Many Blu-ray supporters showed up at IFA 2005 in Berlin with experimental models of their Blu-ray products. Companies such as Hitachi, HP, Nero, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK, and Verbatim.

Sony exhibited a desktop CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disk player which supports various Java-based features allowing user to control menus, network services and games. Play back of a High Density MPEG-2 video (40Mbps) was also showcased.

For the PC market, Panasonic showcased a half-heigh Blu-Ray/DVD Multi drive prototype, as well as a version for notebooks (slim type) with a slot-in tray.

Pioneer demonstrated the highly anticipated BDR-101 drive. The half-height device will support recording of recordable/rewritable Blu-Ray discs (BD-R/RE) at 2x (72 Mbps), recording of DVD-R/+R at 8x and also writing of DVD-RW/+RW at 4x.

It looks like Blu-ray is building momentum, and it helps that so many consumer electronics manufacturers are behind it.