Amazon.com and Microsoft team up to help Indie Filmmakers jump into HD DVD format.

Up to 1,000 new indie titles are to be made available in HD DVD through the CustomFlix DVD on Demand Program. CustomFlix is part of Amazon's company portfolio offering on demand services for independent and enterprise media content owners.

Amazon and Microsoft will provide free authoring and setup services for up to 1,000 selected indie titles. "This collaboration with Microsoft is a great opportunity for independent filmmakers to reach Amazon customers with their films via the HD DVD format," said Peter Faricy, vice president of music and movies at Amazon.com. "By working together with Microsoft and leveraging the proven CustomFlix DVD on Demand model, we can lower the barriers to entry for independent filmmakers and dramatically increase the selection we offer our customers."

There is no word about Toshiba in the announcement of this HD DVD pushing project. The HD DVD format choice may just be based on the lower production cost compared to Blu-ray.

Filmmakers interested in submitting their HD DVD work for consideration as part of the 1,000 HD DVD Indies Project can go to this page on CustomFlix. For the current HD DVD offering of Amazon.com visit this page.