I understand the belt-tightening as much as anybody, but I'm a movie-lover and an enormous Muppet fan so this expense is factored-into that.
Just got my Blu-ray player and I'm watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Looks great!
The thing is, flatscreen HD TVs are very cheap these days and more energy efficient than older TVs. You'll save a fortune on your electric bill in the long run. And you can get a great Blu-ray player for about the same price as a DVD player.
I live in a very expensive city and easily found wi-fi-ready Blu-ray players starting at $60! Let's face it, DVD players are designed to break down after a couple years so it makes sense to replace it with the Blu-ray when that happens. I just hope my new Blu-ray player lasts a while. I'm broke.
I agree that eventually media will all go to digital downloads, but they won't be any more hi-res than Blu-ray. In some cases the resolution will be considerably less than Blu-ray disc, so it does make sense to buy a hard copy of your favorite films, like "The Muppets", in high definition for posterity.
The extras Blu-rays provide go beyond DVD capabilities. I was never really pleased with regular DVD because it is actually inferior to LaserDisc in many ways. It became popular due to the digital formatting and the capability to compress an entire film onto one side of a small disc. LDs have this beautiful analog fluidity that DVD doesn't provide, but Blu-ray does. I'm happy to have purchased the player.
Anyway, now is the time to seek out the best deals on Blu-ray players. You can get them on the cheap and it's more proactive than cursing Disney or technology.