Movie studio Paramount today increased the stakes in the next-generation video format wars and announced that it will release physical copies of most of its HD movies exclusively on HD DVD. The decision was made as the movies are typically authored in higher quality video at a lower cost than Blu-Ray and are playable on less expensive HD players, the company said. Internal studios such as DreamWorks Pictures and Nickelodeon are included, but Steven Spielberg's movies for DreamWorks SKG will be exempt and should appear in either Blu-Ray or HD DVD, Paramount added.

The first movie to be released in HD DVD will be Blades of Glory on August 28th but will be followed up by other prominent titles such as Transformers in the fall. Releases in either format for Spielberg films weren't discussed in the company's plans.

The move may be crucial to tipping the balance back towards HD DVD in the near future, as the format has been outsold 2:1 by Blu-Ray partly due to the lack of major movie studio support. Until today, only Universal produced HD DVD with most studios opting either for Blu-Ray alone or selling movies in both formats. Blu-Ray is said to have been helped in large part by Sony's backing, as the company both produces movies and supports the format for its PlayStation 3 console.