Despite winning the recent HD video format war, Sony still faces many challenges in the future. According to new market data from ABI Research, the Blu-ray format still has a lot of rebuilding on its hands before it can safely establish itself into a comfortable market. For more details regarding this, read our full article after the jump.

We all love reading about analyst forecasts, and this may be no exception: an analyst from ABI Research said that about two-thirds of revenues from all high-definition PC drives will come from multiformat drives by 2012. Will this mean that the format wars will come to a stalemate in the near future? Read more in the full article.

Thanks to recent Spartan blockbuster 300, the Blu-ray format has extended its lead over rival HD-DVD in terms of discs and players sold in the United States.

According to Home Media Research, 300 has sold 250,000 copies in HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats combined. Of that figure, 65 percent was credited to Blu-ray while 35 percent was contributed by HD-DVD.

The film is now the biggest-selling HD movie yet. The Spider-Man movies and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End are also expected to sell well during their holiday season releases. Blu-ray is expected to edge HD-DVD in sales again.

Analysts and research groups say that the success of Blu-ray as a format can be credited to Sony's PlayStation 3 game console which has a Blu-ray drive included in its specifications. The distribution of the PS3 broadened the Blu-ray market significantly by growing the user base.

With all the success tallied by the next-gen format groups, some research groups still say that high-definition still isn't enjoying mass support. The ABI Research firm, for one, thinks prices should dip for greater sales to follow.

"There will be downward pressure on prices for players of all types: ABI Research believes that prices will have to drop below $200 before true mass adoption takes off," writes the firm.