Last week, the ongoing next-generation DVD format war took a portentous turn when Warner Bros. announced that it was pulling support for HD DVD in order to exclusively support Blu-ray. The news was quickly followed up by a rumor--since denied--that Paramount, too, was dropping HD DVD. But the HD DVD camp cancelled a long-planned press event at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, leading many to predict that the format wars were essentially over, with HD DVD the loser.

Those rumors were bolstered this week when primary HD DVD backer Toshiba announced stunning price reductions on all its HD DVD hardware players. Its low-end player, the HD-A3, dropped from $300 to $150 overnight, and the mid-line HD-A30 also dropped 50 percent, from $400 to $200. The high-end HD-A35 player dropped from $500 to $300. Blu-ray players, already more expensive than the HD DVD competition, start at a little under $300.

Toshiba's aggressive price cuts were no doubt intended to drive consumer interest in the format. But it might have had the opposite effect: Analysts feel the move was one of desperation, signaling to consumers that HD DVD is a losing effort.

To be fair, however, neither HD DVD nor Blu-ray is doing particularly well in the market. Only one million standalone next-generation DVD players were purchased in the United States through the end of 2007, and most of those (about 580,000 units) were HD DVD, not Blu-ray. (However, Sony sold 3.4 million Blu-ray equipped PlayStation 3 video game consoles as well, skewing the results wildly in Blu-ray's favor.) Content is a problem too: Although just 400 movies are available in HD DVD and Blu-ray, there are hundreds of thousands of standard DVD movies to choose from.

The biggest concern here, really, is industry support. Right now, five major movie studios--Columbia, Disney, Fox, Sony, and Warner Bros.--support Blu-ray. But only two major studios--Paramount and Universal--support HD DVD. On the rental front, Blockbuster and Netflix offer both formats, but Blockbuster reports that 70 percent of HD rentals are in the Blu-ray format. And one other factor could help drive industry support toward Blu-ray: Consumers who own Blu-ray devices tend to purchase twice as many HD discs per player as do HD DVD users.

At this point, there's no clear winner, and many companies, including Apple and Microsoft, seem to be emphasizing digital downloads over HD disc formats. Furthermore, on-demand HD rentals from cable companies will help ensure that these formats are never as pervasive as DVD. If you're looking for a real winner in this battle, it might be time to look beyond physical media.

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Fox is dumping Blu-Ray and picking up HD-DVD. insider1 -January 18, 2008 I just want a winner so I can start buying next generation DVDs. As far as I can tell it's Blu-Ray. The next generation "downloading" isn't here yet. And I would prefer a physical product...tangible product with artwork, than a download anyway. Unless they are DRM-free. I would think the movie industry would prefer discs too. LB -January 18, 2008 The new HD DVD pricing is in addition to a new aggressive marketing campaign. This is not a fire sale to clear inventory, this is an aggressive attempt to gain market-share. Also, there are some rumors surfacing that some studios are looking to start supporting HD DVD and the new price points are part of an effort to “woo” them over. It’s not over yet. Mark -January 18, 2008 >Also, there are some rumors surfacing that some studios are looking to start >supporting HD DVD and the new price points are part of an effort to “woo” ?>them over. Wonder how the RUMORS started. Here is your hint. EM -January 18, 2008 Digital HD downloads is still a way off... and when it does arrive, i dont think it'll completely kill off the physical media. Look at music, sure a lot of music is now bought and downloaded online, but CDs are still here and selling. It's good to see that the format wars are starting to come to an end. If Blu-Ray wants to counter attack Toshiba's price cut, they should do the same and cut their prices.... that'll kill off HD DVD for sure! Shingo -January 18, 2008 Fox has explicitly stated they have no intention of supporting HD DVD. They are huge on BD+ which HD DVD does not have. Mark sounds like a Toshiba rep. "aggressive attempt to gain marketshare" and "desperate attempt" are the same thing. No studio would be stupid enough to start supporting HD DVD or stop supporting Blu-ray. It would kill off both formats. One insider at AVrevolution is saying Universal and Paramount gave Toshiba 4 weeks to turn things around or they're out. This insider is an HD DVD supporter as well so it's not a BD fanboy. Steve -January 18, 2008 I heard Fox was going to add HD-DVD, but not dump Blu-Ray. We'll see. MR HiDef -January 18, 2008 hd dvd player + 7 hd dvd. All for only $129 at amazon.com what do you want more...this is the best. chester -January 18, 2008 I don't get why just have 2 formats? In the videogamer wasteland we have wii, ps3, and xbox versions of most every title, why not Blu and HD DVD together too? It's annoying that people on both issues claim "new or inside information" when it's nothing more than unproven gossip. John -January 19, 2008 HD-DVD's only chance of surviving was to have been incorporated into XBox a year ago. It didn't happen and so HD-DVD didn't happen. All HD-DVD owners should thank Microsoft's lack of vision for HD-DVD's failure. superdynamite -January 20, 2008 Wanna turn the tide? Give all the XBOX owners the player for free! HDDVD=great product, POORLY marketed! Time will tell if Microsoft will let their "child" wither and perish. shawn dechaney -January 20, 2008 iSofter DVD Ripper Platinum software is truly a effect solution for all your DVD burning needs. This DVD copying software is a one-click DVD backup tool with great features and its Free to Download. If you're in the market for an advanced DVD backup software with loads of features and burning options, look no further, this is truly a feature-rich product, and certainly one of the best of its kind. iSofter DVD Ripper Platinum is an all in one tool that aims at converting your DVDs into different video formats compatible with the portable video playing devices on the market. The application will turn your DVDs into M4A, MP4, MPG, AVI, Mp3, WMA, WMV and 3GP. The audio formats included in the supported list prove that DVD Ripper Platinum is also able to extract audio files from the DVD you are feeding. iSofter DVD Ripper Platinum is design for backup your favorite DVD movie to your computer by converting DVD to AVI, DivX, XviD, VCD, WMV, MPEG4 format video files, with almost same quality, but just only 10% size. http://www.isofter.com http://www.isofter.com/dvd-ripper.html steveking -September 19, 2008 Proper Reggea Spastic Mr Boom Bastic -February 9, 2010 READER COMMENTS: We want to hear what you have to say about this article!     Acceptable Use Policy Your Comments (required): Your email is only used if our editors need to contact you. It is not used or stored for any other purpose, nor posted with your comments. Enter the text from the image below Please refresh the page if you have trouble reading this text.