There are some companies in the world that aim purely at the upper end of the pay scale. Denon has just released their new DVD-A1UD which costs a staggering $5,879, a price that us debt ridden unemployed mortals can only gape at.

So what does it actually do? Well, it can play Blu-ray discs, SACDs, CDs, DVD-Audio, and DVD-Video. This is Denon’s first Profile 2.0 Ready (BD Live) Blu-ray DVD player and it supports the HDMI 1.3 spec. It can also upscale non-HD sources and can convert signals so that they properly fit 16:9 screens without black bars or distortion. And lets face it, if you can spend this much you definitely have a widescreen TV.

If you go onto YouTube today you may notice something different and although you may be a regular visitor, you could still not notice for half an hour like me. If you don’t want me to spoil it for you (assuming you didn’t read the title of this post) run off to www.youtube.com and see if you can spot anything different, but for those who don’t like a challenge, who are lazy, or never go on YouTube here it is…

YouTube has finally gone widescreen.

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.