Should I buy a 4K Blu-ray player?

[MrHT]

I've had a 4K TV for about two years now and have never really bought a 4K Blu-ray player mainly because I was waiting to see how popular it is going to get. But lately, I've been tempted to pull the plug and just go for it. A decent Sony 4K Blu-ray player is about $200, which is not the cheapest, but not overly expensive either, IMHO. However, I'm just having doubts on the future of physical media. It just seems like 4K Blu-ray isn't really catching on and I don't want to invest in a format that may not become all that popular and could just die.

So what do you guys think? I'm probably setting myself up for some biased answers, considering that this is a 4K Blu-ray forum, but I'm cool with that. I'd still love to hear your input.

[unberechenbar]

Considering that you have a decent home theater system, I'd say go for it. I got a 4K Blu-ray player before I got a surround system and watched Tenet and the sound from the opening scene blew me away, even on TV speakers. The audio is a pretty big upgrade I'd say. And sometimes the 4K disc comes with Dolby Atmos but the regular Blu-ray doesn't. HDR when done well also looks amazing.
But more practically speaking, are there a lot of movies you like on 4K Blu-ray? I like watching newer sci-fi movies so that was never a concern for me but if most of the stuff you like is not on 4K, then maybe it's not worth the cost.

[Jay H.]

Just for the record, the death of physical media has been predicted for years. And yet, here we are.

[teddyballgame]

Like you say a good player doesn't cost all that much and once you have it you're in baby. Feels good to own physical copies of your favorite movies.

I actually just bought my parents a Pannysonic UB420 a few weeks ago they love the HDR button which makes the picture brighter and helps overcome the sunlight coming into the living room.

[Tim573]

I am pretty sure that 4K bluray is healthy. Have a look at the 4K release calendars on this site, without counting variants of the same movie, there are at least 15 releases or more per month, I don't know what country you are in but in the US there are 27 scheduled in September. With 4K bluray you get movies on 66gb or 100gb discs and lossless audio, whereas on streaming a 4K movie is usually around 15gb and contains lossy audio, plus there is an ongoing cost, and they are on multiple different services. So there is going to continue to be a market, especially for more boutique stuff.

[steel_breeze]

I say: definitely go for it!

I'm a freaky outlier on these forums who doesn't even have a 4K display, and that's still my passionate advice. I remain madly in love with my 1080p SDR Panasonic projector from 2010... and yet the Oppo 203 UHD player is one of the best home theater purchases I ever made. Owning 4K discs of Alien, Apocalypse Now, Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc. is genuinely like having perfect film prints of some of my very favorite flicks, in terms of detail and texture... even when down-converted to 1080p! -- and I've spent MANY hours doing A/B comparisons to confirm that opinion for myself.

Pair that eccentric experience with an actual 4K HDR display, and it's a no brainer. Absolutely pull that trigger.

[martinstraka8282]

I weighed this last year and dove in head first. No regrets. Now I just have to finish upgrading equipment.

[danny24]

The death of physical media is so premature all that will happen is you will have to buy all physical movies online when stores don't carry them. We are already doing that though. Studios are going to keep pumping out physical media for quite awhile they make money off of it. What will happen and it's already happening is physical stores will carry less of it but online stores will continue to stock and carry movies.

Now if you already have a collection of physical media like Blu-ray's, DVD's I would say yes buying a 4K UHD player is a good investment and a necessity. If you don't have any physical media around the house than unless you plan on starting to collect UHD's I would say it's up to you.

A disc player always completes a home theater setup so yeah go for it.

[amory87]

Idk about the medium to distant future of the format, but I can tell you the number of quality UHD releases has kept my wallet very light. And it doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon...

If you're already planning to get a PS5 or XSX sometime in the near future (as they become available) I might just get one of those instead of a dedicated 4k player. Unless Dolby Vision playback is a must for you.

[ronboster]

Originally Posted by MrHT

I've had a 4K TV for about two years now and have never really bought a 4K Blu-ray player mainly because I was waiting to see how popular it is going to get. But lately, I've been tempted to pull the plug and just go for it. A decent Sony 4K Blu-ray player is about $200, which is not the cheapest, but not overly expensive either, IMHO. However, I'm just having doubts on the future of physical media. It just seems like 4K Blu-ray isn't really catching on and I don't want to invest in a format that may not become all that popular and could just die.

So what do you guys think? I'm probably setting myself up for some biased answers, considering that this is a 4K Blu-ray forum, but I'm cool with that. I'd still love to hear your input.

You post is littered with landmines:

1) How long would you consider a $200 investment to have served it's purpose?

2) How do you define physical media as "dead"?

3) For you to be upset about physical media dying/dead when would that timeframe occur? 5 years? 10 years?

4) When you say, 4k physical media, isn't "catching on" what do you mean by that or how do you define "catching on?

Forgive me for my questions, no offense, but your posting history says you don't have a "cup is half full" perspective.

I would suggest not buying a new player. If you find a used one for what you would classify as disposable income ( a great meal or flowers-only lasts for that evening or short time period). I would also suggest only buying movies that contain at least a blu ray. That way if the 4k player breaks down, you have a back up in the form of a blu ray to still enjoy the movie.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by ronboster

You post is littered with landmines:

1) How long would you consider a $200 investment to have served it's purpose?

2) How do you define physical media as "dead"?

3) For you to be upset about physical media dying/dead when would that timeframe occur? 5 years? 10 years?

4) When you say, 4k physical media, isn't "catching on" what do you mean by that or how do you define "catching on?

Forgive me for my questions, no offense, but your posting history says you don't have a "cup is half full" perspective.

I would suggest not buying a new player. If you find a used one for what you would classify as disposable income ( a great meal or flowers-only lasts for that evening or short time period). I would also suggest only buying movies that contain at least a blu ray. That way if the 4k player breaks down, you have a back up in the form of a blu ray to still enjoy the movie.

1) How long would you consider a $200 investment to have served it's purpose?
Considering that I've spent $200 on one day things like eating out or even getting massages, then $200 is really nothing considering the long term use I can get with the player.

2) How do you define physical media as "dead"?
Well Disney dropping support for the format has me concerned. That's how HD-DVD died. One studio dropped support and the other studios followed. Hoping that won't be the case with 4K Blu-ray.

3) For you to be upset about physical media dying/dead when would that timeframe occur? 5 years? 10 years?
Yeah, within 5 years, I would say,

4) When you say, 4k physical media, isn't "catching on" what do you mean by that or how do you define "catching on?
Well for one thing, every Best Buy I've been to has stripped away its physical media section and only selling new release BDs. That can't be a good sign. And also, 4K BD player selections are rather limited. At Best Buy and Target, I can only find one or two models in stock. That gets me concerned. If the format is catching on, why aren't there more player selections?

[vector72]

I think covid has forced some of the sales to the online market. If physical media dies today, there are what, 800+ UHD titles out there. (Furthermore, a 4k player will upscale all of your currently library.)

[ronboster]

Originally Posted by MrHT

1) How long would you consider a $200 investment to have served it's purpose?
Considering that I've spent $200 on one day things like eating out or even getting massages, then $200 is really nothing considering the long term use I can get with the player.

Since you have the disposable income (vs a nice meal or massage), why even hesitate? If you are into HT and $200 is not a budget concern, then you don't need anyone's opinion.

The player will last longer (in it's benefits) than a meal or massage. I assume you wouldn't be here if you weren't into movies, so there shouldn't be a need to seek advice.

[bladerunner6]

Originally Posted by MrHT

1) How long would you consider a $200 investment to have served it's purpose?
Considering that I've spent $200 on one day things like eating out or even getting massages, then $200 is really nothing considering the long term use I can get with the player.

2) How do you define physical media as "dead"?
Well Disney dropping support for the format has me concerned. That's how HD-DVD died. One studio dropped support and the other studios followed. Hoping that won't be the case with 4K Blu-ray.

Disney just released Raya on 4K in May, Luca is coming in August, etc. Yes they want you to pay for streaming every month for the rest of your life but they still have new releases.

3) For you to be upset about physical media dying/dead when would that timeframe occur? 5 years? 10 years?
Yeah, within 5 years, I would say,

4) When you say, 4k physical media, isn't "catching on" what do you mean by that or how do you define "catching on?
Well for one thing, every Best Buy I've been to has stripped away its physical media section and only selling new release BDs. That can't be a good sign. And also, 4K BD player selections are rather limited. At Best Buy and Target, I can only find one or two models in stock. That gets me concerned. If the format is catching on, why aren't there more player selections?

Don’t limit your shopping to BB or Target B&M stores. Buy your media from Bullmoose, DeepDiscount, Amazon, Target Online, eBay, wherever.

Buy your player from Crutchfield or World wide Stereo.

[JohnnyF]

Personally, I’ve held off getting a 4k player because I don’t yet have a 4k tv. Since you have one, I think it’s a no brainer to upgrade. Especially to enjoy upscaling for your current collection of blus.

I think many of your concerns are exaggerated. Yeah, physical media in stores has shrunk massively, but supply chains are still disrupted from covid. Shelves were bare in Best Buy and target for popular titles and since they set their items in a predetermined location for a month or more at a time, it looks terrible when a section is mostly empty. Targets switched over to having cardboard stands that they put up and take away once they’ve sold the product inside.

Disney did put a hold on 4k catalog titles, but that’s let up with recent Fox releases of Speed and there is a planned Who Framed Roger Rabbit restoration release coming up. Yeah, they want people to subscribe to Disney + but not everyone has decent internet or wants to shell out monthly fees. Paramount, with its own streaming service, suddenly woke up after years of non-involvement with physical media. They are killing it with their releases this year. Kino is also seriously upping their UHD game.

There are some films in my collection that I’ll probably never upgrade the DVDs, either due to how infrequent I expect to revisit them, or that they actually look okay enough for me to stop there. At the same time, I look forward to buying John Carpenter’s The Thing in its final physical format this year. Holy cow have I bought that movie a LOT over the years. Still, it’s one of my all time favorites and I have no problem doing so.

As for the format catching on- it was never going to be anything more than niche. Blu-Ray players have a much greater percentage of households but even they can’t match the nightly sales of dvd twelve years on. Much of that is based on price. People who buy DVDs do so because they’re cheaper, to their eyes they look good enough, or they never actually upgraded to a new player.

Here is what I would do if I were you. I’d get a player to intend as my Blu-Ray backup player. Electronics don’t last forever and if yours did die when it’s hard to find a replacement, then your collection essentially dies with it. With a second player, you can move the original to a secondary tv, allowing more watching of your collection currently and allowing you to see with your own eyes what your new tv can do.

[aviosis]

Disney hasn’t dropped 4K though

[David M]

Originally Posted by MrHT

Default Should I buy a 4K Blu-ray player?

Yes, of course. Why would you not maximize the investment on your display and sound system and not feed it with the best possible source?

Originally Posted by MrHT

However, I'm just having doubts on the future of physical media.

People have been having doubts on the future of physical media ever since people started download postage-sized stamp versions of movies from file sharing sites in the early 2000s. Yet it's 2021 and here we are.

Originally Posted by MrHT

It just seems like 4K Blu-ray isn't really catching on and I don't want to invest in a format that may not become all that popular and could just die.

By catch on, do you mean become the main way people watch movies? That won't happen. Who cares? The important thing is that it's profitable for content owners and is being supported with software. LaserDisc was never mass market but anyone buying those was enjoying unmangled versions of movies with digital surround sound years before anyone else. There's a growing library of 4K BD titles that isn't going to disappear overnight. Even if it somehow did, hundreds of great releases are on the market already and are going nowhere.

[Number 6]

I own two 4K Blu-ray Players (a Sony UBP-X1100ES in my Home Theater Room and a Sony UBP-X800M2 in my Family Room). Both are well worth what I payed for them. Their upscaling ability is amazing. DVDs look near Blu-ray quality and Blu-rays look near 4K quality (Garbage In/Garbage Out rule applies).

[critterdvd]

I have to admit even though I have an older TV that isn't 100% 4K I jumped on the bandwagon about a year or two ago and got a 4K player to replace my old blu-ray that crapped out on me. I have to admit that even on a so-so system I notice some disc's look much better and with the amount of 4K titles that Arrow, Kino, Shout! and Paramount have been releasing this year I'm glad to have the option to buy (and watch) the 4K versions.

[teddyballgame]

While 4k may never enjoy the success and heydays of yesteryear's DVD there's still a growing segment who recognize the value of physical. I continue to get the impression that most people currently don't have the gear or knowledge to appreciate the differences between a 20mbps stream and 100mbps disc. That's unfortunate for now, but I really think OLED tech becoming more affordable every year is gust of wind into this format's sails. Also, covid's impact on 2020 gave off the impression that while seemingly little progress was being made that it was all according to some big nefarious plan but more likely just poor circumstances. 4k UHD is having a bit of a resurgance this year with title announcements left and right and I'm loving it!

The part you mentioned about Best Buy not having a selection well yeah pretty much all brick and mortar stores are kind of in a funk lately. They're not sure what to do anymore now that you can get just about any commodity delivered to your doorstep in as little as a day sometimes. It seems the traditional fun experience of going out for some public shopping has been lost on many people. My Best Buy is typically a ghost town and workers outnumber customers 2:1. It would not surprise me if the vast majority of physical media purchases come from online sales and preorders. I mean afterall it is kind of a hassle to go out just for a disc or two when you can just open the front door.