Hey Jason,  I just tested some things out. When I walked into the sound room, our Xbox360 was feeding digital audio out to the receiver via an optical connection. I turned off the TV and nothing happened. This is what I expected. I then turned on the Blu-ray player half expecting the Onkyo to switch to the Blu-Ray input. It did not. I ...

As you alluded to, there are many factors that go into a purchase decision, quality being one of them.  Looking back to VHS vs Beta, clearly the lower quality format won.  The consensus appears to be for the following reasons: lower cost, more options on devices (Sony vs the world), more content (once they figured out that playback of ...