Hollywood studios are sick of you renting their DVDs and want you to start buying them again. The way to trick you into this, they figure, is to withhold the discs from rental companies for a month, forcing you to get all antsy and run out and buy them.
dvd’s
DVD Price War: Harry Potter, Star Trek For $10
By 11.6.09
Walmart announced yesterday that it will be slashing prices to below wholesale on 10 of the most popular DVDs that will be released soon, says the LA Times. Target announced that it will be matching Walmart. Amazon has not yet responded.
Streaming Movies: Best Buy Preparing For A World Without DVDs
By 11.3.09
Best Buy announced a “a Best Buy-branded offering, available starting early next year,” that will stream “first-run DVDs” online directly to consumers, says the NYT Bits Blog.
Check Your Netflix Envelopes This Week For Blu-ray Coupon
By 10.21.09
Hacking Netflix spotted some sweet savings on the inside of envelopes sent out by the movie rent-by-mail service: $50 off coupons that would bring the price of an Insignia Blu-ray player down to about $100 or $150. The coupon expires Saturday.
Walmart Move Could Render DVD Sales DOA
By 10.6.09
The Wall Street Journal reports Walmart is cutting back DVD displays as part of its effort to appeal to “higher-end” (read: Target) shoppers.
Redbox Sues Warner Bros. And Asks For Help From Consumers
By 8.20.09
Concerned that rentals are hacking into DVD sales profits, Warner Bros. has restricted rental companies such as Redbox and Neftlix from offering its movies until 28 days after movies hit retail shelves.
What Should I Do When Redbox Has Indigestion?
By 8.14.09
John, like many people, enjoys renting movies from Redbox kiosks and does so frequently. Recently, the machine wouldn’t accept his disc back. It’s not a huge inconvenience, but he started to wonder why he, the customer, needs to go out of his way due to a problem on the company’s end.
Have Your Way With Blockbuster For $10 A Week
By 7.30.09
Looking for a way to stop the hemorrhaging, Blockbuster is offering a clever little promotion to lure mega-movie geeks back into its dusty aisles for one more fling. The Summer Escape Pass offers all-you-can watch for $10 a week.
Is The NRA Trying To Trick Its Members Into Paying For This DVD?
By 7.7.09
Arthur, a member of the NRA, received a promotional DVD out of the blue about six months ago. As we’ve discussed before and as Arthur points out, if you’re sent something that you never ordered, you don’t have to pay for it, return it, or acknowledge it. The NRA said as much in their letter to Arthur.
By 7.3.09
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That end-of-the-school-year DVD may have been homemade by the teacher, but that doesn’t mean it can’t pack an accidental porno cherrybomb. An elementary school teacher in Sacramento mistakenly included 6 seconds of a “home movie” in a compilation she sent home to students. Click through to the article for an awesome photo illustration of how adults think kids react to gross-out grownup stuff. [SFGate] (Thanks to Paul!) (Photo: Adactio)
A Dagger For Blu-Ray: GameStop Deems Discs Un-Tradeworthy
By 6.30.09
Blu-ray sales may be on the uptick, with sales up 72 percent so far over what they were last year at this point, but apparently the format isn’t so hot at GameStop, which is apparently phasing out accepting the high-definition movie discs in return for cash or store credit.
This Harry Potter Blu-Ray Set Requires A HD-DVD Player
By 6.21.09
Best Buy is still selling a defective Harry Potter Blu-Ray set that contains a HD-DVD version of the Goblet of Fire. The bumbled bundles were first discovered in 2007, but reader Bill found one sitting on a Best Buy shelf in Grand Junction, CO.
Recycle Old CDs Into An iPhone or iPod Dock
By 6.15.09
Do you have a dozen or so unusable CDs or DVDs lying around, some glue and tools, and a burning need for a cool-looking iPod or iPhone dock? Geeky Gadgets can show you how to combine all of these things into a functional, and fashionably recycled, gadget.
Target Is Somewhat Liberal When It Comes To "Kids" Programming
By 6.15.09
Hey, where was Target back in the day when our parents were looking for a babysitter? The one we had wouldn’t let us watch anything cool. Certainly not anything with a huge “CENSORED” sticker on the front of it.
Watch Out For Throttling If You're On A Blockbuster Rental Plan
By 6.4.09
Robert’s recent experience with his local Blockbuster just underscores how ill-equipped the rental chain is to compete against Netflix and new-star-on-the-block Redbox. Whether Robert has caught them deliberately throttling his account, or he’s just the victim of a poorly implemented system, it’s not the kind of customer experience you should have to settle for anymore.
Judge May Or May Not Allow Most Awesome DVD Player Ever To Hit Market
By 5.14.09
Let’s start with an explanation of why there’s an Arizona Cardinals jet pictured in a story about a new DVD player: Because the Cardinals’ out-of-nowhere NFC championship earlier this year has so far only been matched in miraculousness by one other development — the advent of Facet, a DVD player that lets you save movies to an internal hard drive.
Redbox Starts To Wean Customers Off Free Movie Mondays
By 5.8.09
A few readers contacted us, with tears in their eyes, to let us know that Redbox is ending their “Free Movie Mondays” promotion as we know it. Redbox kiosks, which seemingly sprouted overnight in every grocery store in the country a few years ago, let you rent newly-released DVDs for $1 per day. The free movie promotion sent a free rental code out every Monday in an e-mail or text message. After May 11, new codes will only be issued once per month, ending in August.
