The optical disc onslaught continues, with LG quitting Blu-ray Players

[StarFuryG7]

The optical disc onslaught continues, with LG quitting Blu-ray Players

[HDTV1080P]

Now LG OLED owners can either buy a 720 x 480i LG DVD player that appears to still being made for around $32, or they can get a 3840 x 2160P Panasonic 4K Blu-ray player for around $177 that plays all video discs. Or they can stream at low bit rate 4K with lossy audio.

I think many people will stream since its built into the TV, but videophiles and audiophiles will get a Sony or Panasonic 4K Blu-ray player.

[StarFuryG7]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Now LG OLED owners can either buy a 720 x 480i LG DVD player that appears to still being made for around $32, or they can get a 3840 x 2160P Panasonic 4K Blu-ray player for around $177 that plays all video discs. Or they can stream at low bit rate 4K with lossy audio.

I think many people will stream since its built into the TV, but videophiles and audiophiles will get a Sony or Panasonic 4K Blu-ray player.

For as long as they're still on the market. :/

This is baloney. People can't keep buying disc media if they can't purchase new players. It's literally shutting the market down by attrition.

[Vilya]

This is the third thread on this topic now. I hope that we get more so that I can knit a holiday sweater out of them.

First one:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=381301

One for the blu-ray player section:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=381352

[Telemachus]

How will we survive

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

How will we survive

Shadow puppetry displayed upon our cave walls.

[HeavyHitter]

Form the article...

FlatpanelsHD spoke with LG Korea, which reportedly didn’t commit to a permanent exit from Blu-ray players. But for the foreseeable future, the company won’t be selling a type of device that it hasn’t updated in almost seven years.

Hm, okay.

Other tech companies have also shown reduced interest in the Blu-ray business. Panasonic, Sony, and Oppo also haven’t released a Blu-ray player since 2018.

I guess they never got the memo Oppo went out of business? Or about Magentar making them?

[Jay H.]

Originally Posted by StarFuryG7

It's literally shutting the market down by attrition.

If it happens, it happens. Nothing lasts forever. There are more important things to be concerned with.

[Jodi]

Hmmmm....might be thinking of picking up a couple more Reavon X110's....I already own an X110 and a Panny 9000 mkII.

[Cortiz]

Funny thing is that as technology advances, it's "suppose" to get better and more sophisticated right? Well, they are killing physical media in favor of a inferior format called "streaming". Hell, you don't even have full ownership of the content you purchase either. If for whatever reason you don't have internet access or don't have a good service because the internet company is crap, you're out of luck. I can go on and on with reasons why streaming sucks. The only good thing about it is convenient.

[mar3o]

I despise Arstechnica's headlines and "journalism", They've always hated on physical media formats (3D, UHD/HDR). Their ignorance of HDR is astonishing.

[andreasy969]

If the quality of the LG players was as good as the quality of LG's PC drives, I think that's no loss. My second LG drive died re. BDs (which includes UH-BDs) two days ago. Fails to load BDs. And the exact same thing happened with my first LG UHD-BD drive. The second one I wrecked myself via a CD with a crack, which literally exploded within the drive, and I can't blame LG.

[Anthony P]

Oh no how will I survive, I might not be able to buy a LG player in a few years

OK granted I have never owned a LG player and never planed to buy one but somehow I have to pretend the sky is falling.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by andreasy969

If the quality of the LG players was as good as the quality of LG's PC drives, I think that's no loss. My second LG drive died re. BDs (which includes UH-BDs) two days ago. Fails to load BDs. And the exact same thing happened with my first LG UHD-BD drive. The second one I wrecked myself via a CD with a crack, which literally exploded within the drive, and I can't blame LG.

I and my family members have owned several Pioneer 4K BD-ROM drives for several years. I think around the year 2017, and so far all of them work perfectly fine in terms of reading and writing optical media. Of course, the ability to legally playback a native 4K Blu-ray discs from a PC was disabled with the latest version of PowerDVD 23 Ultra, and one can no longer do Blu-ray 3D from a PC (but that is not a Pioneer issue but instead a problem with the BDA not working with PC software and hardware companies to offer secure 4K Blu-ray disc playback options, and not offering a Blu-ray 3D option from a PC that use to exist many years ago). But 2K Blu-ray disc playback is flawless as long as the disc is not badly scratched or damaged.

Pioneer makes high quality 4K BD-ROM drives and 2K BD-ROM drives for desktop and Laptop/Notebook computers with both internal and external drive options.

https://usa.pioneer/collections/optical-drives

[Flotus1]

No big loss, got a UBK90 awhile back but just wasn't impressed with the picture quality, replaced it with the UB420 and haven't regretted it since.

[andreasy969]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

I and my family members have owned several Pioneer 4K BD-ROM drives for several years. I think around the year 2017, and so far all of them work perfectly fine in terms of reading and writing optical media. Of course, the ability to legally playback a native 4K Blu-ray discs from a PC was disabled with the latest version of PowerDVD 23 Ultra, and one can no longer do Blu-ray 3D from a PC (but that is not a Pioneer issue but instead a problem with the BDA not working with PC software and hardware companies to offer secure 4K Blu-ray disc playback options, and not offering a Blu-ray 3D option from a PC that use to exist many years ago). But 2K Blu-ray disc playback is flawless as long as the disc is not badly scratched or damaged.

Pioneer makes high quality 4K BD-ROM drives and 2K BD-ROM drives for desktop and Laptop/Notebook computers with both internal and external drive options.

https://usa.pioneer/collections/optical-drives

Pioneer drives won't work with UHD-BDs anymore AFAIK (not the way I'd need them to that is), so not an option, but I stopped buying LG. I am on my fourth 4k drive now and two died on me for what I consider to be poor quality. I always have a few spares lying around, but not LG anymore. Whether the alternative is better remains to be seen.

Other than that, reading the discs via the official way on the PC is a joke IMO and the companies can kiss my ass.

[xian]

Originally Posted by Cortiz

Funny thing is that as technology advances, it's "suppose" to get better and more sophisticated right? Well, they are killing physical media in favor of a inferior format called "streaming". Hell, you don't even have full ownership of the content you purchase either. If for whatever reason you don't have internet access or don't have a good service because the internet company is crap, you're out of luck. I can go on and on with reasons why streaming sucks. The only good thing about it is convenient.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Betamax higher quality than VHS? We owned the former, and were forced to switch eventually.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by xian

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Betamax higher quality than VHS? We owned the former, and were forced to switch eventually.

depends

as first created Beta was a bit better video quality than VHS but it could only hold 1h of content (OK for taping a show but not movies) Then they added Beta ii and beta iii that doubled and tripled the amount of content but reduced the quality of video (VHS also added lp and ep but a 2h film on SP on VHS would look better then a 2h film on ii on Beta).

There was also the addition of longer/shorter tapes on both formats.

You are also forgetting that VHS tape was bigger so most people thought that it could tape more because it had more tape and not just less detail

even if quality is important, it was first and foremost a recording media and so if people are not there and they miss some of the content because it ran out of space that is a much bigger issue. then missing a bit of snow from the OTA picture they were recording.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by xian

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Betamax higher quality than VHS? We owned the former, and were forced to switch eventually.

That is a yes and no answer. BETA was better quality in the 20th Century with BETA, Super BETA, and ED-BETA having a better picture quality when compared to VHS and S-VHS. BETA came out in late 1975 according to some sources but the year 1976 was more realistic. Since better quality met using more tape storage space, the lower quality 1977 VHS system became more popular because of the longer storage capacity (and BETA lost the format war to VHS). ED BETA was better with 500+ lines of resolution versus S-VHS 400 lines (SP speed VHS only offered 240 lines). BETA machines were made until the year 2002 but Sony started making VHS machines in 1988 since it realized that it lost the format war (Just like when the 1983 CD format won the audio format war and the Sony 1992 Mini Disc lost the audio disc format war, and the Mini Disc went out of production in March of 2013. The CD format had better sound quality with studio master LPCM sound versus Mini Disc used lossy audio). Some fear Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association might lose the modern-day video format war to the virtual streaming format, however currently the year 2016 4K Blu-ray format offers better picture and sound quality when compared to streaming, since streaming requires a constant streaming bit rate of 150Mbps to each TV to match the quality of 4K Blu-ray disc, and no streaming provider is willing to stream at that amount of quality level yet.

By the way JVC’s D-VHS that was launched in December of 1997 offered a better picture quality when compared to the analog ED-BETA system. In the year 2002 50GB D-VHS tapes were made that allowed consumers to record 1080i HD ATSC broadcasts, and in 2002 D-theater D-VHS pre-recorded movies came out with 1080i HD and lossy 5.1 DTS surround sound at 1.54Mbps. However, when the Blu-ray format came out in 2006 with 1080P and with 7.1 DTS-HD Master audio the demand for D-VHS and all forms of VHS died (last major studio VHS tape release was around 2008). The last pre-recorded 1080i D-Theater D-VHS movie was in 2004. Videotape technology like VHS died around the year 2008 for a prerecorded movie. Panasonic did make a VHS and Blu-ray combo machine in 2009 but soon after around 2014 VHS and DVD combo machines stopped being made. Of course in the year 2024 Alien: Romulus was released on both VHS and 4K Blu-ray disc. So once and awhile VHS tapes are released by the studio to remind people of the 1980's when VHS use to be King.

[mdhaus]

Originally Posted by StarFuryG7

For as long as they're still on the market. :/

This is baloney. People can't keep buying disc media if they can't purchase new players. It's literally shutting the market down by attrition.

Do you honestly think that NO company would figure out that they could have an entire market to themselves by simply manufacturing disc players?