No Ron -

It's hardly worth debating; but the news that Walmart planned to drop HD DVD came out about a week ago. Most mainstream news media didn't report that until around 15-16 February.

That was after several others had made similar announcements in the preceding few weeks. One of the major announcements was from Warner Studios, early in January, indicating they would stop distributing HD DVD in May 2008.

There were lots of "opinions" that this meant HD DVD was dead. There were other opinions that predicted that it would survive in some form. Some of the opinions quoted "anonymous spokesman" and appeared possibly to have some access to what "insiders" might be thinking.

Example 22 Jan 2008 (This article also has some comment on DVD players that may still be of interest.)

Microsoft announced on 17 or 18 Feb that they "were not concerned," and promised that HD DVD would remain available for XBox.

Toshiba did not respond officially until 18 Feb when they announced that their decision makers were meeting to consider whether to drop HD DVD.

The actual decision by Toshiba was announced in news reports on 19 Feb (apparently while I was typing my post on that day).

John