Sales of Blu-ray disks jumped 400% compared to the same period last year -  which given the current credit crunch, the problems that EUK (Entertainment UK) have had recently and subsequently Woolworths and Zavvi going into administration is a suprise.

Almost 1.5m Blu-ray movies were sold in the UK in December, taking the total for 2008 up to 3.7m. Obviously Christmas shopping played a major part in that total, it will be interesting to see if Blu-ray movie sales can continue to grow steadily in 2009.

The top selling Blu-ray disk was not unsurprisingly Dark Knight which has sold 281,000 copies in just three weeks.

2009 sales predictions

Screen Digest predicts Blu-ray disc sales will rise to 17 million units over the next 12 months, accounting for seven per cent of the total disc market whilst DVD will remain popular with 241 million discs being bought by the British Public.

A Japanese company have announced the launch of a hybrid Blu-ray/DVD format in the New Year, allowing people to play their movies in both Blu-ray and regular DVD players.

The disc comprises of a blue laser top layer (25GB), underneath which are 2 DVD layers (8.5GB). They are separated by a semi-reflective film that reflects blue light but lets the red light lasers of DVD players to pass through.

The new disc Blu-ray/DVD format has been created by Infiniti Storage Media and uses hybrid disc technology developed a few years ago by JVC. The advantage of Infinitis new HD format is that the company has put both technologies on the same side – so there is no need to turn the disk over to select the DVD or Blu-ray content.

The first movie released on this format will be “Code Blue emergency helicopter Blu-ray BOX” – one would have thought that the Dark Knight, Iron Man or one of the big blockbuster movies would have been a better bet. We suspect that there may well be more announcements at the CES Show in January – stay tuned for more CES news!

Panasonic has started talking about producing a 3D version of Blu-Ray to be débuted in 2010. Philips have already demoed a 3D TV system that works without the traditional red and green glasses.

Panasonic is working on a Blu-ray Disc capable of storing 2-channel 1080p 3D pictures, along with an HDMI cable to carry the video to a ’suitable’ TV. The best thing about the proposal being made to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), is that Panasonic is using existing Blu-ray and HDMI technology which will help it – and us – avoid another dumb proprietary HD format spat.

Images are encoded with the 2-channel encoder already part of MPEG-4 and the video for right and left eye each offer Full HD resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels. The discs will also be playable on existing Blu-players and Panasonic thinks the techology will be ready for rollout in 2010.

We may not need the 3D glasses but it’s possible we’ll need a TV with the ability to handle 3-D signals. There’s always a catch. Also, with Blu-ray titles still only trickling onto the market after more than 2 years of its release, how long before we see a lot of decent – yes, decent – 3-D titles?-Martin Lynch