If one goes by the flurry of announcements made by the Blu-ray Association at CES, the hidef format is successfully weathering the economic storm. In the US, three million of the 10 million-plus Blu-ray players sold to date were purchased during the fourth quarter.

Blu-ray players are now in about 7% of US homes, nearly twice the penetration of DVD at a comparable time in that format’s history. According to statistics compiled by EngadgetHD and Pali Capital, Blu-ray is coming along at a much faster rate than DVD. After two years, about 1.2 million DVD players had been sold, and in that same time frame, an estimated 2.5 million BD players have been sold (excluding PlayStation 3).

At the end of last year – two and a half years after they first became available – there were 10.7 million Blu-ray-capable players in the US, according to research firm DisplaySearch. Three years after the DVD launched in the 90s, there were 5.4 million DVD players.

However, six million of the 10.7 million machines are Sony’s PlayStation 3 game consoles. When those are taken out of the comparison, sales of standalone Blu-ray players are similar to those of DVD players at the same point. Also, the successful DVD-capable PlayStation 2 is hardly ever computed when calculating the installed base of DVD-playback machines.

While US consumers bought 28.6 million BD discs in the fourth quarter of 2008, up from 9.5 million in the previous year, Blu-ray sales are still tiny compared to DVD sales. Americans spent $750 million on Blu-ray discs last year and $21.6 billion on DVDs, according to the Digital Entertainment Group. Warners' The Dark Knight was the first Blu-ray title to exceed one million units sold in the US. There are now 1,100 Blu-ray movies available.

Adams Media Research reckons disc sales would double or triple this year, taking them to more than 50 million. Envisioneering was even more bullish, predicting disc sales would grow by a factor of five or six, potentially taking them up to 150 million by the end of the year. That's very good news for studios, which saw the overall homevid biz decline 5.5% last year despite Blu-ray's growth.

The UK’s home entertainment market is alive and kicking as well, despite difficult trading conditions across the entire retail sector. On the Blu-ray front, disc sales hit a new high in the run-up to Christmas: 1.5 million discs were sold in December alone, up almost 400% against the same period in 2007. In total, the format has sold 3.7 million units in 2008.

In a market where DVD sales have been falling sharply since three years, losing 35% of their value, France is banking on the new format. Industry body Blu-ray Partners France announces that more than 1.36 million Blu-ray movies had been sold in France by the end of November, which represents an increase of 447% growth in year-to-date. The French Blu-ray Disc market generated €38.3 million during this period, which represents 433 % growth in year-to-date. Very encouraging is the surprisingly large share of the Blu-ray version out of the total video sales of titles –18.5% for Warner’s Iron Man, 17.7% for Paramount’s Cloverfield and 16.8% for Fox’s Hitman.

At Las Vegas, manufacturers announced 18 new Blu-ray players, 11 of which have the BD-Live feature, which connects them to the Internet for interactive extras.

Panasonic brought in the BD60, BD80 and BD70V profile 2.0 players that are synchronized with the manufacturer’s Viera-branded HDTVs that enable interactivity with the Internet. The company announced its BT 200 and BT 300 Blu-ray home theater systems that include Amazon’s VOD service, YouTube videos, Picasa music and Bloomberg news.

Panasonic also introduced a portable Blu-ray player (pictured) with 1080p resolution with BD Live functionality, available this summer. Last, but not least, the manufacturer said it is working to bring to home entertainment 3-D technology in Blu-ray by 2010.

Sony said sales of the BD-350 Blu-ray player ranked among the company’s top-selling products in 2008, a 300% increase from the previous year.

Pioneer revealed plans to release three BD-Live Blu-ray players in April: The sub-$300 BDP-120, the sub-$400 BDP-320 and the $600 Elite BDP-23FD. The $250 BDP-120 player comes with BD-Live, a 1GB flash drive, fast disc loading, USB expandable memory that includes bus-powered hard drives. The higher end units will sense picture settings when connected to the company's 9G Kuro plasma, and will adjust video output accordingly.

The two higher-end models will also stream surround sound audio including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio when paired with an upcoming Pioneer Elite receiver. The famed Precision Quartz Lock System can now sync up multichannel, making sure all that sound data is processed. Pioneer also plans to add streaming technologies like that offered by LG's Blu-ray Players in the future.

Samsung showcased three Profile 2.0 BD players, including its flagship wireless player BD-P4600 (pictured) that includes Netflix streaming, 1080p resolution, the latest HD sound quality, and ejects a disc in one second. Samsung also unveiled the HT-BD8200 Blu-ray home theater system that incorporates wireless technology, including wireless subwoofer, compatible wireless HDTV and audio system.

LG Electronics introduced two new Network Blu-ray Disc Players (BD370, BD390) and three Network Blu-ray Disc Home Theater Systems (LHB954, LHB977, LHB979) with expanded content options and wireless connectivity. The 2009 Network Blu-ray Disc players with LG's 'NetCast Entertainment Access' offer consumers an array of content-on-demand options through new alliances with CinemaNow and YouTube, as well as access to the growing library of HD streaming titles from Netflix.

LG's alliance with YouTube will allow consumers to stream millions of Web videos directly from the Internet to an LG Network Blu-ray player for viewing on their television (without a personal computer).

Philips announced three new Blu-ray players and, despite Funai licensing the Philips brand in 2009, are true Philips products. The three models include the BDP3010 ($229.99), a Profile 1.1 model, and two BD-Live capable players, the BDP5010 ($249.99) and the BDP7310 ($299.99). We say capable because the BPD5010 is upgradable to BD-Live, while the BDP7310 will be a Profile 2.0 or Live-enabled out of the box. The BDP7310 also offers DivX and WMV playback. All are expected to carry street prices of less than $200 when they're released this spring. Philips also announced the HTS-5100B, a home-theater system with a built-in Blu-ray player that's due out in June.

Sharp unvealed the first high-definition TV set with a built-in Blu-ray playe (pictured). Sharp offerings including Blu-ray Disc players and an AQUOS LCD TV with a built-in Blu-ray Disc player (Blu-ray AQUOS). The company incorporated a BD player into a new line of Aquos HDTVs (37-inch to 52-inch) priced from $1,000. The Japanese manufacturer also unveiled its first profile 2.0 players with BD Live, the BD HP22U and BD HP16U for $299 and $279, respectively.

JVC's first entry into the Blu-ray market, with the standalone XV-BP1, is a BD-Live compatible drive, using Dolby True HD, DTs and DTS HD formats, Dolby Digital Plus, AVCHD, JPEG, MP3, and WMA formats. The player also has an SD slot for a 1GB storage card necessary for BD-Live. It can play the following formats: BD-ROM, BD-R/RE, BD/DVD Hybrid, DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, Audio CD and CD-R/RW. JVC expects to ship the XV-BP1 in March for $299.

Vizio announced its first Blu-ray Disc player, the VBR100, expected to have a street price of less than $150.
The VBR100's low price doesn't appear to sacrifice much in the way of features, either. The player provides 7.1-channel analog output (using a 108MHz/11-bit DAC) and full decoding support for Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and PCM lossless audio formats as well as common lossy audio formats including Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and DTS. The Vizio VBR100 will be available in April.

Story filed 12.01.09