Samsung to Stop Producing New Blu-Ray Players in the USA

[bfett9]

"Samsung will no longer introduce new Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray player models in the US market," the company told CNET, in response to an earlier report in Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarc.../#6f683b301577

https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-to...s-report-says/

https://mashable.com/article/samsung.../#TYfi5ypZ3sqz

Serious shocker for me.

[CV19]

Originally Posted by bfett9

Serious shocker for me.

As long as the main audio/video manufacturers like Sony, Panasonic, etc continue, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I only say that because their reputation, at least in the UK, seems to be very mixed from what I gather.

[HDTV1080P]

Sad to hear however Samsung was one of the worst quality Blu-ray players on the market with their high-end models dropping the 3D feature.


OPPO and Cambridge also left the Blu-ray player business. Others are most likely are going to make announcements this year or in 2020+.

[mar3o]

Samsung made the worst players out there (and worst TVs too imo) and they even dropped 3D from their players which was a crappy move, so I'm shedding no tears. However I hope other companies don't look at this and get any bright ideas.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

On the one hand less companies making players is not a good thing. On the other hand, my signature (which I've had for some time, long prior to these recent announcements) pretty much expresses my feelings about their players. So if any company is going to cease production of Blu-Ray and 4K players, I'm glad that it is Samsung and not another company that actually makes good players.

[WinterBox]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Sad to hear however Samsung was one of the worst quality Blu-ray players on the market with their high-end models dropping the 3D feature.


OPPO and Cambridge also left the Blu-ray player business. Others are most likely are going to make announcements this year or in 2020+.

Originally Posted by mar3o

Samsung made the worst players out there (and worst TVs too imo) and they even dropped 3D from their players which was a crappy move, so I'm shedding no tears. However I hope other companies don't look at this and get any bright ideas.

Not really 100%, but almost every company stopped producing 3D TV's. 3D was destined to not last long anyway. It was a fad. Now next in line is 4K Blu's. Not so much a fad, but is also on it's way out. It's an overpriced niche format. The fact that DVD outsells 4K Blu's by over ten times is a major tell.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by WinterBox

Not really 100%, but almost every company stopped producing 3D TV's. 3D was destined to not last long anyway. It was a fad. Now next in line is 4K Blu's. Not so much a fad, but is also on it's way out. It's an overpriced niche format. The fact that DVD outsells 4K Blu's by over ten times is a major tell.

I'm not the biggest 3D fan. While I do have several 3D titles in my collection, most were for reasons other than the included 3D disc.

But that said, the timing of that format launching was terrible. The dust was just barely starting to settle from people upgrading to HDTVs, Blu-Ray, and for the time new sound systems, and then BAM, they go and release the 3D format, which more or less required upgrading all of those things again (the sound systems being a gray area as if used as a pass-through for the HDMI from the player to the TV, sometimes they were compatible with 3D, but there are other ways around that).

And with people's desires to watch 3D movies regularly with glasses apparently being relatively minimal on average, it didn't help.


Honestly what should have happened would have been to wait and include 3D in the 4K disc specs. 4K should of course still have the option to watch the movies in 2D. But if it came with the combined benefits of even higher resolution, HDR, and the option to watch movies in 3D, while it might still be niche, it would have gotten more people collectively on board with it even if it was for differing individual priorities.

Instead for the most part not only has 3D been dying, but with the launch of 4K, with very very few exceptions, people have had to choose to either buy the 4K release or 3D.... or buy the same movie twice if they want both. This has done more to split the enthusiast audience rather than bring them together with one consistent standard that they can all benefit from.

[DavePS3]

I have 4 Samsung BluRay players - 2 being 4K and never had an issue. In fact, 4 of my 4K discs I use for demonstrations will not play on the Sony or Panasonics [I also own the Pana] but they play fine on either of the Samsungs so people bashing certain brands because they personally had a bad experience is typical but idiotic. I've had a bad experience with Chevy for example but I don't bash the brand... some people have great luck with it.

Samsung told us last March, that they were getting out of the Bluray market... that's why they did not release any 2018 players... they did not have the resources for more expensive high end units and saw no point in making $75.00 players so this is not news here.

[mar3o]

It seems like it's news for most tech sites:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019...u-ray-players/

The comment section of that article is full of false information and nonsense as expected. For a tech site, their user base is consistently ignorant when it comes to articles about home theatre. Second comment down in that article:

"I never had any interest in Blu-ray. When I heard stories about having to be online to authenticate this or that, I never looked back."

And notice how many upvotes that comment got. People have no idea what they are talking about half the time.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by WinterBox

Not really 100%, but almost every company stopped producing 3D TV's. 3D was destined to not last long anyway. It was a fad. Now next in line is 4K Blu's. Not so much a fad, but is also on it's way out. It's an overpriced niche format. The fact that DVD outsells 4K Blu's by over ten times is a major tell.

3D is not a fad. The problem was it was a very poorly-done launch and there have been lots of bad decisions surrounding the format since it launched, including lots of films that used it very poorly. By the time LG merged their passive 3D tech with 4k TVs, many people no longer had any interest, which is a shame, because 3D on LG's 4k TVs were stunning.

Also UHD is not on the way out, nor is it overpriced. Lots of them are available for $15 or under.

[LordoftheRings]

This thread would be perfectly positioned to be merged with:
• https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=314921

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by LordoftheRings

This thread would be perfectly positioned to be merged with:
• https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=314921

Nah, let's have a dedicated thread for each discontinued Samsung model. More ado about nothing means more Chicken Littles cluck cluck clucking! I am most amused by all of it.

[LordoftheRings]

Ok

[mar3o]

Man, the ignorant comments over in that arstechinca article really fire me up, especially since they like to pride themselves as being so much more intelligent than the "average" person:

"That’s not the only issue: 4K Blu-ray’s have drm in them that require visiting a website for a code if you don’t have it connected to the internet. Same for some newer Blu-ray Discs. That extra hassle has made me not buy some Blu-ray’s I’d otherwise be buying."

"Only old people buy Blu-ray".

"Having gigabit cable now I cannot feel that we need physical media anymore."

"Just make sure the movie was recorded in 4k or higher and the 4k Blu-ray was mastered in 4k or none of this matters."

Ugh. Total ignorance. Somebody needs to pop into that site and set some things straight in the comments but I don't have an account because I refuse to argue with those idiots about such things.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Man, the ignorant comments over in that arstechinca article really fire me up, especially since they like to pride themselves as being so much more intelligent than the "average" person:

"That’s not the only issue: 4K Blu-ray’s have drm in them that require visiting a website for a code if you don’t have it connected to the internet. Same for some newer Blu-ray Discs. That extra hassle has made me not buy some Blu-ray’s I’d otherwise be buying."

"Only old people buy Blu-ray".

"Having gigabit cable now I cannot feel that we need physical media anymore."

"Just make sure the movie was recorded in 4k or higher and the 4k Blu-ray was mastered in 4k or none of this matters."

Ugh. Total ignorance. Somebody needs to pop into that site and set some things straight in the comments but I don't have an account because I refuse to argue with those idiots about such things.

Plenty of that right here on this website; no need to look for more elsewhere. Don't let it frustrate you; enjoy the humor in it.

As Mark Twain said:

“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”

[Falaskan]

Samsung is one of the big dogs. Believe me, others in the industry will follow suit, especially if this benefits Samsung.

[RustinCohle]

Start stocking up on 4K players now boys, this ship is sinking fast!!!!

[Bcosta]

This is not good news regardless of the branding....

[LordoftheRings]

Me I think it's very good, wars are never good for anyone.
Samsung chose war by spitting on Dolby Vision, now we all pay the price.
Plus, more people are going to buy Dolby Vision supported products and stream with them.

So it's all a big win situation actually.
The hardcore physical people like us here, we are looking towards a brighter future, with Panasonic's Optimizer and Sony's Universal.
The 9000 is also build like an aircraft carrier boat.
And the X800M2 supports Dolby Vision, SACD & DVD Audio.

The first one is almost zero available in North America.
And the second one is not here yet, only next Spring.

Pioneer? Universal too, strong build, but where and for how much? Thousand, that much, and not on the Best Buy shelves, that where.

LG? I wish they made metal players. Last time I lift one up it almost flew in the air ....

Magnavox? The best alternative to Samsung?

[TM2-Megatron]

Originally Posted by LordoftheRings

Magnavox? The best alternative to Samsung?

Samsung's current crop of crap is probably inferior to Magnavox players anyway, lol. They knew they couldn't compete with the features of Panasonic, Sony or Pioneer players, nor could they compete with the pricing of generics like Magnavox, so they jumped ship. Good riddance.