Days after Walmart announced that it would prefer if HD-DVD didn’t exist. HD-DVD is officially dead. Toshiba has announced that it will discontinue the HD-DVD format. For -somewhat- proud Blu-Ray owners like myself, this hopefully means that the cost of movies and accessories et al. will continue to drop, as well the availability of movies should increase as well.

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So now the questions for HD-DVD owners are:

Question: What should you do if you own an HD-DVD player?

Answer: Punch whoever told you to buy it.

Question: What should I do with my HD-DVD player?

Answer: Since it has no value, I say keep it. You can build a cheap library for it as prices crash. Of course this precludes you from being able to play the movies at your friends house since they will inevitably own a BD player.

Question: Should I run out and buy a Blu-Ray player?

Answer: Probably not. Prices should drop immensely in the next few months.

Question: Is this all WalMart’s fault?

Answer: No! They just confirmed what you should have figured out in the first place.

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The questions for Blu-Ray owners are no more complicated then ever before:

Question: Did I just win?

Answer: Yes and no. You certainly picked the right player, but direct downloads to set top boxes will be just around the corner. Your BD player may be obsolete before its time.

Question: If this direct download comes to be, should I make sure that my home theatre is on my network?

Answer: Yes.

Question: I can still make fun of people who bought HD-DVD right?

Answer: Yes you can, and you absolutely should.

Question: When will the movies that are only on HD-DVD be made available on BD?

Answer: My best guess -which probably isn’t any better than yours- is that the forfeit by HD-DVD will absolve Universal and Paramount from their contracts. It will take a few months for the movies to become available on Blu-Ray. At the latest I would expect to see Universal and Paramount movies at the end of the summer movie season.

Question: Should I throw a victory party?

Answer: Yes. You should invite all your HD-DVD friends over and make them watch Crank and Shoot’em Up repeatedly.