HD DVD Promotional Group Wimpers at Netflix, Best Buy, Blu-ray Alliances

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<p><img style="margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px" src="http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/7219_blu-ray_hddvd.jpg" align="left" /></p> <p><strong>HD DVD Promotional Group offers little resistance to the latest Blu-ray victories</strong></p> <p>The HD DVD Promotional Group suffered two crippling blows yesterday. Early Monday morning, Netflix announced that it <a href="http://www.dailytech.com/Netflix+Picks+Bluray+Disc+as+Exclusive+HD+Format/article10637.htm">would become Blu-ray exclusive</a> with regards to online high-definition movie rentals. </p> <p>Monday afternoon, Best Buy announced that while it wouldn't drop HD DVD altogether, it would <a href="http://www.dailytech.com/Best+Buy+to+Push+Bluray+Titles+Hardware/article10652.htm">place more emphasis on Blu-ray</a> and heavily promote that standard.</p> <p>"Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way. We’ve listened to our customers, and we are responding. Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format," said Best Buy President and Chief Financial Officer Brian Dunn.</p> <p>The HD DVD Promotional Group of course was not too happy to hear about the latest losses in the format war and offered up this <a href="http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9869591-7.html">rather tame response</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>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.</em></p> </blockquote> <p>Perhaps the HD DVD Promotional Group doesn't have any fight left. Toshiba already went to great lengths to <a href="http://www.dailytech.com/Toshibas+New+Angle+Our+HD+DVD+Players+Are+Also+Gre at+DVD+Upscalers/article10337.htm">cut the prices on its third-generation DVD players</a>, but that obviously wasn't enough to stop the shift to Blu-ray. Toshiba's HD DVD commercial <a href="http://www.dailytech.com/Toshiba+HD+DVD+Super+Bowl+Ad+More+Miss+Than+Hit/article10564.htm">during the Super Bowl</a> also didn't help to win over any new supporters.</p> <p>However, maybe consumers can take solace in the fact that things may be finally winding down in the HD DVD versus Blu-ray battle. Studio support is <a href="http://www.dailytech.com/Update+Warner+Bros+to+Become+Bluray+Exclusive/article10233.htm">lining up fervently behind Blu-ray</a>, so the days of finding a high definition movie on HD DVD, but not on Blu-ray, may soon be over. </p> <p>Early adopters of the HD DVD standard though may just be left with their existing HD DVD library and an <a href="http://www.dailytech.com/Toshibas+New+Angle+Our+HD+DVD+Players+Are+Also+Gre at+DVD+Upscalers/article10337.htm">excellent upscaling DVD player</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10666">DailyTech - HD DVD Promotional Group Wimpers at Netflix, Best Buy, Blu-ray Alliances</a></p>

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