How have Blu-ray discs changed in the past 10 years?

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Have there been any substantial changes? Better encoding? Better transfer technology? Different audio types? Better menus? BD-Live? (Is that still a thing?) Packaging?

I don't pay much attention to the technical aspects. I was hoping some of you pros could spell out the differences. So, what's different and what's remained unchanged?

[Vilya]

Better encodes, better audio, BD Live bites ( I disable it), and worse cases. I hate eco cases! Cheap bastards!

[levcore]

Less effort put into the extras

[CinemaScope]

I'm sure it's all better except that an awful lot of Blu-ray releases come from very old HD masters (titles licensed by MGM & Sony & Universal), the same master that was used for the DVD. New HD transfers look more natural/organic with less electronic sharpening & filtering (Apollo 13 is a good example). With UHD I'm hoping that some titles are revisited, I'm thinking Warner titles like, The Wild Bunch, Where Eagles Dare & Jeremiah Johnson.

[TripleHBK]

The use of BD Java has declined and the menu systems as a result have gotten far more simple.

[BrickWaters]

Lack of extras. Cheap cases. But that effects DVDs as well.

[BluMonday]

Originally Posted by levcore

Less effort put into the extras

[RCRochester]

The biggest change I've noticed is that studios have shifted from releasing deep catalog titles themselves towards licencing to independent labels such as Shout, Kino, Olive, Twilight Time, Powerhouse, etc. who seem to put more care in releasing quality product and / or putting interesting movies out on disc.

[TXMoviebuff77]

Originally Posted by levcore

Less effort put into the extras

This is the sad truth & I hate those cheap holed cases. I do think sound wise, they’re improving & releasing older titles has caught my interest into buying more.

[AngelGraves13]

Better quality audio and video encodings. Lack of extras and really cheap cases, unless you buy the overpriced editions for collectors only.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

I've noticed the major labels have all but abandoned older titles.

[Jexes23]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

I've noticed the major labels have all but abandoned older titles.

Double edged sword.

Good: I like suppporting smaller companies, and they generally tend to do more meticulous restorations and higher quality transfers, not to mention they usually have better supplements.

Bad: My wallet is going to take a bigger hit.

[The Great Owl]

Many of them have migrated from the stores to my shelf.

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Better encodes, better audio, BD Live bites ( I disable it), and worse cases. I hate eco cases! Cheap bastards!

There is nothing I hate more than eco cases, nothing.

[jess1581]

I'll just say what hasn't changed though since everyone here has already stated accurately what has changed. They still don't use the disc space to it's full capacity leaving gigs of open space that coulda been used for more content or maximum bitrates.

[Jeyl]

Menu designs are becoming a lost art. When DVD was in it's prime, there were menus that were sooooooo good, I would literally just let them play out as a screen saver. So atmospheric and moody! Well, except for WB's DVDs where their menus would automatically play the movie after two loops. I really miss awesome menus.

[SPIDERone]

Originally Posted by Jeyl

Menu designs are becoming a lost art. When DVD was in it's prime, there were menus that were sooooooo good, I would literally just let them play out as a screen saver. So atmospheric and moody! Well, except for WB's DVDs where their menus would automatically play the movie after two loops. I really miss awesome menus.

I know I've woken up too many times due to a DVD menu looping a ~15 second audio clip after a movie ended
Me, Myself and Irene was one that I recall being a very loud/annoying menu to wake up to!

It's a bit of a mixed bag with the menus though. I remember some good ones but then studios got a bit carried away with making the menu have intro and transition screens that were neat to see once but quickly got frustrating with 10 second transitions between pages. I seem to recall the Terminator 2 blu-ray (Skynet edition?) menu being similar to this.

I find it really interesting that the current 4K UHD discs seem to have gone back to the original days of a static image and text for the menus.

[Jacques Souvenir]

Digital copies are one of the biggest changes. When I started buying blu's around 2009, they included a separate disc just for the digital copy.