To say that 2008 has not been kind to the HD DVD format is a bit of an understatement. As the Consumer Electronics Show began, Warner Bros. announced that it would drop support for HD DVD during the first half of 2008. Shortly thereafter, HD DVD experienced its worst-ever week of sales. Today, HD DVD was dealt a couple of big body blows: Netflix announced that it would stop renting movies in the HD DVD format and Best Buy has decided to exclusively recommend Blu-ray players to consumers.

Netflix customers who have HD DVD selected as an option for rentals got a surprising e-mail from the mail-rental giant this morning. In it, Netflix announced that it would be phasing out support for the format by no longer ordering new HD DVD movies and by not replacing current inventory.

"As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format," reads the e-mail. "In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well."

Customers who have HD DVDs in their saved queues will have them switched to standard-definition DVDs beginning at the end of this month. Sometime during the second half of the year, Netflix will purge customers' queues of HD DVD altogether in favor of vanilla DVDs.

Best Buy is jumping on the HD DVD dogpile as well. Today, the big box consumer electronics retailer announced that it would recommend Blu-ray over HD DVD. Like Warner Bros., Best Buy's rationale for the move is that consumers will ultimately benefit if there's only one viable HD format to choose from. "Because we believe that Blu-ray is fast emerging as that single format, we have decided to focus on Blu-ray products," said Brian Dunn, Best Buy president and CEO in a statement. "Our decision to shine a spotlight on Blu-ray Disc players and other Blu-ray products is a strong signal to our customers that we believe Blu-ray is the right format choice for them."

Best Buy did throw HD DVD a bone, saying that it will continue to stock HD DVD products for "customers who desire to purchase these products." With blue-clad salespeople aggressively pushing Blu-ray players to consumers looking for something pretty to watch on their HDTVs, the number of such customers is likely to decline.

As the top consumer electronics chain in the US, the significance of Best Buy's decision to throw its weight behind Blu-ray can't be denied. Not only will Blu-ray players be featured prominently in the stores, Best Buy's considerable promotional and advertising might will be backing it as well.

The HD DVD Promotions Group issued a brief statement in response to the news. "We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it's unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward," said the group. "While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail."

There was one small glimmer of good news for HD DVD's backers today. Data leaked by the NPD Group shows that the hardware sales gap between the two camps closed during the week ending January 26, according to TWICE (This Week in Consumer Electronics). Blu-ray's hardware share reportedly fell from 90 percent a couple of weeks ago to 65 percent. Deep discounts on HD DVD players likely helped, as some Toshiba players have dropped under $120.

Given the recent HD news, however, sales upticks for HD DVD are certain to become increasingly infrequent. Now that Blockbuster and Netflix are both backing Blu-ray exclusively, consumers are going to have a hard time finding a place to rent HD DVDs. With Best Buy in the Blu-ray camp, consumers are going to be less likely to buy HD DVD players. The opera may not be over, but we can hear the fat lady warming up off stage... anyone want to buy my Xbox 360 HD DVD player?

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