Netflix goes Blu-ray Eliminates HD DVD Titles

Reuters is reporting today that the online DVD rental company Netflix has announced that they will only stock Blu-ray discs. Until now, Netflix has supported both high definition formats. Members could indicate which (or both) of the new format players they own and the priority they would like to receive movies. If someone owns all three types of players, they can select their preference of disc. So if a movie (like Transformers or 300) is released on all three formats, and they prefer HD DVD (or Blu-ray), they can set that as their first priority with the other two as they wish. From their queue, they can switch their preference on a movie by movie basis. Here's the official Email:

You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens.

You can click here to change your format preferences.

We're sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.

With four of the big six movie studios now in the pocket of Blu-ray, it seems more and more companies are abandoning the HD DVD format. Netflix will phase out their stock of HD DVDs by the end of the year. For those of you with HD DVD players, this may be an excellent opportunity to pick up a few used discs on the cheap.