Blu-ray has always been fighting against the tide, struggling against high prices, general reluctance to move on from DVDs, and now the “credit crunch” as well. In fact, many people were beginning to think that the victory against HD-DVD may have been in vain due to the apparent lack of consumers, and that the aim of 5 million units to be sold this year was laughable. However it would appear that both parties are in the process of being proved wrong with figures released by Sony showing some interesting truths.

Anybody who is fed up with new formats of media and still has only vinyl switch off your monitor now. Boosted by their success in the High Definition DVD war with Blu-ray they have decided to expand the Blu franchise with Blu-spec CD.

Details are sketchy regarding the actual advantages due to a poorly translated Japanese press release, but what we do know is that it aims to overthrow the CD. Unsurprisingly, they are burned using the Blu Laser Diode (hence the Blu) and even more unsurprisingly they will cost around the $20-$35 mark. Obviously, we don’t know what you are paying for but the general consensus is that it will be significantly better sound quality.

There’s a strange twist to the Blu-spec CD — find out after the break.

I just received an e-mail from Netflix saying that there will be an increase in the subscription fee for unlimited access to Blu-ray movies. The increase is a whopping $1. Assuming they aren’t singling me out, this should effect plenty of Netflix subscribers. This new fee will start on November 5th, 2008. If you don’t more »