I have posted on numerous occasions about the ongoing conflict between two competing standards for high definition DVD: HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The problem was like the battle between Beta and VHS all over again with two incompatible and competing standards duking it out. The net result was bad for everyone as the conflict confused consumers and slowed adoption of this next generation technology. The two competing technologies were supported by Toshiba and Sony respectively.
The big news is that Toshiba recently announced the end of HD-DVD. (Here is an article from Forbes.) This means that we are left with one standard, Blu-Ray. Anyone who purchased an HD-DVD player is out of luck as they will go the way of the Betamax. The good news is that this should accelerate adoption of high definition movies since the battle is over and there is no longer confusion over which format to support.