Arizona Star columnist Phil Vilarreal notes that “if you want access to Blu-rays with your Netflix account, expect to pay $4 more per month. That means if you’re like me and subscribe to the 3-discs at a time plan, your monthly cost will shoot up nearly 25 percent, from $16.99 to $20.99. Netflix recently informed customers about the rate hike via e-mail.

“Obviously this is no choice at all for HDphiles who need to feed their PS3s and 50-inch plasmas with the cutting edge of visual technology and see DVDs as repulsive anachronisms, hardly preferable to VHS.”

“But if you’re not entranced by 1080p it would be foolish to consent to the $4 tack-on. Upconverted DVDs look pretty damn good, after all, in 480p. I see this as a move by Netflix to get people to stop asking for Blu-rays and thus justify no longer having to carry them.”