The war over high definition DVD formats took a major turn January 4 when Warner Bros. Entertainment announced it will soon be releasing HD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray format. Warner had backed both previously, but has chosen Blu-ray over HD-DVD due to consumer demand. This is a major blow to HD-DVD and looks to be the inevitable demise of the format.
To the consumer, this is good news. The HD format war has kept many people from supporting either. There have only been a few hundred titles released in either format because of this. When all of the studios support just one format, consumer confusion will end and people will be able to buy players and titles with confidence. The demand will perpetuate into many more titles being released. Furthermore, Blu-ray players should drop in price faster now that the focus will be on just one format.
I never favored one format over the other. I am just glad to see one format surging ahead of the other.
Blu-ray is now supported by Warner, 20th Century Fox, Disney, and Sony Pictures. HD-DVD is supported by Paramount and Universal.