Holy Sh!t, and Other Musings

Well, I go away for a month and a half, and the whole damn format war nearly ends itself before I have a chance to make commentary! I know a lot of format war followers like to make reference to 'dominoes falling' when referring to successive blows between Blu-ray and HD DVD, but damn, Blu-ray has taken a leaf blower to HD DVD's stack of dominoes.

After Warner Bros. shift to Blu exclusivity was announced, it sent a ripple outward through the entertainment industry. Below is a list of developments which have occurred since the Warnerbomb:

2008-01-04: Warner announce they goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-08: New Line goes Blu-ray exclusive. 2008-01-09: HBO goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-11: Constantin Film goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-14: Digital Playground said they might go Blu-ray exclusive during 2008.
2008-01-16: Senator Home Entertainment goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-20: R&B Films goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-21: Trans World, one retailer with more than 800 stores starts to make more room for Blu-ray
2008-01-22: Grant's Appliances, one of the top 30 electronics retailers in the US, goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-24: SF Film goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-24: Scanbox goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-28: Woolworths, one of the bigger retailers in UK with 820 shops, goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-28: FS-Film have gone Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-30: National Geographic have gone Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-30: Sonic Solutions goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-01-31: Surround Records, former HD-DVD exclusive distributor, goes dual-support.
2008-02-01: Imation stops makeing HD-DVD-R/RW media and goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-02-04: BAC Films goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-02-04: Manga Films goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-02-05: OVA Films goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-02-07: Filmmax goes Blu-ray exclusive.
2008-02-11: Netflix goes Blu-ray exclusive. 2008-02-11: Best Buy, the number one retailer of high def media in the US announces that they will only promote, and heavily favor Blu-ray in their stores.
2008-02-12: Spanish film distributor Tripictures goes Blu-ray exlusive
2008-02-12: Scandinavian retailer Hi-Fi Klubben goes Blu-ray exclusive
2008-02-14: Spanish distributor Cameo goes Blu-ray exclusive
2008-02-14: Former HD DVD exclusive indie film company Opus Arte announces support for Blu-ray

I bolded some of the big ones. As you can see, things have begun picking up pace, and barely a day goes by at this point where some announcement of exclusivity or support isn't announced.

Since Warnerbomb, HD DVD has suffered a series of embarrassing losses in both software and hardware. They immediately slashed prices of all HD DVD players in the hopes that it would stimulate their drowning format, but the plan failed. Even with HD DVD players selling for as cheap as $150, the latest numbers for the week of February 10th show Blu-ray grabbed 65% of the stand-alone player market (The week after Warnerbomb Blu sold 85% of all HD players), and this is EXCLUDING the Playstation 3, which by the way outsold the Xbox360 last week in the US.

Aside from 2 weeks ago when HD DVD software had 26% share (fueled by a massive Amazon HD DVD software clearance....er sale) against Blu-ray's 74%, Blu has been in the 80%+ range of all HD software sold since the Warner bomb.

The latest developments came earlier in the week when HD DVD was hit hard in both nuts by Netflix and BestBuy. Netflix, the worlds number one online rental service announced they are going Blu-ray exclusive. Within hours, BestBuy, the number one HD media/hardware seller in the United States announced that their intentions were to heavily promote and recommend Blu-ray as the official HD media of choice in their stores. I truly think the only reason they didn't just come out and say 'exclusive' is because they want to sell through their remaining HD DVD stock before they give them the boot. BestBuy has favored Blu-ray for quite some time, so a press release to re-iterate that fact would be stupid. I think they basically wanted to make their stance official and help to speed along the adoption of Blu-ray without alienating current HD DVD shoppers at their stores.

So now, the industry is standing on one side of the line, impatiently looking at Universal and Paramount who are staring questionably at Toshiba, wondering what to do.
I honestly think this whole HD format battle will be completely over by the summer at the latest.

The latest rumor (From a reliable source no less) is that Toshiba plans to announce HD DVD as a non-viable technology within weeks and halt production. This would free Paramount and Universal from any contractual obligations they may have been toshiba'd into and allow them to join Team Blu (aka: The rest of the entertainment and consumer electronics industry)

Article: Toshiba to drop HD DVD, sources say

In other news. I've been low-carbin' it for about 3 weeks now. All is going well. Lots of pork rinds. Oh the pork rinds, and meat. Cheese. More meat. Yeah.