Predictions of the death of DVDs were a little premature, as consumer spending on home video entertainment for the first half of 2008 remained flat when compared with the first six months of 2007, according Variety.

Combined sales of standard DVD and Blu-Ray discs were $10.1 billion for the first half of the year. Given the high cost of food and gas, studio executives believe that consumers are finding greater value in DVDs. That’s welcome news to the industry, which last year saw its first decline since the 1970s as overall home video spending dipped 3.1 percent to $22.9 billion.

Blu-Ray discs, having won the high-def format war, are enjoying a surge in 2008, with consumers shelling out $200 million for them in the first half of the year, up 300 percent over the same time last year. Blu-Ray sales account for less than 10 percent of disc sales per title, but that number is sure to keep growing as the format matures.

And while companies like Apple have made a big push into movie downloads, they still represent a small piece of the home video pie. Adams Media Research estimates that $254 million will be spent on legal movie downloads this year, compared with $118 million last year.