If you haven't heard the news yet, Warner Bros. just announced it is going Blu-ray exclusive in the HD format war. As the biggest publisher of movies on DVD, this is huge news for Blu-ray and a major blow to HD-DVD. Just as Obama points to his caucus win in Iowa as the defining moment in his campaign for presidency, this will widely be looked at as the move that finally sets us on a path for a single HD format future. Blu-ray consistently dominated in sales last year, yet the exclusivity arrangements by Toshiba and/or Microsoft just prolonged the inevitable (and in the case of Microsoft, it was for ulterior motives anyway). This should, once and for all, motivate the entire industry to go Blu (including Paramount, once it fulfills its shortsighted obligations to HD DVD).



I, for one, am thrilled. Partly, because I have a Blu-ray player by default in my PS3 and I'm stoked not to have to buy another machine and/or add-on to watch HD movies, but mainly because I was getting so utterly fed up with the format war. You may remember my post early last year about being annoyed that I couldn't get my favorite movie of 2006 (Children of Men) on Blu-ray. I can't wait for the day for this sort of thing to be over with. It's frustrating to the consumer and is holding back the HD format (just speaking with Patrick about this, he mentioned that he held off entirely from buying any HD movies until there was an assured format -- now he feels he can finally go ahead and buy some).

Anyway, it's not as if this is the immediate end for HD-DVD -- Warner will still release movies on the format until May, and other studios still have lots coming (not to mention that there will likely be lots of great deals in the year to come!). But I am very much looking forward to the format war being over. HD is becoming standard and the movie industry needs to move forward.


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