Blu-ray defeated Toshiba's HD DVD format, but many knew that Sony's war still had to start. Several services make it possible to download movies and play them on your TV immediately. These services are considered to be a serious threat to the DVD market and the developing market of Blu-ray discs. Apple TV, Xbox Live and TiVo are the top contenders and could make it nearly impossible for Blu-ray to attain their targeted 50% marketshare by the end of 2008.

To download movies with Xbox Live, TiVo or Apple TV you first have to spend several hundred dollars on special hardware and the services demand some set-up. Secondly these services rely on a fast Internet connection. Blu-ray entertainment requires a higher investment. At first you've to spend a significant amount on players and a HDTV-set. When you got that taken care of you will have to spend a huge amount on collecting a good amount of Blu-ray movies, which are still expensive. The advantage is the high-definition quality Blu-ray provides.

Last January Apple TV was upgraded and now it allows users to browse the online store directly on a TV set. Currently Apple TV is offering 1,000 movies for rental, with about 175 of those in high-definition. Those that you buy can be transferred to a computer, iPod or iPhone. Apple TV is not cheap though, it costs $229 for 40-gigabytes of storage, or $329 for the quadruple. You can store 50 hours of video on the 40GB version.

Microsoft offers 300 movies for rent through their online Xbox Live VoD service. According to Microsoft half of the offered content can be seen in high-definition and they believe their collection is still growing. The cheapest Xbox 360 doesn't include the hard drive you will need to store the videos. To watch movies on your '360' you will need a $350 or $450 investment.

Not so long ago there were rumours of a new Xbox with Blu-ray player, but Microsoft denied this in an official press release. Many still believe that the software giant will come out with a new Xbox, but maybe Microsoft wants to fight the format through their online VoD service... If so, it will be interesting to monitor their movie sales on a monthly basis.

Another service that's on the market right now is the popular digital video recorder TiVo. Some users can rent videos from Amazon's Unbox service; this was made possible last July. TiVo users can download movies directly from the online retailer's library. To use Amazon's library you will need to configure your TiVo recorder. The online retailer has thousands of movies on offer, but they are not in high-def yet. To start using TiVo you need to invest from less than $200 to more than $600.

In the end I believe that these three movie services can defeat Blu-ray as a collective, but not on their own. When you have an Xbox you won't buy Apple TV, and when you will have TiVo you won't use your Xbox to watch movies. But all the services combined will make it nearly impossible for Blu-ray to reach their targeted 50% marketshare by then end of the year. Ofcourse Blu-ray enjoys a good penetration and consumer awareness, but their current price is too high to actually grow from twenty to fifty percent marketshare in a few months.