The obituaries written for packaged media still appear to be premature. Blu-ray Discs not only offer a tangible good--which many consumers still appreciate--but also provide optimal visual quality.

Take, for example, what we saw from the LG BD300 and Samsung BD-P2500 Blu-ray players, both of which stream movies from Netflix. The image quality of the streams over our office's T1 connection was not even remotely comparable to that of a Blu-ray Disc. For all of the talk about streaming content from the Internet, the technology simply is not ready for mass consumption.

Industry experts agree: Recent estimates from research firm Media Control GfK International note that sales revenue from Blu-ray titles is projected to increase this year by 150 percent, to $2.9 billion. That represents about 11 percent of the packaged media sold in 2009, nearly triple Blu-ray's piece of the pie back in 2008. More people are aware of Blu-ray as a format, which has translated into sales and into more discs being released. According to DisplaySearch, 10.7 million Blu-ray players (including Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles) shipped in the format's first two and a half years. In comparison, DVD had shipped 5.4 million players (per the Consumer Electronics Association's numbers).

In addition to lowering prices, manufacturers are eliminating some of the more confusing points of differentiation among players. For example, a whopping 14 of the 19 Blu-ray Disc players introduced so far for 2009--including models from LG, Memorex, Pioneer, and Samsung--have BD-Live support for interactive content. More players these days offer on-board high-end audio decoders for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. And more models are serving as a conduit for streaming Internet-based entertainment to your HDTV: Aside from the LG BD300 and the Samsung BD-P2500, look for other streaming-enabled Blu-ray players from , Panasonic, and to arrive later this year.

Clearly, as prices continue to fall, the step-up cost of going Blu is less of an obstacle to shoppers, even those who are watching their budget.