So my question is (I know I can easily find out by going to Best Buy or something, but I don't have cash/anything to buy =/) with the huge spaces in Bluray disks, are TV studios still releasing entire seasons with boxed sets (multiple disks)? Are they doing this because of actual space limitations, or to moneyhat people?

Similarly, does the size of a video file depend on the complexity of the footage? Will HD footage of 1 minute of a black screen, vs 1 min of an actual video be different in size? Baisicly will anime in HD be just as big of a file as any other HD footage? If it is less, can't anime studios release entire seasons of anime on 1 Bluray? If it is more, can someone, very basisicly explain why?

Why I ask this is because I think it's in the company's interest to encourage people to buy their products, by not making them so freaking expensive, and they can do that by just having it on one disk. It also benefits Sony because then there's a huge, visisble difference (if HD alone wasn't enough) between DVDs and Blurays, and potentially they could make Bluray the better deal (DVD Box set vs. 1 Bluray disk).

Since I don't have a HD screen computer, good internet, and the things I buy in Bluray are things that I REALLY want (I'm not watching the family comedy movie my parents wanted to see on a $30 Bluray...) to see. And at the very least, I could pirate the same thing, so that I can watch it on my PC/convert and send to iPod, so I have both options.

I'll love to see Rome, or House (the early seasons) in HD, at night, maybe with someone else, in 1080p. I'll love to see Ghost in the Shell (which the quality is horrible when I pirate it/on my PC screen), both the movies and tv series on my parent's tv (I'm gonna miss my parent's big scre... I mean my parents *ehem*, when I leave for college).

If they want people like me to buy these things though, they should make it a deal someone will actually take.

Um, no?
I remember when the 25GB single layer Blu-Ray discs that first came out, people complained about the video quality. So, 25GB isn't enough for a two hour movie at top quality.

How big is a 2 hour movie?

Blu ray rulz.

Can someone answer my question please? I've been wondering about this for a few months.

Not enough to look it up on wikipedia though....

Standard playback rate is 36mbits/sec, which 270MB a minute. So a 50GB blu-ray would hold about 3 hours of video.

Of course they can always lower the quality to fit more on it.

It all depends on a ton of factors. The maximum bit rate for the video stream on a Blu-Ray disc is 40 MB/S. DVD was capped at 9 MB/S. Blu-Ray also has 8 MB/S available for audio. I am not sure what DVD's limit was.

Whether or not a studio chooses to use all that bandwidth (or needs to use all that bandwidth) depends on even more factors. The quality of the source (as it has been with VHS and DVD) is still overall the most important determiner of how good the video will ultimately look. But using the same source material and comparing VHS to DVD and then DVD to Blu-Ray you will notice a sizeable difference.

Yes, studios are typically splitting up TV shows on to multiple discs. Its really to your advantage (at least in terms of video quality) that they do this, because it will ultimately look better and better reflect the quality of the original source. Keep in mind that studios are still compressing the original source file (which is probably at least double the size of what is on the Blu-Ray). The more compression, the less it will faithfully reproduce the original. Multiple discs obviously do drive up costs a little, but there isn't really a point in buying the Blu-Ray if they are going to compress the hell out of the video anyways.

The bit rate on a video will vary, and it will typically be higher on "high action" scenes and lower on less intensive scenes. This all depends on each individual encode though and there are no hard and fast rules. Its ultimately the studio making the encode's decision.

Every encode is different, and the demands of encoding different types of movies (action movies, slower drama movies, animation movies, etc.) are different. I am really not going to get any more in depth than that unless you actually know something about video encoding as it gets pretty complicated.

Expecting Blu-Rays to cost as little as DVD's at this point in time is completely unrealistic.  That would have been like expecting DVD's to cost the same as VHS's.  Costs will naturally go down and you will see things hit the bargain bin.  For example, I can sometimes buy a Blu-Ray on Amazon cheaper than I can actually buy the DVD.  But at this point in time, Blu-Rays are simply going to be more expensive.  That's just how new technology works and it is the only way to keep it sustainable.  Studios have no incentive to make Blu-Rays if they can't make extra money off of them.  Otherwise they would have just stuck with DVD's.