The HD DVD format is free-falling, as more announcements of support withdrawal appear every day. One week after Warner Brothers Entertainment expressed their full support for the Blu Ray format, the British store chain Woolworths announced it will turn exclusively to selling Blu Ray, which means HD DVD will no longer be available for sale.

The main reason for that: Blu Ray sales managed to outsell HD DVD by ten times over Christmas alone, which is mainly due to the success of the PlayStation3. However, Warner Brother’s decision could have had something to do with it too. The change will take effect in March, when all 820 Woolworths stores will be HD DVD free.

The HD DVD Promotional Group responded to the announcement through a statement: “We have been hugely successful in expanding the number of consumers owning HD DVD players … HD DVD has always enjoyed greater software sales per player than any other HD format … While we’re disappointed by Woolworths’ decision, it is extremely early to spot which format will eventually win,” and concluded that “where consumers have a choice, they choose HD DVD.”

In the meantime, Toshiba remains devoted to the HD DVD format, after the company announced the Super Bowl 30 second ad it had bought for approximately $3 million. And not only that, but Toshiba also cut down on its HD DVD players prices in both U.S. and Europe. Analysts however consider its efforts useless, and say Blu Ray will be this year’s indisputable winner.

Analyst Hiroyuki Shimizu said in Gartner’s Semiconductor DQ Monday Report: “Gartner believes that Toshiba's price-cutting may prolong HD DVD's life a little, but the limited line-up of film titles will inflict fatal damage on the format. Gartner expects that, by the end of 2008, Blu-ray will be the winning format in the consumer market, and the war will be over.”