LG discontinues all UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray players

[b_scott]

https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.ph...&id=1733902062

[Torgon]

Well, that sucks. I love my UBK 90 player. I see people complain about disc not playing in theirs and I've never had a problem. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles as some others, but at least it plays all of my UHDs without issue. The only issue is it won't let you FWD or BWD properly with DVDs. Sometimes it freezes up. But UHDs; no problems. I may go buy another for the future on case mine dies, lol.

[Wendell R. Breland]

At one time I owned 3 LG Blu-ray players but they were replaced several years ago by Oppo UDP-203, Sony UBP-X1000 and Sony UBP-X800. Don’t remember any major problems with the LG.

LG Blu-ray 5-¼” disc drives are the pits. ASUS drives are not much better. My Pioneer drives have proven to be very good. Just wish I had purchased more of the Pioneer BDR-211UBK drives when they were available.

[Telemachus]

Don't think anyone still buys their players not a surprise

[ntotoro]

No issues with my UBKM9 after the last firmware update (bought it about three years ago). It even plays unfinished DVD's that my Panny pukes back out LOL! Doesn't have the image quality or upscaling quality of my Panny, but is a solid player.

[CSM101]

My brother had a lot of issues with his LG 4k player. Bad luck maybe? He went with Panny 420.

[Katatonia]

I have an LG 4K player (region free hardware modified) that was given to me as a gift.

The Remote and Menus/Interface on it sure are less than ideal compared to my Sony though.

It's not too surprising they are discontinuing them, but then again it seems like most manufacturers still doing them aren't really releasing any new or updated players these days.

[Cremildo]

Rather concerning. I've only had LG Blu-ray players for the last 15 years, and my only UHD player is LG as well.

[Telemachus]

If there's a fire sale on these models I might have to pounce

[LexInHD]

I am certain that they won't get price-adjusted for clearance, but who knows.

[HDTV1080P]

This is bad news for the Blu-ray format, I wish LG would have waited until January of 2025 to announce all 4K Blu-ray players and 2K Blu-ray players are now out of production (Personally, I prefer Sony and Panasonic players over Samsung and LG. I never bought a Samsung or LG Blu-ray player since they did not have the features I wanted). Both LG and Samsung are South Korean companies and now no more Blu-ray players made or engineered in South Korea. The good news is that so far Sony and Panasonic both make 4K Blu-ray players and Sony still makes 2K Blu-ray players (two Japanese companies). Also for the high-end players we have the Chinese company Magnetar making the UDP900 and UDP800 which has build quality so good that they might last 30+ years.

https://magnetar-audio.com/bluray-player-udp900/



Many times, in this forum I have suggested that Sony stop making 2K Blu-ray players and 4K upscaling players and only make native 4K Blu-ray players. If Sony only made a selection of 2 to 5 different models of native 4K Blu-ray players, it would stop consumer confusion. Since the players would play all optical video discs and connect to any display with a HDMI input with upscaling or downscaling to any resolution between 480i and 2160P.

Streaming is clearly winning the format war. But as long as both Sony and Panasonic continue to make players there is hope. But the rental market for optical discs was lost nationwide when REDBOX and Netflix stopped renting discs. Most consumers rent and purchase movies digitally using streaming now but at lower 4K video bitrates and with lossy audio.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by b_scott

https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.ph...&id=1733902062

Thanks for the article, however that article has some errors. Sony did release a new 4K Blu-ray player in the year 2019 called the Sony UBP-X800M2.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=316337

Quote

“LG has not launched any new optical disc players since 2018, when it introduced the UBK80 and UBK90 UHD Blu-ray players. This same is true for other major brands such as Panasonic and Sony.”

[Spud_Almighty]

What a bummer. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by b_scott

https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.ph...&id=1733902062

Does this mean that LG is stopping production on computer 4K BD-ROM drives and 2K BD-ROM drives also, or does this article only apply to standalone LG 4K Blu-ray players and standalone LG 2K Blu-ray players?

This is bad for the Blu-ray format for another reason. LG is a big standalone DVD player and DVD-ROM computer drive manufacture. Right now Walmart nationwide sells a standalone LG DVD player with HDMI output for $32.72 which is a little more expensive then the entry level $20 to $25 DVD players. The big question is, does LG plan on still making DVD players or are they going out of production also? The DVD format would win the format war if Blu-ray players go out of production and only DVD players are made one day. But that will not last since streaming will take over the DVD format also and win the so-called format war.

I always said that if companies are serious about winning the physical optical disc format war then they should stop making DVD players and make Blu-ray players for around $50+. Blu-ray players play DVD discs but the security in all modern Blu-ray players will sometimes prevent a pirated DVD-R disc from being played, which upsets consumers making 15 cent DVD-R copies of movies.

Sony should stop making both DVD players and 2K Blu-ray players and put their marketing behind low cost and medium priced native 4K Blu-ray disc players.

[Bolty]

Perhaps the article is fictional and not a documentary.

[akaun6899]

Shame. Our first BD player was LG. Got it during the 2010 holidays.

[YodasFootPowder]

I got a UBK90 on clearance a couple of years ago for $99. I thought, wow, what a steal. It seemed a little slow and clunky, but it was a 4k player and had a great picture! It lasted about a year and with very little use before the disc tray, suddenly, stopped opening. What's even weirder is it started exhibiting this behavior a few days after updating to a new firmware. I've never heard of firmware causing an actual hardware fault like that, but it sure was a strange coincidence.

That said, I'm never happy when I see a big company exiting a hardware market like this.

[deatheats]

Originally Posted by YodasFootPowder

I got a UBK90 on clearance a couple of years ago for $99. I thought, wow, what a steal. It seemed a little slow and clunky, but it was a 4k player and had a great picture! It lasted about a year and with very little use before the disc tray, suddenly, stopped opening. What's even weirder is it started exhibiting this behavior a few days after updating to a new firmware. I've never heard of firmware causing an actual hardware fault like that, but it sure was a strange coincidence.

That said, I'm never happy when I see a big company exiting a hardware market like this.

A bad or bugged Firmware update could definitely cause these types of issues. When it comes to firmware I tend to err on the side of caution and take a, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it attitude. Unless you have a problem you are looking to fix and you know the update addresses it, I tend to stick with the firmware that’s been running stable, especially on devices like Blu-ray players where updates are infrequent.

On a side note, ordered a new Panasonic 420 for the bedroom for Xmas…replacing an older Sony which is replacing an even more ancient Samsung in the garage. Ahh, the circle of life!!

[dcx4610]

It's too much of a niche product to be successful. The good news is that Panasonic released a new budget model 4K player recently so they are still in the game.

[Trekkie313]

They are still making drives for computers though.