Gizmodo: netflix blu-ray

Netflix Streaming Gets Ever Cheaper, Comes to $180 Blu-Ray Player

Dan Nosowitz — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:20:00 EDT

Netflix is taking over the world, bit by bit: First it gets beautifully integrated with Windows 7 Media Center, and now it comes to Insignia's dirt-cheap Blu-Ray decks. $180 for a Netflix-connected Blu-Ray player isn't anything to sneeze at.

Insignia, Best Buy's house brand, offers the NS-BRDVD3 at $180, with the NS-WBRDVD adding Wi-Fi to the mix for $20 more (seems worth the upgrade to us). All it takes is a firmware upgrade and you can start streaming Netflix. It's great to see Netflix invading our homes, one gadget at a time. Here's hoping smartphones are next! [Netflix via Engadget]

Netflix Charging $1 More to Blu-ray Renters

Mark Wilson — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:38:00 EDT

We knew this day would come, but Netflix has just notified their customers that a new fee will be applied to Blu-ray renting accounts. But it's not all bad news. The price increase is only a buck a month for unlimited Blu-ray rentals. Given that a Blu-ray purchase sticker price is often 30% or more expensive than its DVD counterpart, this increase seems within reason...to me at least. [Thanks tipsters!]

Netflix to Jack Up Prices For Blu-ray Renters

Jason Chen — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:15:00 EDT

What's the best way to punish the same early adopter customers that helped make your service a success in the first place? If you're Netflix, it's charging them extra for renting Blu-ray. CEO Reed Hastings justifies this action by saying "consumers are used to paying more for high-definition," basically punching this next generation of early adopters in the nads for doing what they love to do.

We're not sure how many Blu-ray rentals you need to have before you qualify for the higher-priced membership (or if you need to pay up before you even rent one), but this is undoubtedly a limited time deal. We can't imagine Netflix will keep charging people more once 25-50% of their customer base starts renting Blu-ray movies.

Will Blockbuster follow? We hope not. For their sake as much as ours. [Alley Insider via Marketwatch via CNET]