DVDs and Blu-Rays take an enormous amount of physical space, true. I have hundreds of them, built over the years, and they take five full-size binders.
But movies are still sold on physical discs with a good-looking plastic case and printed paper insert.
Download? Well, iTunes doesn't have every movie ever made, only some recent ones, coming from big studios. Let's not talk about foreign movies, or dubbed movies, which frequently don't even make jump to iTunes. Geez, even some rare movies only saw a very limited release on VHS, let alone DVDs. One of the best I saw is still on a surprisingly good Betamax tape.
Hard drive storage? Hmmm, sure, but DVD-R spindles are still the most economical way to store gigabytes of data that are unlikely to change (i.e. movies). Just consider
a 2TB HDD is over $250. And when the hard drive fails, the whole collection is amiss. So far, no fine-quality DVR+R ever failed me, even burnt 12 years ago (Hint: I store them in a dark, dry place).
Besides, large hard drives require external power supply which isn't always available (planes in coach-class, crowded place), although that may change with Thunderbolt-based drives.
Plus, for already-existing movies on physical discs, they must be ripped, Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) broken, re-compressed, which inevitably leads to quality loss.
Lending movies? Would you be willing to lend your whole drive to a friend for him to get its movie? I'd rather risk the live of a plastic disc.
Would be interesting that Apple extended its "Match" offer to movies.
