't forget to keep in mind that profile 1.1 is now standard.

Rabid fanboy rants never cease to entertain me. Fire away!

TheEnd187 @ Feb 11th 2008 8:33PM

How is HDDVD superior?

just look at basic specs like bandwith

Blu-ray54mbps HDDuD36mbps

so by your logic 36>54? wow you DuDers are real smart

eugene @ Feb 11th 2008 9:47PM

HD-DVD was superior... back in 2006 when the formats came out. Since then, BD has switched mpeg 4 based encodes and reached visual parity.

Stef Geiger @ Feb 11th 2008 7:54PM

I brought this announcement up in the "Netflix goes Bluray exclusive" page. No "thanks"? *tear*

ben @ Feb 11th 2008 8:40PM

hey koko the monkey or whatever your name is, don't blame best buy for going this route...i am a Home Theater Supervisor with Best Buy and NOBODY comes in looking for HD-DVD...most customers basically scratch their heads when you mention it to them. You can't blame a company for following the overwhelming response from consumers...after all, we are in business to make money, and Blu-ray is making us money hand over fist.

John @ Feb 11th 2008 9:52PM

I think HD-DVD just got MOTED. (not sure if that's just a west-coast term, but those of you who get it, yeah...)

jrsz24 @ Feb 12th 2008 9:52AM

What's funny is that both formats are dead. The day of tangible media is gone. Downloads are the way to go. Apple TV, Netflix, all starting to offer downloadable service.

blu-ray is just as dead as HD-DVD.

Don't deny it!

Wonderflex @ Feb 12th 2008 11:08AM

jrsz24 - You don't honestly think that tangible media will be gone do you? I believe that there will most likely come a day when it will be a thing of the past, but it isn't going to be today, tomorrow, or the next 10 years (although 15-20 though). As a nation there are two major reasons why we won't leave tangible media.

Reason 1: we like to own things. Sad, but true, as American's we like to line the shelves with items, and show off the things we purchased. I know that doesn't speak of everybody, but it sure does speak for a lot, rather we like to admit it or not.

Reason 2: poor network infrastructure. A recent CNN article stated that we are currently straining our national network as it is. Until they do massive work to improve our NAP speeds we aren't going to be able to support a network HD downloads.

Bonus Reason: I know that hard drives are getting cheaper and cheaper as time goes on, but do i have room to store 100+ 20GB movies (and some movies, with bonus features are around 40GB). Until I can store several Terabytes at near to no cost it's not yet feasible.

Sorry for all spelling errors - I can't spell.

catonmyhead @ Feb 12th 2008 3:45PM

That's the power of marketing for you. The inferior product wins out because it has Sony behind it forcing it into homes in a ps3. I would have bought a ps3 whether or not it had a dvd or blu-ray drive in it. For me, I stand by the next true medium for HD movies being via download. I give this life cycle for blu-ray discs for movies lasting 2 or 3 years tops before digital distribution takes over.