Blu-Ray Rentals Blockbuster Blu-Ray Disc Online Rental Resources

Blockbuster Online Blu-Ray Disc Rental

Blockbuster first began offering Blu-ray Discs on its web site, as part of its Total Access program. The web site allows customers to request movies online, which can then be picked up and returned in store or via the mail.

Blockbuster launched a trial run of actually stocking the HD-DVDs and Blu-ray Discs on shelves in about 250 select stores across America. More titles have been gradually added to the in-store collection and Blockbuster expanded their inventory of blu-ray discs in 2007 after watching blu-ray rentals surpass HD DVD rentals. Today, Blu-ray disks are available in over 1,700 Blockbuster store locations.

Blockbuster scored a major coup over competition like Hollywood Video, Movie Gallery and Netflix when it won exclusive rights to rent all movies from The Weinstein Company through 2010.

Blockbuster Blu-Ray/DVD Rental Program Chart

	Blockbuster Total Access
Late Fees	No late Fees
Blu-Ray Selections	500 Blu-Ray Disc Titles See all Blu-Ray titles
DVD Selections	Over 85,000 DVD Titles
Turn-Around Time	1 day turnaround time
Unlimited Blu-Ray/DVD per Month	Unlimited Blu-Ray/DVD Rentals
Delivered to your Mailbox	Yes
Shipping & Postage	Free first-class postage both ways
Return Dates	No return dates
Distribution Centers	23 Distribution Centers in US with 4,500 stores. Blu-ray disks are available in over 1,700 Blockbuster store locations.
Sign-up Today with NO Obligations	BLOCKBUSTER Online Get 50% off your first month

Blockbuster offers in-store exchange option and affordable convenience with a massive selection. As technology continues to advance, subscribers can take advantage of the latest promotions from Blockbuster for maximum value and incredible movie options on blu-ray.

Blockbuster Blu-Ray/DVD Offerings

Blockbuster also has several online DVD rental plans that include Blu-Ray as follows:

Total Access Premium features movies through the mail with free unlimited store exchanges. To rent 3 DVDs at a time the monthly fee is $34.99, for 2 DVDs at a time monthly is $29.99 and for 1 DVD at a time monthly is $21.99.
Total Access(the most popular plan) offers movies through the mail with store exchanges up to the monthly plan limits with 3 DVDs at a time costing $19.99 monthly with up to 5 store exchanges (Try this plan FREE for 2 weeks! ), 2 DVDs at a time costing $16.99 monthly with up to 3 store exchanges and costing $11.99 monthly with up to 2 store exchanges.
Blockbuster By Mail features movies through mail with no store exchanges with 3 DVDs at a time costing $15.99 monthly, for 2 DVDs at a time $13.99 monthly and for 1 DVD at a time $8.99 monthly.
Blockbuster Limited Through Mail program offers 1 DVD at a time with a maximum of 2 per month. For $9.99 monthly you can make 2 exchanges ( Try this plan FREE for 1 Monthl) and for $3.99 monthly you can get 2 DVDs through the mail monthly and return them by mail with no store exchanges.

Blockbuster History

The first Blockbuster video rental store was opened in Dallas, Texas on October 19, 1985 by founder David P. Cook. After starting the business, Cook gave control to CEO Joe Mitchell who made Blockbuster a multi-billion dollar company. In 1994, Blockbuster because a part of Viacom for the price of $8.4 billion. In 2002, Blockbuster expanded their horizons by acquiring the Movie Trading Company and Gamestation to study business models for game trading and DVDs. In 2004, Blockbuster separated from Viacom and introduced DVD subscription rentals online to compete with Netflix. When Blockbuster started the online DVD operation in the United States, they had 10 warehouses and further expansion brought that number to 36 in 2007 with an additional 1400 stores in the online network. In 2006, Blockbuster was accused of throttling by competitor Netflix. Throttling is when a company gives customers who rent the least movies monthly priority selection and shipping. Blockbuster denies throttling though it is permitted according to their terms of service. Netflix also sued Blockbuster for infringement of patent and Blockbuster counter-sued Netflix alleging deceptive practices with their patent to attempt to have an illegal monopoly. By the end of 2006, Blockbuster Online had 1.5 million subscribers and Netflix had 5.6 million subscribers.

Blu-Ray Disc & Blu-Ray Technology

From 8-track tapes to CDs and VHS to DVDs, society has long been on a quest for better sound, better picture and more storage capacity. The improvement and mainstream marketing of computers and the Internet has forced the multimedia industry has become all the more competitive, innovative and demanding.

The latest weapon in the multimedia arsenal is Blu-ray Disc, or BD. The disc is a highly touted successor to the DVD. Some of the foremost benefits of Blu-ray are its durability and remarkable storage capacity, which allows it to hold detailed, high-definition movies on disc.

Blu-ray’s top product, the 12-cm dual-layer Blu-ray Disc, has a storage capacity of up to 50 gigabytes. The 12-cm single-layer Blu-ray Disc can store up to 25 GB. The 8-cm dual-layer Blu-ray Disc has a storage capacity of 15.6 GB, while the 8-cm single-layer Blu-ray Disc can store up to 7.8 GB. To put this in perspective, a 50 GB disc can store up to 9 hours of high-definition video or up to 23 hours of standard definition video.

Blu-ray’s key is that the overall disc houses information in the thinnest possible layers. That is why the company boasts so much storage space on a single disc, but consequentially, the disc was more fragile and susceptible to scratching. Manufacturers met the challenge by creating a top secret formula for a virtually indestructible hard protective coating that has been said to withstand knife jabs and steel wool pad scrub-downs without sacrificing the quality of the movie stored on the disc. This claim has been well-tested and proved by formerly skeptical consumers!

Blu-ray is so named because it uses a violet-blue colored laser to read and inscribe data on the disc, as opposed to the red laser that has always been used for DVDs. The blue laser operates at a shorter wavelength and is able to record more detail. Though consumers will need to purchase new hardware to play the Blu-ray Discs, practically all of the new models will be able to play DVDs as well.

Like CDs and DVDs, blank Blu-ray Disc may be purchased in a read-only format, a recordable format or a rewritable format. The Blu-ray Disc would feature movies and video games in a read-only format that would not have recording capabilities. The BD-R format would allow one-time recording capabilities of movies. The BD-Re would allow consumers to record new material over old material on the same disc repeatedly, much like using VHS cassettes. Also, blu-ray is backed by more film studios than HD DVD including 20th Century, Fox, Sony, Lionsgate and Buena Vista with Paramount and Warner Home Video releasing movies in both formats. Blu-ray discs also have the capacity to store more data and can be played on all Sony Playstation 3 game consoles.