Yes HD DVD may be a dead format now and yes I do have a Blu-ray player courtesy of my Sony PlayStation 3 console, but when there are so many HD DVD bargains luring me in, how can I ignore the format completely?

I entered the HD DVD realm by purchasing the Xbox 360 add on when it first launched in the United Kingdom. In fact I believe that was the first accessory I have ever pre-ordered! After collecting quite a few high definition disks in the format, imagine my reaction when Toshiba ended the war. Hardly a surprise after the Warner move, however there are still hundreds of disks available in glorious 1080p resolution to be found at rock bottom prices.

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After weeks of speculation, Toshiba has finally announced that it is now the time to pull the plug on the HD DVD format:

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

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With the news that Warner and their subsidiaries are exclusively supporting Blu-ray, shock waves have been rushing through, no not quite the consumer, no not quite the retailers either, but instead the Internet media it would seem.

Certain articles appearing are panicking that Blu-ray isn’t quite the wonderful format that it was 5 minutes ago, just before the Warner announcement and that we should now prepare for a blue letter day.

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If there was going to be one item in the news that could cause my temperature to rise in 2008, it was this. Warner has announced that from June 2008, it will no longer release any HD DVD disks from its vast catalogue of titles and instead use Blu-ray for high definition movie releases.

As you know from an earlier post, I was someone rooting for HD DVD to win this format war, but this seems like a distant dream now with this latest revelation.

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Now before people start seeing through angry red eyes, this is just ‘my’ personal opinion and should be taken as such! I have been following the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray for months now and although I am not an expert who delves into every last statistic, I have certainly come to appreciate the two new technologies released. Having a format war of any kind doesn’t help anyone (although it may lower stand alone players prices, which way do you swing?) unless you have the cash to purchase a dual format player or two separate stand alone player units of each format, which the mainstream consumer isn’t going to really consider as a viable alternative to standard DVD.

The war has also created its own set of fanboys on each side, stating every rumour, quote and statistic they can grab their sweaty hands on, but what are my thoughts on this sorry mess? Well lets not get into the usual picture and audio quality issue as I am sure most people realise that they are virtually indistinguishable from each other. Yes there are differences, but not enough to make any typical movie purchaser flinch before investing in a copy in either format…

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