It’s maybe taken a while (since Toshiba had officially dropped its HD DVD format months ago) but Blockbuster said in recent days that it increased its promotion of Blu-ray Disc packaged content in all its American-based outlets. From now on, every store (not a partial list, as now) will offer Blu-ray movies for rental and sale.
Blockbuster plans to install special kiosks featuring Blu-ray in each outlet, which will include 42-inch HD monitors and PlayStation 3 game consoles, for displaying Blu-ray content. (All PS3 units are equipped with internal Blu-ray drives.)
Blockbuster will also extend its Blu-ray offerings to its online customers for snail-mail distribution—something Netflix started a while ago (if typical one-day U.S. mail delivery can be described as “snail mail”).
The problem that remains, however, for all Blu-ray content distributors (and Blu-ray customers, as well) is the paucity of Blu-ray DVD titles currently available (especially for movies more than several years old), compared to the tens of thousands of movies, TV shows, concerts and games currently available on standard DVD. And that’s maybe where the chicken-and-the-egg mentality again rears its head: What will come first, the player or the content? Right now, at least, it appears to be the content.
