Devron @ Feb 20th 2008 11:14PM

Predictions? This may be the wrong comment to make on this site, but I don't think beating HD-DVD will give the BDA the market share it believes it can get.

I've been listening to different tech outlets (Diggnation, TWiT Network, Revision3, etc.) and without being a snob, it's amazing how often they just spew out wrong info about Blu (as compared to other formats.) That said, I have to think if this is the opinion in the so-called tech community, then what could possibly be going through the heads of all of those people running low def cable streams over composite cables on their Plasma and calling it high def?

I'm an early adopter myself, but having eavesdropped on many conversation over the past few months at Best Buy, I just don't think people will see the difference enough like videophiles do to buy Blu at the rate that we bought DVD. People just aren't buying movies like we did in the mid-late 90s anymore. There are too many other options (Netflix, Torrents, iTunes). Plus, I think people are doing what I did - looking at a wall full of movies and realizing that you may have watched each one no more than three times and wondering what 15.99 * two or three hundred could have looked like in your wallet. Blu will probably never see the numbers that DVD saw.

This may sound like a dumb prediction, but I think that as Apple brings down the price of the iPhone and releases perhaps a "Mini" version, more folks may consider the digital versions of these films. (But they've gotta do something about that 24-hour limit and the price has to get down.)

Last thing - I own about 18 Blu-ray discs. In almost every case, I feel like I'm paying more and getting less. Yes, the HD format is great, but usually when I'm buying a film, I anticipate listening to director's commentary and checking out extras. Very often I've seen day-and-date high def releases come out without the extras that the standard def format has.