My initial "good enough" comment was strictly comentary on why bluray isn't gaining traction in the mass market. We all have busy lives, and in most casual movie watching cases majority of the people would much rather stream a decent 720p res movie on Netflix instantly, rather than head out to best buy to buy a bluray and watch it in 1080p 30 minutes later. Even if the price was the same for both options (bluray is ususally more expensive to boot) I bet people would go with digital.

I realize that I am not the norm or the majority with my Tv setup but even as someone with a high end TV (and previous projectors like yourself), only movies I personally would even consider buying for 1080p/quality sake would be the few dozen classics that I really enjoy and would rewatch more than once. Do I really care if I'm watching the latest Adam Sandler crappy comedy in best possible 1080p quality?Not really...

For those must have movies, I have been buying blurays and ripping them myself or purchasing them through iTunes lately. You can easily compress an excellent 1080p quality 2 hour movie down to ~8GB (10 mb/s bitrate).  iTunes I find has very good 1080p movie quality and 5.1 audio as well. After downloads there are ways to losslesly remove DRM form iTunes video purchases. When done you have your own 1080p copy DRM free and ready to use on any device at any time.  

Here is a comparison ArsTechnica did of iTunes 1080p vs bluray in 2012.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/03/the-ars-itunes-1080p-vs-blu-ray-shootout/

This difference isn't as large as one might think and you have to think in 2 years since and beyond, things will only get better on the digital side...

Its really unfortunate. Bluray is really nice alternative to DVD. I personally care a tad less about BR's HD advantage over DVD, the need for more refined image isn't as drastic as the transition from VHS was. DVD quality really is "good enough" for me. What DOES make BR so much better to me.........is it's capacity and scratch/dent resistance. The extra space works great for video games (maybe not so much for movies) and you rarely have any defective disc problems with BR Movies/Games. Often with day to day use of discs they obtain scuffs and scratches, not with BR.

The price and speed of BR drives should have advanced faster than they did in order for BR to fully take hold of the market. Not many realize tho...... Almost every BR movie comes packaged with the DVD AND digital versions these days, so the extra 5-10 bucks is often times appropriate. Maybe BR backers should have taken more of an aggressive stance and shunned DVD playability after the 1st few years on the market, then dropped price of movies and players to rival those of the DVD standalone.

True, but I wouldn't watch the latest Adam Sandler crappy comedy at all. I had Netflix for a while and started watching a lot more movies, but with lower quality video and lower quality movies not doing it for me, I soon switched back to buying what I'm really interested in. I buy 90% of my blu-rays online, always fun when the next package arrives. No endless Netflix menus to browse trying to decide on the spot what to watch next. I also watch most movies twice plus the extras.

I watched a couple movies I didn't really want to buy on Zune HD, those were 10-12GB downloads, 10mbps video. Still a big difference. However that was 3 years ago, compression might be better now. Since then only tried 5mbps streaming XBox video and PSN download, both meh. Nebraska was allright, but that's slow moving black and white with little in the sound department, no challenge.

I haven't tried iTunes video yet, no rental to try out, no technical specs or any information what's included. However that comparison lists all the things that already annoy me on blu-ray. Blu-ray is still a bit too compressed for my taste. I encode my own videos in 24mbps h.264. At 15mbps it already looks more soft.

Even when streaming matches blu-ray I would still not switch over. It's just not the same as building a physical collection. The promise of 4K streaming is intriguing though. Too bad my isp would limit me to 1 movie per month, I might as well wait for a 4K projector and physical format.

Anyway now I'm a bit more worried for physical disk's future, when even someone like you chooses convenience over best quality and a tangible collection.

blue-ray is doing just fine,this post is just absurd. I've bought plenty of cheap blue-rays. I just don't feel a sense of ownership at all,going the streaming route. Not everybody is a big T.V. nerd and even knows how to do that. I won't even think about getting netflix,because I refuse to pay for anything online at all,especially with my bank card,that someone could easily hack into.

I don't think you need to worry as I am sure bluray disks or another form of video physical media will be around for another 20 years minimum. The only problem is cost as unless there is mass market adoption, product becomes niche and prices reflect that.

4K video will be interesting... Streaming it is going to be a bitch for the next 5 years even in the first world and physical media may need to see another iterration to support true 4K. I see a lot of people paying 100+ dollars per movie if they offer true uncompressed 4K quality on a physical medium. The final frontier... :)

I never got why Sony invested so much in Blu-Ray to begin with. Back in the day it was already clear that things were moving to digital only, and dual-layer dvd's provided enough space at the time. They could have just let HD-DVD do it's thing, that would have saved them a lot of trouble. In the end it even made the ps3 more expensive and caused production delay.

The beginning of your post sarcastically mocked consoles, then you began your hypothetical scenario. Even in your hypothetical scenario, you pointed out how console developers have to "shoehorn" their games to run on console specs (which is true and why they're the best developers). Please don't pretend like your whole post was just an innocent "what-if" scenario.

Thanks for clarifying your reference. A lot of people merge those two together, so I wasn't sure what you were referring to. And yes, based on the actual technology, plasmas not only have better pixel response, it's actually a non-issue for the technology.

Generally LCDs have lower input lag. It's just a fact. Also, low end brand name LCDs (e.g. Toshiba) have really high input lag times and low input lag times depending on the model. A low end brand TV can have a far higher input lag time as well as poor picture quality compared to a high end brand TV. It's actually fairly inconsistent for all TV brands, as far as I've seen.

You can see a list of many TV's input lag times at the site below. Notice that the vast majority of the lowest ones are LCDs, specifically, SONY brand TVs.

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/input-lag

Yep it might become more expensive, maybe not all the way back to laserdisc prices as I doubt it will become that niche. The other problem is that less mainstream movies might not get a blu-ray release. I already have a list of movies I'm looking for that only have a European or Japanese blu-ray release (City of lost children, one of my favorites, only available in French with Japanese subtitles. That is screwed up)

The final frontier is going to be 8K, although 4K will be sufficient to capture every possible detail on a 35mm print. 8K is only needed for 70mm, and future tv/movies. Sony already has an 8K camera (F65) to be unlocked this summer (currently only outputting in 4K) and Red is working on a 6K camera (Epic Dragon Red) NHK has a prototype 8K 120fps cameras for TV.

Lossloss compressed movies like DTS HD ma for sound, that will indeed get (some) people interested. Especially without chroma subsampling and 12 bit rec. 2020 color space. And maybe finally 96khz or 192khz sound mixing. It will all easily fit when the 1 Petabyte dvd becomes a reality.

I think its due more to Blu Ray prices than shrinkage. Digital only will never be the future. Movies and games are too big and are not as accessible as music. It's all about the prices as you seen with CD-ROM and DVD.

LCD TVs also have to be in game mode to have that low input lag -  which turns off some image processing and in turn reduces picture quality.

To what extent the picture quality is reduced in game mode also depends on the model.