Audio Video News

Is Blu-ray in or out? Hot, or not-hot? It seems that pendulum swings daily. Most recently, though, it seems to be looking good for Blu-ray heading into the holiday shopping season.

The Blu-ray Disc Association, made up of manufacturers and movie studios, is quite optimistic. And why not? New blockbuster releases are drawing more and more people into the Blu-ray fold.

Plus, prices of players are finally dropping to the $200 barrier, and features are growing. Many consumers were waiting for Profile 2.0 players, and both Sony and Samsung are releasing firmware updates to their older Profile 1.1 players.

What exactly did the BDA have to say?

"We have good reason to predict that this Q4 sales period will see the Blu-ray Disc revolution take hold in US mainstream markets and we will witness strong sales performance in every other geographical region", said Victor Matsuda, chairman of the BDA global promotions committee. 

"It’s all about consumer awareness — the abundance of choice in players and the awesome lineup of movie titles that Blu-ray offers mainstream home entertainment fans."

Sales are four times higher now than last year (of course, back then, HD DVD was still a strong player in the market).

With more and more movies coming out, particularly ones with features only applicable to Blu-ray, sales should continue to surge. It should be interesting to see if Blu-ray becomes the "must-have" item this holiday season. —Leslie Shapiro

PocketLint

Image courtesy Wikipedia Commons