TechSuave

After literally gunning down HD DVD, Blu-ray’s next competitor is the normal DVD who is still used by millions all over the world. So the battle has already begun but the War is far from over.

Now according to Reuters, there has been a significant jump of Blu-ray sales after the extinction on the HD DVD from February onwards. Thats good news for the Blu-ray but when compared to the Disc Sales overall, DVD had like a staggering 95% of the total disc sales and the rest was left for the Blu-ray to feed on. The reason i think for this is because most people already have a good DVD player or a home theatre system with a DVD player and either way you don’t need a HD television to enjoy a DVD.

Blu-ray players are priced high at $350-$400 which is very high compared to a DVD player, so unless that comes down many people won’t opt for the Blu-ray and the prices are expected to come down only by next year. Another reason why Blu-ray won’t be able to assert itself our the DVD is that a DVD is priced so low, infact some DVD players are priced lower than a Blu-ray disc. Sony Playstation 3 does play the Blu-ray disc and so after the demise of the HD DVD, the PS3 sales have picked up, which is good for the Blu-ray, but thats the only avenue from which a player is being sold as most people are genuinely not interested. Laptops are now slowly being made to have a Blu-ray disc player, so thats also another good sign for the Blu-ray. Now I am not sure if people generally have any idea how really good the Blu-ray is and the overall movie experience as compared to the DVD is much much better. I think the Blu-ray prices should go down if they really want people to spend money on a decent player and the Discs. In most developing countries where DVD sales has just picked up over the last few years, it will take a long long time for Blu-ray to be popular.

Blu-ray cannot expect the red carpet treatment enjoyed by the DVD because then there was no competition then. With the HD DVD alive through the Xbox 360 and HD channels ready to stream HD movies etc, it will be a while until we see the Blu-ray actually dominate the Disc sales market.