Although DVD and Blu-ray sales have been dropping, the NPD research group has conducted a survey in the United States and has confirmed that 70% of the respondents prefer purchasing physical discs rather than resorting to video-on-demand or digital downloads.

Consumers reportedly allot $25 per month for home video purchases and rentals. In my opinion, Americans are doing the right choice. Certainly not everybody is located at an area where there is easy access to broadband internet services. As far as video-on-demand goes, I’m not entirely sure how the process goes. Are you able to re-watch a movie for free after paying for it once?

I am totally against building up a massive digital library since:

• Although hard disk drives are getting cheaper, you will always need more space, in order to keep your digital downloads especially if you don’t like deleting stuff.
• Hard disk drives and even flash memory are prone to electrical or mechanical failure. What happens if one of your drives with 200 movies suddenly starts withering away?
• Some downloads cost as much as the physical media itself. When you purchase a movie on a disc, you can lend it out to friends and family. The only downside is that you also need physical space for them, like shelves.
• Digital media is prone to piracy, you can just copy it and pass around unless there is some sort of license identification. With DVD’s, extra efforts are required to pirate the discs and the backups or copies usually aren’t up to par with the originals.

[via The Business Insider]