In the past year or so, I only buy DVD's from CH and the DDD 20% off sales. I was wondering what everyone thinks about CH integrating HD-DVD into the club, or even creating a club all on its own. Has there been any discussions on this topic. It would be an important sticking point for me in deciding when/if I should upgrade my technology.

I've always thought that they would eventually have such a club, they had an LD club back in the day and that was really a niche market, so why not?

Nah, they're gonna be too expensive. There's no Criterion club.

probally a separate club at first and will become the main club when dvd club is evidently fazed out just liked the vhs club was. my guess time frame would be be within 5 years.

Perhaps neither HD-DVD or Blu-Ray will be very popular. The high definition audio formats, DVD-A and SACD, have gone over like the proverbial lead balloon. I think vinyl outsells DVD-A in terms of number of units.

In addition, we have the prospect of a format war -- which is going to win VHS or Beta? HD-DVD or Blu-Ray? Most people won't want to buy a player in a format that won't survive.

My thinking is that the club might offer a few HD titles, but it might be a long wait to see a wide selection.

They don't have Fox/Disney/etc now (anymore) with DVD being as old as it is now, I seriously doubt they're going to have Blu-Ray or HD-DVD anytime soon after it comes out..

The fact that Fox and Disney won't let Columbia House carry their DVDs isn't really germane to the issue of whether they will sell HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs.

As I understand it, Sony owns BMG which owns Columbia House. So, I'll make a wild-eyed prediction that CH will sell Blu-ray discs but not HD-DVD.

true, but it's a format that's been out for quite sometime, that almost everybody buys, and if they carried fox & disney, they'd sell as much as any other.. why because it's a new format, that will take time to build up, would they stock carry right away? (i'm not saying they won't at some point, but I don't think anytime soon) ..What I'm trying to say now is, if they don't carry "all dvds" now, why would they carry a "new" format when they don't even carry all of the "old one"

and as far as Sony owning BMG which owns CH .. While that maybe true, one thing may not mean anything as far as the other.. Companies that own each other or have similar things with regards as to the overall business don't always communicate/work together as far as diff departments..

I guess we'll all have to wait and see...

Columbia House does carry most of the DVDs from the studios that are willing to play ball with them. My guess is that they would want to sell the new HD format(s) because they want to get in on the new thing early and because the opportunities for profit will be greater. Notice how DVD prices and margins have dropped as the format became well entrenched. We used to average $9.28 per DVD at CH and considered that good. Now we average in the $4.15 to $5.86 range. I am inclined to believe that there were greater profit margins for DVD sellers a few years ago when the format was new.

Perhaps. But Sony might feel the pressure in the current format war and put restrictions on its Columbia House unit.

Indeed. I am curious to see how it all shakes out.

I thought the lack of Disney and Fox was specifically because those studios wish to have their own "clubs" (Disney Movie Club and FoxStore, respectively) and didn't want to help out their competitor, CH.

We still might not see Fox or Disney next-gen titles, but I would guess (pure speculation) that CH will get involved in the next-gen formats. The absence of Disney and Fox don't seem to mean much to me about their future in next-gen discs.

Obviously since CH doesnt have Sony TV titles (how stupid is that).

This is so not true. DVD-A and SACD failed because CD has been good enough, more than enough to average consumers. (And CD IS high definition). While DVD is pitiful compared to HD-DVD/Blue-Ray. 720x480 resolution can hardly be called hi-fi. With big-screen TV/projectors getting popular, HD-DVD will be the eventual replacement of DVD.

The reason I'm still buying DVD now is it's so cheap thru Columbiahouse. And also some arthouse/indie titles would take years for future HD release to catch up.