The Clear Winner is Blu-Ray, not HD-DVD. The Industry has spoken.

For sometime now, there have been two competing High Definition DVD formats:

1. HD-DVD (backed by companies such as Toshiba and Microsoft (MSFT))
   
2. Blu-Ray (backed by companies such as Sony (SNE))
   

Studios, electronic manufacturers and other companies put their weight behind each format. Consumers were slow to adopt either format because of the format wars.

However, right now, we are starting to see a clear winner.

1. Best Buy is backing Blu-Ray as the High Definition DVD format
   
2. Blockbuster (BBI) has chosen Blu-Ray.
   
3. Netflix (NFLX) will stop supporting HD-DVD in favor of Blu-Ray.
   

Here's part of an email Netflix sent me:

You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens.

...

We're sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.

-The Netflix Team

With the winner of the High Definition DVD wars all but chosen, now consumers can move forward and adopt Blu-Ray DVD as the standard. Those consumers who have bought High Definition Televisions can now purchase Blu-Ray DVD players (and Sony's Playstation 3). Consumers who have held back purchasing camcorders waiting for the next generation of High Definition DVDs can now start purchasing Blu-Ray based Camcorders. Consumers can start purchasing Blu-Ray DVDs in larger numbers.

Congratulations to Sony (SNE) who has finally won a major format war, many decades after losing out on the Sony Betamax vs. VHS format war.