HD DVD vs Blu-ray: The Endgame

The last week has seen multiple nails added to the HD DVD coffin, with official price drops, extended Amazon clearance sales, and both Netflix and Best Buy announcing they have made the decision to back Blu-ray as the HD format of choice. Read on for a brief history of the HD format war, recent developments, our advice to consumers, and more bargains.

A Brief History

June 17, 2007 - Blockbuster announce they will exclusively stock Blu-ray in it's second HD rollout of 1,450 stores. The 250 stores in their initial HD trial will be the only Blockbuster stores to continue stocking HD DVD.

August 20, 2007 - Paramount and DreamWorks announce they will release exclusively on HD DVD. Prior to this date, Blu-ray held 88% of studio support, although this figure includes non-exclusive releases from Warner and Paramount.

January 4, 2008 - Warner Bros. announce they will release exclusively on Blu-ray as of June 1 this year. They also revealed plans to begin releasing HD DVD movies three weeks later than their DVD and Blu-ray counterparts, and have scheduled all of their current HD DVD exclusives as Blu-ray releases for later in 2008. This switch put 70% of Hollywood's movies on Blu-ray, and paved the way for Paramount to switch to Blu-ray - a clause in their agreement with Toshiba allowed them to release Blu-ray movies if Warner Bros. dropped their support of the HD DVD format.

January 10, 2008 - Universal Studios' contractual HD DVD exclusivity expires.

Recent Developments

Both Universal and Paramount have recently issued remarkably similar statements regarding their alliance with HD DVD - "[Universal's/Paramount's] current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format" - although given the vague wording, there is little to be determined from the statements - support for HD DVD doesn't mean exclusive support, and what about their future plan?

US big box retailer Best Buy has announced that their stores will predominantly stock Blu-ray movies as of early March, and recommend Blu-ray as the HD format of choice to un-savvy customers.

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