Here in the US, independent distributor Echo Bridge has announced their initial slate of high-def releases – and they’re also exclusively Blu-ray. They’re planning to bargain price their releases at $14.95, with six titles due April 1, 2008. The titles are the theatrical releases The Last Sentinel and Artie Lange’s Beer League, TV mini-series 10.5: Apocalypse, Category 7: The End of the World, and The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb, and telefilm Blackbeard.

But the biggest news comes from Warner. Warner is celebrating their 85th Anniversary with a large slate of releases in 2008 and 2009 and, of course, after May they’re all Blu-ray exclusive – no more HD DVD. (Well, and DVD of course. ) They’ll be (re-)releasing Special Edition DVD versions of many of their classic films, and Warner intends to release Blu-ray versions day and date with the new DVD versions. The Digital Bits covered the story extensively and Blu-ray.com compiled this nice list of known Blu-ray releases (with some tweaks from me based on The Digital Bits’ coverage):

08Q1

• Bonnie and Clyde: Ultimate Collector’s Edition (also on HD DVD)

08Q2

• Dirty Harry: Ultimate Collector’s Edition Box Set (Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, Dead Pool, and Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows)
• Twister (also on HD DVD)

08Q3

• An American in Paris
• Batman Anthology
• Batman Begins: Ultimate Collector’s Edition
• Gigi
• How the West was Won
• The Dark Night

08Q4

• A Christmas Story: Ultimate Collector’s Edition
• Otis: Uncut

2008

• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• Casablanca
• Clash of the Titans
• Excalibur
• Forbidden Planet
• Heat
• Grand Prix
• The Matrix Trilogy
• Mutiny on the Bounty
• V for Vendetta

2009

• Ben-Hur
• Gone With the Wind
• North by Northwest
• The Wizard of Oz
• Woodstock

And note that this list is not complete, it is just the titles Warner has announced at this time. There will be more titles announced going forward. Additionally, with the movie to Blu-ray and its increased capacity, Warner will be released all of their high-def titles with lossless audio. High-Def Digest also has coverage of the story.

I bet that their 85th Anniversary played a role in Warner’s decision to go Blu-ray exclusively. Not that it had to be BD, but that continuing to support two formats when they new they’d be doing a huge push with a lot of new and catalog titles to celebrate the anniversary would be very expensive. While some of the work could be shared, there is still a lot of unique authoring costs for each format. But now that they are Blu, their big push is going to be very tough for HD DVD to match. The HD DVD camp’s current release slate is anemic at best. And this is just Warner, all the other BD studios have a number of big releases coming.

At the same time, NPD has expanded on the player sales numbers leaked via The Digital Bits earlier this week. Blu-ray’s 93/7 advantage over HD DVD is due more to HD DVD player sales tanking than BD sales increasing. According to NPD’s raw retail data, as published by Home Media Magazine, consumers purchased only 1,758 HD DVD players the week of 1/12, down from 14,558 the previous week. While consumers purchased 21,770 BD players, up from 15,257 the previous week. It remains to be seen how much ground HD DVD can recover in light of Toshiba’s price cuts which took effect on 1/13. Via EngadgetHD.

Furthermore, despite NBC Universal having a fairly good sized pavilion at CES, Universal confirmed to High-Def Digest that they will not be making any HD DVD title announcements at CES, despite having been expected to do so. The previously couple of years have seen a number of Blu-ray and HD DVD titles announced during CES by the various studios, but this year the HD DVD camp has been silent, while the Blu-ray camp has talked up their future plans. It seems that the hD DVD studios have decided to consider their options before committing to any further announcements.

And the persistent rumors that Paramount and Universal will go neutral, and possibly switch to Blu-ray, just won’t go away. They got more fuel today from Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits:

We remain convinced that both Paramount and Universal are moving towards announcing Blu-ray Disc support soon, and we have real reason for that belief, not the least of which is that our sources in this situation are second to none – a fact which should be readily obvious by now. Announcements could happen tomorrow, they could happen next week, they could happen next month. We’d be surprised if it took longer than a month or two. We’re hearing that Universal may not announce until February at the earliest, as we’re given to understand that their contract period with the HD-DVD camp expires at the end of January.

There is even more at the site. Bill is well connected in the industry and he’s had the scoop on a number of issues in the past, so I wouldn’t write off what he has to say too easily. (Via EngadgetHD.)

And the LA Times is reporting that Warner’s move did trigger an exit clause in Paramount’s exclusivity contract with HD DVD.

Warner Bros.’ decision last week to start making movies exclusively for Blu-ray players, rather than HD DVD, triggered an “out” clause in Paramount Pictures’ contract with the HD DVD camp. An industry source said there was a significant possibility that Paramount would exercise that clause. It plans to decide within a month.

It seems they noticed something that I had made note of myself as well:

That enthusiasm appears to be shared by the show’s attendees, who flocked to the numerous Blu-ray displays on the show floor. The numbers were noticeably thinner at similar HD DVD displays.

The Blu-ray and HD DVD pavilions are neighbors – right across from each other. When I hit them on Tuesday I found the Blu-ray pavilion jam-packed. Just navigating through it was rough because of the people packed in watching all the demos, talking to reps, etc. And when they ran their regular demos, on a sweet 103″ Panasonic flat panel, they were well attended, with pretty much all the seats full and people standing around the edges. It was very lively and the energy level was up, even though it was late in the day and everyone was pretty tired by that point.

Conversely, the HD DVD pavilion felt like a ghost town. It was mostly empty. People just kind of meandered around – wandered in and out. There was nothing exciting to see. Unlike Blu-ray, showing off a slew of upcoming players, demos of upcoming titles, etc, there was nothing new in the HD DVD booth. The players on display were existing units. Frankly, the booth was boring. The energy and excitement level was zero – and it was very noticeable with the noise of the BD booth clearly audible from across the way.

To rub salt in the wound, just by coincidence (I asked) the demo area of the BD booth, with that 103″ screen, pointed right at the HD DVD booth. So the entire show all the demos BD is running on a regular basis are blasting the HD DVD booth. Ouch.