Looking like it may join a long list of casualties from previous format wars, HD DVD was dealt another humiliating blow this week as American retailers began to make more room on their shelves for its competitor Blu-ray.

Industry insiders believe that the HD DVD format was dealt a mortal blow last week when Warner made the decision to exclusively back the competing Blu-ray format. With the big Hollywood studio having a market share of 20% of all DVD sales it seems as though the writing is on the wall for HD DVD.

The HD DVD consortium, headed by Toshiba, is still receiving backing from Paramount, Universal and Dreamworks although recent statements from Toshiba do not inspire confidence. "We still feel there's some value in HD DVD," and "But we're watching the market closely, waiting to see how sales go."

If Blu-ray emerges as the HD format champion it will be bad news for Toshiba and Microsoft who backed HD DVD, and more importantly, millions of consumers who have invested in HD DVD players and film titles.

A single format will be good news for consumers who up until this point have been reluctant to commit to one of the two formats, and for the industry in general which will surely see an explosion in public interest. Barry Meyer, chairman of Warner Bros had previously warned that "the window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger,"