Smack-dab in the middle of preparing the latest batch of evaluations of high-definition DVDs, encompassing the competing HD DVD and Blu-ray formats, the news came down: Toshiba, the developer of the HD DVD format, was giving up, meaning Sony wins this high-definition format war with Blu-ray. What this means is still unclear, as high definition is still catching on and some market crystal-gazers think high-def video on demand or some such is just gonna blow little plastic thingies out of the water anyway.

We thought that the change might compel us to go all Blu-ray right away for our latest consumer guide — that's what Universal did, announcing a switch to Blu-ray mere days after the Toshiba announcement, though not soon enough to insure an American Gangster Blu-ray, although we daresay that's coming and in any case we're not too excited about it because we thought American Gangster was pretty blah anyway. But Paramount, which made a controversial HD DVD-exclusive stance a while back, still hasn't revealed its own plans at press time. Which is not to say they're going to stick with HD DVD, just that it's… odd.

And there's still HD DVD product out there… but we imagine it's going to go fast. So among the titles reviewed here, there are a few HD discs that have made a very good impression on us, one abomination,… and one that represents a stupidly (in our opinion) missed opportunity.

Read the reviews.