In an article posted today on Tech.co.uk, BDA chairman Frank Simonis implies that the HD DVD Promotional Group's recent announcement that 51 gigabyte triple layer discs are on the horizon is merely a publicity stunt.

Simonis is quoted as saying "...we believe they are very much in a reactive mood. Based on their format one would expect that a triple layer disc is three times a HD DVD single layer adding up to 45 GB. Now suddenly they change it to 51GB for promotional reasons." Wait a second Frank, who's in reactive mode? The current production specification for HD DVD is 15 gigabytes per layer, but 17 gigabyte layers were proposed by Toshiba back in January, and were just approved by the DVD Forum. Know your enemy. Frank goes on to cast doubt on Toshiba's ability to produce said discs and talks up Blu Ray a little.

HD DVD has taken the last two rounds of this fight, with the Paramount announcement and news of increased disc capacity. HD DVD is gaining momentum, while Blu Ray is still waiting on Fox and Disney to deliver the long-awaited uppercut.

In a move that isn't much of a surprise, retailer Target is quietly increasing shelf space allocated for Blu Ray discs.

Target announced in July that they would sell Blu Ray players, but not carry rival HD DVD hardware this holiday season. At the time of the announcement they also made it clear that they would continue to offer their customers movies in both formats. The change in shelf space dedicated to Blu Ray makes sense given their holiday alliance with Sony to exclusively carry Blu Ray hardware. Blu Ray has steadily gained marketshare in 2007, spearheaded by Playstation 3 videogame console sales. HD DVD claims the lead over Blu Ray in installed standalone players, and since Paramount announced exclusive HD DVD support, HD DVD sales have been creeping back upwards. Nielsen sales ratio of discs sold since inception stands at 61% Blu Ray 39% HD DVD as of September 9.

The holiday season is overwhelmingly important for both sides, as we wait to see if Toshiba can capitalize on it's current momentum, or if Sony will grind HD DVD down with it's sheer numbers and retail shelf space advantage.

In an article published today by TWICE, President of Warner Bros. Home Video Ron Sanders stated that Warner has enjoyed strong sales on both formats and would continue to support both.

In the interview, Sanders stated that Warner's TotalHD format, which combines Blu Ray and HD DVD on one disc, was on hold. Sanders said that talks are still ongoing with retailers, but with Warner being the only studio supporting TotalHD one would have to speculate that Warner might not want to drive a disc format that no one else adopts, much less give up the profit margin that would be lost on the expensive to produce TotalHD discs. He did say that he liked the idea of combo players, but expressed concerns that they were at the wrong price point for mass adoption. Sanders did hint that fourth quarter sales will influence whether Warner accepts financial incentives from one side or the other to commit to exclusivity, or remain neutral.

Not to be outdone by fellow Korean consumer electronics manufacturer L.G., Samsung today released more details on it's forthcoming Blu Ray/HD DVD combo player.

The highly anticipated BD-UP5000 will feature support for both BD-J and HDi. It will be a HDMI 1.3 compliant player with support for 1080p24, and will have a Silicon Optix Reon HQV chip onboard for upconversion of standard definition DVDs. Audio support will be present for Dolby Digital+, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, but details are fuzzy on whether or not support will be included for lossless DTS-HD Master Audio.

The Samsung BD-UP5000 will be available sometime in the fourth quarter for a suggested retail of $999.