Yep, I’m putting my money where my mouth is - my HD DVD player is listed on ebay and my Netflix account has been updated (above). Toshiba may have purchased a $2.7 million Super Bowl ad spot, but that’s the last gasp of a dead format.

In this next-gen optical disc battle, HD DVD “bought” consumers by selling hardware at a loss while the Blu-ray camp “bought” the studios. I’m not discounting or dismissing HD DVD’s technology, but we’ve reached the tipping point in terms of studio support and content. HD DVD could have the best hardware in the world, but without movies it’s not very useful. The quicker the HD DVD camp throws in the towel, the better for everyone.

Interestingly, I’m going back to sitting on the sidelines. I’m not sure I care enough to pay current Blu-ray player prices (unless I “accidentally” buy a PS3), given the HD content I can TiVo or rent via my Xbox 360. Not to mention, 480p DVDs are often good enough. In fact, if the Toshiba HD-A3 booted faster and was slimmer I would have kept it around as an upscaling DVD player.

Moman is fresh out of DVR-ed HD content and wondered if I (or any ZNF readers) have any suggestions on how his family might weather the remainder of the writers strike.

Unfortunately, things will get worse before they get better. Even if a deal is struck soon, it’ll be months before we see fresh content that hasn’t already been written and filmed. And speaking of that content - though I haven’t yet decided if I like it, the Terminator spin-off recently began. Plus Jericho and Lost will premiere shortly. Brent Evans is maintaining a list of other winter series.

I’ve really enjoyed both seasons of Dexter and know Moman will too, but he’s going to have to stay up late and watch it when the kids are sleeping. CBS will be running an edited version during prime time, but I suggest Mo pull the trigger on a Netflix subscription and check out the original. And speaking of previously aired shows, Burn Notice finally showed up on Amazon Unbox and iTunes a few weeks ago - I raced through the entire season on TiVo, iPhone, and MacBook Pro. Highly recommended.

Otherwise, with scripted television and college football mostly over, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time playing Call of Duty 4 and intend to Netflix Firefly. Though, that may have been the case anyway as the studios haven’t been allowing good content to incubate/blossom before pulling the plug. Fortunately for Melissa, she’s content with Bret Michaels, Snoop, and American Idol.

For continued strike coverage, a show status Wiki is being maintained and the LA Times is blogging the situation. Any suggestions for new series, past series, or smart reality content to check out?

Netflix revealed their television set-top box ambitions yesterday. Hacking Netflix spoke directly with CEO Reed Hastings:

Our model is that we don’t want one Netflix-branded box, we want to see 100 Netflix-capable boxes. We want to be embedded in high-def DVD players, Internet games, dedicated set-top boxes, a wide range of options

Given much of the speculation leading up to this point, I’m somewhat surprised they’ve decided to create a Netflix service rather than their box. However, the strategy makes a lot of sense in limiting risk and maximizing exposure. After all, which companies (other than Apple) wouldn’t want Netflix on their Internet-connected television devices?

LG is up first, and has targeted Q2 2008 for delivery of a Netflix-enabled STB. No other details regarding functionality or pricing were made available at this time. No specific details on video streaming pricing were announced either, though the assumptions (Reuters, AP, NY Times) seem to be that the Netflix streaming service would inherit the current web-based model - either a specific number of viewing hours based on dollars spent monthly, or unlimited content. (more…)

First Wal-Mart killed their DVD rental service, and now they’ve shuttered their video download site - prior to it even graduating from beta. Wal-Mart’s eight online customers probably aren’t too upset as they can still: play your videos as many times as you wish on the computer you used to download the videos.

I wasn’t very impressed with the service offering back in February, especially in light of Netflix’s streaming capabilities and the more favorable download terms offered by Amazon Unbox: re-download any of your purchased Unbox videos.

At the end of the day, though, most of us prefer to watch video on a television screen. And it’s yet to be seen which solutions will win out… Not to mention, we still don’t know what hardware Netflix is bringing to the table and at what price.

Initially offered to new customers, Netflix has started providing select, existing subscribers unlimited online viewing. I’m not sure this would be economically viable for Netflix in the long-term… However, I can’t imagine them rescinding the feature once received. Also notable, Netflix’s online library now exceeds “6000 familiar movies and TV episodes.”

Possibly related, on December 19th, Blockbuster applied for a Blockbuster Media Minutes trademark:

CONSUMER LOYALTY INCENTIVE PROGRAM FOR COMMERCIAL, PROMOTIONAL AND/OR ADVERTISING PURPOSES WHERE PARTICIPANTS ACCUMULATE VALUE FROM PURCHASES WHICH CAN BE REDEEMED FOR MERCHANDISE, DISCOUNTS OR CASH PRIZES.

While the description itself doesn’t seem noteworthy, the name seems to describe the innovative method that Netflix utilizes for metered streaming: For every dollar spent per month on a Netflix subscription, that many hours are available for online viewing. Perhaps Blockbuster intends to go down a similar path, leveraging their recently acquired Movielink assets. Or, perhaps it really is just a boring loyalty program.

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs:

• Send a Free Holiday Email Card With Flickr: Brent Evans Geek Tonic
• Predictions - MPEG-4, Mobile TV and More: Connected Home 2 Go
• Impact of the Writers’ Strike on Online Video: Connected Home 2 Go
• DVDPost Clones Netflix’s Website: Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection
• WiMAX and WiFi: Connected Home 2 Go

There seems to be a consolidation of web video services in the works… presumably driven by the costs of hosting and managing these online efforts.

AOL started by announcing plans to dump their higher-def streaming option (”Hi-Q”), saying the user count is: “very small, so small that we haven’t tracked it.â€? Part of the challenge is Windows-only playback coupled with a separate download as barriers to entry. Additionally, I’d argue that making visitors specifically seek out the better quality content also limited their success. Similarly, it appears CBS is opposed to higher def content if it requires a dedicated player: “Last thing you want to do is put another hurdle against people watching network television online.â€? (Realted - Brightcove is shuttering their direct-to-consumer video services.) The crux of this issue may be DRM… Flash video can’t provide the HD resolutions that protected Microsoft WMV can. While Adobe is beta testing H.264-encoded video through the Flash player, it’s not clear that this content is protected in ways that will keep studios calm. And the argument is being made that consumer expectations are lower with web video, that we’d prefer speed and selection over quality.

AOL followed their Hi-Q announcement by ceasing to distribute paid video downloads. Instead, they’re now reselling Amazon Unbox television and movie content. Om reports video will, of course, be featured within video.aol.com… and relevant search results. Over 20,000 Unbox videos are live and the transition should be completed later this week.

And while we’re discussing online video, NBC may have pulled their content from iTunes this weekend but it’s alive and well via Hulu, Amazon Unbox, and now Netflix. I’m surprised they went through with it, and I owe someone $5…