CNBC, Julia Boorstin, Jan 04:
For years, everyone's been waiting for an indication that either Sony's Blu-Ray or Microsoft and Toshiba's HD DVD format would emerge triumphant and the other would go the way of the BETA deck.
Today, finally, a crucial tipping point in this battle in which the $20 billion dollar home video market is at stake -- Warner Bros has decided to distribute its high definition DVDs exclusively in the Blu-ray format, ditching its previous plan to distribute in both HD DVD and Blu-Ray.
Hollywood must be breathing a huge sigh of relief. All of Hollywood needs a format to win, and fast. This is bad news for Microsoft and Toshiba, the two main proponents of the HD-DVD format. At this point there's no way for HD DVD to make a comeback. The question now becomes, how quickly will Universal and Paramount/DreamWorks start distributing in Blu-Ray?
