Well, there goes the high-definition format war. Warner Bros., which lays claim to the biggest film library of them all, has announced that it is dropping support for HD DVD and will support Blu-ray exclusively come May 2008. The news comes a day after I convinced fellow blogger Josh Horowitz to lay down cash for a Toshiba HD DVD player, and a month after I purchased my own unit (the saving grace is it was pretty cheap and it's still good for upconverting regular DVDs).

The decision more or less dooms the HD DVD format which was launched in 2005 by Toshiba and Microsoft (who back it through their Xbox 360 console), and which now counts Paramount, DreamWorks and Universal as its only exclusive supporters (and since Universal isn't under a contract, it has the ability to switch to Blu-ray should it wish to). Blu-ray, on the other hand, will have Sony (who created it), Fox, Disney, WB, New Line, Lionsgate and MGM. The news will hopefully mean a price drop for Blu-ray players which have traditionally been more expensive than their HD DVD brethren. Read Warner and Toshiba's respective press releases after the jump. Read more...