A £1 million pound ad campaign aims to make Blu-ray a more dominant force in the home movie market.
A massive increase in sales of High Definition televisions over the past two years has provided Blu-ray's interested parties - namely big movie producers and distributors - a chance to persuade owners to exploit their new equipment to the best of its abilities.
The promotion of Blu-ray DVD in the UK is organised by the British Video Association. Its Director General Lavinia Carey, hopes that educating consumers about Blu-ray will increase sales.
Carey commented that "The best way to enjoy films at home is in High Definition and on Blu-ray discs and our goal is to boost understanding of the benefits of Blu-ray in the run up to Christmas."
At present the figures indicate that the majority of home movie viewing is DVD-based. The range of titles available on DVD and the relatively cheap cost of players and discs mean that at present DVD holds a commanding 92% market share.
Whilst Blu-ray sales increased this year by roughly 200% in comparison to the previous year, in total only 3.1 million units sold compared to over 99 million DVD units in the same period.
It is this gap which Blu-ray aims to bridge in the coming years.
Bridging the Impossible?
The main issue claims Helen Davis Jayaleth, Head of Video at Screen Digest, is that a lot of consumers, without full knowledge of Blu-ray's benefits, don't feel that they will be getting something that will deliver an improvement comparable to the VHS/DVD upgrade.
Jayaleth stated: "Clearly the start of a global recession was not the ideal time to launch an upgrade to what many consumers consider to be a perfectly serviceable home entertainment system."
Inevitably, the costs will come down but the prevalence of online DVD rental sites means that industry bodies such as the BVA cannot be sure that cost alone will be enough to persuade consumers to purchase DVD titles they may well already own on Blu-ray.
At present there are numerous online Blu-ray rental websites.
Lovefilm and Blockbuster operate the two largest with a large selection of the titles available to purchase.
Renting Blu-ray titles from online Blu-ray rental websites is often cheaper as most do not charge extra for the privilege.
This proves particularly useful for consumers who have purchased other technology that incorporates a Blu-ray player. PS3 owners for example, are all owners of a Blu-ray player.
Online DVD Rental websites mean they are able to rent games and movies at the same time for the same monthly subscription.
Consumers claim that for Blu-ray sales to reach the dizzy heights that DVDs currently enjoy, the price of the hardware needed to play Blu-ray discs and the cost of the discs themselves needs to fall, persuading people to replace DVD players.
It may need a new generation who only ever know High Definition before Blu-ray renders DVD obsolete or indeed, is rendered obsolete itself.
What is certain though is that it will take more than an advertising campaign to kill off the DVD.
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