Venture Chronicles

I can sum up my comments with one word: duh. Netflix says that DVD rentals are down for subscribers who make use of the company’s online streaming service. Though it doesn’t hurt Netflix’s bottom line, the trend certainly spells bad news for physical media, including Blu-ray. [From Streaming video cannibalizing DVD rentals, says Netflix - [...]

Here’s the problem, I can keep my old DVD player (which upconverts and actually has a pretty nice presentation) while using iTunes or Netflix’s download service to bring HD movies to my laptop which can then play through to my display. I don’t need a Blu-ray player to get HD video for movies. “The Blu-ray [...]

I wrote a couple of posts about Blu-ray that emphasized the last war aspect of the technology and ignored where consumers would ultimately be getting their entertainment from, the internet. It will do okay but for Sony and the content owners banking on it, Blu-ray will be a disappointment. Analyst Roger Kay predicts a “dramatic” [...]

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. [From Toshiba : Press Releases 19 February, 2008] In December of last year I wrote that high def DVD “is the [...]

The thing that I find mildly offensive about the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray deathmatch is that consumer had very little say in the matter. Ultimately this format war has been decided not by what consumers find most appealing from a quality and cost standpoint, but by Wal-Mart, Netflix and big Hollywood studios. I really don’t know [...]