Just earlier this week Warner Bros. Entertainment, the studio with the industries largest selection of movies, changed the tide in the high definition format war in favor of Sony by announcing that they are going with Blu-ray discs exclusively. Warner’s intention was to end the battle and consumer confusion hopefully resulting in improved DVD sales in 2008. It appears their move just might be working as Variety states they have confirmed information that Universal, who previously has been HD DVD-exclusive, has ended their promise to continue with HD DVD only and could possibly be making a change to Blu-ray.

Paramount along with Universal are two of the big seven studios that have been hanging on with Toshiba and HD DVD, but they too have a clause to produce Blu-ray as well after Warner’s decision. Back in June of 2007 Blockbuster also made a move to Blu-ray over HD DVD which combined with recent news is making things look very grim for the HD DVD future.

Amidst all the technology hype going on at CES in Las Vegas this week, Warner Bros. Entertainment somewhat quietly made an announcement with potentially significant implications on the high-def DVD war between Toshiba’s HD DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray disc formats. Warner made an announcement on January 4 that it would release its movies in only the Blu-ray high-definition format, and no longer would offer any of the rival HD DVD formatted discs.

According to Reuters, in talking to Warner Bros Entertainment Group President Kevin Tsujihara the company chose to go the Blu-ray route due to falling DVD says and a “deteriorating U.S. economy”. Tsujihara said the plan was made with the intention of ending the format war and hence ending confusion and split purchases by consumers between the two formats. This move to Blu-ray exclusively is so significant due to the fact that Warner has the industries largest offering of movies and continues to produce big titles, making 5 of the 7 major studios on board with Blu-ray.

As consumers start their shopping for another holiday season one of the big questions raised last year at this time still doesn’t have a satisfactory answer: Blu-ray versus HD-DVD? While prices for both players dropped throughout 2007 there still wasn’t any clear indication which new DVD format was reigning supreme with the common man. Sony’s much-hoped for plans that their new Blu-ray PlayStation 3 would lead the charge failed to materialize while Microsoft’s HD-DVD add-on wasn’t exactly flying off of store shelves either. Sales of HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs started off with the latter edging out the former but lately both groups have been selling roughly the same amount of units. So now that we’re well into the next gen DVD war, which side is winning? The answer according to one of Blu-ray’s biggest supporters is no one.

Panasonic recently unveiled a new Blu-ray Disc player which is the first player to offer up the Final Standard Profile and its variety new and enhanced features. The Panasonic DMP-BD30 is priced at around $500.

The Panasonic DMP-BD30, making use of the Final Standard Profile, offers some interesting new functions including Picture-in-Picture (which displays a second image in a sub window) and Audio Mixing (which allows one to switch the sound between the main and sub windows). There’s also a new multi-function SD Card slot which allows for images recorded on a HD SD card to be outputted at 1080p via HDMI.

It looks like a remote control for Dark Lords of the Sith but then again they always had the better looking ships in the “Star Wars” movies. The Darklite DVD Remote from Messiah Entertainment is made for PlayStation 3 owners in mind. Connecting right into your PS3’s USB port you can control the Blu-ray DVD player’s most needed functions using the top keys of the remote or slide out the secondary keys if you need something extra. Menu selection, play/pause, rewind and fast forward are all controlled using the Darklite’s center button. The base is also a charging station for the remote and even charges up straight from the USB port on your PS3 console.

Sony unveiled today a second generation internal Blu-ray Disc drive which cuts down the amount of time it takes to burn a BD-R disc. The new BWU-200S, available as an aftermarket item for computer users, is priced at around $600.

The Sony BWU-200S is capable of 4X BD-R, which Sony says results in burning time to this Blu-Ray Disc format being cut by half. It also offers 16X DVD+R recording speeds. All in all, Sony has designed this drive to “record up to 50GB of data for random access storage and backup on BD-R (write once) or BD-RE (rewritable) discs, or up to 230 minutes of high-definition HDV 1080i video on a BD-R/RE 50GB disc. It also supports recording on standard single layer 4.7GB DVD+R/+RW/RAM discs, 8.5GB DVD+R double/dual layer discs, and CDs.”

Today Sony announced the BWU-200S, upgraded internal Blu-ray burner for PC’s with the ability to write a full Blu-ray disc in just 45 minutes. As with most media, I’m sure in the near future we’ll look back and scoff at having waited 45 minutes to burn a single disc, but for now this really isn’t too bad. We’re talking 50GB of data or 4 hours of high-def video in well under an hour, which is half the time it took Sony’s previous Blu-ray burner.

The same burner can also record …

Neato. The word is traveling fast across the blogosphere that Sharp Japan has announced two new Aquos Blu-ray players that push the limit on HDD size. There are two BD-HDW Blu-ray recorders in the product line-up, the BD-HDW15 and the BD-HDW20. Both units have HDMI output, a dual TV tuner so you can record two shows at the same time, Dolby DTS, a smart drive that can detect the differences between dual layer discs and single layer ones and compatibility with the company’s i-Link to make for smooth connections to other Sharp electronics. The HDW15 has 500GB of HDD space on it while the HDW20 ups it to a cool 1 terabyte of magnetized media. Supported media also include dual layer BD-R/RE discs apart from single layer discs.

LG has unveiled the second generation of its dual format HD disc player, letting one enjoy both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. The LG Super Blu Player (BH200) is priced at around $1,000 and should be available in October.

The LG BH200 supports HDi Web-connected interactivity available for HD DVDs and also includes BD-Java interactivity. It can output video up to 1080p, including upscaling of standard DVD to this resolution. It also supports a wide variety of audio formats, including MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264 video, MPEG1/2 audio, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital+, DTS and DTS-HD.

Sony announced today a nice looking all in one PC/television with Blu-ray Disc support. The Sony VAIO LT starts at around $1,900, with the Blu-ray model pricing at around $2,900, and should be available come October.

The Sony VAIO LT, besides offering Blu-ray Disc support, also comes with a 22-inch widescreen WSXGA+ display with mounting capability so it can be hung via a VESA-compliant mount in a variety of places. It has all the usual bells and whistles for a more pricey home computer, including an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, expandable hard drive storage and a 1.3-megapixel camera.

Here’s what looks to be a hearty new media server which can serve up HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc in multiple rooms. The MediaMax HD, constructed by Axonix, runs between $3,500 and $6,000 depending upon configuration.

The MediaMax HD offers the ability to have playback of media stored on its MediaServer component including: HD and SD DVD movies, CD, MP3 and WAV music, photos and downloaded movies and music. This media can be played across a network simultaneously in any room. Axonix says its media server is the first to play via cover art or metadata both next generation optical disc formats.

Today Hitachi has announced two new Blu-ray disc camcorders which they are calling the worlds first camcorders that can record high-definition video to Blu-ray. Both camcorders have the ability to record full high-definition video directly to a single-side, single-layer Blu-ray disc giving up to one hour of 1920×1080 resolution video on the disc.

The DZ-BD7H model is actually a “hybrid” camcorder with the ability to record the high-definition video to either the Blu-ray disc or an internal 30GB hard drive which can hold up to four hours of the 1920×1080 high-def video. Once recorded onto …

Apperanty the news that Target was going to sell Blu-ray discs exclusively at their retail stores was false. They had made deal with Sony to place end-caps on the isles for Blu-ray products and Sony had worded it as exclusive, but Target will continue to stock and sell HD DVD products as usual. If you’re keeping track of the high-def wars take one point back from Blu-ray.

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Sony Corp. announced today that the major retail chain Target will sell only Blu-ray high definition DVD players in its stores, which brings another big blow to the rivaling HD DVD market after Blockbuster went all Blu-ray last month.

According to the announcement Target will carry the Blu-ray players exclusively at least through the holiday season. Starting in October the company will begin selling the Sony BDP-S300 for around $500 along with expanding the selection of Blu-ray disc inventory.

Although this is another powerful gain for the Blu-ray team the mass …

If you’re thinking of jumping onboard the Blu-ray bandwagon but have yet to decide on a player maybe you should hold off until Samsung comes out with its two new additions to its Blu-ray line this fall. The BD-1400 (priced at $550) will be notable for having support for 24 frames-per-second output, removing any instances of stuttering motion in the video (an effect called “judder”) for high-end displays capable of this mode. It will also have internal decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD so you can crank up the noise if you’ve got a …