The number of televisions estimated that sit unused in closets.
The EPA estimates that nearly 100 million unused televisions are currently taking up precious, beautiful space. (source: EPA, July 2008)
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
> it's easy to see why Blu-ray DVRs haven't been something that manufacturers have even tried to sell the American public
It isn't easy, really, no. I don't know why you'd think that. If manufacturers are really thinking "We can only get Blu-ray to sell if we limit it to playback of HD movies", then that's extraordinarily myopic, and is a major reason why Blu-ray isn't selling.
I can't stand the format, but an HD DVR that supports Blu-ray (including burning high definition content to DVD and BD) is something I'd buy. I see the advantage of that right away.
If you limit the applications, of course you're going to see dismal sales. To deliberately refuse to sell devices that break those limits because sales are low is, well, utterly incompetent.