I didn't hold much hope for this format either (plus I was annoyed that the format I did chose -- HD-DVD -- got the axe!). But I guess this proves the old adage "You never know". I still have a good deal of my original DVDs, but nearly half of my collection is now Blu-ray.
This does remain a sore point with me. Despite the desire of people like Steve Jobs to see physical media phased-out by downloads, that has still yet to happen. Yet Apple never included any support for Blu-ray burning into Final Cut Studio, and staunchly refused to build Blu-ray drives into their machines (today they don't even include disc drives of any kind in their machines!), nor will any Mac play a Blu-ray disc -- even when read by an external BD drive (but Apple still includes its "DVD Player" app on all its machines, but no BD player ).Don’t expect Steve Jobs to budge from his “bag of hurt” understatement. Or Final Cut Studio support for Blu-ray. I suspect that Jobs is using his Hollywood clout from his board seat on Disney and his control of iTunes to try to talk sense to the BDA.
It's funny, because over time, I noticed more and more "casual" consumers (who were anything but tech-heads or discriminating cinephiles) buying BD players.* Recognition that consumers don’t need Blu-ray. It is a nice-to-have and must be priced accordingly.
Well, I guess people ultimately did care.ZDNet's Robin Harris is now taking the bold step of calling Blu-ray "dead" and "in a death spiral," saying that in 12 months the format "will be a videophile niche, not a mass market product." While it may be early in the game to make such a prediction, Harris has some good points in his screed. Among them: That after its gruesome, 18-month battle with HD DVD, no one has the energy to care about high-def players any more.