With the announcement last week that Warner Brothers is dropping support for the HD DVD High definition format, the number of big Hollywood studios favoring the Blu-ray camp stands at 5 against just 2 for HD DVD.
A Warner Bros spokesman quoted sales of 3:1 in favor of Blu-ray as one of the reasons why they were giving the format their exclusive support. If the two remaining studios supporting HD DVD, Paramount and Universal have similar stats it is hard to see them not taking the same route.
With rumors that Microsoft will offer support for the Blu-ray format on their Xbox 360, it certainly looks as if the writing is on the wall for HD DVD.
If Blu-ray emerges as the HD format champion it will be bad news for Toshiba and Microsoft who backed HD DVD, and more importantly, millions of consumers who have invested in HD DVD players and film titles.
A single format will be good news for consumers who up until this point have been reluctant to commit to one of the two formats, and for the industry in general which will surely see an explosion in public interest. Barry Meyer, chairman of Warner Bros had previously warned that "the window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger."
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