In a huge blow to Toshiba, Universal, and the rest of the HD DVD devotees,
rental giant
Blockbuster has decided to stock only Blu-ray discs in the vast majority of
its nationwide locations, although HD DVD titles will continue to be offered
online and in the 250 (out of 1,450) stores that have been testing both formats
since last year.
Interestingly enough, it seems that content -- and not price -- was the
deciding factor for consumers, with Blu-ray-only hits such as the Spiderman and
Pirates of the Caribbean films apparently outmatching equivalent HD DVD
exclusives. While it's still a little too soon to declare Blu-ray the outright
winner, this Blockbuster decision only contributes to the momentum that Sony's
darling has had of late -- momentum that at this point, might be too difficult
for the other guys to counter.
In other news,
a thread over at the AVS Forums has highlighted a potential problem with the
coating of Blu-ray discs, described by many as "disc rot" due to the mould-like
spots that have made several owner's Blu-ray discs unplayable. The five page
thread has reports from dozens of forum members, many of them discovering spots
which can't be rubbed off on Blu-ray versions of 'The Prestige.' It's impossible
to judge how widespread the problem is from a single forum thread, although it's
not unheard of to see a product recall after a problem is discovered by users on
a forum. It's also worth noting that for every user that has reported the spots,
there's one or more people with discs that have no problem.