HD Format War Update: Post CES 2008 News And Rumours

Oh how I love reporting on the format wars. It's like a telenovela I can't stop watching. I can picture it now, with HD-DVD saying to Warner Bros. "¡¿Warner Bros. POR QUE?!" and some cheesy violins playing with a heartbeat in the background as the camera zooms in to HD-DVD's tears.

A few more bits of news have popped up since I last updated you with Paramount's assertion that they would continue to support HD-DVD in their "current plan."

Hot on the rumours that Microsoft would consider making a Blu-ray drive add-on for the Xbox 360 should Blu-ray win the format wars comes some fervent denial from from a Microsoft spokesperson who spoke to Kotaku:

There was a critical element of our comments missing from the story -- Microsoft currently has no plans at this time to consider Blu-ray as an option. We continue to believe that HD DVD is the best optical solution for consumers, since it's the only format today that delivers quality experiences at affordable prices.

The spokesperson went on to say that there are absolutely no plans at the current time to consider Blu-ray as an option, and that they've got HD-DVD's back. Don't worry, HD-DVD, Microsoft isn't leaving the sinking ship.

The second bit of news comes in the form of Universal's contract with HD-DVD. Universal and Paramount are the two big studios still on the HD-DVD bandwagon. The bad news for HD-DVD is that Universal's contract has expired and sits unrenewed. A Universal spokesperson did say they plan to stay with HD-DVD for the time being, in much the same way Paramount is:

On Thursday, Universal broke its silence about the matter to say that it plans to keep supporting the format for the time being, a pledge Par made earlier in the week. And in any case, U is committed to a series of HD DVD promotions in coming months.

However, both Universal (who no longer has a contract with HD-DVD) and Paramount (who can invoke the Warner Bros. switch clause) are no longer contractually bound to stay with HD-DVD should they decide to switch down the line.

Surprising almost no one, HBO has announced they will follow their brothers Warner Bros. and New Line to the Blu-ray camp. Ooooo Rome on Blu-ray, yay!

In the face of all of this news, it seems some in the HD-DVD camp have begun to despair, and an online petition has surfaced in order to keep HD-DVD alive:

Dear High Def movie fans, I'm starting this petition in order to support HD-DVD and hopefully save it, and to show Warner Brothers that the consumer has not "clearly" chosen Blu-Ray. Warner Brothers switched to Blu-Ray exclusive claiming that its the best thing for the consumer, but how about all the consumers that bought HD-DVD movies and hardware for the holidays, or all the loyal HD-DVD fans like myself that own Warner HD-DVDs? Warner just screwed them all.

Really? An online petition? At the time of writing, it has garnered 3698 signatures that, and I agree with Engadget here, reek of desperation.

And finally, a rumour popped up on Gizmodo, where they received word from "reputable sources" at CES that people had begun to return the $99 HD-DVD players they bought on Black Friday because of all the bad HD-DVD news lately.

A Toshiba spokesperson was quick to deny the rumours:

I have not heard of one single report from any of [Toshiba's retailers] indicating returns, in fact our meetings went well and retailers will continue to offer our HD DVD players as a choice for high definition.

But the comments on the post include Gatsbyguy, who confirmed his friends had returned their players:

I have two buddies who returned their players yesterday. Unfortunately they can't return the movies that they bought with them. One of the guys was originally all set to buy a blu-ray player, but then looking around the store he liked the selection of HD-DVD movies better.

Of course, it all has the stench of internet rumour all over it, so take it with the grain of salt it deserves. I doubt we'll get official confirmation from retailers about it.

Overall, it seems like it's a sprinkling of more bad news for the HD-DVD camp. I'm now ready to see in the coming months if these changes to the HD Format War landscape lead to a quick HD-DVD death, or a long protracted siege of the HD-DVD castle. Only time will tell.