HD DVD's backers hope the launch of a new feature with the HD DVD version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will give the format an edge over Blu-ray in the battle of high-def formats. The movie takes advantage of HD DVD spec's mandatory Ethernet hookup to do "community screening"—a way to watch the movie simultaneously with your friends while you're all in the comforts of your own homes. Other Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix owners will be able to join an invitation-only viewing of the movie and exchange chats through the remote, a computer, or mobile phones.

Only the host will be able to play, pause, and otherwise control the movie, making this the first use of HD DVD's Internet connection to facilitate interaction between players. If other movies begin to take advantage of HD DVD's Internet requirement to implement similar social applications, it could turn into a selling point against Blu-ray, which doesn't require players to include network connectivity.

The first title with Community Screening comes as the Blu-ray Disc Association announced a victory of its own: the format is outselling HD DVD discs in Europe at a ratio of over three to one. The Blu-ray Disc Association said that movie sales in Europe had crossed the 1 million mark. That 1 million is more than a milestone; it accounts for about 73 percent of all HD discs sold in Europe over the last year, says the association.

If you're not a high-def fanatic, it's easy to lose track of who is "winning" in which area at any given time. HD DVD gained an early lead in Europe, due to European movie studios favoring HD DVD for the savings in disc duplication—several smaller studios said at the time that the cost of producing Blu-ray discs was prohibitively expensive. But since the PS3's launch in Europe, the tables have begun to turn.

Sony's console has been widely credited for Blu-ray's popularity in the US (Adams Media Research said that 94 percent of Blu-ray players purchased in the US were built into consoles), and its delayed launch in Europe benefited HD DVD for a time. Although the PS3 may not be considered "wildly successful" in Europe just yet, their availability (and recent price cut) has apparently been enough to tip the scales in Blu-ray's favor.

HD DVD isn't taking the news lying down, though, and fired back with more news of its own. The HD DVD Promotional Group announced today that the sales of dedicated players were boosted by last week's Black Friday sales—enough to push them over the 750,000 mark and towards the 1 million milestone. This includes both standalone players and the $199 Xbox 360 add-on.

Still, sales of both formats are still just a drop in the bucket compared to that of DVD, and in this phase of the war, it seems that phases of the moon are enough to affect which format is ahead. Without any clear leader and both sides constantly announcing small victories, this deadlock will most certainly continue to keep consumers from making any major purchasing decisions. We may get a better sense of who's ahead after the dust has settled from the holiday shopping season, but even then, the battle will continue on.