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Understanding & Solutions says it has identified a huge gap in the numbers of homes in Western Europe which have HD-ready screens and the number of those that have the means to play HD content or receive HD content.

The research group predicts that by 2010, some 115m HD-ready screens will be installed in European homes, but only 17m homes will be located within reach of HD broadcast signals.

This, the company claims, will create demand for HD content that will make the PS3's Blu-ray capabilities one of the main reasons to buy one, rather than being viewed simply as an extra.

So successful will the PS3 be - believes Understanding &

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Solutions - it is expected to make up 52 per cent of all HD players by 2010, with sales in excess of 28 million.

A spokesperson told us that having to go out and buy the HD DVD player separately for the Xbox 360 may turn out to be HD DVD's Achilles' heel: making it less robust in competing against Blu-ray which the evidence points towards being favoured by the movie industry.

In the US last year, 90 per cent of the top selling movies were available in Blu-ray, compared with just 20 per cent on HD DVD.

This is backed up by the fact that seven out of eight studios support the Blu-ray format, and five of these do so on an exclusive basis.

With home video sales and rentals making up half of their revenues, movie studios will be looking to HD to sustain those revenue levels.

'In Western Europe, we forecast the total installed base of Blu-ray players and recorders, including PS3 and PC Drives, to have grown to over 45 million by 2010,' said Jim Bottoms, Managing Director, Understanding & Solutions. 'And with Blu-ray accounting for upwards of 75 per cent of all player sales each year, our analysis leads us to conclude that Blu-ray will be the clear winner.'

Sony's PS3 will launch in Europe on 23 March.