It may not be supported by as many studios and even the early adopters appear tentative but HD-DVD has emphatically beaten Blu-ray in the release department.

According to Home Media Retailing, "a trickle of early adopters came to buy, even though only three movies currently are available."

Those movies are HD versions of The Last Samurai, Phantom of the Opera and Serenity. More movies will become available in the new format in the coming weeks.

Toshiba is currently shipping 10,000 players. According to Toshiba Marketing VP, Jodi Sally, "Retailers who have received players to date have reported very positive sales. I am very pleased to see the demand for high-definition content being fulfilled to the early adopters with our HD DVD players."

There weren't any first-day sales numbers.

Lastly, mega-retailer Wal-Mart has started taking pre-orders of "the cheaper of the two Toshiba players, the HD-D1, on its Web site," and it expects to have those players available on April 21.

Dont't forget to also check out: Ben-Hur, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, Serenity, Last Samurai [HD], Phantom of the Opera [HD], Serenity [HD]

Ben-Hur was released November 18th, 1959 and stars Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Sam Jaffe. The film is directed by William Wyler.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's the Phantom of the Opera was released December 25th, 2004 and stars Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson, Minnie Driver, Ciarán Hinds, Simon Callow, Victor McGuire. The film is directed by Joel Schumacher.

Serenity was released September 30th, 2005 and stars Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau. The film is directed by Joss Whedon.