Actually wal-mart is backing HD-DVD and not blu-ray and I think that is a much bigger blow than lame ass blockbuster. It is not like they sell players, wal-mart will bring hd-dvd to the masses for half the price of blu-ray by the end of this year. When that happens things may shift.
Another wierd thing is even though hddvd's only have WB and blue ray has a bunch of studios i still like the movies on hddvd better (serenity, army of darkness, 40 year old virgin, matrix)
The only blu-ray i own besides shitty ass taadega nights is casino royal and that is one of the best looking movies in terms of picture quality I have ever seen.
Also this isn't really a war since the sales of both formats is totally in the shitter. The vast majority of people still buy dvd's.
I do own both formats so i could care less, what i really want to see stop all this nonsence is a high quality dual format player that also upconverts standard dvd's to 1080p, now that will be sweet tits
That is what I hear but what my eyes see is totally different. I have been too many different Wal-Marts and every one I have seen is the same. Look at the Blu-Ray and HDDVD racks and see for yourself. Fact is that Blu-Ray has tons of movies coming out every week and HDDVD dont. Fact is that HDDVD titles are more expensive than the same titles on Blu-Ray.
The porn industry backing HDDVD mean crap today. Maybe it did years ago when they backed VHS but unlike those days today people mainly get their porn over the internet where they feel it is more private.
And I guarantee by the time Christmas comes around there will be a cheap Blu-Ray player to compete with the cheap HDDVD.
Plus take into account that Sony did do the right thing on adding a Blu-Ray player into the PS3. People are buying Blu-Ray movies not because they want the 1080P experience and went out of their way to buy an expensive Blu-Ray player to watch them. But rather they got a game console that happens to play those high end 1080P movies so they may as well buy some movies to see what the fuss is about. And it turns out that many (like me) happen to enjoy those 1080P movies after all.
Like I said I have both formats and enjoy movies on both. I own 20 Blu-Ray movies and 2 HDDVD. NOT because I like Blu-Ray more but because most of the movies I like is ether Blu-Ray exclusive or dual format. And since Blu-Ray movies are cheaper than HDDVD I pick the Blu-Ray versions.
Truth be told I could care less who wins this format war. But from a person that regularly buys movies and does a lot of movie shopping I can clearly see that Blu-Ray has won the format war.