Blu-ray is your next-gen DVD format winner

Toshiba - the lone holdout still manufacturing HD DVD players - announced on Tuesday that it would give up manufacturing HD DVD, leaving Blu-ray technology as the standing eight count winner in the next-gen DVD format battle.

Toshiba’s concessions follows an announcement by retail giant Best Buy that they were putting their marketing power behind Blu-ray; Netflix and Wal-Mart have similar commitments in place, and most major movie studios have also backed the technology.

This also means that Sony’s PS3 gaming system - which had been running a distant third in the console wars - will now take a step forward as the only video game console to support HD video’s new dominant technology.

Microsoft had already announced that they have no intentions of manufacturing a standalone Blu-ray player for their XBox360 console any time in the near future.