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So, I'll be moving in a month. Soon after I get moved in, I plan to turn my living room into the coolest man cave in the world with a mega flat panel tv on the wall and all. I take it blue ray is the way to go for the best qulaity HD? I'm also a mac nerd and I've been thinking about investing in an Apple TV box for playing my music through the home theater system, and the buying / renting movies through iTunes sounds like a cool idea. Plus I think it'd be really cool to have all my favorite movies on a hard drive where I can just watch em whenever. I also think it might end up being a good alternative to cable movie channels that I rarely watch anyway, so I could save cash by not subscribing to all that stuff. But then again, I have a decent sized amt of DVDs that I like to display and would like to have blue ray movies on the rack too, I'm a collector like that.

So, if you were about to set up a cool home theater, what would you rather have.. a blue ray player and blue ray disks, or an Apple TV (or something else similar) with all your movies on a hard drive on your nerdy home network?

I'd prefer a Blu-Ray player myself.

One of course came with my PS3, but quite aside from a slight bias stemming from that (paid for it, might as well use it. Good marketing ploy or what? Tried and trusted after DVD I guess*) I quite like having a visible library of titles. Was a bit bored earlier, so I looked at my VHS collection (400 strong) and selected a Dr Who title I've not watched for yonks. There is just something satisfying about it. I'm the same with CD's. Far rather have the physical disc, which can then be copied to my hard drive (though I don't file share). Best of both world then. My discs don't get wrecked through inevitable wear and tear, but I do have an instant visual reference of the music at my fingertips. YMMV of course!

*before anyone says it, I am perfectly aware DVD is a totally superior medium to VHS, and that DVD or Blu-Ray is a different kettle of fish!

hmm. I'm one of those silly people that just listens to MP3s now except in the car. I still love buying CDs I guess for collecting's sake, but the moment I get it home I add it to the iPod. Then I listen to the CD on my iPod at work and after a week or so it just gets randomized among all the other songs.

To me, I think it's about the easier browsing in a proper shop as opposed to online.

I'm notoriously scatter brained and indecisive when shopping (I've been known to annoy women with it. Make of that what you will) so I quite like a good meander and ponder about the various titles on view before deciding on what I want, then changing my mind three times, getting home, and kicking myself for utterly forgetting what I went to buy in the first place.

Hence the 400 VHS.