Content Available
If you’ve perused your local Best Buy or other big-box electronics retailer, you’ve probably noticed that the Blu-ray collection is still dwarfed by regular DVDs. It’s hundreds of thousands of titles versus a few thousand titles, to which Blu-ray adds in the teens each week. With the majority from the last 30 years. If you’re going strictly for high-def Blu-ray – because we know players will support and upscale standard DVDs just as well – it’s nowhere near the amount you can buy or rent from digital services, whether it be Netflix, Vudu, Amazon, iTunes, CinemaNow, Blockbusters, Xbox 360 or other.
Edge: Digital, against Blu-ray discs; Blu-ray, if factoring in DVD playback

Content Extras
Pay for a download or rental, or cue up a Netflix on-demand movie included in your monthly subscription, and you’ve got it for the taking. No commentaries, no deleted scenes, no previews to sit through – just start watching. That could be exactly what you want. Blu-ray usually gives you a generous amount of bonus material, picture-in-picture commentary, downloadable and interactive “BD-Live” material and more. And managed copy is coming to Blu-ray in 2010, which will allow consumers to legally make one copy of each Blu-ray disc they own.
Edge: Blu-ray (if you’re into the extras sort of thing)

Storage
Some people love to show off their physical disc media collections. Others want as little clutter in their homes as possible. One of the reasons DVD exploded was because of their appeal as a collectable – all the more reason for Hollywood to produce “collector’s editions” and complete TV season box sets. It was the closest thing we had to replicating vinyl record collections. Digital music downloads have created almost a backlash against physical disc collections, sweetening the deal with cool cover art scrolling. Digital video downloads/rentals take up no shelf room, that’s for sure, and services like Amazon’s let you keep your collections on their servers so even the hard-drive shelves of your computer can stay empty. So are you a collector or a de-clutterer?
Edge: Digital

Associated Costs
There are plenty of ways to look at this one. Are Blu-ray discs themselves expensive? On the whole, yeah, but there are always deals to be found. You could go the Netflix route and just rent discs, though you’ll owe a couple or few bucks extra each month depending on your plan. And players? We’re waiting for the more palatable $150 threshold, perhaps, but chances are you’ll shell out $200 to $350 for a quality unit, some of which hold the keys to the digital download/rental kingdom too. Don’t forget about HDMI cables (shop the web if you want to save money) and potential A/V receiver upgrades. With digital? You may have that Netflix subscription, or you’ll likely pay a la carte for TV episodes and movies purchases and downloads, with purchases more in line with DVD pricing (appropriately, since video quality is more in line there). Then there are the computer costs, or other set-top box to go with it – Vudu, Roku, TiVo, etc. Do you like to rent or own?
Edge: Digital, based on component+rental/purchase

Convenience Factors
Digital downloads/rentals are definitely for the on-the-go, portable gadget, ear-bud-wearing generation. Blu-rays stay at home, unless you count bringing discs to a friend’s house as portability; many releases now also include “digital copy” at least. Blu-ray players were noted for super-slow bootup and disc-load times at first, but that’s waning. With physical discs, you worry about scratches. With digital purchases, you worry about hard drive failures (with exceptions like Amazon’s aforementioned cloud-stored library). Digital lends itself to more spontaneous, press-of-a-button viewing nights, as long as your bandwidth is fast enough. Be careful though, some digital rentals only last 24 hours. Still …
Edge: Digital

Overall Thoughts
This one’s what you’d call a push. It really is dependent on personal preferences and viewing habits. If Blu-ray becomes mainstream it’ll be because of the player extras – like Netflix, DLNA server access to your PC’s media, YouTube, and who knows, perhaps full web browsing someday – not because folks are flocking to high-def discs. For dedicated home theater/projection system owners, who realize the quality difference between Blu-ray and everything else, it’s a no-brainer.

As for downloads/rentals to your PC or set-top box, they’ll be just fine for a good amount of people. If you want to check out an Oscar-nominated movie, what’s a few bucks to rent it for a night right from the computer or set-top box? Movies aren’t like music for most – the repeatable viewing isn’t nearly as high a percentage as repeatable listening. You probably bought your favorites for repeat viewing when they came out on DVD. Are you buying them again on Blu-ray? As Gizmodo points out, Billy Madison isn’t any funnier in high-def.

If I’m tossing a coin, my personal choice is for it to land on Blu-ray. Mainly for better concert video experiences, better looks on projection systems, and improving and increasingly fuller-featured players. And a Netflix account doesn’t hurt. Or just get the best-of-all-worlds PlayStation 3 console—in blog-speak, FTW!

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Arlen Schweiger - Managing editor of Electronic House Magazine

Arlen contributes product news items to electronichouse.com along with his role on the print publication. Got a tip? Send it along!