Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer has decided to call it quits on Toshiba’s HD-DVD format, signaling what seems to be the end of the hi-def format war.

“We’ve listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases,” Gary Severson, head of home entertainment for Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores, said in a statement.

Just last week, online rental service Netflix Inc. has said that they will no longer carry rental for HD-DVD, allowing them to go exclusively with Sony’s Blu-ray disc.

With recent support from most studios and retailers, Blu-ray looks to be paving the way for HD-DVD’s grave. Studio support such as Disney, who supported Blu-ray from its early stages and Warner Bros, who has jumped ship to Blu-ray, are major reasons for the recent support.

Although Blu-ray may look to be the only hi-def format in the near future, HD-DVD still has an exclusive contract with Paramount Pictures, who also own DreamWorks and Universal Pictures.

According to the Associated Press, consumers are holding off buying hi-def DVD players until the format war has finally been decided.

Certainly the format war hasn’t completely ended, but with recent events, consumers are able to see which one will stay and may finally decide to go hi-def.

Tags: Blu-ray, hd-dvd, wal-mart

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1 Comment » Wade Larson on February 16, 2008 8:10 am Looks like game over for HD-DVD. It’s on it’s last life with no more quarters. RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.