Sony has been battling rival HD DVD, backed by a consortium of rivals, with its own Blu-ray, which is included with its PlayStation3, sales of which have helped boost the Japanese electronics giant's position.
Warner Bros said it would only release high-definition DVDs on Sony's Blu-ray format, leaving rivals out in the cold and consumers wanting to buy blockbusters such as 'Harry Potter' and 'I am Legend' with no option but to buy Blu-ray.
The decision by Warner Bros led the HD DVD group to cancel events this week at the key Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The news came as Sony reported that it had sold 1.2m PS3's over Christmas in the US, which means that its next-generation DVD technology is in far more homes than HD DVD.
The Warner Bros deal is another indication that, like in the previous VCR format wars in which the VHS format emerged victorious over Betamax, one of the formats will come out the winner while the other will be consigned to history.
HD DVD is only backed by two studios -- Paramount Pictures, which also owns DreamWorks SKG, and Universal Pictures -- leaving the rest of the field backing Sony's Blu-ray.
The Wareer Bros agreement will effectively give Sony Blu-ray 70% of the market when it comes to studio film releases, which some analysts see as an insurmountable obstacle for HD DVD.
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