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Universal's "Charlie Wilson" goes to the front line of the format war

Good news has been hard to come by for HD DVD lately, but Universal is putting up a beacon... somewhere on the horizon. The studio has announced that "Charlie Wilson's War" will appear sometime in April in both combo HD DVD / DVD and DVD-only formats. Other than that 2-month out promise, no word on what exclusive features will be coming to the HD DVD version, though. We wonder if more "war" is what this format needs right now. Still, the release of a combo disc fits with a strategy positioning HD DVD as the format for those who still want or need to have DVD discs, and it's a definite sign that Universal hasn't thrown in the towel. All in all, an interesting play -- not as interesting as if Universal sent out the combo disc format only (no DVD release), or even shipped the combo disc in advance of the DVD release; but interesting still. We only wish we didn't have to wait until April to see the outcome.