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Looking for the next video format war?  It might be in the last place you want it: movie theaters.  Sony announced Thursday that has teamed up with Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount Pictures to promote the new Sony-developed digital projection setup.  This came only a day after five major studios including Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount Pictures as well as Walt Disney Motion Pictures, Universal Studios and Lionsgate Films were announced to be part of a deal with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners (“DCIP”) to expand digital screens.  The DCIP deal would try to upgrade 20,000 screens across the U.S. and Canada, while the Sony deal has plans to use put its system into 9,000 screen across North America, Europe and Asia.

According the to most recent MPAA numbers from 2007, just under 5,000 screens across the U.S. use digital systems, with 6,455 screens worldwide.  Both deals want to increase that number, but it might get a bit tough if there are multiple proprietary formats.  The last thing we need is another format war.  More after the break.

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While the announcement from Toshiba pulling HD DVD support essentially killed of the format, we can now officially declare it dead. The HD DVD Promotion Group has officially been closed, which removes any chance of resurgence of the format. The group, as of March 28 quietly shut themselves down, and so we have it, HD DVD is done. A quick visit to the HD DVD Promotion Group website, presents the simple message:

“The HD DVD Promotion Group was dissolved as of March 28, 2008, and the website was closed accordingly.“

Now lets move on to the next question; Will movie downloads begin to take shape, will we begin to see Blu-ray adoption or will most people just choose to continue with the standard DVD?

Via [Register Hardware]

• Panasonic makes a move for 3D Blu-ray
• Blu-ray manages to not fail as badly as we thought
• Gamertell Review: Dead Space Downfall on DVD, Blu-ray

Dreamworks, who had been standing strong with their contract to Toshiba and their commitment to HD DVD have announced their exit plan. Their HD DVD movie shipments will end next week, but the exact release of upcoming titles on Blu-ray has not yet been announced.

A few titles that were set for release such as the Bee Movie, Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood have all been canceled, and will be released only as standard DVD’s. The last and final HD DVD titles will include next weeks release of Things We Lost in Fire and Into the Wild, somehow I cannot imagine either of them selling that well.

Via [EngadgetHD]

• Panasonic makes a move for 3D Blu-ray
• Blu-ray manages to not fail as badly as we thought
• Gamertell Review: Dead Space Downfall on DVD, Blu-ray

Toshiba may have officially killed off HD DVD and we have seen just about everyone else make their announcement to switch to Blu-ray, but one is remaining. Dreamworks, who is currently is under contract with Toshiba to exclusively support HD DVD have stated they “have an obligation to see this through.“ With a new title, the Bee Movie set to be released next month, it may have to hit the stores on just regular old DVD. In the meantime Dreamworks is waiting to hear back from Toshiba on just what they should do.

Dreamworks expects to have this resolved by the 2008 holiday season, hopefully for their sake this will be resolved sooner. It seems like by Toshiba killing off the format that almost would cancel out their deal with Dreamworks, but it is refreshing to see a company, in this case Dreamworks actually honor the agreement to the end.

Read [Reuters]

• Panasonic makes a move for 3D Blu-ray
• Blu-ray manages to not fail as badly as we thought
• Gamertell Review: Dead Space Downfall on DVD, Blu-ray

With the recent demise of HD DVD and all things that surround it, this news from Microsoft comes as no real surprise, they have officially discontinued the Xbox 360 HD DVD player. Current owners need not worry though, because although discontinued the support and warranty will remain in effect.

Actually the only real surprise here is that it took Microsoft this long to make it official. A nice follow up would have been the announcement of a Blu-ray player add-on, but that still has not been mentioned. It would make sense though.

Via [Gizmodo]

• Amazon’s Thanksgiving weekend, Cyber Monday 2008 game deals
• Walmart’s Cyber Monday 2008 video game deals
• Configure your BMW on a Microsoft Surface

The latest HD DVD deal is courtesy of CompUSA and for just $89.99 you can grab a Toshiba HD-A3 player along with 7 movies. While CompUSA seems nice enough to let customers know that these players are basically a dead format I can imagine that other retailers will not be quite as nice.

Sadly these HD DVD sales will most likely continue to occur until these stores run out of inventory, hopefully they will not attract any customers thinking they are actually getting a deal. I could see the not so informed shopper think they are getting a great deal on a “next-generation” player when they are actually buying a dead format, these sales should all have to come with warnings.

Its nice to see an honest move from CompUSA, and this actually would make a nice up-converting player, if you were in the market for such a player.

Keep reading for the full ‘warning’ letter from CompUSA…

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Its always fun to see what kind of ads will come from events that surround the tech community. The latest coming from Best Buy Canada and takes full advantage of the format war and states the winner in no uncertain terms.

The ad simply states “Format War Over: Blu-ray Wins!“ and with that they are offering to help. Of course they can help you as long as you are not bothered by spending $399.99 for a new player.

While Blu-ray may be the clear winner, it will still take some time to become more common in households. Personally my current DVD player works well enough for me as compared to a nearly $400 price tag. I would venture a guess that I am not alone in that feeling.

Via [EngadgetHD]

• Best Buy offers selected Cyber Monday 2008 game sales
• Black Friday deals round-up [updated]
• Panasonic makes a move for 3D Blu-ray

Its now official, all six major studios are now supporting Blu-ray. In a statement, Paramount said they “are pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer.“ Paramount has not given any details on any release schedule, as of now they will simply “monitor consumer adoption and determine our release plans accordingly.“

The format war is over, and all of the studios have now pledged their support to Blu-ray. Now its just a matter of time before we have any movie we may want available on Blu-ray.

Via [Hollywood Reporter]

• Panasonic makes a move for 3D Blu-ray
• Blu-ray manages to not fail as badly as we thought
• Gamertell Review: Dead Space Downfall on DVD, Blu-ray

Amazon has officially announced their support for Blu-ray. This news almost seems like an announcement that was made just to add further insult to the already dead HD DVD. In addition to pledging their support they have also stated they will “more prominetly” display Blu-ray players and movies on their website.

“The high-definition landscape is rapidly changing, and consumers are looking for guidance on how to make the best high-definition buying decisions,“ said Peter Faricy, vice president of movies and music at Amazon.com. “Our customers have clearly voiced their support for the Blu-ray format. Blu-ray titles have increased from just over half of our high-definition sales to over three-quarters of our high-definition sales since early January. In order to best serve our customers, Amazon is recommending Blu-ray as the preferred digital format and will continue to carry the ‘Earth’s Largest Selection’ of Blu-ray products.“

The Amazon announcement also offers a little more insight on the previously mentioned 50% off sale, it now seems clear they are just trying to get rid of their current HD DVD inventory.

Via [I4U News]

• Amazon Kindle sold-out, refurbs available in limited quantities
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• Amazon offers RPG bargain buys in honor of Cyber Monday 2008

Just a little bit late, but in case you are still looking to support the HD DVD side of the seemingly ended format war, the deals are starting to role in. The latest offer is available from Circuit City and includes the Toshiba A2 HD DVD player and 5 movies for just $85. Had this deal been offered a few months back this could have been a deciding factor, but now it just seems silly. I guess the retailers are looking to clear some shelf space and make room for those new Blu-ray displays.

Via [Gizmodo]

• Panasonic makes a move for 3D Blu-ray
• Circuit City’s Cyber Monday 2008 game deal - buy a game, get a gift card
• Black Friday deals round-up [updated]