To aggravate matters further for the Blu-ray format, HD television sets themselves had in the same era been embroiled in a protracted format war of their own, to wit plasma vs LCD/LED screen technology, with all the similar consequences that war entailed and ultimately (and definitively) decided in favor of the more energy efficient LCD/LED technology around 2010, with the adoption of the HD television only taking off for real afterwards. At the time of the introduction of Blu-ray, SD television sets were still the norm, before the phasing-out stage of these started in earnest from 2010 onward, with the majority of TV set owners waiting for their old TV sets (and players for that matter) to give out – and prices of the new HD ones to fall – before replacing them with HD sets, only then deeming the purchase of Blu-ray discs more sensible. Not only this, but customers needed to replace both their standard DVD players and SD television sets, neither technically capable to display HD productions, with HD ones as well – just being mass marketed and still quite expensive at the time – in order to fully enjoy the intrinsic qualities of the Blu-ray format. The Star Trek franchise had bet on the wrong horse when it decided to go with the HD DVD format in 2007. In the wake of the format war, customers were wary and reluctant to replace their DVD collections and their home media format players with Blu-ray ones initially set at a much higher price-point, something they themselves refer to as 'double-dipping' – and which in the case of Star Trek held especially true for those who had already invested in the expensive 2007 TOS-R Season 1 HD DVD release and its equally expensive associated player, the remastered HD portion of the release not playable afterwards on Blu-ray players with the Star Trek release thereby essentially becoming 'dumpster fodder'.

Launched in 2006, it competed briefly, but fiercely, in a format war from 2006 to 2008 with HD DVD from competitor Toshiba before becoming the standardized high-definition home entertainment format.Įven though far superior in intrinsic quality to the standard-definition (SD) DVD format, also a Sony/Philips product somewhat ironically, the Blu-ray Disc was meant to replace (as was the HD DVD for that matter), the format did not quite achieve the hoped-for commercial success its predecessor had enjoyed in the prior two decades, it becoming a near universal standard – and home presence – in the process. Blu-ray Disc ( BD or Blu-ray) is a digital high-definition (HD) home video entertainment format on the standard 120mm optical discs typically offering 2K HD 1080p resolution digital video, which was developed by a consortium that included, among others, Sony and Philips.

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