Consumerist
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blu-ray
Warner Bros. Offers Discount Blu-ray Upgrade Program
Warner Bros. has thought of a way to boost sagging Blu-ray sales. The DVD2Blu program lets you mail up to 25 DVDs (discs only), with a prepaid shipping label, to a processing plant — after having paid $8 to $10 online for each film — to get new, factory-sealed Blu-ray versions sent back to you. More » -
netflix
Deciphering Netflix Pricing Strategy
If you've found Netflix's pricing pyramid a bit tough to unravel, you're not alone. The cost of renting 3 DVDs is $17/month, whereas 6 DVDs is $36 (16.99 and 35.99, to be precise, but we don't count pennies here). Similarly, 4 DVDs is $24/month, 8 is $48. By traditional economies of scale, this may not make much sense: Getting 6 DVDs costs MORE than getting two 3 DVD subscriptions. And getting 8 DVDs isn't any cheaper than getting two 4 DVD plans. More » -
market destruction
Redbox Kiosks Crank Out Cheap DVD Rentals, Doom For Hollywood
With its ubiquitous DVD rental kiosks, Redbox has been known to toy with our emotions. The machines have taken up all the choice grocery store spots where your favorite stale gumball machines used to sit. And company execs taunted us by dreaming up that awesome Free Movie Mondays promotion only to vow to take it away by the end of the summer. More » -
best buy
Watch Out For Firmware Shenanigans At Best Buy
Reader Erin writes in to warn readers that Best Buy is offering a thirty-dollar firmware update to certain Blu-Ray players, and warning that without the update, some newer titles might not work. Erin checked the manufacturer's website and found no announced firmware updates, and the newer titles play just fine. -
blockbuster
Blockbuster Will Offer 99 Cent DVD Rentals
Reuters says that Blockbuster will begin offering 99 cent rentals for the first time ever, according to CEO Jim Keyes. The details of which movies will be 99 cents have not been announced, but Keyes did say that the price point would include "thousands of DVDs, including many classic older movies." More » -
netflix
$1 Netflix Price Hike For Blu-Ray Access
Netflix will be start charging you $1 more per month to offset the costs of Blu-Ray movies, starting November 5. You have to opt-in to the Blu-Ray access, and the $1 surcharge, by going to "your account" and "add Blu-Ray access." If you don't already have Blu-Ray access on your account, then your membership price stays the same. Sounds like they needed to invent a way to make more money and this fee, admittedly small, seemed the best way to go about it. Copy of the email they sent subscribers, inside. More »
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good business practice
Redbox Shows Businesses How To Properly Handle A Data Breach
Redbox rents DVD movies via vending machine in drugstores and supermarkets throughout the country, and on Friday they announced that they'd found credit card skimmers attached to three of their kiosks. What's surprising is that they 'fessed up so quickly, and in a highly public manner—they've got the text "SECURITY ALERT" at the top and bottom of their website, and the email they sent to their members is detailed, forthright, and helpful, and reposted in its entirety—along with photos of sample card skimmers—on their site. Attempts at identity theft no longer surprise us, but a competent handling of the issue by a company is pretty amazing. More » -
above and beyond
Best Buy Provides Excellent Customer Service!
You don't become the number one retailer of electronics to American consumers without getting a few things
rightawesome, as Daniel shows us in this letter of compliment he sent The Conglomerist about a recent experience at Best Buy:I stopped in the other night because my old HD DVD player died so I went in hoping to get a deal. On the shelf I found 2 open box Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD players. Looking around I found the department head Derrik and we went back over to the DVD player aisle.
More »He tells me that since they're open box he'll sell one for $99 which, IMO, isn't bad it was $30 off their normal price and $20 off Amazon's price...
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A reader tried to send in his shipping info to Monster Cable yesterday to receive their free HD informational DVD, The Higher Definition Home Theater Experience (see second to last paragraph), and discovered the address wasn't working. Now it is, so if you got your email bounced back, try again.
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format war
Netflix Goes Blu-Ray Exclusive
Another nail in the coffin of the format war: top DVD rental service Netflix has announced that they will be going Blu-Ray exclusive. More » -
disposable income
Everybody Panic: DVD Sales Down For The First Time Ever
DVD sales slipped for the first time since the format was introduced in 1997, says USAToday. More » -
coupons
Circuit City Excluding Whatever It Feels Like From $15 Coupon
Today I received a coupon in the mail from Circuit City inviting me to "save $15 on my next qualifying purchase of $100 or more*". I really wanted to pick up Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii and figured this would be a good time to do so. After tallying up a purchase of $110 on their website, when I tried to use the coupon I was told it was invalid. Confused, I called the 800 number to place the order assuming it was just a glitch with the website. More » -
video wars
Blockbuster Total Access Fails, Netflix Wins
We're ready to call Netflix the winner of this battle of the video war, based on Blockbusters remarkably sad third quarter numbers and the flood of pissed off emails we've been getting from Blockbuster's (former) customers. More » -
format wars
Now Is A Good Time To Stay Out Of The HD DVD/Blu-ray War
Those of you with PS3s notwithstanding, there has never been a better time to stay out of the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray. More » -
whoops, porn
Girl Whose Photo Was Stolen And Used For Porn DVD Sues
Remember Lara, whose self-portrait was stolen from deviantART and used as the cover of a porn DVD? Yeah, she's suing the shady pornographers. More » -
sony
Sony Recalls Broken DRM-Filled DVDs
Sony's latest bright idea was to issue DVDs with DRM that made them unplayable in their own DVD players. Yes, they're just that committed to you, their valuable customers. Anyhow, they've decided to recall the discs. From IMDb:Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has discovered the source of a problem in their recent DVD releases that prevented them from being played on some players, including some manufactured by the consumer electronics division of Sony itself. The company said the problem was caused by an update of its copy-protection system, which it continually updates in order to derail potential hackers. Among the DVD movies affected were the new James Bond film Casino Royale, The Pursuit of Happyness and Stranger Than Fiction. Sony said that anyone who had purchased one of the discs and has experienced problems playing it may receive a replacement disk free of charge by phoning 800-860-2878.
Reader Mick will be happy about this, as he started a blog about the issue. The recall is probably due in part to his reporting. Good job, Mick! —MEGHANN MARCO More » -
fye
FYE: 'Buy One Get One Free' Really 30% Off
FYE gave reader Ben a 30% discount on two DVDs purchased as part of deal promising "Buy 1 Get 1 Free!" Ben wanted volumes five and six of the anime series Samurai Champloo. Each DVD was listed for $29.99. More » -
tech
Cage Match: DVD Beats VCR!
For the first time, more Americans have a DVD player than have a VCR says Nielsen Media Research. People aren't throwing out the VCR: They've lost only 1/10th of their popularity, while DVD players are 6 times more popular than they were 6 years ago. More »
dvd
New York, 4:57 PM
Sat Nov 21
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