Well I guess Netflix was just really bored and wanted to stir the pot a little. They announced that they would be discontinuing user profiles, a very handy feature on their current system. Now all picks will go into a single queue. I know that this feature was the sole reason Scott and myself used Netflix when we lived together (in a totally straight way). It just seems completely pointless to eliminate a feature that is already optional.

I personally stopped my Netflix account after having a copy of Terminator 2 on bluray on my tv stand for probably 4 months but their current customers are sounding off in a fury. Way to go Netflix. Viva Apple TV!

[buzzFeed]

We here at Average Dudes are huge fans of HD movies. If you’re going to sit through hours of some of Hollywood’s worst ideas, they had better at least look and sound fantastic. With the HD format war long gone, the market can now unite behind one format. The problem is that, with one format, there’s no competition which means there’s no motivation to drive prices lower.

Case in point, Netflix has decided that, because Blu-ray discs cost more in retail stores, people won’t mind paying more to rent them. Their bull-shit reasoning after the break. (more…)

You may be sick of our posts about this HD format war, but there’s good news if you are. This will be the last one.

Toshiba announced today their plans to cease all HD DVD hardware production by March, leaving Blu-ray the victor. There had been rumors flying for a while about this announcement and they were all right. The part that a lot of people got wrong was the assertion that Toshiba would begin manufacturing Blu-ray players. During a Q&A session after their press release, they formally said that they had no plans of entering the Blu-ray business. Although just yesterday they said they still hadn’t made up their minds about HD DVD, so obviously what they say and what they’re planning are two very different things.

So that’s it. If you’ve been on the fence waiting to enter the HD disc market, you can now purchase without fear. Just make sure you study up on Blu-ray players because they are not all created equal. In fact, that sounds like a good Dumbass’s Guide to replace our now-defunct Format War one.

Follow the link for the full press release from Toshiba. I’m going to go cry in the bathroom now.

[Engadget]

As I posted earlier, Netflix has decided to go Blu-ray exclusive. As far as I’m concerned, that’s fine. Then I got their e-mail regarding the switch.

The part that gets me is the “In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles…we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.” Yes, because taking things away provides more of a selection.

Our Dumbass’s Guide to the HD Format War is becoming more and more obsolete as the weeks pass. The latest bit of news comes from Reuters. It seems as though Netflix has chosen to support Blu-ray discs exclusively and phase out their HD DVD collection by the end of this year. Sucks for me since I’ve got the XBox 360 HD DVD player and I can’t afford a PS3. Plus I hate Sony for taking away backwards compatibility for PS2 games, but that’s another post altogether.

(Picture courtesy of Gizmodo. Ok I stole it…)

[Reuters via Gizmodo]

Apple has always had a stranglehold on the music industry with their iTunes Store. Their latest target: Hollywood. They upped the ante at this year’s Macworld conference when they introduced movie rentals through the iTunes Store. Users can now rent from a growing collection of movies from all of the major studios on their computers and transfer them to their iPod or iPhone. That alone is pretty cool, but what really makes this a huge deal is Apple’s often overlooked Apple TV and its ability to rent many of those movies in HD. (more…)