Using its headline to refute a earlier statement from Warner Bros. that “the consumer has not ‘clearly’ chosen Blu-ray,” a group of HD DVD supporters is circulating an online petition designed to encourage Warner to reconsider its recent decision to abandon HD DVD for its titles starting this spring.

According to the Web site, as of Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 23) more than 20,000 signatures had been registered since the petition went up nearly three weeks earlier, immediately after Warner’s surprise announcement on the eve of CES.

The informal petition, which was written by HD DVD enthusiast Tudor Cacenco, is also addressed to Universal and Paramount (the last two major studios still offering HD DVD-only titles). It reads, in part:

“HD-DVD is more alive than ever, with cheaper hardware prices, and better technological capabilities, both of which are better for the consumer. I guess Warner feel[s] higher prices and less features are better. The only thing Blu-ray has going for it is 20GB of extra storage space, and a big name like Sony backing it up…”

No word yet from the petitioned studios or either next-gen format camp.