[2000UltraDeluxe]

> The difference between blu-ray and dvd was barely perceptible—if at all—on most people's TVs, when they came out, while DVDs were plainly much better than VHS on any non-tiny TV manufactured in the 10+ years before they came out, is part of why DVDs made a bigger splash, I think.

This. DVD arrived back in the CRT-era when most screens were both smaller and had lower resolution than modern screens. When Blu-ray hit the market, 32"+ flatscreens had started to become mainstream.

If you try watching a Bluray on a 24" CRT TV then you'd hardly notice the difference when comparing to a high-quality DVD release.