The main site shows most of the writable media from previous conventions in their protective cartridges. There have been many mentions that writable Blu-ray disks no longer needs this protective cartridge because they figured out how to make the disks with an acceptable level of durability and, thus, lower reproduction costs.
That's great and all, however, will standard set-top players and PC drives still have a tray which can accept cartridges as well as the naked disks (I always wondered how they were planning on doing that anyway)?
There are a couple of reasons I ask this. First off, rental disks. I've seen many
many DVDs from various rental places that were scratched up well beyond usability. Despite the DVD's touted durability, they apparently are not immune to masticating dogs and children. If rental copies of an HD movie came in these cartridges to play in anyone's set-top player or HTPC, rental stores wouldn't have to worry about replacing unusable disks as often and customers would have more peace of mind when bringing home a rental.
The second reason would be for those who wish to protect their own collection of bare disks. I can see empty versions of these plastic cartridges being sold on the shelf much like jewel cases which people could simply buy separately to protect their favorite episodes of CSI or whatever.
Hope that makes sense.
