Just stumbled across this today on Tom's Hardware. The Xbox 360 will be getting a Blu-Ray peripheral. I may not have to buy a PS3 after all...

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/xbox-blu-ray-360,5272.html

"After months of rumors and denials, the XBOX 360 with a Blu-ray disc drive is due to be manufactured soon and shipped in Q3 of 2008. Pegatron Technology, an OEM subsidiary of Asustek Computer, is reported to have received the winning order from Microsoft for a Blu-ray equipped XBOX 360.

Earlier reports cited Lite-On as the company with the privilege of building the new console for Microsoft. Lite-On is also currently one of the suppliers of the internal DVD drive fro the XBOX 360.

One of the strong points for Sony’s Playstation 3 has been the integrated Blu-ray player. The PS3 had the ability to draw both gamers and audio/video enthusiast, and this was proving to be a major advantage over its XBOX rival. It is estimated that 85% of Blu-ray players in use are PS3s. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer had admitted that Microsoft had been working on support for Blu-ray under Windows during this year’s Mix08 conference. Rumors began to swirl and many began to expect Microsoft to announce a Blu-ray peripheral for the XBOX 360.

However, Microsoft came out and denied all rumors, stating that they were not exploring any kind of Blu-ray add-on or in talks with Sony about integrating Blu-ray into the XBOX experience. The software giant stated they would continue to invest in its XBOX Live online service as the means of high-definition content delivery. Toshiba received a crushing blow earlier this year at CES that Warner Brothers would be Blu-ray exclusive. This eventually led to Toshiba withdrawing from the HD format war and the demise of the XBOX 360’s HD-DVD add-on. It is interesting to note that sales of the XBOX 360 lagged behind Sony’s PS3 in the month of February, the same month Toshiba withdrew.

I just received this email from Netflix:

"We're Going Blu-ray
Dear ...,

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.

-The Netflix Team"
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This saddens me greatly as it looks like my recently purchased 360 HD-DVD player is now going the way of the Betamax. Could this be the beginning of the end for HD-DVD?

I'm trying to find a way to view 1080p HD-DVDs for the lowest cost. Now that I have a 1080p TV (or will on Wednesday) I would like to take advantage of it for watching HD-DVDs. I currently possess one Xbox 360 Premium and no HD-DVD addon. However, even if I purchase the HD-DVD addon, the best I can hope for is 720p because it isn't an Elite with an HDMI output, and my TV (like most known to man) won't accept 1080p via component. The TV also does not have a VGA input to accept 1920x1080p60 via that route. The options I can think of:

1. Buy the HD-DVD addon for my 360 premium. Live with 720p HD-DVDs.