Josh Z, AVS Forum regular and contributor to both DVD Talk and High-Def Digest, has a new commentary up on High-Def digest.

I'm not going to get in the habit of posting links to other people's opinion pieces. Here at AV Enthusiast that's my job. However, I think Josh's article is insightful, unbiased and, for the most part, right on the money. I also think it should be read by everyone interested in the Blu Ray-HD DVD format war.

If that's you, go read what he has to say about it.

The recent shakeup in the Blu Ray-HD DVD format war has given HD DVD disc sales a nudge, if Amazon's sales figures are any indication.

eProductWars has updated their Blu Ray vs HD DVD page, and HD DVD currently holds the edge in overall sales rank, sales rank of top 25 products and number of titles in the overall DVD sales top 100. HD DVD also enjoys the number one spot in overall electronics sales on Amazon, as the entry level Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player hit that mark this week. The format war certainly picked up momentum last week, with HD DVD getting some much needed help from Paramount. CEDIA is next week, so it won't be long before we find out if either side has any more surprises for us.

The holiday shopping season will be heating up before too long and it will be interesting to see if the HD DVD supporting studios can turn the HD DVD boom in player sales into disc sales.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Steve Nickerson, senior vice president of high definition media, is leaving Warner after a seven year stint.

An official press release has not yet been issued, and no replacement has been named at this time. Nickerson has held his current position since 2006, and was a vocal proponent of supporting both Blu Ray and HD DVD. It remains to be seen how this will affect Warner's position regarding the two formats. Rumors are flying that Warner is making an announcement in two weeks time at CEDIA about what their future plans are to support either both or just one of the HD optical formats. Adding fuel to that fire is Warner's online home video sales have suspended shipping until, you guessed it, September 5, the first day of CEDIA.

Is Warner getting ready to drop another bomb on the format war? Pretty much any announcement they make at CEDIA is going to stir the pot. If I had to guess, I would lean toward Warner making an exclusivity announcement, although the possibility remains that they are going to reaffirm their neutral stance and announce that all HD optical titles will be available in their proprietary Total HD disc format, which supports both Blu Ray and HD DVD on the same disc.

PC World scored an interview with Alan Bell, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Paramount Pictures.

Bell refrains from talking about any financial compensation Paramount received from Toshiba. He seems well informed about the format, and discusses the areas that Paramount feels HD DVD is ahead of Blu Ray in. His list of features that make HD DVD attractive to Paramount include price, stability of specifications and interactivity via HDi and ethernet. He downplays the storage capacity advantage Blu Ray enjoys, citing the 45 gigabyte triple layer disc that Toshiba has in development.

PC World ends the article with Bell stating that the commitment to HD DVD is indefinite.