Stream a 1080p movie?  You know how much bandwidth you would need to have to actually do that?  The video on a typical Blu-Ray movie is around 30 MB/S!  Even compressing it on a computer it would still be near 10 MB/S.

I'm all for piracy too, but honestly its tough to pirate HD movies. They are just too damn big! Downloading and storing them is a pain in the ass!

Although internet speeds and HDD space when DVD came out made pirating them even more of a pain, but that didn't stop them.

I will only buy a Blu Ray if the movie is $20 and under. Picked up Iron Man, Indy Jones and Kung-Fu Panda at Wally World with a Target ad. They pricedmatch - it was $29.95 for Iron and Indy.

Anyhow ... here are my Blus.

The economy is having an adverse impact on PS3 and Blu-Ray player sales. I believe people are more concerned about hanging onto their jobs than spending money on expensive goods like Blu-Ray's, PS3's, HDTV's, etc.

Improved technology and networking will make this easier in the years to come.  Also piracy will further push the entertainment industries in to acknowledging downloading as a viable form of generating revenue.

Blue-ray will eventually lose out to Downloads. File storage is also simpler.  Why bother with a shelf of Discs that can be scratched and lost, when all you need is a small hard drive instead?

Downloading is also more cost effective for consumers and production companies.  No physical product is needed nor a stand alone media player. This means lower costs and higher sales which balance out the profit margin. Consumers and companies have nothing to lose by going with dowloads assuming that technology makes it convenient enough for consumers to fancy.

I think you may have misunderstood his post. I think he was saying that Blu-Ray is significantly cheaper than it's alternative, DVD, as of the present time.

DVD also has the advantage of a way bigger install base, and people also need to get an HDTV to appreciate what Blu-Ray has to offer. Combine that with the fact that DVDs are way cheaper, and I think Blu-Ray has quite a battle it's been waging.

They need to drop new release prices to 20$.
Not many people want to drop 30$ on a single title no matter how good it is.

Or go for bigger packs like matrix trilogy which can be bought at 30 pounds compared to 12-15 pounds per single disk release.

I know the OP title is what is keeping me from buying BluRay discs.
I just won't buy sth at this price, given my DVD backlog and the little advantage in quality.
The only thing I bought willingly as exclusive content (twice) is Planet Earth.
As Christmas was approaching, and I was always getting inferior versions of Hero on DVD, I finally bought it on Blu-Ray. BUt I don't plan on getting any other.
Even importing them from NA (the region free ones) is too expensive.

See, this is why I didn't think HD DVD or blu-ray had much of a chance from the beginning (I did get caught up in attacking the flamers at the end, but I was not in a good point in my life at that time, and was prone to lash out).

The thing is that HD discs are a synergy dependent product. Just as merchandising for a movie needs the movie to be a hit, HD discs need HDTVs to succeed. If companies had waited until after the marketsare of HDTVs was significant enough, then this wouldn't be a problem. I mean something like at least 25% of all TV owning households. Then there would be a ready market. That's why neither VHS, DVD, nor any home console depended on TV to sell. TV was already common enough.