Do your self a favor and watch a BR movie on a properly setup full home theatre.  You will notice that the sound quality is astonishing.  The sound quality improvement is just as large, if not greater, than the improvement in picture quality.

Just how much extra expense do people need to shell out to get the advantages of Blu-ray? Your argument will be very discouraging to some tech illiterates who were perhaps sitting on the fence.

Bboid: I'm not belitteling the picture or sound quality of Blu Ray. I've seen it in action and it provides a near theater experience, it's quite an accomplishment. I'm of the opinion that any true movie buff, any hardcore videophile *must* own blu-ray. No question.

However,

The leap in quality from VHS to Laserdisc was more significant, as it could be seen even on the smallest, crappiest TV's.

Laserdisc was by no means a failure, videophiles loved it, and it existed up until something better came out. It just never caught mass appeal.

My point is that no format has ever caught mass appeal based on picture or sound quality alone. If blu-ray does it, it will be the first in history.

EDIT: On second thought, I refrain from my comment and will stay out of this argument.

For what its worth, BD also holds the advantage of greater storage space (for more extras) and BD-Live for downloadable content. They might not be huge advantages, but they are something. So that gives

1)Better picture quality
2)Better sound quality
3)More storage for extras
4)BD-Live

You also have some other minor things, like picture in picture and interactive menu's during playback.

Having done so: No. Just no. It looks and sounds a little better, to be sure, but not enough to justify spending the ludicrous amounts of money people do setting these things up. You're paying for an increase in sharpness that isn't even 2.5x and a barely perceptible increase in audio quality, and that just isn't worth what these companies want for it.

For the record, I plan on buying a BR player next year. I have nothing against the format.

However, I'm buying it with the knowledge that it is now, and will probably stay a niche format. Historically speaking, picture quality alone has meant either failed or niche formats.

I'm not disagreeing that it isnt as major a jump as previous format changes, it is just far more than the "just a picture" argument.  I have spent quite a bit on my home theatre system to take full advantage of what is available to me.  The price to take 100% full of advantage of anything HD is in fact high, but there are various cheap alternatives that still take advantage of what HD material has to offer(you can set up an average home theatre 40-52" with a decent sound package for $1500-2500 cheapend; highend large screen full sound is quite ridiculous still but steadily falling in price).  It will probably stay a niche format but I would expect it to be far larger than any niche format previously released.  Another positive for the format is the increased security for producers to safegaurd against piracy(which may help the format).  So yes niche, but far expanded and I suspect the lifespan may be as much as 10 years before a legitimate cheap source of flash memory is used.  Also, you may want to think about buying your player sooner than later (sorry for the sales pitch) because there is a chance players may rise in price outside of EU.

it is possible that the next xbox might need blu ray, however its also possible that playstation will seek to exist so both side kinda winds and looses if this theory executes its self.