Quote Originally Posted by klif570
I bet DVDs are here to stay - they're cheap to make, they're cheap to buy, and there's hundreds of thousands of films available in this format. DVD players however might become obsolete, but since Blue Ray spinners can play DVDs, the both formats will be just as widespread. I think it's quite logical, really..
I wouldn't bet on that. The key here is the year-to-year growth of the Blu-ray format, which has been about doubling every year. Studios and retailers alike do not like dual inventories. Once the DVD format reached majority status in 2003 (roughly two years after DVD player sales surpassed VCR sales), VHS got phased out very quickly even though more consumers at that point owned VCRs than DVD players. It was a forced migration, and the studios and retailers wanted that because there's little money to be made for anybody in supporting a rapidly declining format. I see a similar scenario playing out for the DVD format.

Those "hundreds of thousands of films available" (actual number is around 110,000) are the exact reason why the DVD will get phased out at some point. Consumers who want them have already bought them, which effectively caps the market demand for catalog titles on DVD, leaving new releases as the primary market. Yet for new releases, the trend has moved decidedly towards Blu-ray, and catalog titles are now the fastest growing segment for Blu-ray sales. The cut rate prices you see on DVD catalog titles are more a sign of weakening market demand than anything.