2008 was widely considered a great year for the Blu-ray disc, which even though got off to a slow start, the public understood that it brings an improved image quality and began buying the product.

The Blu-ray disc managed to record significantly bigger sales than the rival format HD-DVD, which lost the support of Warner Bros. Its creator, Toshiba, announced last year that it was going to stop making players for these HD-DVD discs, leaving Blu-ray as the only high definition disc on the market. Last year’s fourth quarter recorded sales of over 28.5 million units, as reported by The Digital Entertainment Group. Considering the fact that 2007 recorded sales of only 9.5 million, last year’s boom should put thing in perspective when it comes to the direction for the future.

Mr. Andy Parsons, president of the Blu-ray Disc Association, stated that the biggest seller was without a doubt The Dark Knight, which is also the first to reach 1 million sold copies. He also added that the Blu-ray is showing a significantly faster adoption rate than the DVD, the CD and several other devices. The improved quality attracted many entertainment enthusiasts, who stepped away from CDs and DVDs.

There is a lot of potential in this format, as there are more than 40 million households with high-definition TV sets. At this point, the DVD is still the preferred choice of the American consumer, with 2008’s figures showing that $750 million were spent on Blu-ray discs and $21.6 billion on DVDs.