Blu-ray the winner of the DVD war on Main St

By Steve James and Lisa Baertlein

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Toshiba (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) may not have officially given up on its HD DVD format for high definition DVDs, but the word on the street on Sunday was that rival Sony's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research)(SNE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Blu-ray had won the war.

"Blu-ray won. It's fantastic and I trust Sony," said one customer, William, browsing the DVD player aisles at the Best Buy Co (BBY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) store on New York's Fifth Avenue.

"Blu-rays are flying off the shelves, but we have to order if you want HD," said Tania Bonetti, who works in the home theatre section of the store, where DVD players cost from $399 (204 pounds) to almost $1,000.

Another sales assistant, Michael, said: "We still sell HD DVD's but we are telling customers that Blu-ray won."

And in a sign that Main Street has already anointed Sony the winner, Blu-ray disc prices were slashed drastically at both Best Buy and at the next-door Circuit City Stores (CC.N: Quote, Profile, Research), another of America's huge consumer electronics stores.

Both stores' fliers for their U.S. President's Day sales prominently featured select movie titles such as "300", "Ocean's Thirteen" and "The Departed" in Blu-ray format.

"Step into Hi-Def with Blu-ray," said Circuit City's ad, listing discs at $24.99 -- up to $10 less than normal. The ad did not even mention HD DVD format.

Best Buy had the same deals, with some Blu-ray titles as low as $14.99. "I have never seen Blu-rays on sale like this before," said Bonetti at Best Buy.