Netflix says no to HD DVD

HD DVD's coffin gets another nail.

Word was out this morning that Netflix was giving up on HD DVD, but now Netflix is getting personal about it. I just received the following e-mail:

Dear David,

You're receiving this e-mail 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 [phone].

-The Netflix Team

While I'm often accused of being a Blu-ray supporter (I think this e-mail proves I'm not as one-sided as some people might think), the note actually makes me kind of sad. The fact is I'm much more of a renter than a buyer. I always thought (naively) that if I got a hankering to watch an HD DVD on my XBox 360 HD DVD player, I would be able to rent it from Netflix--even if HD DVD went down. Not so much anymore.

Is this the final nail in the coffin? Well, couple this Netflix announcement with Best Buy's announcement that it "will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format" and the end looks very near. Of course, HD DVD fans can remain in denial.