Netflix Throws it Weight Behind Blu-Ray

Netflix (NFLX) Monday hammered one more nail into the coffin of the HD-DVD format, announcing that it will carry high definition videos in the Blu-Ray standard backed by Sony (SNE) and others, but not in HD-DVD standard championed by Toshiba.

The death of HD-DVD has been apparent since the early January announcement from Warner Bros. that it will only support the Blu-Ray standard. Blockbuster (BBI) had announced support of the Blu-Ray standard last summer.

Netflix says it will now buy only by Blu-Ray discs, and will phase out rentals of HD-DVD discs by year end.