Speaking at the Wedbush Securities 8th Annual New York Management Access Conference, Coinstar CEO Paul Davis said that Blu-ray Discs will be stocked in “the majority” of Redbox kiosks by mid-2010. Because most Redboxes are not completely full, he said, high-definition titles can be added without sacrificing space devoted to standard-def discs.
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Davis went on to say that his company expects about 15% of its customers to prefer BDs over DVDs, and there will likely be a price premium for the HD discs. Said Davis:
“Granted, we’ll be paying more for the Blu-ray titles, but you should also assume we’ll be charging more,”
Interestingly, Davis also revealed that his company’s recent deal on a 28-day new release delay window with Warner has sliced Redbox’s workaround costs in half. In a subtle dig at the preferential treatment beleaguered Blockbuster seeks from the studios, Davis reiterated Redbox’s stance that if windowing exists, it should apply to all renters. Said Davis:
“We still believe day and date is the best solution, and if there are windows on product everyone should be treated the same,”
Insiders, are you among Davis’ 15% who will make the switch to Blu-ray as it becomes more widely available in Redboxes? What do you think would be a fair price for Redbox to charge for high-def rentals?
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(via Home Media Magazine)
I absolutely want Blu-Rays in Redbox. I have some in my area now, but they are rare, they also don’t seem to stick around very long. Maybe people are keeping them and paying the purchase fee since it is comparable to the current price? i don’t know…
I’d be willing to pay up to $2 per day for a blu-ray.
Maybe the fee structure will be $1.50 per day OR $2 first day $1 each additional day, either way i’ll be happy if under $2.
Just got back, the Redbox machines had a new menu that let you sort by just Blu-Ray. The price was $1.50 for each night.
Also, the machines let you search for a new movie after returning one. After it accepts your disc, it has a “continue” button that pops up and lets you look for one to rent. However, it takes just as long to return 2 movies as it did before, but you can now browse while waiting for your 2nd one to finish being returned, etc.
Well at least they are realizing that people hate waiting for the hardware to accept the disk. $1.50 sounds good too!
This is great info, cedar. Do you think you can take some photos of the blu-ray stuff and new return interface and send them to me? Or you can post the photos somewhere and just put the links here.
Thanks!
Good they are listening to my advice!
Another questioned answered:
Ended up at another Redbox (Melbourne, FL), had about 12 Blu-Rays inside. Used a promo code and got $1 off of the $1.49 rental. So the codes do work on BDs, but still $1 off, not a ‘free’ night since it is more than that.
I pretty much echo cedar1079’s comments, I’d love there to be Blu-ray’s in Redbox, and I’d be willing to pay a little more if need be.
Definitely would want Blu-Rays in Redbox. $2 or $1.50 seems like a good price point.
I’d prefer to pay $1, but if given the choice of the 480p for $1 and the 1080p for $2, I’ll pick the latter for almost every movie. If it were $2 for first day and $1 for each add’l day, I’d be more inclined to keep it and watch bonus material (even though bonus material is often done in SD).
I wouldn’t care if I were watching an older TV series that never aired in anything but 480i.
I would pay $2 for a new release on Blu. But if the title is more than a month old $1 is fair.
Here in tampa my Redbox now has a new menu that includes a Blu-ray option.
But the machine only has 3 Blu-ray movies in it.
I am seeing Blu-ray’s in my redbox here in Winter Park, FL. I haven’t actually rented one since I don’t have a player so I don’t know how much it is charging. It has a Blu-ray’s for every major movie in the machine. Seeing the quality is uber better, I would pay 2-3$ for it. Still better than purchasing one. I usually only keep my rentals for a day or two anyway.
What I am planning to do is buy an internal Blu-ray drive for like a tower unit, since they are much cheaper than externals, and buy the conversion hardware to have it go to USB for like $25. Then I can watch Blu-ray’s and save them on my laptop, since it is the only thing in my house with a high def screen. I will probably need to invest in an external HDD for all that storage I will need.
Redbox has been saying they are going to roll out Blu-Ray’s for over a year now and it has not happen yet.
Redbox also promised games to be rolled over 8 months ago.
About a month ago Redbox announced they were going Digital.
None of these new products can be done until they get their software working correct which Redbox has been trying to roll out for over two years now. This is a new software for them so this is why they are having all of the issues.
Last I heard it was still not going good which is what Mr.Davis called system issues about three weeks ago.
The failure will cause the disc to go in as unknowns which will look like the customer did not return his/her DVD and cause a late fee or a $25 non return fee. This has been a issue for Redbox for a while now.
I would like to see Blu-Ray also but most of this talk is to raise the stock price. That is what a CEO is suppose to do, correct? Where has Mitch been the last several months?
Hopefully it will not hurt the investors in the long run if the new system software keeps holding things up.
‘The failure will cause the disc to go in as unknowns which will look like the customer did not return his/her DVD and cause a late fee or a $25 non return fee. This has been a issue for Redbox for a while now.’
Is this for blu-ray only? Why would a blu-ray behave differently than a DVD upon return?
That is ridiculous. The system recognizes disks by a sticker they put on the inner ring. If a return failed it wasn’t because of a software error, it was because of a negligent consumer who put the disk in the case the wrong way or in some way damaged the ID sticker. The only difference between a DVD and a Blu-ray disk is a different ID code, according to the system. These problems are not from the Blu-ray, it is an independent problem that can be fixed, and will be fixed soon.
So let me get this right.
You guys all complained when there was talk about Redbox raising prices on DVDs but you are willing to pay extra for Blu-Rays?
The cost differential on a Blu-ray is 20-30%. Redbox is charging a 50% premium. Some of you claim to want to pay 100% more than a DVD.
Mr. Barnum was right.
50% more than a DVD may seem like a big increase based on your cost differential, but it’s still the cheapest way to rent them. I’d rather have the option to rent one from redbox at $1.50 than have to spend $5 at BB, or pay for a netflix subscription.
Who cares what the cost is, it is what the perceived value is to the person renting it. If the option is available, I’d be willing to pay $2 to rent a 1080p movie. Period.
That’s like saying none of us should be willing to pay more to see Avatar in Imax/3D because it costs them the same to make it.
Barnum may be right, but only “Idiots and lunatics see only their own wit.”
True that.
You are neglecting the fact that your “cost differential” of 20-30% is at the normal purchase price point. We are not purchasing, we are renting. Renting at the lowest rental price currently in existence.The cost differential is not linear to the price point. I am going to explain this briefly; 50% of $30 is $15, difference of $15. 50% of $1 is 50cents. difference of 50cents. $15 is not equal to 50cents. Percentages are for linear relationships, this is not one. There are considerably more variables.
For now at least, I’m probably content with the regular DVD disk and wouldn’t pay the $2 just for the Blu Ray feature.
Incidentally, I’m sure some of the Insiders can explain something I’ve wondered about. I have seen a lot of old movies that were released before the development of high definition now being released in Blu Ray format. Since these older movies were filmed before high def, can the film really be enhanced by being re-released in Blu Ray? It would seem like the Blu Ray release would just be the original film but on a Blu Ray disc with no difference in the picture.
Have always been puzzled by this!
Drew
This is a common misconception, I will put an end to your puzzled-ness.
I know everyone hates when I explain things but this is really helpfull:
Movies have been shot using 35mm film since the early 1900’s. Back in the days of VHS tapes, the movie was literally transferred from the 35mm film to the cassette through a process called tellecine. A similar process was done with the old color disks. Nowadays 35mm film is transferred to a digital format using High Resolution cameras in an enclosed device that feeds the raw film into the system where it is captured 1 frame at a time, still refereed to as a tellicine machine. FACT: a good quality frame of 35mm film is equivalent to 20Million digital Pixels (1.2222 Pixel Format). A VHS tape stored the movie in an analog format with the equivalent of ~150,000 digital pixels. A standard DVD (Digital Video Disk) has video stored in it at 720×480 Pixels (480P Widescreen SPF) for a total of 345,600 digital pixels. A Blu-ray disk stores video digitally at 1920×1080 (1080P HDPF) for a total of 2,073,600 digital pixels. So If one was to take and old movies original 35mm film (Which are usually stored somewhere by the MPAA) and feed through a Modern Tellicine machine, You could transfer the resulting movie to a Blu-ray disk with a significant increase in picture quality. Neglecting color depth, and all kinds other fantastic digital BS which I will not share with you for the sake of wrapping this up; THAT IS WHY OLD MOVIES CAN BE MADE INTO BLU-RAY AND THERE ACTUALLY BE A DIFFERENCE.
I hope this clears things up. Ugh, I tried to keep it short, sorry everybody.
Thanks for saving me the trouble! Too bad too many studios are lazy and take some poor old master and use that produce a Blu-ray that is subpar! When they do the work of using the originals it looks so great.
MovieWatcherSupreme:
Thanks for the great explanation! I understand now! I definitely didn’t realize that the original transfer of a film to VHS or DVD was lossy in terms of quality! So, as long as the original 35mm film is vaulted away somewhere, it can be transferred to Blu Ray for a huge improvement over the film from VHS or DVD. Very informative! You know your stuff! Thanks so much for explaining that!
:-) No Problem!
Just curious on another thing I thought off. Were TV shows popular prior to high def becoming popular typically shot on 35mm as well? Or were they shot just on 16mm and thus can’t benefit from a Blu Ray release? Or would 16mm transfers to Blu Ray still be better than DVD?
Thanks!
Drew
With TV Shows it can really vary. Depending on when it aired and the studio and such. You could probably look up any shows you have in mind using Google and Wiki if you want.To answer your question; 16mm as you can imagine is not as good 35mm (technically speaking), but still would be better on Blu-ray than DVD. Film can age though, depending on the quality. Film is made better now but everything has a sort of expiration date.
Hey “Supreme”, I was very impressed with your explanation, I always wondered how they did that transfer to Blu-Ray. Thanks so much!
I think $1.50 sounds fair. They gotta allow online reservations though.
If Redbox has the opportunity to resign their new version of kiosks, I hope they add a new disc return slot feature and place it on the side of the kiosk for people who just want to return a DVD without waiting in line…especially behind knuckleheads who want to rent a movie without reserving it online AND want to read every movie description before selecting a movie. This return slot can be relatively simple…maybe just have a small LCD screen that indicates “Your return was successful” or just have a green LED light that indicates that your DVD return was ok.
Waiting times at some kiosks are getting longer and I think adding this feature can help out. Many Redbox kiosks in my area now have 2 side by side machines which is awesome but you have to remember which kiosk you need to pick up from (A or B).
Redbox adding a “continue” button during a return (what cedar1079 mentioned) sounds like they’re improving the software. I hope they update their online reservation system so we can use a promo code during online reservation.
$2 for a blue ray movie is my max price, but $1.50 would be awesome.
Any one know about redbox kiosks that have blue-ray movies in the Northern Virginia area.
Very excited to hear blue-ray movies are already in some redbox kiosks, always was a fan of redbox until I bought a ps3 and now only rent blue-rays for over $5 in BB, cutting that in 75% would be great.
I am a BluRay user but will continue to use Netflix due to its superior selection. I don’t feel like driving to the store. I like it in my mailbox.