Some wholesalers and smaller rental outlets are reporting they often receive their shipments of both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD movie titles several days later than the same titles' standard DVD shipment dates.
Such a dilemma can prove costly for wholesalers who often are expected to foot the bill on extra expenses for freight shipping in order to get HD discs to clients overnight, or at least within 48 hours. Some retail rental outlets said they are unable to place HD titles on store shelves alongside standard disc offerings for several days after their official release dates, according to Video Business.
Relative small rental outlets are the victims of most of the delays, since larger retailers like Blockbuster and Video Warehouse usually skip wholesalers altogether and deal directly with the major studios. With most release dates falling on a Tuesday, the smaller guys say they usually receive shipments of the HD titles by the following weekend after the release day, which is not yet posing any major problems, since sales of next-gen discs still represent a very small percentage of overall DVD sales.
