I'm a bit flabbergasted with some of the responses on this thread. First and foremost, this is most definitely a blow to Toshiba, HD-DVD, and just the new hi-def war in general. I don't think you will see movie sales rise dramatically the next few days, but you shouldn't be surprised if that ratio now starts to increase more between Blu-ray and HD-DVD in time.

And for those who throw in DVD as still being "king," yes, yes it is, but what, DVDs started to cost below $100 overnight? From the getgo, people started to buy DVDs? Also, aside from VHS, what else did DVD have to tango with?

Also, this really isn't a three-way dance as people tend to think: It's two southpaws fighting for a chance to get a shot at the champ; sorry, I know that's a corny analysis. The thing is neither has the unanimous studio support, neither has the backing from all electronic makers, neither are below a good value for consumers, and there is market confusion regarding the two. When everything starts to fall in place for one of the two, then can we truly analyze if the hi-def format is pulling its own against DVD.

Not all BDs are single disc releases.  All three Pirates of the Caribbean films have been two disc releases, with the first disc dedicated purely to the video, and the second to extras. The same goes for Spiderman 3. The top tier PQ releases so far have been two disc Blu-Ray releases, along with the occasional single disc release that has few extras.

As for the Lord of the Rings, the movies are roughly four hours each for the extended editions, and I'm not even sure if they could fit one on a single HD DVD.  A blu-Ray release would at least have two discs per film, if not more, considering the amount of extras released with the EEs on DVD, and the fact that they'll problem add even more extras to the HDM releases.  Unless they keep all extras in SD, which would totally suck.

That's another advantage that Blu-Ray's space gives it.  All the extras on PotC3, SM3, and HP5 were in HD, where as most HD DVD releases have SD releases, including the HD DVD version of HP5. 

 I don't think anyone on his right mind will expect Warner's subsidiaries not to follow suit. Expect both New Line and HBO to announce something next week. And don't expect them to announce that they 're going with HDDVD, it will not happen. Most likely they will announce they will also go with Blu-ray... first New Line, later HBO. This will give them better news coverage, especially during CES.

3 announcements is better than 1 group announcement. They are smart... but I might be wrong so lets wait and see.

I have a feeling that both HBO and New Line are going exclusive, but that the president of Warner Bros. Home Video (not the president of Time Warner, the company) has no authority to announce such a move.

NL/HBO has followed Warner'slead in every aspect of this war so far, and I don't see why that would change now.

Also, VideoBusiness is reporting that...

And Maxpower from Blu-Ray.com is saying that....

I think New Line and HBO will make their announcements soon enough (or Time Warner will do it for them), and I'm still holding out for a Blu-Ray specific encode for LotR. :D

So some are on two discs, and they did catch on. Good. 

Now space is not the reason HD-DVD extras on in HD, not if they are on the second disc. They can easily be 1080p, just with the bitrate being 13mbs, same as the main film. It just seems to be studios holding back on extras, the way they just started with blu-ray, and the fact that aside from web features and PiP, few exclusive features are available for release on either format. 

I think you're confusing Warner Bros. with Time Warner.  Time Warner is the parent company, of which both New Line, HBO, and Warner Bros.' are all subsidies.  While NL and HBO often follow Warner Bros.' lead, they are actually independent of Warner Bros., and can do what they want unless mandated by Time Warner.

They may, but those links look like people misreading the press release, which is what the article I linked was correcting. 

 Well, all the HP films came on a single disc for both formats.  I guess Warner didn't want to spend the extra $$$ producing a second disc and a 2-disc case for each HD DVD version of HP5.

Come to think of it, I can't recall a single multidisc Warner release aside from the Blade Runner Ultimate and Collector's editions, for either format. 

And that is pretty much the reason the extras are just SD on the HD-DVD releases, and the bitrate is lower on the blu-ray. 

Hm, the VideoBusiness article cites RonSanders, president of Warner Home Video, and the HDD article cites Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Home Entertainment. I recognize Ron Sanders, but I've never heard of the other guy, and I can't figure out the difference between WHV and WHE.

Actually, the bit about New Line and HBO is bolded in the VB article, whle nothing else is. Strange, to say the least. This is all very confusing.