Well, it is official. Warner has announced today that they will become exclusive developers for the Blu-Ray HD format. What this means for Toshiba's HD-DVD only time will tell.

Does this mean the format war is over? I would say just about. It would probably raise Blu-Ray sales over HD to about 75-80% of the market, thus pretty much having the monopoly.

There is no official word of a payoff of any kind, however, endgadgetHD.com writes "we're hearing that quite a sum was dished out to make this happen."  For most of the people that collect DVDs, they have been watching this format war go on for almost 2 years now with lots of classic Hollywood and White House tactics to sway companies to one side or another. Now that a big part of it is over, we shall see what happens when they clean up the rubble and find whats buried underneath. 

There is still the matter of Universal Pictures siding with HD-DVD right now. Will they change over? Will Paramount go back to Blu-Ray? Still some relevant questions left about this format. Not so much as to whether the war will go on, but rather what how smaller companies will respond to Warner's decision.

For collectors, it will certainly be interesting to see which HD-DVD titles stick around and which may go out of print. I know most will be watching closely to see how Warner makes the change. Warner has been having trouble with mastering Blu-Ray titles recently, so it did not seem likely they would jump the gun so quickly. The Blade Runner Ultimate Suitcase is just one example, which is unfortunate as it you have to open it to make sure you do or do not have the right DVDs inside, thus spoiling any potential future value.

Warner says towards the middle of the year they will start making Blu-Ray DVD's exclusively. Thanks darkblume in our forum for posting the announcement. This is certainly a big day for HD fans.

I personally have not stepped into the HD arena as I see it as, not just an upgrade of a player and DVDs, but rather my whole media center. To me thats a costly upgrade that I cant afford right now. Just having the player is not enough, so I will have to wait on that.

Here are some links to announcements, both by Warner officially, and other websites.

 http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,1700383,00.html

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=803 

 http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSN0432340820080104

http://digg.com/tech_news/Warner_Brothers_Goes_Blu_Ray_Exclusive 

 Well, if you are in the mood to celebrate, there is a nice sale going on at Amazon for up to 50% off on select Blu-Ray titles.

Blu-Ray 50% Off Sale