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"...where lousy audio formats such as MP3"

You mean, "lossy," I think.

You could mean lousy. Though 320 VBR AAC is quite good for me and my quite good headphones.

I'm not surprised by this article. I, personally, like online (ex, AppleTV) so I don't have to drive anywhere (gas costs) and wait in lines. It's just easier, hmm, maybe lazier? Yeah, that's it :-)

I'm waiting for the day we can watch new theater movies from the comfort of our own living room. And by that I mean legally. LOL

but... but... but... Steve Jobs was an idiot for not putting Blu-ray drives into Macs! Blu-ray is the future! Surely all those commenters and pundits couldn't have been wrong? :-)

File this under "duh"

Yeah, definitely not surprised here. Blu-Ray is definitely my favorite, still, for several simple reasons:

1. Superior video and audio quality. I know that non-physical 1080p (streaming or not) will eventually get to Blu-Ray's level of quality for these sometime, but right now, it just doesn't cut it if you're a cinephile with a great home theater system, and want the best experience.

2. No buffering. This might seem a small issue, but if streaming is to replace physical digital media, it better be just as good of an experience. Having to wait for an HD movie to load and the slight hiccup of buffering shouldn't be existent. Not all of us have "blazingly fast" internet connections.

3. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I absolutely love special features! (I am beginning to think that I may be mostly alone in this, which is unfortunate.) I'd rather not have to go to YouTube or elsewhere to track down some behind-the-scenes footage or featurettes or deleted scenes; they should all be in one place, and that place should be where the movie also is.

4. I like the idea of owning the movies I love to watch; it's an odd reason, but it's a kind of comfort (to identify more with the movies I love enough to own, rather than rent).

Blu-Rays in combination with the new Apple TV are where my movie viewing future lies. Some of the Blu-Rays I've ripped only needed to be rewrapped to MP4 to be usable with the Apple TV; others (those above 25 Mbps) had to have their bitrates dropped a little using Handbrake. The only thing I lose regardless is lossless audio, but Dolby Digital is good enough for me and my sound system.

There is no way that online movie watching can trample the true experience of HD movie watching. I have rented from Itunes for years now, however I can't tell any difference between HD and non HD online movie watching, except that you pay more for an HD movie rental for essentially the same experience. I will NEVER substitute online movie watching for a true BluRay experience.

wirelesswizard, on 27 March 2012 - 10:34 AM, said:

According to Ars Technica, it's almost there already!

I got a free Blu-Ray player almost two years ago when I bought my internet-connected hdtv. I've yet to watch a blu-ray on it. The convenience of having Netflix, Crackle, Hulu+ and Amazon Prime built-in have just about eliminated any need to rent or buy optical discs. And though obviously inferior, the picture quality of streaming media is good enough for most people like me.

I bought into Blu-ray, got a couple of dozen titles, then stopped.

I'm done with physical media. But I'm not happy with what's available online.

Figure it out studios, the disc is done.

People seem to be forgetting there are still vast areas of the US and other countries that are still far behind the curve in terms of broadband availability. Not everyone has access to high-speed internet. Way too many people are still on dial-up because they live in areas that telcos or cable providers simply refuse to invest in building out. My brother lives in an area five minutes from a major suburban neighborhood, but because it's a little rural and hilly, that area has no cable and probably never will. Those folks have to go with a dish if they want anything online.

This is why the next generation of consoles won't dispense with physical media. You don't want to shut out a segment of your market because they don't live in the city. While we're moving toward more content being available online, the infrastructure still needs to be built to meet the demand(especially with video) of the future. We're not at that point. Don't sell your Bluray player just yet.

This forecast is pure pie in the sky. Content providers and distributors have yet to agree on a market model that offers a consistent, easy to use product to consumers. The new competition with Netflix only means more confusion in the marketplace. How many different subscription services is the potential audience likely to support? Is pay-per-view a viable alternative? Until at least one provider can supply a complete and comprehensive package of movies and TV shows, steaming services will remain a dream unfulfilled. And Blu-ray will continue to prosper.

CD sales only began to be replaced by legal music downloads when an efficient, affordable and convenient market model was developed - primarily by Apple. No such model has yet emerged for streaming media. Until it does, Blu-ray will remain king of the flat screen. As far as quality is concerned, the best alternative to Blu-ray now available is On Demand pay-per-view from the cable company, which doesn't suffer the bandwidth issues that constrain a home Wi-Fi network. But pay-per-view is hardly price competitive with Netflix's movie by mail service. If content providers ever get on board with the cable companies to offer a competitive subscription package, we may finally have a viable alternative to Netflix. Until that happens, Netflix will remain top dog.

High quality streaming media also awaits the newer, still in development arrival of truly high speed WiFi. And, of course, there are the bandwidth caps that Internet service providers impose. So there are technical as well as logistical barriers to the success of streaming media. For some reason the pundits forecasting streaming Nirvana seem oblivious to these issues. Which means they're really quite clueless.

Can't wait to see just how much it will actually cost to watch a movie in the near future.
Rental Fee + network connection costs + data plan costs + overcharges and YOU NO LONGER OWN THE MOVIE.

Am I the only one, who feels weird having to continually pay to access my data via the cloud. Big business has got to love this and we are going there willingly - what fun. Ka Ching!