Samsung expects Sony’s Blu-ray technology to be superseded within five years, despite winning the high definition format war in February. “I think it [Blu-ray] has 5 years left, I certainly wouldn’t give it 10″, Andy Griffiths, Samsung UK’s director of consumer electronics, told website Pocket-lint.

In a demonstration to reporters last week, Toshiba played the same DVD in an XDE player and a standard, $US70 upscaling model on side-by-side LCD HDTVs. The new player produced a subtle but noticeable sharpening of the image.

While half of the survey respondents rated Blu-ray’s quality as ‘much better’ than standard DVD technology, another 40% termed it only ’somewhat better,’ and most are very satisfied with the performance of their current DVD players.

If you don’t already have Season Two on DVD then this set is a must buy, especially at the reasonable street price of $60. However, the calculation gets harder if you already have the standard set from 2004 and/or if you have a Blu-ray player.

We take a look at our top five picks for TV on DVD box sets that are due to be released this month, both nationally and in the United States.