I think that Walmart backing HDDVD is a little more than rumor. They had Chinese manufacturers bid on making 2 million HDDVD players for them so that they could sell them for $200 each. Apparently there was a winning bidder but Walmart is trying to keep it quiet.
http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blockbuster-stores-choose-blu-ray.htmlHomedad: You can rent both formats at Netflix. Netflix seems to carry almost every release of both Hi-Def formats. I don't think that they charge any more money to rent the Hi-Def formats but I could be wrong. It doesn't get better than renting at least 3 movies per week and having them sent right to the mailbox for around $20 per month.
Since we are talking about Blockbuster, please do not support these scumbags. Several years ago they took over the business of pay per view movies on the satellite TV (they probably also do the pay per view movies on cable). The rentals used to be around $2 per movie. As soon as Blockbuster started running the pay per view they jacked up the prices to $3 or $4 dollars per movie. This is the same ridiculous price that they charge for rentals at their store. Many times you can buy dvd's for around $5 if you look for the ones on sale in the Best Buy ads for example. I got a copy of Batman Begins for $6 from Best Buy about six months after it was released on DVD. For the past few years now, Blockbuster has been trying to run Netflix out of business. If that ever happens then they will just jack up the prices again since there wouldn't be any competition and people are willing to pay such unreasonable prices for rentals.
- Nick