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Universal Studios Home Entertainment's support of HD DVD finally has an end date of March 18. Ironically enough, the studio most loyal to the now defunct high definition format will close its multi-hundred run of releases with Atonement.

Previously we were led to believe Charlie Wilson's War would bring a close to HD DVD at Universal after the studio had released cover art and disc specs prior to an official title announcement. Now Universal has removed any sign of an HD DVD version of Charlie Wilson's War from their website, passing the last title honors to Atonement.

Universal's decision may have been influenced by Paramount's move last week. Rather than draw out HD DVD for another month or two, Paramount chose to abruptly end their support with Things We Lost in the Fire and Into the Wild on March 4. Other planned HD DVD titles such as Bee Movie, Sweeney Todd, The Kite Runner, The Jack Ryan Collection, There Will Be Blood, and Cloverfield were canceled. It's widely believed all these titles will appear on Blu-ray Disc by this summer.

Universal has dropped no hints as to when they'll announce their first Blu-ray Disc title, other than to say they will be supporting Sony's high definition format and are working on getting titles ready for release. We'll be sure to inform you of the big announcement once it's made.

Click here to pre-order Atonement on HD DVD at a discounted price from Amazon.com.

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