More people in US with a HD DVD player than Blu-ray

The irony, Blu-ray might have won a very dirty battle against HD DVD last year but a new survey by Harris Interactive suggests the war is still far from over. The percentage of American adults with a HDTV is up from 35 in May 2008 to 47 percent today, but the amount of Americans that own a Blu-ray player is only 7 percent, up from 4 percent a year ago. By comparison, 11 percent of Americans own a machine that plays the now-defunct HD DVD format.

The future for Blu-ray doesn't look to bright, as only 7 percent of non-Blu-ray owners considers to buy a Blu-ray disc player within the next year, down from 9 percent in May 2008.  So why has Blu-ray failed to excite Americans so far? Milton Ellis, VP and senior consultant for Harris Interactive, believes Blu-ray adoption is being hampered by competition from alternative technologies, such as cable and satellite TV and the Internet, all of which offer HD content.

"Consumers today can easily watch high-definition TV channels or use the Internet or video-on-demand to access high-definition movies," Ellis said in a statement. "In the near future, access to high-definition movies may be a download or streaming delivery of one's favorite movies to a home media server that eliminates the need for a Blu-ray player and Blu-ray disc."