Looks like the days of HD-DVD are quickly drying up, as things get worse and worse for the next-gen disc format.
Best Buy has stated that, starting next month, they will prominently display Blu-ray players and discs in stores as well as recommend the format to customers over HD-DVD. This will definitely help the Sony-backed Blu-ray format as the Playstation 3 is one of the easiest ways to get a Blu-ray player, and thus it will hurt Toshiba’s HD-DVD which is backed by Microsoft who released a $130.00 HD-DVD player for their Xbox 360 system.
“Because we believe that Blu-ray is fast emerging as that single format, we have decided to focus on Blu-ray products,” Brian Dunn, Best Buy’s president and chief operating officer, said in a statement.
The agreement is not an exclusive one, because Best Buy states that it will continue to offer HD DVD players and discs, but having the Best Buy endorsement in the form of Sunday circulars, front-and-center store kiosks and staff recommendtations will tremendously help sway people to Blu-ray, leaving HD DVD in the dust.
And in another blow to HD DVD, the popular online rental service Netflix has announced that it will start phasing HD DVD movies out by the end of the year. Although this won’t effect the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD format wars directly since people who use the Netflix service will already have bought a player and thus supported one format over the other. Although it could be yet another reason for people to choose Blu-ray over HD-DVD.
The HD DVD Promotional Group issued this statement, “We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it’s unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail.”