We just got this note from Netflix:

“You’re receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.”

“While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.”

“Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don’t worry, we will contact you before this happens.”

Now, the editorial team here at Computing Unplugged have both Blu-ray and HD-DVD players. But the idea behind Netflix was to gain access to all movies, not just a subset. Admittedly, HD-DVD is on the ropes, but it wasn’t dead yet. Will this help kill off HD-DVD? Probably.

We need to be critical of Netflix here. We consider this a premature choice, one that should have waited until the format was no longer in production. Now, there’s always going to be some question of what movies are available in HD-DVD and what aren’t.

We think it’s wrong for Netflix to take sides. Their job is to provide movies, not to pick what movies we’re allowed to see.