"Because bit rates for HD movie streaming are under 10 mbps, including audio, your entertainment experience is dependent upon the bandwidth and integrity of your Internet connection and the capabilities of the playback device," says Danny Kaye, executive vice president of global research and technology strategy for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. "With Blu-ray you get consistently reliable, flawless playback."

So, will streaming ever catch up to Blu-ray? Ross Rubin, an analyst with , says that one format is worth watching: The, found on Blu-ray players from Samsung and other manufacturers, matches the quality of a 720p cable video-on-demand movie. But HDX still streams at only about 20 mbps, well short of the 36-mbps bit rate for Blu-ray, says Rubin. And most streaming services, such as those of Blockbuster and Netflix, throttle the video quality to match your bandwidth.

Waldrep says that movie studios either choose the extreme quality that Blu-ray provides or shoot for the lowest-common denominator in Web streaming--video bit rates that accommodate a 1-mbps bandwidth pipe.

For the foreseeable future, consumers will have a choice between Blu-ray discs and mediocre to good-quality video streams. Meanwhile, DVD sales will continue to nosedive. DVD sales in the United States dropped by 20 percent during the first three months of 2011 compared with the same period last year, according to a .