High-Def Disc Sales "Ready To Explode"; Starship Troopers Arrives On Blu-ray

This nearly slipped under my radar: Home Media Magazine reported some comments that Warner Home Video President Ron Sanders made at the 16th annual PEVE home entertainment conference in Paris. Sanders waxed about the state of high-def growth in Europe. Some juicy bits:

“We are going from 39 million homes with HDTVs in Europe last year to 139 million by 2012,” he said. “That is an enormous opportunity if we can convert those home into buyers of high-def DVDs.”

“Software sales are ready to explode,” he said, warning that, “This also creates a challenge for the industry because the replication capacity has to catch up with the demand if we are going to fulfill this opportunity.”

The big take-away is that the transition to high-def is going to fuel software sales globally, to the point that demand may overwhelm supply in the short-term. With HD downloads far from being a practical reality, methinks Blu-ray has a nice future in the years to come.

Blu-ray.com is also reporting that "Starship Troopers" will land on the Blu-ray format on July 29. Can't wait to see this guilty pleasure in 1080p. Kudos to Sony for porting over the supplements from the special edition DVD set.