dvd was the greatest success in consumer electronics history until now. following its 1997 debut, it took the format just a few years to completely conquer the home theater market previously ruled by vhs tapes. before dvd even reached its 10th birthday, however, the electronics industry and the hollywood studios began putting it out to pasture.
now that hd dvd is dead, blu-ray is poised to take over as the consumer home video format of choice. it offers high definition video and high resolution audio, providing a superior viewing experience to dvd, although you need a modern home theater to take advantage of it. like every new format, blu-ray comes with a whole host of new terminology, like 1080p, blu-ray profiles, and onboard decoding. it can be overwhelming, but remember that blu-ray is basically just like dvd but with more holding capacity.
blu-ray has definitely had its struggles since the format's inception, with the format war against hd dvd, high prices, and hardware that wasn't fully baked. but the format has made a lot of progress in the last couple of years, so for movie lovers who want the most out of their high def home theaters, i fully recommend going with blu-ray.