I'd hold off on picking a winner for now. Check this out from DVDTown:

Blu-ray backer 20th Century Fox and MGM haven't released or announced new releases since April 24th.

We found this strange since 20th Century Fox has been one of the loudest (right after Sony) Blu-ray advocates.

Rumors say that the company got scared when they saw how easy it was to make copies of the "practically unbreakable" copy protected Blu-ray format.

Money talks, and if HD-DVD is more secure, they're a better bet to win the war. Like you, hope this ends soon.

While Blu-ray currently is the safer bet, HD DVD is far from dead.

HD DVD still has cheaper players (plus they are terrific at upconverting DVDs on your HDtv) and the library of disks it not being outpaced as Steve says. Today alone (June 26) 14 new HD DVD movies are being release compared to 2 Blu-ray releases. July 2 has 3 HD DVD releases and 4 Blu-ray. July 9th has 5 HD DVD release and 1 Blu-ray.

As of last week, Blockbuster Canada will not be following their US counterparts lead. They will continue to stock both formats in 125 stores across Canada. And Blockbuster USA is not abandoning HD DVD... it will still be available online and in the initial 150 test stores. And should HD DVD rentals pick up they've said they'll stock them.

For those that want HD movies, but don't want another "Beta" player in their home, buy the HD movie channels from your cable or sat provider. And watch both formats carefully this holiday season... both sides will be going hard for your hard earned dollar.

It's WAY too early to declare a winner. To quote an article from the Financial Post... Richard Anderson, chief executive of Canadian online rental service Zip.ca, said Blockbuster was indeed trying to pick sides before consumers had picked a winner.

"The format fight will only end when the two sides reach agreement, or when consumers have voted with their dollars," he said. "As yet, there is no clear evidence that consumers are picking one format over the other."

Over the past month, 56% of next-generation rentals at Zip were HD-DVD versus 44% for Blu-ray, he said.

"This is not yet resolved, no matter how much you, we and Blockbuster all wish it was."


On the hardware side, the Blu-ray Disc camp has put players on the market before their interactive features have been finalized. Since launch, all HD DVD players have interactive features that work. As features are added, the firmware can be easily updated on HD DVD, ensuring future compatability as studios add content to their releases. The Matrix Trilogy is ONLY available on HD DVD because the interactive features aren't finalized for Blu-ray. These titles won't be released on Blu-ray until BD-java is finalized (when will that actually be?). On July 3rd Blood Diamond is being released on both formats. The HD DVD title will be the first and only hi-def disc to offer extra content downloadable from the web when the player is connected through its ethernet port to a live internet feed. "300" launches July 31st also with extensive interactive downloadable content. The cool factor is huge and a big advantage that HD DVD will enjoy over Blu-ray.

It's also very interesting that the first company to have Blu-ray players on the market last year (Samsung) has announced that they'll produce an HD DVD player this fall (a combo full HD DVD / BD unit - pricing to be determined). The current LG combo unit that's on the market doesn't really count as it doesn't do any of the HD DVD enhancements except simply play the disc and is priced way higher than the better alternative of buying an HD DVD player and a PS3 to get both formats.

The final point is value. HD DVD has it, Blu-ray doesn't, when you look at price points and what each platform actually delivers for features and functionality. In all previous "format wars" the more affordable format has always prevailed! It will be a long time before a definitive "winner" is declared, despite all the hyperbole coming from the Blu-ray Disc camp recently.

The big winner will be digital distribution. Music is heading that way already and video won't be far behind.

Both formats were absurd to begin with. Any chump can use WMV-HD (720P) to encode a 2-4 hour movie and have it fit on a dual layer DVD with room to spare.

HDDVD/blu-ray have always been about delivering new forms of content restriction. Studios are realizing that the new encryption has been broken so even that reasoning is moot.

From what I see, and from my point of view, Blu-Ray has been the winner right from the start. With the PS3 supporting Blu-Ray and from a computer user's point of view the Blu-Ray disc does hold more data then HD-DVD. So like the Beta and VHS war the VHS won partly, or mostly, because of it's ability to hold more content. For this reason alone Blu-Ray has already won.

Is this guy on the Sony payroll? There's NOTHING to suggest there's any clear winner at this point. Maybe he's just trying to hawk his PS3 that no one wants.

Blu-Ray has the support of more Studios and Hardware vendors, The major stakeholders in Blu-Ray echo the major players in the CE Industry

The copy protection that was broken AACS I believe was implemented in both HD and BD. Fortunatly BD also has a secondary protection that can be utilized where HD does not.

Fox Re-Scheduled their releases in part to BD changing the codex's. Fox still intends to support BD which they have stated publically

"Anyone can encode a 720P 2-3 hour movie on Dual Layer DVD" This statement does not take into account Video Quality or audio in terms of a lossles presentation. We all know that you can fit it but at what cost. Dumb statement

I have both BD and HD and I have to say that I hope BD wins out. Microsoft - the main backer of HD has said publically they do not care about HD as a delivery media and that they would prefer downloads through XboxLive.

The true test in this format war is not rentals but rather sales (the user base is way to small to guage that way) BD on a month to month and ytd basis is beating HD by a margin of almost 3-1. The only way this format war will end is when the 2 hold out HD only studios announce releases on BD and I hope it happens soon!

I personally like having a disc or something tangable in my hands if I am going to spend money on it and if microsoft has it's way we will all be downloading and dealing with Microsoft as a content provider and MS will dictate DRM to the masses. (keep in mind HD's biggest supporter is MS)

Kevin

BOTH FORMATS ARE LOSERS! More disc-based media? WOO exciting!! What a waste of time.
Digital Distribution all the way! HD and Blu-Ray are completely underwhelming, will be inconvenient to record on, are still of a limited capacity, still require loading waits, and would still occupy physical space in my living room.
A needless step in media evolution that will/should not catch on.

Well, my two cents worth are this...

I work in the audio video sales world and see only one thing. HD-DVD.

One of the major issues surrounding this is the lack of playability on the Blu-Ray. This thing is not only big and bulky, expensive as all get out, but it doesn't play a lot of disk types that consumers are looking for. It doesn't play CDs, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3s, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, SACD, DVD Audio, or anything elses I might have missed. It only plays DVDs and BD DVD. (Don't believe me, ask to see the owners manual for one of these things.) At 1300 a pop, not many people have that deep of a pocket book to buy a dedicated DVD Player. In these times people are looking for versatility, stability, and value.

Besides, the people/firm that work on the digital standards, the same one that desided on the final CD and DVD standards, has already taken the HD DVD side as the ONE. WWW.DVDFORUM.COM

Even with the next gen of BD, even at 699 it is still too high of a price tag for users.

Even the PS3 at the same price is nice, but the player wasn't meant to be a movie player, it was meant to be an occasional player. The frequency at which the laser pickups work are more intense on a PS3 than a BDPS1. So you might actually damage disks with prolonged use... from the mouth of a senior sony rep. Seems awfully coincidental that the PS3 doesn't play all PS1 and PS2 games as they had originally promised. Might have something to do with the disk format....HAHAHA.

As for you guys wanting the digital distribution, you are the same hackers and downloaders the police should be all over with your pirated this that and the other. It will happen, granted, but it will be a long time before they do it right!

HD does have a fight on theiir hands, but they will prevail, they have been doing it correctly all this time.

Love it or hate it... its gonna happen

Two more cents worth.
I am an HD-DVD supporter myself since last year. If BD wins, which it may or may not, I will not support either formats. I am tired of Sony pushing their proprietary formats down our throats. I notice that most of the smoke and mirrors tactics seem to be coming from Sony in this format war and I feel they are still trying to get the Betamax monkey off their backs, which can end up being more of a curse for them. Technically they are the same with the exception of the capacity, which in my opinion is mute since they both have more than enough capacity to hold the HD content. This will only matter for consumers who wish to use it as recordable media, which is a different market entirely in my view.

In my observations I find the store shelves have more BD titles on the shelves because they have been sitting there longer. I try to find new HD-DVD releases the day they come out and they are always gone in minutes while BD new releases are still available. I also refuse to be forced to download my content as I don’t want to use my computer as a media station and nor should I be forced to. I like having my movies on a media I can take anywhere and not need to be connected online to watch anything.

Bottom line, if the studios want my money they need to sell me what I want, not what they want. Buying/renting movies used to be a pleasure but now I find the whole thing is starting to turn me off.

This article just goes to show how a little information and not too much brains can be a deadly combination. Only an idiot would loudly proclaim HD-DVD as done.

First, the facts. HD-DVD has close to the same number of titles as Blu-Ray, even some blockbusters like Matrix and Batman Begins that aren't on the competitor. HD-DVD has sold MORE standalone players than Blu-Ray and Toshiba has recently begun aggressive pricing and promotion. Blu-Ray only enjoys it's edge due to the initial craze over PS3 - but PS3's bloom is now gone, and in fact PS3 is lagging and fading fast - and so may Blu-Ray's fortunes.

Porn has stated it's adoption of HD-DVD, a huge boost. Blu-Ray is well behind HD-DVD in interactivity. the recent A-Box HD-DVD addon will give HD-DVD a huge boost as that console continues to outpace PS3.

The wind is out of Blu-Ray's sails and moving in HD-DVD's direction. You may want to check the weather forecast more often.

Both DVD and HD are backwards compatable as both imploy dual laser pickups. so yes you can play everything you have.

PS1 and PS2 games are not incompatable with the BD player based on the media type.

At this point BOth BD and HD are propritary.

HD is loosing a bus load of money by discounting their drives as they are being subsidised by Microsoft. HD Players have always been cheeper and this has not helped sales of HD at all and now BD players are comming with only a small premium over HD players

I have no Idea how people who claim to be in the industry have such a lack of actual knowledge about the technology they are commenting on.

Reflective technologies are not effected by the strength of the laser so BD and HD disc life are no different

HD-DVD is Toshiba/Microsoft

BD
is everyone else and not just Sony.

Just because the porn industry is leaning towards Hd does not mean that they will have the influence they once had in swaying people towards a format. Remember Porn on VHS back in the day was the only option, no VOD or internet to contend with. The porn Industry Picked sides along time ago and it has no had one positive effect on HD


It would be nice if people would get their facts straight before posting, especially if you claim to be an expert.


Kevin

Wow, it's amazing what a link on the Canoe homepage will do for a little ol' blog post!

There have been some good points raised in these comments, and as the author of this blog I'd like to offer counter-points to a few of them. I'm not psychic, and I'm not the world's leading authority on high-def DVD, I'm just an interested observer.

First off, I am no fan of Sony's proprietary formats, and I would have been satisfied on a personal level to see Blu-ray die off, aside from the fact it would have hurt the PS3 and, by association, video gaming as a whole.

But the simple matter is that as soon as one side gets enough traction and builds up enough of a lead, the game is effectively over. Blockbuster's decision only serves to push Blu-ray ahead. Nobody wants to back the trailing horse, not when it would mean having to buy new hardware and a new collection of movies if they turn out to be wrong. Right now, Blu-ray has the perception -- and let me tell you, perception is everything -- of being the leader. I never would have thought it possible, but Blu-ray is slowly becoming a household word.

Proponents of either side will cite whatever retail chain or rental outlet has the stats to back up the outcome they personally want to see. But it doesn't change the fact that Blu-ray has significantly more studio support and more installed players. I mean, the two movies that will likely end up being the highest-grossing box office releases of the year (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Spider-Man 3) are Blu-ray exclusives! The simple fact that Disney is Blu-ray only ensures that the format will not go away unless Disney changes its mind and starts releasing on HD DVD also, which seems unlikely.

I agree with the poster who said digital distribution will play a big role in HD content in the coming years. But average Wal-mart shopping consumers who want to "own" a movie are still more comfortable with the idea of putting a disc in a machine. And once the price of standalone Blu-ray players matches HD DVD players -- by this Christmas, I'd wager -- there will be few compelling reasons to go with HD DVD.

Hey, like I said, I would love to see HD DVD as the prevailing format. But I feel the odds are stacked against it now, and I believe the smart money is on Blu-ray. Or on skipping this generation entirely, sticking with DVD and digital distribution, and waiting for SuperUltraMegaHD-DVD in 2012 or whenever. And given how few people are investing in EITHER format compared to DVD, maybe that's what will end up happening.

Like I said earlier, it's best to stick to the facts.

Pirates of the Caribbean is on HD-DVD as well as Blu-Ray.

Disney has recently been publicly leaning towards adding HD-DVD.

Dreamworks recently jumped into HD by releasing in BOTH formats.

Rebutting a comment from Kevin...

Take a trip to your local A/V store, be it best buy, future shop whatever... ask to see the Blu-Ray Player Owners Manual... and you WILL see an entire page dedicated as to what the BDPS1 CAN AND CANNOT PLAY...

Don't give me this backwards compatible crap...

You are talking only about 1 Blu-Ray player so do not assume it has the same specification as all others.

Pirates of the Carribean is not out on HD-DVD as beuna Vista (Parent Disney) is Blu-Ray Only so you may want to re-check your facts. Disn3ey has never stated publically that they are changing their stance on HD-DVD, in fact they have continued to publically support BD especially with BD extra security (ACCS hacked). So once again check your facts.

I personally have no interest in Digital distrubution and I am disapointed in both HD and BD for including tight DRM in both products (lets hope they never use the whole protection). Digital Distrubution at it nature will have to have even tighter restrictions. And what happens when your device / PC fails and you have to re-buy every movie you ever purchased!

There is obviously alot of mis-information out there and I hate to see it propagated by so-called experts.

Blockbusters move to strictly BD I hope will force the 2 remaining HD only studios to bend and end this stupid format war.

And one other note Pirates of the Carribean BD out-sold the Matrix complete set HD-DVD 2 to 1 need I say more.

Kevin

My Toshiba second gen HD-A2 upconverts standard DVD's with picture quality that is just amazing(I have a 65" 1080p HDTV so I can actually see a huge difference). The HD DVD's are stunning, but the selling point for me was the ability to watch my 200+ DVD collection in upconverted 1080i! My PS3 does NOT upconvert, it just spits out 480p. No one at Best Buy or any other retailer was able to confirm that any of the BD players can upconvert. I am a huge James Bond fan so when Casino Royale was only release on BD, it did not really bother me as the standard definition version was mastered in HD anyway and upconverts just fine on my HD DVD player!

I've been working in the technology industry for over 25 years. I've seen marvels of technology come and go.

I was bitten by the Beta/VHS battle. Another Sony fiasco was the El-Cassette (look it up, supposed to be the quality of a reel-to-reel in a compact format).

This time, I don't care who wins the Blu-ray/HD-DVD battle, just as long as the winner is categorically the only one standing. Until I hear either Sony say they're discontinuing the Blu-ray or Toshiba say the same with the HD-DVD, my money stays in my pocket.

Both formats have pluses and minuses. Both will say that their product is more superior, more universal...I'M NOT BUYING ANY OF IT!

Sony haters...why?
Microsoft haters...why?

Both these companies have worked hard to develop some gadgets and applications that have sold millions.

Nobody is forcing you to buy MS products, there is also Linux and (gulp) Apple.

Nobody is forcing you to buy Sony, there is a plethora of good electronic manufacturers.

I have a mix of all kinds of gadgets from various sources, why? Because they gave me the most bang for the buck at the time that I bought it.

Good for Sony if Blu-ray wins, good for Toshiba if HD-DVD wins, I'll stand in line to buy one or the other once the other has conceded defeat.

Wow lot's of HD-DVD fanboys over here. A lot of you have your facts all wrong... For instance, Pirates of the Carribean is NOT available on HD-DVD (neither is Casino Royale, Night at the Museum, Bridge to Terabitia, Ghost Rider, Apocalypto, Deja Vu, The Pursuit of Hapiness, the upcoming Spider Man 3 etc.).

Any movies from Buena Vista, Sony Pictures, Disney, Lionsgate or Fox are NOT available on HD-DVD. Any movies from Universal are NOT available on Blu-Ray...

Blu-Ray is the content King, the facts are there deal with it...

Also, lets not forget that Blu-Ray has been outselling HD-DVD since December of 2006 (based on Nielsen POS numbers, the most reliable in the industry) so those who claim to be in the business and see more HD-DVD are either seeing local trends or outright lying. The numbers seen by BlockBuster (70-30 in favor of Blu-Ray) are totally in-line with Nielsen's reported numbers.

Harold Walker, if your PS3 does not upconvert it's because you haven't bothered updating your firmware. As of version 1.80 (released about a month ago) the PS3 does a beautiful job at upconverting SD DVDs. It will look just as good as on your HD-A2.

HD-DVD will be dead sometimes in 2008, the writing is on the wall you just have to open your eyes to see it.

It baffles me how many people love to just shout out "facts" with no back up. They want their preferred format to win and that's that. The FACTS are: Blu-ray players are outselling HD-DVD players 2.5 to 1 whether you like it or want to believe it or not. Want a source? www.digitalbits.com They've been tallying DVD hardware/software sales as reported by Nielsen/VideoScan for years.

Furthermore, to Robert Hutton: No "Pirates" is not available on HD-DVD. It's a Blu-Ray exclusive.

I'm not siding with either format, I just think people need to get their facts straight before spouting off at the mouth.