Deep into the era of streaming, physical media is disappearing, and Blu-ray isn't exempt from the trend.
With over 18 years of history, Blu-ray technology was designed to take CDs and DVDs to the next level. Not only can they hold significantly more data than their predecessors, but Blu-ray discs even let you view high-quality (and 3D content) that often are closer to the experience of watching in theaters than the compressed versions you'll find elsewhere. Not to be confused with DVDs, Blu-ray discs use a different kind of laser technology, which eventually became the industry standard for film and movies by 2008. In part, this is due to the fact that its players could be backwards-compatible with DVDs, but not the other way around.
...
Although some things can (and have) lasted the test of time, the natural progression of most technology is that something becomes obsolete when a newer, better, or more efficient model comes along. In terms of the Blu-ray discs, there are several things that have pushed them to obsoletion.
The problem with streaming services right now is that the consumer does not know know how long a particular TV series or film is going to be available, so for any media that you would want to watch whenever you want for years to come in the highest fidelity (For example, the 2023 summer blockbuster "Barbie"), getting it on physical media is still the best option.
Asking people to get a dedicated Blu-Ray player in 2024 is a tall order, most people would fair better getting a PlayStation or XBox with disk support instead.
I will admit that I prefer accessing my movies digitally. I will also admit that I absolutely prefer actually owning things I buy. So the compromise is to buy a disc, rip it onto a computer, and access it from there. Physical media won’t die until digital rights actually represents ownership. Unfortunately procuring those discs will likely continue to be more expensive and the discs themselves less prevalent.
Physical media won’t die until digital rights actually represents ownership
i wish that were true but I unfortunately disagree.
The content producers are the ones who want to restrict your digital rights. And they are the ones who produce the physical media that is in demand. I could definitely see them just not producing any more, and physical media being effectively dead
There are plenty of boutique brands out there that have taken up the physical distribution in lieu of the content owners. As long as there’s a market for it, physical discs will still exist. There are definitely some companies that have decided not to license out distribution but they also own their own digital platforms (looking at you Netflix). Fortunately, much of what they produce is merely content and not worth owning.
Blu-Ray kind of shot itself in the foot by having an insanely restrictive copy protection (AAAC) applied, which made watching movies on a PC/Laptop all but impossible, especially offline (I traveled by train a lot in 2015)*. It was obviously broken fairly quickly, so they added BD+, which was also broken within 4 months.
It should be regarded as a cautionary tale against any form of copy pretention, but they sell the keys to the hardware suppliers, so I guess making the customer have a worse experience still paid off.
*No, paying PowerDVD a yearly ransom is not a valid solution
Blu-ray won over HDDVD via payola. Then it dried up. This decline has been foreseen for a while, but I'm disappointed Phillips hasn't been muttering about super-dense DVD or a similarly shiny-sounding format to keep a sales channel and sell new IP.
I got a cheap visio from a thrift store, so I was lucky. The only problem is I have about a million ways to play DVDs, but don't use it that much because I only got it for one movie. Came with DVD and Blu-ray, but my setup is old enough that Blu-ray makes little difference quality wise for me. Still cool to have since I have a dedicated distraction free DVD player, though.
Well that's probably a bit predictable given what community this is. But I really think the pricing is way out of line with what your average person is willing to pay and it only serves to make the physical media more niche.
Yeah, but I bet the best quality copies of what you have on there were at some point ripped from Blu-rays. The death of physical media will hurt anyone who wants to "own" their library. Unless we get the GOG of Movies where high quality DRM-free copies can be bought, they are going to keep pushing everyone to their subscription streaming sites until the idea of owning media dies. Blu-ray is the last mainstream bastion of owning your movies. I agree the plastic is a problem, but let's get a good replacement before we throw out what we have.
Case in point: of all my Cult CDs, only "Ceremony" was super trashed when it fell outta my discman and onto gravel on the way to school. "Sonic Temple", "Electric" and "Dreamtime"? Played a million times and still pristine.
This article is just a retread of the same things talked about for years. But boutique Blu-ray is still in a good place; there are more releases i'm Interested in than I keep up with, and particularly more 4K releases than ever.
One signal here is that some popular streaming series are still getting physical releases. Like, I didn't think I'd see Severance or any of the Disney+ shows on Blu-ray, but here we are.
That said, now is the time to buy a dedicated player if you don't already have one. Sony and Panasonic make the best ones, so it's no accident they're the last two manufacturers standing.
Nit picky: the word is "obsolescence," not "obsoletion."
I still enjoy watching blurays more than anything. The only downside what I see is that it gets more expensive. But otherwise you own something physical that you can also resell.
I don't own a whole lot, but I enjoy content on BD. I have a subscription similar to what Netflix started out as and get two discs per month. My partner always enjoys the bonus content that you just don't get with the streaming services.
I know there are plenty of people looking for that home movie theater experience but I would say the majority of people just don’t care. At least not enough to hunt down blu-rays.
If my choice is between collecting movies I’ll rarely watch vs just flipping on a stream I am just going to stream. It’s easier. Less fucking around. Doesn’t require physically storing media some where taking up space.
I searched a few of the players it said are available for lower prices second hand and looks like Panasonic still has 4 models of 4K blu ray players available on their site right now. May have to snag one of those as I have a Samsung one from 9 years ago that could probably use an upgrade soon