BR are far more scratch resistant than DVD's.  BTW, I have a Surround sound reciever from Kenwood that I bought brand new in 2001 and I can tell a difference in the sound quality and volumn.  you don't need high end audio to get an advantage.

Also, DVD's were significantly more expensive than VHS when it came out and it did fine, because the price DROPS.

The real advantage in BR right now is not for the consumer but the manufactures.  Movie companies are always putting bonus features and deleted scence etc.  Alot are in multiple disc sets.  Multiple DVD's are more expensive to produce than 1 BR Disc.

All it will take is for someone like Disney to release one or two movies exclusivley on BR and that will be the end.  It may not happen as quickly as the VHS death but make no mistake, DVD will soon be dead at the hands of BR.

Scratch resistance has nothing to do with "ease of use". Durability is completely different - and while is a good and valid benefit, it goes along with the concept of a "premium" product. You would be annoyed if you paid $40 for a BluRay movie (what they cost here in Oz) and they got scratched and become useless.

As we were discussing, DVD has "tangible" ease-of-use benefits over VHS - BluRay much less so over DVD. So people were more inclined to pay the extra money for them, as they could see the real benefits (to them).

That manufacturing point is actually incorrect, but I understand what you are trying to say.

The problem is that DVDs are dirt cheap to produce (mass produce at something like 10c-30c each, if not less) and there is a HUGE price differential between the manufacturing price and the selling price (like 1:50-1:100). (This is why its feasible for supermarkets to sell DVD movies at $7 each, and still make a profit) Even if BluRay discs were cheaper to stamp, the price saving at the end point would be nothing.

Rather - the point of BluRay is to push a "premium" product - higher price point, higher quality, higher profit margin. If BluRay discs fall to DVD price, and BluRay players fall to DVD price - where is the extra profit? If anything, all that extra content and requirements for BluRay movies cost MORE to include - so the production cost is slightly higher.

Disney will *never* release exclusive movies on BluRay (nor will any other company - even Sony!) - and why? Because it would cut their sales down by 90% - and cost them 80%(+) of the profit on a release.

Even exclusivity periods - they could make a release exclusive to BluRay for a time - but even this will cost them money.

Because in the, BluRay is about one thing only - allowing movie companies to make more profit - not less.

I'm really not sure where you are going with this 'ease of use' thing.

At first I thought you meant improved functionality, but now I realise you really do mean ease of use...

Thing is, you make out that this factor is what is going to make or break Blu-ray, which is nonsense.  In reality, I'm not sure how anyone could argue that Blu-ray is easier to use than DVD (the auto-restart point from where you last left it, even after removing the disk maybe?), but even so, it is certainly NO LESS easy to use than DVD either.

Also, you state this:

'The people in my house are too lazy(?) to even turn on the stereo - just one remote click - when watching a movie. They are more than happy to settle for movie sound from the TV (rather then get full surround) - they just don't care.'.

So presumably they can't even be arsed to turn the DVD player on either then?

And finally, you go on to contradict yourself with the comment below.

'When BluRay has become the standard, people will happily blindly use it - as long as it works the same as the old DVD player did'.

It does work basically the same as the old DVD player does, only with improved functionality and improvements in pretty much every area.

If you aren't interested in Blu-ray, then fair enough.  I have no problems at all with that.  However, if that is the case, I really don't see why you would go out of your way to make threads like this.

^No - even though blu-ray has about the same "ease of use" as DVD, most people won't upgrade to it because they already have DVD players.

If people were upgrading from VHS to blu-ray instead, they'd be jumping all over blu-ray.

What a weird thread.... I wonder if it was hd dvd if some of the people here would still be adamantly, stubbornly,"openminded". never seen such a hateful view of great new technology.

Exactly right. The jump from VHS to bluray would be a grand jump and definetly worth its money. As I stated above, NluRay with all its features is basically DVD v.1.5. The cost that is asked for it is too high considering everyone already has DVD players which measure just barely under the BluRay in terms of benefits.In economic terms, difference between the marginal cost and marginal benefit of going from VHS -> DVD is much much greater than the marginal cost/benefit difference in going from DVD->BluRay.

@kabhold

While I don't pretend to know anything about hddvd, if it was also as expensive as the bluray then I doubt it would have had any better success than the bluray. More money for osmething barely new is a horrible idea unless you have the money to waste, and even then many people know how to restrain their spending.

Disney will and so will Sony.  They both have a substantial amount of money invested in BR.  All you have to do is look at what Disney did with DVD, they released exclusives.  It WILL happen, it's just a matter of time.