I work in a university library where we have thousands of titles--including a large foreign collection--available on DVD as well as on antiquated media like VHS, Laserdisc, and film (those last two not so at-home-user-friendly).

OK, the university's collection spoils me, but public libraries have video collections and many will order titles on request.

Granted, you do not get the I-Want-it-Now service offered by downloads. But if you're that impatient you'll probably see it in the theater. Where it still wins for now, for me, is in the cost. I already own a TV and DVD and VHS players. And these titles are AT THE LIBRARY. Cost? Free.

I got rid of my tv last year when I got divorced and initially clung to Daily Show and Colbert Report subscriptions from iTunes. That was before you could rent movies through iTunes, but for $9.99 I got I think 16 episodes - SO much cheaper than the satellite tv TiVo thing I was paying for (and honestly I was hardly watching anything but those two shows anymore).

Once Netflix went unlimited on the Watch Now shows, that has been my mainstay. I have the 3 at a time plan for the shows I can't get through Watch Now and the rest, I simply 'watch now.' It doesn't matter that I can't 'keep' those because I can re-watch anytime. I can start from the beginning, the middle, the end, whatever, and they aren't taking up my computer's hard drive, my shelf space, getting scratched, whatever.

I have been tempted to get the Netflix box but that would mean I'd have to buy a tv again, and I'm not down for that, at least not at this point. I do have a 22 inch monitor I can watch dvds on so if I have company, they aren't forced to hunch over my laptop.

Plus, now I can watch Daily Show and Colbert Report for free on Hulu. God love Hulu.

And really, what is more cozy than snuggling up in bed with your laptop to watch a movie?

...I'll stick with DVD's. I'm not up on the latest news, but the last I looked, you still couldn't keep the movies you download through services like iTunes and Netflix. I'm a born collector - most of the films I'm interested in, I'll want to watch more than once, so one-time downloads make no sense for me. So until some service comes along that allows me to download a film and keep it for my own later viewing, without restrictions like locking it to a certain device, I'll stick with the convenient format I know and love.

DVD or download? This is the first generational divide where I've found myself coming down firmly on the old geezer side. (I'm going on 52.) I don't think it has anything to do with technical ability. I've been playing with computers since the days of mainframes, when the "monitor" was a giant line printer, and today I find that I'm much more familiar with basic programming than 95% of supposedly "tech-savvy" youth. It's just that when I buy something, I want to hold it in my hand. Same thing with CDs (which you don't mention -- too old-fashioned, no doubt!). I've never downloaded a song. If I like a song, a singer, an album (there's my age again!), or a band, I buy the CD and rip it to my computer. My mp3 is populated with songs from real CDs that sit on the shelf behind me. And my DVD collection continues to grow...

I bought Apple TV when they upgraded it and I haven't used my netflix account since. The library of movies is gradually expanding and the convenience of it is phenomenal. With my Fios connection is takes about 10 seconds for a movie to start after downloading begins. HD quality isn't Bluray caliber yet but it's still quite strong. Overall I've found Apple TV to be the most underrated product on the market.

I'm pretty sure the diversity of inventory at LackLuster has dropped by some huge # in recent years. I more often than not wind up buying something that Lackluster never or no longer carries. There's only so much room to carry games, foreign films no ones heard of, gay/lesbian movies, television shows & movies.

Will go away completely.

I like to watch certain movies over and over and over again, there is no way I would want to have to store a library of movies on a hard drive, external or not. Plus when traveling, I don't have a laptop, I have a desktop so I bring DVD's with me when I go places. I don't want to carry some computer with me everywhere I travel.

Digital media does crash and I would be really pissed if the 500 or more movies I've collected over the years all disappered due to a system failure and there is no way I'm paying some studio money every time I want to watch my movies and TV shows. Plus there are all those extras that come on a DVD that I've not seen in a download version.

Downloading and Netflix is fine for when I watch a movie I know I'll never watch again.

I just imagine in as time goes on, there won't be as many DVD's produced for purchase as downloads become more ubiquitos.

I'm going to look into My Xbox and Netflix, so thanks for that heads up. The Amazon unbox is a pain because you can't watch it while it's streaming, you have to wait until the download is complete, usually the length of the film.

I still rent DVDs, but I look forward to the day when I can have an entertainment center that's set up well for downloading. I don't want to buy any of the boxes out there until the dust has settled and it seems clear what the best choice is.

Renting DVDs drives me crazy a lot of the time. Who are these people out there that mistreat the discs so badly? Take the disc out of the case (or if it's from Netflix, the sleeve), put it in your player's tray, watch it, and when you're done, return it immediately to the case or the sleeve. Don't do anything else with it. Don't chop onions on it. Don't run over it with your car. Don't rub it with sandpaper. DON'T.

It really drives me crazy when a rented DVD is so scratched up that it won't play. I'm sure downloading will come with a whole other host of technical problems, but the mauled DVD won't be missed.