Follow Up: Wal-Mart Delivers HD DVD Gigantic Kick in the Toshiballs

This is a follow up to yesterdays post, and this one is a HUGE kick in the Toshiballs for HD DVD.
In the course of this week, Netflix goes Blu-ray exclusive, Best Buy announces official Blu-ray endorsement and promotion, and now......

WALMART has stated that they are going Blu-ray exclusive. It's over folks.

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.

God Bless Michael Bay

So, I spent the better part of this weekend glued to the computer. Bad, I know, but after the Warner news and with CES 2008 firing up, I couldn't help myself. It was like my fix I desperately needed to survive.
Anyway, Michael Bay has been an outspoken proponent of Blu-Ray for quite some time, and he was none to happy when Pay-amount Pictures dropped Blu, as he insisted that it affected the quality of his Transformers release when it had to be fit onto a lower bandwidth/lower capacity HD DVD with no BD option.

This is his latest ranting, and I find it hilarious! Enjoy.

"I know the look, color, and sounds on my own movies better they anyone in the world. I color-time every single image, and am there for every single audio tweak. I see my films in the editing and final process no less then a 100 times. I know ever single nuance. For some dick wads on these posts who think I can't make an informed choice on what format in the end, has the truer results for my own films. Well you where to shove.... My films finished in Blu-Ray are better - more true. Hd is better than DVD, but just not as good as Blu-Ray. So buying a Transformers Hd is still the best you will see this movie as of today. But when Paramount caves for Blu-Ray in the future - This will happen, then you will see Transformers one day finished in Blu-Ray and I will sure be able to tell the difference. Bay"

Warner Brothers: We're Blu, and So Can You!

Sorry, Stephen Colbert for sort of ripping of your book name in this thread title.
I had kind of decided to avoid rantings about the High Def format war, since I know it may not be of supreme interest to some of you, like it is for me.
I feel compelled today though, to make an exception. Warner Brothers, the last major Neutral content provider for Blu-Ray and HD DVD has announced their exclusive support for Blu-Ray. WB holds approximately 20% of all films under their brand, and this effectively gives Blu-Ray exclusive access to 70% of all films. Reports are buzzing around the internet calling this the final death-blow for HD DVD, and I truly believe it is, barring some sinister scheme from Microsoft, though I think it would be too little, too late. Warner, not being douche hats like Paramount will be honoring their previously announced titles and winding down support for HD DVD as of May 31st, though until exclusive support kicks in June 1st, they will be releasing those HD DVD titles after the day-and-date release of the DVD and Blu-Ray versions of those films.
This news must've caught Toshiba and the HD DVD Promotions Group off guard, as they have canceled their much anticipated 2 hour HD DVD extravaganza this coming Sunday which was the prelude to CES 2008 which begins Monday. Ouch!
The last 2 hold-outs in ending the format war are Universal Pictures, who has been HD DVD exclusive since the start, and Paramount, which went HD DVD exclusive due to 'financial incentives upwards of $150 million' last summer. Many are predicting that Universal may follow shortly behind Universal in joining Blu-Ray, at least in dual-format support if nothing else.
Unless Payamount Pictures has some built in escape clause, they will be standing all alone holding a bag of shit until 2009.
I'm personally excited that it seems like this whole damn format thing has reached a turning point and may be ending rather swiftly.
Long live Blu!

Unspecified

Christmas came and went. New Years came and went. All of it seemed to come and go so fast, as it seems most anything does anymore. I really enjoyed our little friends Christmas get-together. My family Christmas celebration was the weekend after Christmas and really helped to solidify the coming and going of the holidays. No matter how many other other get-togethers or parties, it just seems unofficial without time with the family. I seemed to connect with all of them a lot more than I generally do, which was kind of cool. I guess it means I'm growing up, though I thought I already did that. Eh.
My new years resolution, of course, is to lose this "lazy + junk food + quitting smoking" excess flab I seem to have amassed over the course of 2007. It really affects me on so many levels and I really need to take steps to get myself healthy. I guess to do that, I need to put the bowflex thats been sitting there like a pile of rubble together and buy something besides double quarter pounders.
I'm going to put together a low-carb shopping list and try to force myself to get the bowflex back into a functioning thing. My out of shapeness is starting to make me depressed. I think it has been for quite some time, but I've been suppressing it.

On a non-shitty non-depressing note, I found this video on Youtube. Please only watch if you're a fan of Star Trek: Voyager. This vid won best music video compilation at the official Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in 2007, and it is clips from Voyager matched up perfectly and beautifully with the words and meaning of the song. It's about Janeway wanting to save/protect Voyager.