We are still into DVD’s.  As parents of a 3 and 10 year old, it is much easier to let the kids handle the DVD’s.  They can watch both in the home and car.  So we purchase a lot of programming suitable for them in that format.

As a result, most of the adult fare is either purchased or rented (mostly) in DVD format.  We have not made the jump to Blu-ray as the extra resolution doesn’t really add enough to the viewing experience to justify the addition expense (esp. at purchase).

We do most of our viewing on a 55-inch, 120 MHz, 1080p/24 capable set, but 480i is good enough for us.  We really do enjoy the HD programming from the networks, but not enough to pay for Blu-ray.

We will miss DVDs immensely.  Can’t stream in a car.

Did you ever check out the prices for Blu-ray at Best Buy, $34 for a movie are they nuts, who pays these prices? Just like Blockbuster that made all there money on late fees and is now out of business Best Buy will be out of all disc sale business because no one is buying from them. There is a price point were people will buy and there is a point were they will not, BB has found the will not buy point. Cable and satellite pay per view is another joke they charge $5 to see a movie and won’t even let you keep it on your DVR. $3 for pay per view would triple or more there income for this service adding big to there bottom line. Put a flag in the signal so a copy can’t be made but let me keep it on my DVR, I paid you for it why can’t I watch it more than once.

I think this is more indicative of what’s going on with Best Buy than what’s going on with physical media… to an extent.

I’m sure that Best Buy is seeing less and less people come in to browse their media aisles.  B&M stores have to offer something substantial in the face of online sales these days, beyond just the idea that someone can buy it and drive home with it right then.  There’s quite often some benefit to being in the physical presence of the item you’re buying, some aesthetic sense that you have to be in person to capture, or some functionality or content that can be ascertained in person that is more difficult to do remotely.  That just isn’t true for physical format digital media.  Anything you need to know you can find online, most often things that you *can’t* find in a store looking at the physical box.  So, in that case, it comes down to how much the person cares about the B&M “experience” vs. the online “experience”, and Best Buy can’t really do anything about that.

Hardware is one of those things that provides a (potential) material benefit to someone willing to drive out and see it in person, so the move makes sense on that level.  I’m not sure if it will drive traffic like they hope, but it will be interesting to see.

As for what this says about physical media, it’s a harbinger of its decline, for sure.  But decline from total dominance doesn’t mean death.  I think there’s still a place for physical media for some time to come.  Blu-Ray will have a full, if not quite so ubiquitous, life.

You can think of Blu-Ray and Streaming as sort of co-formats that are (individually) about the maturity level that DVD was in ‘99-‘00.  There’s still a huge content gap that will keep DVD alive until either Blu-Ray can infiltrate its low-end niche, or easily accessible Streaming becomes commonplace.

At any rate, as I started my DVD collection in college I’ve always kept them in a disc binder for easy storage and transportation, so I’ve always had my collection under control.  I’ve also done what Mitri has done, ripping my movies to stream with SageTV, so I barely interact with those discs anymore anyway.  Bring on the streaming, I’m format independent.

i’m a person in the middle. i have a reasonable set-up. i use windows media center to stream media through my house. less clutter. i get a dvd and store it on my hdd to stream through my media center.

it keeps the quality of the disc but its streamed content. granted its not over the internet streaming(ie netflix,etc..) which is highly compressed but there are places to download good quality movie files. its a matter of the source you get it from and how you do it. streaming good quality hd is only possible in certain places i had verizon fios in Pittsburgh, PA with my speed of 20/5 at that time the highest residential available was 50/20 so the speed capable is there. its a matter of if the source is taking advantage of it as far as streaming goes. downloading may take a while to get it done but the quality can be there if you have the space for it.

Streaming is crap, I will only purchase (from Amazon) or rent Blu-ray. I am so sick and tired of hearing of it’s demise.  If I’m ever stuck having to stream my content with glorious VHS quality And over compressed Dolby sound is the day I sell my Home Theater. I feel like I’m living in some parallel universe. Nobody cares about audio quality anymore. The stores don’t even try to demonstrate it properly if at all. What should be a portable music solution is now the master reference for audio. We finally have a medium that can produce the best video and audio ever and people are not taking to it?  Your too lazy to get up off your fat a/& and put a disc into the player? How much is Apple and the other tech companies paying for this 24-7 coverage of downloads and the like?