Las Vegas (NV) - Late last week at CES, Andy Parsons, president of the Blu-ray Disc Association announced that 2008 was a banner year for Blu-Ray sales. Surpassing the adoption rate of DVDs, CDs and HDTVs (as well as several other common household technologies), Blu-Ray sales topped 28.6 million in the 4th quarter alone (up from 9.5 million a year earlier). Top seller was Dark Knight.


In 2008 there were 10.7 million Blu-ray capable players in the United States, including 6 million Sony PlayStation 3 units. In the same three-year timeframe after release, DVD players in the 1990s totaled only 5.4 million. If Sony PS3s are excluded, the number of Blu-ray stand-alone players sits at 4.7 million, though 40 million homes have HDTVs meaning there is already much room for growth.

There were 18 new Blu-ray players announced at this year's CES. Sharp had an HDTV with a built-in Blu-ray player, and Panasonic announced the world's first portable player (the DMP-B15-P). Eleven of the new players have BD-Live, which lets the player connect to the Internet for interactive features like gaming, movie trailers and even chats with filmmakers.

Blu-ray sales still account for a small percentage of new movie sales. In 2008, Americans spent $21.6 billion on DVDs and $750 million on Blu-ray discs (3.5% relative).

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UPDATED: January 14, 2009 - 9:38am CST
In related news, Microsoft reaffirmed late last week in a Q&A session that Blu-ray is not a requested feature in Xbox 360. As such, the popular player will not be playing Blu-ray anytime soon (if ever). Microsoft's president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division, Robbie Bach said in the Q&A interview:

Q: It’s been a year now since Blu-ray won the next-generation DVD format wars. When are you guys going to drop the “digital download” line and say, “Let’s just put the technology in the Xbox.”

Bach: We have no plan to do that.

Q: Why not?

Bach: A lot of reasons. It’s not a feature we get a ton of requests for. We really don’t. When you ask people the list of things they want to see us spending time creating in Xbox, Blu-ray is way, way down on the list.

The second thing is, from a technical perspective, it doesn’t help us in the core of what Xbox does, which is in gaming. We can’t have publishers produce games on Blu-ray disc. Because then they won’t play on the 28 million Xboxes we’ve already shipped. So it doesn’t help us in the core gaming space.

The third thing, and this maps to all three of those, is that it costs a lot of money. And so the scenario is, OK, let me get this straight: I’m going to add something to the product that’s going to raise the cost, which means the price goes up, consumers aren’t asking for it, and by the way, my game developers can’t use it.

Oh, and by the way, I have an even better way for you to get high-definition content straight to your TV, between the combination of what we’re doing with Netflix, what we’re doing with (video on demand), we have a great Xbox Live solution. In a way it’s a little bit of a technology looking for an answer. We just have no plans in that space.

Blu-ray

Jan 14, 2009 08:47     

i don't see blu-ray surviving as a format, too much cost involved for only slightly better picture and sound.
anonymous report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -8

RE: Blu-ray anonymous

Jan 14, 2009 09:19     

"slightly better picture and sound. " anonymous - you must be watching blue-ray on an SD TV. lol.
Luke report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +6

Blu-ray price

Jan 14, 2009 09:27     

I think one of the biggest problems is a price of Blu-Ray Disks. Of course another earlier formats had a little better success from the start, but having in mind that Blu-Ray has few times higher price and it's quality can be felt especially on hi-def displays or in films with a lot of special effects, it's too hard time for Blu-Ray. There are already a lot of successors on the market. It's needed a little time, for people to start buying Blu-Ray a little more and more day-by-day, and a time for Blu-Ray, to start price cuts after seeing a little more gain. Having in mind current market situation, the start is not so bad. If blu-ray will survive during year 2009, it will achieve a much better success later.

Tengo report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -4

Reliability of Blu-Ray

Jan 14, 2009 09:34     

When will I be able to buy any old BD and not have to worry whether it will play on WinDVD/PowerDVD or whatever software player?? I own about a dozen HD-DVD but only a couple of BD movies because I've had to wait - sometimes for *months* - for an update to the software in order to play the thing. This happened with 30 Days of Night, Wanted and Across the Universe. I nearly lost my sanity getting the latter to play, finally did it in a specific version of WinDVD, but the menus are all messed up and can only be accessed via the keyboard (no remote or mouse). Honestly, I think all of the early Blu-Ray supporters against HD-DVD should be forced to eat the discs that won't play on my PC. On a more serious note - what's up with this problem?? Is it Cyberlink/Corel who are completely inept? Is Sony changing the rules of the game as far as Blu-Ray standards are concerned? Are the studios messing up with certain titles but not others? If anyone could enlighten me, I'd be really grateful.

Daemonios report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

But..

Jan 14, 2009 10:09     

But according to the last 5 or more articles on TGD about Blu-ray, it's a failing format that is on it's way out... These numbers seem to say otherwise! Oh, who should I believe? -_- Surely, TGD, your articles about BR were based on facts, and not just your opinion... Right? *cough*
P report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Your wrong

Jan 14, 2009 10:15     

I just got one and people that say there is little difference are totally wrong and need glasses. I compared Superman returns BR, DV and DVD Upscale at the same time with the same scene and there is a major difference. I love it and will not choose DVD again unless it is not on BR and I really have to see it.
Norm report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4

This is a BS marketing statistic

Jan 14, 2009 10:44     

because half of sales are attributed to the PS3
09 F9 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Blu-ray rocks

Jan 14, 2009 10:46     

Slightly better? You haven't seen my TV, then. Blu-ray is amazing. It is so much more fun, now, to watch movies.
RFrost report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Blu-ray's best feature

Jan 14, 2009 10:49     

The best feature of Blu-ray is the improved (more secure) DRM over DVD. This is a great benefit.
Voice of Reason report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Blu-ray

Jan 14, 2009 11:01     

I love the comments on how people think blu-ray is going to die. Anyone with good vision and hearing can notice VERY apparent differences between dvd video and audio quality. Have you not seen a side-by-side comparison!? I own transformers on both and let me tell you, there is a difference one well worth the few extra bucks.
Tony report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4

"slightly" better picture and sound? Wow... it's am...

Jan 14, 2009 11:05     

"slightly" better picture and sound? Wow... it's amazing how clear the picture is. I love mine. It's hard to go back to DVD when Blu-Ray looks so damn good. You should go and look at it again. And it definitely looks better when it's in _your_ living room, and not in some store.
stephen report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Response to anonymous

Jan 14, 2009 11:55     

That was the same as the transition from VHS to DVD
Dan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

BD Value

Jan 14, 2009 12:54     

Some comment on the price of BD Discs as too high. It's been a bit since I've bought music, but I still see that CD's cost about $20.00. When you consider the fact that CD's offer around 600Mb of data, and really nothing more than music I think 10 bucks more for a BD is a fairly good deal. Also, I think most people have a Netflix or Blockbuster account so watching ANY BD movie is already built into the cost of your $15/month rental bill. Then on top of this, BD-Live can offer users updated content! That's definitely worth much more than a $20 CD. So, you've got 50GB of data on the disc, access to online downloadable live features, the best picture and sound for your new HDTV, a Netflix account to access all discs available. So, compared to the cost of a CD, I think the cost of a BD disc at an average of $30.00 is quite fair.

phil report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Assuming Sony would let them?

Jan 14, 2009 16:39     

I'm not sure Sony would license Blu Ray for use with a 360 add-on. Assuming it'd cost around $150 like the HD DVD drive did, that's one of the PS3's main justifications for the price difference gone. I really wonder whether that could be behind Mr. Bach's comments? Does anyone else think it seems more than a little odd that all the reasons given for not producing a Blu Ray drive would also have applied to the HD DVD add-on, yet they still made that? Perhaps that's a question that should have been posed?

Ray Von report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

@phil

Jan 14, 2009 17:59     

You can take Sony's presence out of your mouth now.
RockHop report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

It's here, get used to it...

Jan 14, 2009 21:01     

BD won the war. In terms of "quality over HD DVD", or "it won't play, blah blah blah", or "the cost is too high" mess... none of this matters. BD is what we have for high def right now. It's what we're going to have for high def as far as discs are concerned for now. All these arguments about what they like and dislike don't matter. It's like saying, "i don't like gasoline cars, i want one that runs off hydrogen". Well guess what? They don't sell those right now, so either drive to work in your gasoline powered car or hoof it. BD works for high def. I've been watching it since the war started, and I have both type players. There's nothing so bad about it that you can't enjoy the movies. If you're having problems with it, then you're probably doing something wrong or your equipment isn't up to standard cause the mass public doesn't have this problem. And cost? I just went to walmart the other day and found an entire section of BD movies, all $10. Think I spent like $70 just on that trip. If BD was so horrible or was so difficult to get working, nobody would be buying it.

pk report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Blu-ray is dead on arrival. It's a joke. Incompatib...

Jan 14, 2009 23:08     

Blu-ray is dead on arrival. It's a joke. Incompatible players and disc. Expensive as hell blank discs that only store 25gb in an age of 1500GB hard drives that can be bought for $125. It's too little, too late, too expensive and not done right (the players will have to change once again to support home 3D movies in the future). What's up with these guys? They tried so hard to reap benefits from early adopters they forgot people want solid, cheap, worry-free solutions that last a long time. Blu-ray it ain't for me. I'll wait for solid state or something else. If I have to wait forever, let it be. HDTV transmission and HD internet content is good enough for me and my 1080p monitors and TV.

SupportAMD report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Dead on Arrival .... looks like a joke.

Jan 16, 2009 03:24     

@ SupportAMD You can wait for Solid state or something. However time wont pause or wait. For now BR is good source for video, so can use it. However in future someting new come, its ok. I remeber with CD & DVD were expensive in start. However with time became cheeper and popular, i'll see same with BR in the future.
Raul report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1