Consumers may be tightening their belts, but that reduction apparently hasn't affected DVD sales just yet. In fact, spending on DVDs and Blu-ray discs during the first half of 2008 showed a slight increase over the same period a year ago, according to data collected by Home Media Magazine. Spending on rentals rose even more, indicating that perhaps part of consumers' money-saving efforts involve cozying up to a movie at home for entertainment instead of heading out for a night on the town—or downloading from the Internet.

Home Media found that sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs rose from $6.8 billion in early 2007 to $6.87 billion in the first half of this year—a modest increase of 1.1 percent. This number appears to coincide with "studio reports" saying that unit sales were also up 1.1 percent to 412.3 million discs in the first half of 2008, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Rentals increased by 2.6 percent, from $3.7 billion to $3.9 billion.

Analysts seem to think that these numbers also serve as proof that downloading—legal or illegal—is not hurting DVD sales as much as Doomsdayers would like to think. "The fact is, despite what many on Wall Street seem to think, there is very little digital downloading going on," Adams Media Research president Adams Media Research said. "We're talking about $118 million in 2007 spending, and about $254 million this year—so against a $24 billion packaged media market, it's really not making much of a dent at this point."

This is despite P2P traffic recently shifting its focus from music to movies and soaring BitTorrent traffic. This, of course, is happening right alongside the IFPI's and MPAA's legal crackdowns on P2P sites. In fact, many observers have questioned whether the motion picture industry's efforts are backfiring and merely drawing more attention to the fact that people can find music, movies, and TV online for free. So far, it appears that most of the general public is still happily doing things the old-fashioned way.

Not so for other traditional media, like CDs. Online music stores have been moving quickly up in the ranks (and recently taking the number one spot) among all music retailers, while CD sales have been tanking for several years. This is likely due to the fact that all four of the major labels have now ditched DRM in their online sales, while the movie and TV industries still act as if they will ride out DRM (in their legit sales) to the grave. With heavy usage restrictions on online purchases/rentals and not-very-easy-to-use online services, it comes as no huge surprise that consumers are content to just relax with a bowl of popcorn, pop in a DVD or Blu-ray, and watch it on a giant flat-screen TV.