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Sales indicate consumers aren’t racing to Blu-ray just yet.

The consumer market was very happy to switch from VHS to DVD, but it appears that the transition to high-definition media isn’t being met with the same enthusiasm.

Any stunted growth of the high-definition generation was previously attributed to the ongoing format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc. But with the format war over and Blu-ray Disc victorious, customers no longer face a format choice.

To the dismay of the Blu-ray Disc industry, acceptance and adoption of the latest in high-definition movie delivery is barely lukewarm. Most expected that the surrender of HD-DVD would trigger a surge for Blu-ray Disc player sales, but instead, sales of Blu-ray Disc hardware fell 40 percent from January to February. The lull in sales didn’t improve much at all, rising only 2 percent from February to March.

Cost is a top factor in the slow adoption of Blu-ray Disc, as even the cheapest player is hundreds more than even the best DVD machine. Additionally, consumers may not immediately see the benefits of upgrading to Blu-ray Disc, which mainly provides increased quality of picture and sound. Features such as chapter skip, multiple language tracks and lack of rewinding tape are already present on DVD.

When consumers are surveyed, an overwhelming number of them say that they aren’t investing in a new next-generation player soon because their current DVD player works well and next-generation players were too expensive.

While sales of Blu-ray Disc players may be stagnant, PlayStation 3 consoles, which include Blue-ray Disc playback, are moving at a decent rate — primarily driven by the explosive growth of gaming. PS3s make up more than 85 percent of Blu-ray players in use this year and the number of stand-alone players and Blu-ray-equipped PCs won’t surpass Sony’s console base until 2013.