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Happy High Def New Year!

Happy New Year to all! 2007 certainly proved to be an interesting year in the high definition, home media world, with many surprises occurring on both the HD DVD and the Blu-ray side of the format war.

If I had to pick the single most important event in the format war for 2007, it would be the Paramount/Dreamworks decision to drop Blu-ray and release exclusively on HD DVD. Just when the HD DVD David looked like it was about to be trampled into oblivion by the Blu-ray Goliath, Paramount drops an HD DVD bomb.

This change in allegiance by Paramount was rumored to be fueled by $150 million in incentives from the HD DVD backers, but there are still conflicting reports regarding this allegation. This single event saved HD DVD from demise in 2007. It helped to strengthen consumer confidence in the format and brought key exclusive high definition releases to HD DVD, such as Transformers and Shrek the Third.


Image courtesy of www.capsaicin-it.com

What’s in store for 2008?

So what can we expect to occur in 2008? Anything is possible, but the most prevalent rumor bouncing around the net is that Warner Brothers Studios might re-evaluate their current strategy of releasing titles on both high definition optical formats. Will Warner go HD DVD exclusive? Will they go Blu-ray exclusive? Will they continue releasing in both formats? No one knows for sure at this point, but the first clues might be surfacing at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, where both the HD DVD promotions group and the Blu-ray Alliance will be holding press events. We’ll keep you updated on all the relevant high definition format news as it hits! Welcome to 2008!

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