Originally posted by: Knightmessenger
And hang on. The Blade Runner dvd will have 5 discs in the most elaborate set. Why will the HD releases also require 5 discs for the same stuff? Surely it could all fit on 3 blu-rays at the most.

Because they're taking advantage of the space on Blu-Ray to give you a higher bitrate movie with a better codec. Yeah, they could squeeze a couple versions on one disc in the old mpeg2 codec (or use a lower bitrate), but Blu-Ray has already taken a ton of flack on their early releases for doing that (they used a higher bitrate, but it was still the old crappy mpeg2 codec).

If I had a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player, I would most certainly rather have the movie in a much higher bitrate with a modern codec than to have the same movie in a lower quality older codec.

The point of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is not necessarily to squeeze more content on the disc. The point is to give you higher quality. You simply cannot get the same level of quality out of standard DVD. Most of the time there's plenty of space left for more content (commentary, cut scenes, bonus material), but that's not the purpose of the extra space or the new codec.

Probably the main reason you're not seeing a lot of TV shows or anime series on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD (Heroes is the only one I can think of) is because of the lack of penetration of the players. Let's be honest. Even with the high selling rates of Blu-Ray players and discs, it's still nothing compared to the level of penetration of standard DVDs. When these players become available and are a little more affordable, you'll see the penetration increase and then TV shows will start showing up more.