Blu-ray DVD’s

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How long has it been now, two and a half years, since we’ve been introduced to Blu-ray?  We’ve watched it reign victorious over the less aptly named HD-DVD (seriously, which one earns more street cred by moniker alone?), when studios went Blu-ray only in early 2008, driving the final nail into HD-DVD’s coffin.  And now every movie released in DVD also has it’s Blu-ray sibling… but how many of us actually own a Blu-ray player?

I poked my nose around the net, and learned some interesting facts.  In the third full week of January this year, only 17% of DVDs bought were Blu-ray, which incidentally is the highest market share it’s had since HD-DVD dropped out of the race.  There also seems to be a little over a thousand Blu-ray titles for sale, versus a gazillion DVDs (an approximate number).  Finally, I learned that a person uses 57 sheets of toilet paper each day…  I have a short attention span, you see.

It seems that even though Blu-ray won the format battle, it ain’t won the war for our living room.  Players still cost north of 200 clams (a little less if you do some scouring on the web), and there are promises of cheaper players on the horizon.  Of course, for those of us who have spent thirty bucks on an el-cheapo DVD player, we know the perils of trying to save a buck versus cheaply made tech… but is it money that’s holding us back?

I really didn’t have a sizable VHS collection when DVDs came about, so I didn’t have to replace my library of videos like many did, but that must have been a pain in the ass for some of you… and Blu-ray stands to make you do it again, and at an average of ten bucks more than a regular old DVD.  Or could it be that DVD players are entrenched in every hiding place you can think of, from homes to cars, your laptop, local Starbucks, apple orchards, and Russian space stations… okay, I may be exaggerating, but you have to think twice if you want to take your Blu-ray copy of “Mama Mia!” to your buddy’s house (actually, you should think twice before doing that at all).  Still, maybe you’re a step ahead of the game, and you stream movies a la Netflix, and you are over the hassle of the needless filing of bookshelves with media…  That’s for peasants.

That leaves the question up to you, gentle reader.  Have you taken the plunge with Blu-ray?  If you haven’t, what’s holding you back?  Money?  Library?  No interest?  Toss some monkey in our message boards and let us know.