http://www.techradar.com/news/video/blu ... ke--661294

I still don't own an ordinary one yet, doubt I ever will unless they genuinely take over DVD. Which I struggle to envisage for years at least

The major issue for blu ray is the cost of dvd's, in the past week I've bought four dvd's for the price of one BR (even then I intend to rip just the films to an external drive). Consequently it's not worth the extra cost for a negligible (largely imagined) increase in image quality.

Incidentally as the cost of buying a dvd is now as low as renting, i feel it's worth buying dvd's instead of the hassle of downloading avi's.

I didn't see the fuss about picture quality over an upscaled DVD, not for the price difference, and that was on a 37'' half-decent TV. Though I'd be curious to try a BR on my mate's new LED-backlit 46'' set just to see if that even made any difference

Sound is a much more important factor than image quality, it's the sound that really sells a piece of action, many people simply don't realise this.

If the screen is half decent and the sound system is good (by good I don't mean expensive) then that's all you need.

I suspect many blue ray purchasers have fantastic screens and crap audio, but hey they've got the latest thing to brag about.

Most, but not all My sound system was, until recently, better than the picture. It was a very good CRT, but it was always SD. The addition of an HD TV brings the picture quality up to a level that means that the experience is so much better now. Even upscaled DVDs is bloody good, though I can tell the difference between HD and SD (and my other half, who has much better eyesight than I, can too).

The standard TV audio is OK, but you do need a decent surround sound system to get the best out of BluRay and DVDs.

I've never had the space for any sort of sound system, maybe when I move out. Though there's a lot holding me back - I utterly detest wires, I wouldn't wanna spend any real money on it and I hate the thought of having to learn all about it to do it properly

Blu-Ray can be had for as little as £6.99 on Play.com (albeit not latest releases although these are still pricey on DVD anyway) and prices continue to come down. I also agree that some upscaled DVDs arent that far off Blu-Ray anyway (Wall-E looks amazing on my BDP-S360) but watching Iron Man (and others) in Full HD on Blu-Ray still - in my opinion - is worth the £100 you can now get that Sony player for.

All you really need is a decent pair of speakers and a good amp, or a pair of powered speakers, I have a fantastic old pair of Bose that cost me the princely sum of zero and has far greater frequency range and better quality than my girlfriends old 5.1 with subwoofer. Mind you good quality speakers (and headphones) do get better with age and use.

As far as I'm concerned BR is flim flam much the same way 3D is, lots of extra cost for debatable increase in quality, however such is the way of our world.

I'd struggle to put another pair of £10 PC speakers in this room at the minute - you can imagine how desperate I am to move out