I think you are pointing out an important difference between DVD and Blu-ray. When DVD emerged, consumers benefited from an immediate improvement to their SDTV experience over VHS.
For consumers who don't have HDTVs, a Blu-ray player does not offer them any immediate value.
Many consumers do have HDTVs today, but many of them also have not been used to HDTV signals. I know many people who own HDTVs but don't have HDTV cable service, Direct TV, or HD OTA. However, once people see HDTV service, such as watching a sports game, they clearly see the benefit of 720p or 1080p content over SDTV. Gamers already see that today. Given the demand we've seen for HD sports, television programming, and video games, it makes sense that movies will eventually catch up as well.
Anecdotally, I do have many friends who buy Blu-ray movies. After watching Blu-ray, now some of them will only watch a movie if it's on Blu-ray. Afterall, who still wants to watch the Super Bowl on SDTV? EVERYONE prefers to watch it on HD.
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I think you are pointing out an important difference between DVD and Blu-ray. When DVD emerged, consumers benefited from an immediate improvement to their SDTV experience over VHS.
For consumers who don't have HDTVs, a Blu-ray player does not offer them any immediate value.
Many consumers do have HDTVs today, but many of them also have not been used to HDTV signals. I know many people who own HDTVs but don't have HDTV cable service, Direct TV, or HD OTA. However, once people see HDTV service, such as watching a sports game, they clearly see the benefit of 720p or 1080p content over SDTV. Gamers already see that today. Given the demand we've seen for HD sports, television programming, and video games, it makes sense that movies will eventually catch up as well.
Anecdotally, I do have many friends who buy Blu-ray movies. After watching Blu-ray, now some of them will only watch a movie if it's on Blu-ray. Afterall, who still wants to watch the Super Bowl on SDTV? EVERYONE prefers to watch it on HD.