Although we're now well over a year into the Blu-ray Disc vs. HD-DVD format war, it's still too early to call a winner. At one point, a Chinese corporation apparently "leaked" the news on their web site that Wal-Mart was ordering 2 million low cost HD-DVD players from them to sell in stores later this year (never confirmed by Wal-Mart, and later retracted by the vendor).
Other skirmishes along the way have been mostly about price cuts in the hardware, or spinning the retail numbers one way or the other to suggest faster sales or more units shipped of either the hardware or software titles. But more recently another heavy-hitter in the retail space, Blockbuster appeared to have chosen a side, and that side was Blu-ray Disc. And while there is truth to the news, it doesn't paint the complete story.
According to Blockbuster's official press release, Blockbuster is indeed expanding support for Blu-ray Disc with Blu-ray titles to be stocked in up to 1700 retail locations that currently stock neither HD-DVD nor Blu-ray Disc titles. But the 250 flagship stores that already stock Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD titles will continue to stock both formats, and (more importantly), Blockbuster's online "Total Access" service will continue to support both disc formats.
Blockbuster competitor, Netflix has supported both formats since their inception (and continues to do so), so a decision by Blockbuster to abandon support for HD-DVD entirely would have gained them very little, and would have enabled Netflix to exploit this to their advantage.
So for now, if you're waiting for a clear winner in the next generation format war, be prepared to keep waiting. But if you've already bought a player of one or both formats, you'll find a pretty extensive selection of high definition titles at both of the online rental giants.
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