Whether Blu-ray’s rise to ascendancy will gather the required pace needed before the mainstream adaptation of digital movie downloads arrives is yet to be seen, but sales of HD discs players have performed well year-on-year.

TechRadar reports that annual Blu-ray player sales climbed 72 per cent in 2008 in North America, according to NPD. In Q1 2009 alone 400,000 Blu-ray players were sold, representing a market value of $107.2m.

However, other data has shown that the majority of US consumers are still ignorant about the format, with 58 per cent of 7,000 people surveyed by NPD claiming they were “not very familiar” with the format.

“Blu-ray's superiority used to be difficult for many consumers to grasp,” analyst Russ Crupnick stated. “But when friends rave about it, or demonstrate Blu-ray in their homes, they are selling the benefits in a way that is far more effective than simply viewing an advertisement or seeing it demonstrated at a retail store.”