CES 2008: Warner Dumps HD DVD January 08, 2008

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The high-def format wars took a new twist today when the HD DVD camp cancelled its press event at the world's most important consumer technology show, CES 2008 in Las Vegas.

The North American HD DVD Promotion Group blamed the cancellation on Warner Bros – one of its key supporters – which announced that it is defecting to the Blu-ray alliance. What timing! Only two of the big seven Hollywood studios – Universal and Paramount – are left in the HD DVD camp.

Warner’s CEO, Barry Meyer, said: “The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers.”

The HD DVD camp commented: “While Warner's decision is a setback for HD DVD, the consumer has benefited from HD DVD's commitment to quality and affordability -- a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format. We believe widespread adoption of a next generation format will ultimately be determined by the consumer.”

Putting its tail between it legs and high-tailing it in front of the world’s media in order to come up with that banal statement above stinks of defeatism.

There’s little doubt now that the HD DVD format is in serious trouble.-Martin Lynch

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