It’s a pretty exciting week for HD DVD fans out there as two major releases are coming out on Tuesday (at least important to me). First off, Clint Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima” is coming out on Tuesday in HD DVD (it’s also available in Blu-ray). This is the followup movie to Eastwood’s “Flags of our Fathers” which has been available on DVD for several months now.

The second major release this week is the Matrix Trilogy on HD DVD. There are two different packages – one is the “Complete Matrix Trilogy” which features all three Matrix movies on HD DVD and the other is caled the “Ultimate Matrix Collection” which includes the three movies and 2 other discs – “The Animatrix & The Roots of the Matrix” and the “Burley Man Chronicles and the Zion Archive”.

One last editorial comment. I was perusing the Best Buy ad this weekend and I was noticing a disturbing trend. I’ve seen several instances where movies available in both Blu-ray and HD DVD offer different price points for the two formats – with the Blu-ray price always being cheaper than the HD DVD format. Case in point – Letters from Iwo Jima. Best Buy is listing the Blu-ray format at $29.99 while the HD DVD format is listed for $34.99. That’s a good 8.5% markup over the Blu-ray version for what I would imagine is the exact same movie and content. What’s up with that folks? Is it me or is there a conspiracy here in pushing for Blu-ray – especially for those backing both formats. If HD DVD is to have any reasonable chance against Blu-ray, the titles have to be more competitive in pricing. Yes – I am a bit peeved to have to pay more for the HD DVD version but no – that’s not going to necessarily sway me to the Blu-ray camp. What WILL sway me to Blu-ray is if their players become more affordable AND it appears that Blu-ray wins the content wars. Just something to be aware of when it comes to costs. I can’t believe it actually costs the studios more to manufacture HD DVD vs Blu-ray. Utter ridiculousness if you ask me.

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