Having emerged victorious from a protracted conflict with its High Definition rival 'HD DVD', Blu-ray now faces another battle with an unlikely adversary, the good old fashioned DVD.
With a shiny new format available, consumers were expected to dutifully wave a tearful goodbye to their DVD players and their DVD film collection.
Two trends have emerged however which are putting a serious dent into Blu-ray's penetration of the market. Firstly, many of us appreciate the quality of Blu-ray but are quite happy to hang on to our collection of DVD's. It didn't help that Blu-ray players were initially quite costly and films in the new format are still relatively expensive, offering no where near the choice of DVD. Even discounted Blu-ray films can't come close to the growing number of back catalogue films for £2.99 at your local supermarket.
Secondly, a growing number of manufacturers have long appreciated the potential for 'upscaling' technology as an intermediate solution. Upscaling DVD players use complex mathematical algorithms to enhance DVD quality. About a third of DVD players are now being sold with upscaling technology, which continues to improve.
A Harris poll recently conducted in the US suggests that only 4% of the population own a Blu-ray player while only 9% that don't, plan to buy one in the next 12 months. Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently stated; "We're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace." in response to why Blu-ray drives were not appearing on their notebooks. Of course, Apple have their own HD platform in iTunes and herein lies another potential threat to Blu-ray - streaming and downloading. When the quality of streamed or downloaded HD improves, Blu-ray will face another serious threat.
Many of us here in the UK also have the option of HD films through a 'Virgin Media HD' or 'Sky HD' subscription to get an occasional high definition fix. Virgin have recently generated a fair amount of interest with their 1p HD film offer. Competition is also set to increase with the introduction of the 'Freesat' free-to-view service which offers some HD programming along with BT 'Vision' which is increasing its HD content with more feature films.
Ironically, the manufacturer most closely associated with the failed HD DVD format, Toshiba, may have the last laugh. Toshiba are hoping to get a slice of the HD market with their XDE (extended definition) upscaling technology. XDE technology has the ability to upscale TV images as well as conventional DVD's to 720p, 1080i or 1080p. The budget XD-E500 DVD player is the first UK product to feature XDE technology with Toshiba hoping to tempt consumers with a much more affordable HD experience.
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Toshiba XDE upscaling technology
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