HD DVD seems to be just about dead. Toshiba is said to be this close to abandoning their own baby. Over the last month, Netflix, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart have decided to back Blu-ray, effectively making Sony's format the de-facto next-gen optical movie format. I'm sure Sony is cheering, while Microsoft isn't all that thrilled, even though they can put on a brave face and claim that they offered their customers choice, didn't force a specific format on them, and downloadable movies are the future anyway - and they have that covered with the Xbox Live Marketplace.
I am still not really convinced that Blu-ray won't eventually be either ignored by consumers who think regular DVDs are good enough, or made irrelevant by on-demand offerings from cable companies, or even Apple with its Apple TV product. However, what worries me is why HD DVD lost and Blu-ray won. It wasn't because the PS3 included Blu-ray, but rather because the Xbox 360 didn't include HD DVD.
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Today marks the beginning of Lent , and instead of pretending that I meaningfully celebrate this pre-holiday period, I have instead decided to give up my recent writing laziness and take this opportunity to start a 40-day series of thoughts about improvements...