Wal-mart is desperate to get you buying your movies all over again on Blu-ray. They want you to do it badly, and they’re willing to throw some money in to sweeten the deal.

From June 8th – June 14th if you buy any Blu-ray player, including a Playstation 3, Wal-mart will give you a $100 Wal-mart gift card, which is almost just as good as cash. They will also be making “select” Blu-ray titles only $15 in an effort to get people buying the format.

Last November Wal-mart did something similar to HD-DVD just before it died.

The reason for the promotion is simple – Blu-ray isn’t taking off. Wal-mart hopes getting players into the $200 price range will help.

I doubt it will.

One of the few studios to back the HD-DVD format exclusively was Universal Studios. Because of this, the first season of Heroes came to the doomed format, which I was excited about, since that was player that I had purchased. Unfortunately, HD-DVD went the way of the dinosaur.

So, for those of you not as short-sighted as me who went with Blu-ray, your opportunity to pick up both seasons of Heroes is here.

Universal is kicking off its global entrance into the Blu-ray market with the simultaneous release of the first two seasons of Heroes on August 26, 2008. Obviously it’s a bit early to talk special features, but it’s safe to say that the sets will likely be pretty loaded, much like the HD-DVD version was, with features such as picture-in-picture commentary.

Hmmm…I have a birthday between now and August 26…a PS3 may make an appearance on my list.

I was really hoping that HD-DVD would win out in the high-definition war. I invested in the add-on for my Xbox 360…bought the nice Heroes box set…but it looks like I backed the wrong horse in this race.

Toshiba, the biggest proponent of the format, announced today that they will “no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.” Move aside, folks. Blu-ray is moving in and not going anywhere.

Personally, I would say that if you were waiting for this format war to have a definite winner to rush out and buy up your favorite movies…it’s still not time. I believe that the physical media format is on its way out. In the next couple of years, everything will be digital, and everyone who is grumbling now about having to replentish their movie collection with Blu-ray will be grumbling because they have to buy it all over again online.

That being said…what are PS3’s running now?

If you were wondering which high definition disk format was going to be gracing your television with beautiful HD content – the answer is Blu-Ray Disc from Sony.

HD-DVD has been on life support since Warner Bros. decided to drop the format early this year, in spite of huge sales of sub $200 players during the holiday season. Since then Best Buy has announced that it will be promoting Blu-Ray over HD-DVD, and both Netflix and now Walmart have stated that they will phase the format out.

With Wal-Mart dropping the format, even after pushing it so hard with player sales in Nov. of 2007, it seems clear that there is no going back for HD-DVD. There are even rumors circulating that Toshiba is ready to axe the format entirely in a matter of week.

I am not ashamed to admit that I liked HD-DVD better. I wanted HD-DVD to win – but it is clear that Sony is finally going to pull one out and win a format war. The question now is – will Blu-Ray be up to replacing DVD, or will it simply live its life as a collector’s format ala Laserdisc?

The USA Network HD feed has been available for a while on DirecTV and certain cable providers but up until tonight, nothing on the channel has actually been broadcast in high definition. That all changes tonight with the launch of WWE Monday Night Raw in HD at 9:00pm EST.

The flagship USA show will be the first to be broadcast in HD – and that trend will continue tomorrow when the Sci-Fi Channel’s first HD program will be the WWE show “ECW”.

The WWE has been covering their switch to HD extensively over the last week on their official site.

Dish Network customers are out of luck for WWE in HD at this time – and since I’m a Dish Network customer, I’m not happy about that one bit. So if you feel so inclined, head over to the Dish Network official site and tell them you want USA and Sci-Fi in HD!

Amazon has a really great holiday promotion where customers are allowed to vote on several crazy deals. The most popular deal is offered to a limited number of people, while the other deals are offered to a small group with a “runner-up price”.

I’ve been following the contest, and as of yet have not been selected for any of my offers, but I did notice some very interesting numbers as they relate to the current Hi-Def format wars.

In the Hi-Def show down part of the contest, it was HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray vs. Tivo HD.

As you can see from the picture above, HD-DVD won with 41% of the vote. Tivo HD came in second with 36%, and Blu-Ray came in last with only 23% of the vote. Does this give us a clear indication of which format consumers want more?

Not necessarily, but I do think its a good start. There are several factors that have to be included when looking at a poll like this. One of those factors, is number of PS3s sold. Since there have been over 1 million sold, it is highly possible that some of the people voting for HD-DVD players in this poll already own a Blu-Ray player.

As you can see from the image, I voted for a Blu-Ray player. That’s not because I prefer Blu-Ray. In fact, its just the opposite. I prefer HD-DVD – and I already have a HD-DVD player…and I’m not willing to go above $150 for a player in a format that I don’t think is going to win the format war (Blu-Ray).

My personal preferences aside, while this poll doesn’t necessary (in my opinion) show us that people want HD-DVD INSTEAD of Blu-Ray, it does clearly show that people do WANT HD-DVD. Maybe in addition to Blu-Ray, maybe in place of…either way, it’s a good sign for HD-DVD.

Between this and the Wal-Mart/Best Buy HD-DVD pushes, things should be looking up for the format after the holiday season.