Dispatches from the Format War, #1

Blu in the Face, a posting from Scott Hettrick's blog at www.hollywoodinhidef.com, makes interesting reading for those of us following the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray. The blog and site are frankly biased in favor of Blu-ray, so what Hettrick posts is anything but evenhanded. Still, the news is good for people like me who suspect Blu-ray will win the war and wish it would happen sooner rather than later:

• Blockbuster will be stocking Blu-ray and not HD DVD in most of its stores
• Target will be selling Blu-ray models as its first high-def disc players starting this fall
• A special "Ultimate Edition" of Close Encounters of the Third Kind will be released by Steven Spielberg exclusively on Blu-ray
• BJ's Wholesale Club will stop selling HD DVD products in its stores
  

"Most of the biggest upcoming hi-def disc titles announced in recent days, such as Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Spider-Man 3, will be available only on Blu-ray," says Hettrick. " Meanwhile, almost all the major new HD DVD titles will also be released simultaneously on Blu-ray, including 300 and Ridley Scott's latest and definitive cut of Blade Runner."

Even so, Hettrick has to admit that most of the attractive price slashing right now is happening on the HD DVD front.