In the battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray, Netflix has thrown its considerable weight behind one format. Starting December 15, Netflix will no longer carry HD DVDs and will be going exclusively Blu-ray. However, members need not worry: HD DVD titles added to their queues will be replaced automatically by standard DVDs. Take that, HD DVD! Wait, this is still November 2007, right? [Hacking Netflix]

It's tough to decide whether Toshiba is being incredibly intelligent or incredibly stubborn in their decision to back upconverting DVD technology instead of Blu-ray. I mean, they were certainly burnt - badly - by Blu-ray with that whole HD DVD format war, but is their decision to stick to DVD smart?

Take their latest DVD player, the XD-E500 DVD upscaler. It's marketed on the fact that it can take your vanilla old DVDs and upscale them to HD-like quality with 1080p output. That sounds pretty good (although the press release says that standard def DVDs are 480p - not in Australia, Toshiba!). But then there's the price: $199.

Sure, the Toshy's got some pretty catchy-sounding tech on board (XDE Technology, anyone?) for upscaling, plus DivX playback, HDMI CEC connectivity and a host of connections, but is it worth $200 bucks? Sony's latest Blu-ray player has an RRP of $449, but you can pick it up for $380 online, and it will not only upscale your DVDs, but playback Blu-ray movies as well. Even at $150 for the Toshy, don't most people already own a DVD player?

Still, if the infinite format war takes Blu-ray as its next victim, Toshiba will probably be the company laughing all the way to the bank.

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A banner year for Blu-ray, to be sure, with a 100% drop in the most important stat of all, there in yellow. All this according to "Sony Figures." They just can't help themselves.

Be happy: A new wireless HD video standard guarantees that major brands including Sony, Sharp, Hitachi, Samsung and Motorola will have interoperable wireless video streaming. Amimon--the chip makers behind the "video modem" wireless HD tech we've been seeing on and off for the last few years, and most recently in Belkin's Flywire--is announcing the WHDI consortium with the above members, formed to standardise their wireless HD spec and embed it in member companies' TVs, projectors and HD video sources. The result is a network of HD components, streaming uncompressed 1080p video not just through one room like competing UWB standards, but to and from any source to any TV in your entire home, with a range comparable to Wi-Fi. Pretty impressive stuff.

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HD DVD was declared dead a long time ago, and the last film to be released to the US on the format will hit (roughly three to five) shelves tomorrow. Disco Pigs was originally released in 2001 and very appropriately stars Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy as friends who were born in the same hospital, at the same time, and who grew up next to one another. Unfortunately, as they reach adulthood it is apparent that their relationship has become dangerously volatile. It doesn't end well. (Spoiler alert: Cillian Murphy's character is the HD DVD.) [Crave]

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One year ago, we predicted that the infinite format war would rise from the ashes of the HD DVD/Blu-ray format war--that a million online services and set-top boxes would suddenly promise to deliver movies and video to your computer or TV. And that each one would essentially be their own format, since none of them are compatible, and each would promise only a fraction of available movies. We were right about our fears, but we also have a solution to a decent download collection.

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NPD's latest survey of consumer awareness about Blu-ray tries to cheerlead, with the headline, "Consumer Awareness and Potential for Blu-ray Disc Devices Rising." But then you read the results--45 percent of HDTV owners are now "familiar with Blu-ray," up from 35 percent the same time last year. That means over half of HDTV owners--not regular people with standard def TVs, we're talking the leading chunk of consumers that should be well aware of Blu-ray--still don't know what it is. That's horrendous.

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At Netflix Investor Day, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings revealed their timeline for the end of the rental-by-mail biz, and why they're digging so hard into digital distribution: It "will probably peak in the next five years." Taken more broadly, it's more or less predicting that the real end of physical media is in T minus five years—'cause presumably, as long there are discs, Netflix's model assumes you'll get 'em from Netflix. While the end of physical media has been predicted lotsa times, it's rare that a company puts a death sentence on its core business, so this isn't the cheap willy-nilly futurism we're used to gagging on. [Reuters via Alley Insider]

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Well, Michael Bay will be a happy man today, if the rumours are true - TVshowsonDVD.com are reporting that Paramount has given Transformers a release date on the Blu-ray format.

The projected street date is September 2nd, although that is for the US. The movie is scheduled to be released in a 2-disc pack, just like the HD DVD release, although details are fairly short on the ground.

Watching Transformers on HD DVD really made the format worthwhile for me - it's why I haven't ditched my HD DVD player. What about you guys? You likely to pick up the Blu-ray version of this?

[TVshowsonDVD.com via Blu-ray.com]