Video is more important than audio
Our world is made up of two main senses that are reproduced in our home theaters, sight and sound; and for some reason when so called experts make predictions they like to pretend both are equally important. If you think they are, then just look at the trends in the consumer electronics industry with the best example being HDTVs. While people have no problem paying $3000 for a new high-def TV, they don't want to spend more than $500 on speakers. At the same time as big box retailers have more HDTVs than you can count, speakers get smaller and smaller and the HTIB is hotter than ever. The reason is simple, more people can appreciate the difference with improved picture quality than improved sound quality. So the next time you read that the home video industry will go to downloads this year like the music industry or that one of the HD media formats will end up like DVD-Audio or SACD, head on down and watch consumers buy a 50-inch plasma with the cheapest HTIB available -- or worse, just use the speakers in the set.
