Blu-ray: Strong Start for 2009

Blu-ray has had a tumultuous past, but after its showing at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which ended Jan. 11, the technology shows great promise.

Disc sales have tripled in the past year, according to The Digital Entertainment Group, an organization made up of movie studios and electronics manufacturers that track the industry. Blu-ray sold 28.6 million discs in the fourth quarter of 2008, and there are 10.7 million Blu-ray players currently in the United States.

The biggest seller was "The Dark Knight," the No. 2 highest grossing motion picture of all time. "The Dark Knight"is the first Blu-ray disc to sell more than one million copies.

These strong sales were also reported by the British Video Association in a post-Christmas report.

With the bounty of new Blu-ray devices splashing into the market, 2009 looks to be a great year for the format, and may catapult it out of relative obscurity and into the mass market.

LG announced the LG BD370 and LG BD390 Network Blu-ray Disc players, which feature on-demand streaming content from Netflix, CinemaNow and YouTube. Samsung released a sexy new model, The BD-P3600, also featuring streaming content and 1GB of internal flash memory, and a hyper-connected Blu-ray home theater setup. Panasonic produced the portable Blu-ray player, and Sharp built Blu-ray into its new LCD TVs.

Meanwhile, prices on connected Blu-ray players have dropped, which should pique consumer's interest in the format.

After a dubious year of sales and recognition, Blu-ray seems to have finally hit its stride. You can expect 2009 to be a stellar year for disc releases, sales and new products supporting the winner of the high-def war. And remember: The more popular a product becomes, the more likely prices will drop even further.