With video streaming services like Netflix, consumers haven’t been spending as much money on the actual hard copies of their favorite movies – which only makes sense. Why shell out 20 or 30 bucks for something that will probably only be watched once or twice?

Streaming services have a few minor, but obvious disadvantages – like the simple fact that the user would have to have a stable Internet connection to watch anything, or the lack of availability for a lot of new films. Still, they’re pretty convenient and much more cost effective than making a trip to a video store every time the consumer feels an urge to dive into some movies.

Blu-ray is still a fairly new technology – but it’s definitely been around for a little while, which means that prices are finally becoming more reasonable for both the discs and players themselves. There are always the early adopters that stay on the bleeding edge of things, but the better part of the market has still been primarily based around streaming and DVD video.

High definition displays are really dropping in price – they’ve been around for a few years – more households have an HD TV than don’t. That said, Blu-ray setups are becoming more appealing to the HD-loving audience. They’ve already got their kicks out of watching the news and other select stations that provide the high quality visuals, thus the Blu-ray player is making its way into a growing number of homes.

The first quarter of 2012 (1Q12) yielded some promising results for the Blu-ray industry. Disc purchases were up 23 percent at $541 million – and while DVD sales weigh in at $1.51 billion, that’s actually a seven percent decrease from 4Q11.

Digital downloads and subscription-based streaming services are on the rise too – up a whopping 74 percent, sitting just under DVD sales at $1.22 billion.

The film industry has been trying its best to encourage consumers to purchase movies rather than go out and rent them, as there is a lot more profit in actual sales than rental.

Rental spending is on a bit of a declining rise, if that makes sense. It rose a mere one percent to $2.23 billion while purchase spending rose up a slightly larger four percent – at $2.22 billion.