Just when you think the high definition format wars are starting to shift in one camps favor, something like this happens. Paramount and Dreamworks Animation have decided to no longer offer movies in both Bluray and HD DVD formats. Instead they are siding with the HD DVD group for all future offerings.
I've owned the Xbox 360 HD DVD player since its release, and have been enjoying the Blueray player that is my PlayStation 3 for the past month. When it comes to picture and sound quality the clear winner is ... well, both. There's no perceptible difference in quality between the two formats. However, I do enjoy HD DVD's menu system more than Bluray because you don't have to stop the movie to see what other options are available.
In any case, I have no interest in which format wins, except for the fact that I own more HD DVD movies. So maybe I am a little more biased that I thought. Anyway, the clear loser in this battle is the consumer. As long as there's a format war, confused consumers are going to stay far away from the battlefield. Let's hope this is more of a drawn out skirmish than an all out war, otherwise we all may be looking for an exit strategy several years from now.
