Bentonville (AR) - Perhaps the biggest blow to HD DVD yet, the country's largest retailer Wal-Mart announced today it will drop HD DVD and focus exclusively on Blu-ray in the high definition video battle.

Wal-Mart joins a round of big-name players in the home media market that have recently sided with Blu-ray.  Online video rental service Netflix announced its decision earlier this month, followed pretty much simultaneously from Best Buy, though the retailer has not finalized its HD move.

"We've listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases," said Wal-Mart's head of home entertainment Gary Severson.

Before this month, almost all retailers still supported both formats, though many began to tilt away from HD DVD.  Wal-Mart said it will begin phasing out all HD DVD products by June.

Ouch

Feb 15, 2008 14:37     

Does Toshiba not care that everyone is laughing at them, and that they're losing millions of dollars? Pull the damn plug and let it go in peace...
P report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Looking forward

Feb 15, 2008 15:00     

Looking forward to the clearance sales!
Shaun report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

And that's the way the cookie crumbles...

Feb 15, 2008 15:19     

I can hear the fat lady is warming up. After all the news this week, how can HD-DVD recover? Even if they give the players away, they still don't have the content or the major resellers to push it. I felt when I bought my $98 HD-A2 in October that HD-DVD was already sinking. But since I always planned on buying a PS3, and there was a movie I wanted in HD-DVD, I didn't really care. I'll just give the HD deck to my in-laws as an up-converting DVD deck.

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Whats HD DVD agian?

Feb 15, 2008 15:38     

Wasn't HD DVD that hudge casset tape that didn't fit into a VHS player? I don't know, it just seems to me that this format has been dead for so long I can't remember...
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No Surprise Here.......................

Feb 15, 2008 16:13     

This really is old news. HD-DVD has been DEAD for months now. Seriously, how many times can you kill a DEAD cow???? I don't feel sorry for any loser that bought into this junk. The only people that really wanted this format to win were the Pirate people. Everyone knows that HD-DVD was broken and that's why their is so much crying going on. It's ok people, Bluray looks much better and it has more storage space and more options available. So relax, lay back, light up a stoggie and start snapping them HD-DVD's one by one till their all gone. Keep your head high cause now you got something new and Better to look foward to.

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Freedom

Feb 15, 2008 16:15     

Say goodbye to your freedom, every Blu-Ray player will require their vicious DRM BD Plus, and who knows what will happen with PC Drives being connected to the internet, Sony has no respect for our privacy, look up the BMG Rootkit scandal for proof.
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What a Shame

Feb 15, 2008 16:45     

Man, its been hit after hit for HD DVD. I am not one to side with either one, I don't have either one because I stream my data through my bandwidth. It's a shame to see quality tech lose like this however.
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HD DVD had to die...

Feb 15, 2008 16:49     

Betamax was better than VHS. HD DVD is better than Blu-Ray. Just goes to figure that the better format will always seem to lose out to consumer stupidity.
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Nail in the Coffin

Feb 15, 2008 17:15     

I've stayed completely out of the debate until today, but now it is official, the Fat Lady (or fattest Big Box) just sang, it's over for HD-DVD.
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That's it... it's finally over.

Feb 15, 2008 17:17     

And myself I'm glad - at least we can move on. People will be much more confident adopting HD movies and go for the BD players. This way we'll finally start seeing more support and more content in the HD disc format.
Luke report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Wal-Mart SUCKS

Feb 16, 2008 08:21     

I'm a manager for Wal Mart, one thing I've learned is this corp. giant is the antichrist.
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We're all losers now!

Feb 16, 2008 08:43     

Well, with a monopoly on the only HD technology available, we can now look forward to SONY charging and arm and a leg to hardware manufacturers for the internals of their blu-ray players. Which, of course, will be passed on to you and me.
E report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

you're wrong mark

Feb 16, 2008 09:56     

hey mark you have been wrong about hd dvd beating blu ray....want to take it back or are you still going to talk crap about sony?
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