It all started Friday, January 4, when Warner Bros. Entertainment announced they would go Blu-ray exclusive, in regards to the HD video market. Warner Home will continue releasing HD DVD movies until late May, but only as second rate launches (after the regular DVD and Blu-Ray versions have already been on sale).

After the typical reaction from Toshiba (main player in the HD DVD camp), saying they will keep working, they must have been surprised as they had a contract with Warner. Accordingly they went and canceled their CES activity, while issuing a different statement:

"Based on the timing of the Warner Home Video announcement today, the HD DVD Promotional Group has decided to cancel 1:1 press meetings at CES, in addition to the press conference that was scheduled for Sunday evening. [...] We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps."

Not a week later, after New Line had followed Warner, it was HBO's turn to go Blu. Curiously, the decision comes not much later than the season six collection of The Sopranos  had been released (as far as HD-DVD is concerned, their first and last season).

Several weeks have gone by and the only news we have been hearing is all in Blu-ray's favour. We are still waiting to see which "steps" Toshiba and their partners are going to take. It certainly doesn't look good for HD-DVD players now.

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