What Hi-Fi? ask "Why doesn't anyone make 4K Blu-ray players anymore?"

[RocShemp]

Originally Posted by Jay H.

DVDs are still cheaper, and that's all that matters to a lot of people. It has nothing to do with the cost of the players.

But the quality is so poor compared to just standard BD.

[apollo828]

Originally Posted by RocShemp

But the quality is so poor compared to just standard BD.

Okay? Many people don't care. I saw Oppenheimer today in IMAX 70 mm. Only 30 theaters in the world can show the film in Nolan's preferred format. If people cared about top quality, it'd be at least 300 screens worldwide, maybe 3000 depending on how delusional one wishes to be. In the meantime, if you don't live near any of those 30 theaters and you want to see the film that way, it's time for a road trip or a flight, or settling for the 4K disc when it comes out.

(For the record, yes, the film looks & sounds incredible. I'd love to see more films shot this way.)

Hell, VHS has made a (small) comeback. There are people walking this planet today who, for whatever reasons (probably nostalgia), would rather watch some ancient tape on some ancient, barely-working VCR than watch it on any optical media. You can even buy new tapes! They're basically for collectors and eBay flippers, but yes, you can buy brand spanking new tapes, load them up on Grandpa's old deck, run it through some cheap HDMI converter you found on Amazon, and pretend you're 8 years old again. That's to say nothing of the many people who are content with old discs and think it's madness to purchase a film again, even if the new disc is a wonderful 4K HDR remaster.

[RocShemp]

Originally Posted by apollo828

Hell, VHS has made a (small) comeback. There are people walking this planet today who, for whatever reasons (probably nostalgia), would rather watch some ancient tape on some ancient, barely-working VCR than watch it on any optical media. You can even buy new tapes! They're basically for collectors and eBay flippers, but yes, you can buy brand spanking new tapes, load them up on Grandpa's old deck, run it through some cheap HDMI converter you found on Amazon, and pretend you're 8 years old again. That's to say nothing of the many people who are content with old discs and think it's madness to purchase a film again, even if the new disc is a wonderful 4K HDR remaster.

The VHS resurgence I'm aware of. Same for new audio cassettes. But I always chalked that up to Hipsters/Millennials (or whatever they're called these days) simply being weird for the sake of being weird.

Originally Posted by Naiera

And people obviously don't care. Loads more DVDs are sold than Blu-rays and UHD Blu-rays. Combined.

Originally Posted by apollo828

Okay? Many people don't care. I saw Oppenheimer today in IMAX 70 mm. Only 30 theaters in the world can show the film in Nolan's preferred format. If people cared about top quality, it'd be at least 300 screens worldwide, maybe 3000 depending on how delusional one wishes to be. In the meantime, if you don't live near any of those 30 theaters and you want to see the film that way, it's time for a road trip or a flight, or settling for the 4K disc when it comes out.

I see your point, but it still seems weird to waste money on a lesser alternative when there are two better options (BD is quite a leap from DVD). It kinda reminds me of my cousin who would get mad when DVD purchases included a BD of the movie and would throw them away. She also got mad when I suggested she should have kept the BDs to at least future proof her collection. She then angrily told me not everyone could afford a new BD player or HDTV. To which I said she should haven then sold the BDs to reduce the cost of her DVD purchases. She was none too happy with my suggestion.

[scififan73]

Originally Posted by RocShemp

The VHS resurgence I'm aware of. Same for new audio cassettes. But I always chalked that up to Hipsters/Millennials (or whatever they're called these days) simply being weird for the sake of being weird.





I see your point, but it still seems weird to waste money on a lesser alternative when there are two better options (BD is quite a leap from DVD). It kinda reminds me of my cousin who would get mad when DVD purchases included a BD of the movie and would throw them away. She also got mad when I suggested she should have kept the BDs to at least future proof her collection. She then angrily told me not everyone could afford a new BD player or HDTV. To which I said she should haven then sold the BDs to reduce the cost of her DVD purchases. She was none too happy with my suggestion.

I can relate to your cousin, i experienced much the same thing when i was working at Future Shop and a customer informed me with an angry, offended battle cry there was " no way!" she would be replacing her vhs tapes.
This if course was at the onset of the dvd revolution, circa 1999 or 2000.

It's weird. Yes, i can understand not wanting to upgrade " everything", but as a collector, when a clearly superior technology emerges you wouldn't think there'd be such resistance.
It's almost like a religious thing, and someone had disproved the existence of their god or something.
Such a stubborn resistance is not rational.

[apollo828]

Originally Posted by scififan73

It's weird. Yes, i can understand not wanting to upgrade " everything", but as a collector, when a clearly superior technology emerges you wouldn't think there'd be such resistance.
It's almost like a religious thing, and someone had disproved the existence of their god or something.
Such a stubborn resistance is not rational.

Huh? If customers throw a fit, that's one thing, but I swear some people here seem to be completely incapable of understanding that not everybody wants a Maserati. Some are fine with a used Ford. The cultural zeitgeist centers around streaming and the odd theatrical release. Optical players simply aren't that high a priority for a lot of people. Amazon Video removed some movie? Who cares. They added a bunch more, and they're actively shoved in your face via algorithms. That's plenty for many people. Maybe not for people here, which is fine, but pretending that Grandma's irrational because she hasn't bought a new optical player in 25 years and hasn't watched anything on it in the last 5-10 years is seriously elitist. (Growing up, my grandparents had an 8-track player. They were content with the tapes they had. Believe me, it wasn't because they were savoring every last detail of the audio on some fancy system.)

[scififan73]

Originally Posted by apollo828

Huh? If customers throw a fit, that's one thing, but I swear some people here seem to be completely incapable of understanding that not everybody wants a Maserati. Some are fine with a used Ford. The cultural zeitgeist centers around streaming and the odd theatrical release. Optical players simply aren't that high a priority for a lot of people. Amazon Video removed some movie? Who cares. They added a bunch more, and they're actively shoved in your face via algorithms. That's plenty for many people. Maybe not for people here, which is fine, but pretending that Grandma's irrational because she hasn't bought a new optical player in 25 years and hasn't watched anything on it in the last 5-10 years is seriously elitist. (Growing up, my grandparents had an 8-track player. They were content with the tapes they had. Believe me, it wasn't because they were savoring every last detail of the audio on some fancy system.)

As regarding the other member's cousin: to stubbornly even consider the possibility of one day maybe upgrading and just tossing blu rays in the trash (no interest in possibly selling or gifting on either) does strike me as completely irrational, not elitist.

[WelshCollector]

I've got a 4K/HDR TV, and standard Blu Rays look fine to me and I've yet to see a film that's improved significantly enough from 4K/HDR to want to start collecting those.

In fact I can honestly say that I don't like whatever HDR does to a film image. Maybe my TV isn't up to a high enough standard, or maybe my settings are off, but HDR (streaming) usually makes the image too dark. I've only even seen really amazing 4K/HDR on nature documentaries where there's lots of natural light, I don't like it on films.

VHS to DVD was a huge leap, DVD to Blu Ray was a jump. Blu Ray to 4K feels more like a tweak, and given the price of the players, I don't want to make it at the moment. If I could see a big enough difference in quality, I would.

It's not a competition and I'm not dissing anyone who loves 4K. I'm just wondering if my experience is common and explains why there isn't more energy in the 4K player market. Factor in that not everyone has upgraded their set to 4K, and I can see why the physical market is stalling on 4K discs and players.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by WelshCollector

Maybe my TV isn't up to a high enough standard ...

Unless it's an OLED then this is likely the explanation.

[Cortiz]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Unless it's an OLED then this is likely the explanation.

Even BD looks phenomenal on OLED. I know it does on my Sony 95K so he has a point. There's a definitely an upgrade from 1080 to 4K just not not as noticeable as the Jump from VHS to DVD or DVD to BD. Many people will not think the upgrade justify the investment and I don't blame them.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by WelshCollector

I've got a 4K/HDR TV, and standard Blu Rays look fine to me and I've yet to see a film that's improved significantly enough from 4K/HDR to want to start collecting those.

In fact I can honestly say that I don't like whatever HDR does to a film image. Maybe my TV isn't up to a high enough standard, or maybe my settings are off, but HDR (streaming) usually makes the image too dark. I've only even seen really amazing 4K/HDR on nature documentaries where there's lots of natural light, I don't like it on films.

VHS to DVD was a huge leap, DVD to Blu Ray was a jump. Blu Ray to 4K feels more like a tweak, and given the price of the players, I don't want to make it at the moment. If I could see a big enough difference in quality, I would.

It's not a competition and I'm not dissing anyone who loves 4K. I'm just wondering if my experience is common and explains why there isn't more energy in the 4K player market. Factor in that not everyone has upgraded their set to 4K, and I can see why the physical market is stalling on 4K discs and players.

Close your curtains

[Jay H.]

Originally Posted by RocShemp

But the quality is so poor compared to just standard BD.

The people who buy DVDs care more about saving money than quality. As long as it's not your money, and you don't have to watch the DVDs in question, let the babies have their bottles.

[jonmoz]

Originally Posted by Jay H.

The people who buy DVDs care more about saving money than quality. As long as it's not your money, and you don't have to watch the DVDs in question, let the babies have their bottles.

Why turn this into some sort of competition, if people do not care about the quality aspect as much as we do, why belittle them in some way, they may see us as nerds with to much emphasis on the tech side of things.

[jonmoz]

Originally Posted by RocShemp

But the quality is so poor compared to just standard BD.

For most people DVD quality is more than fine, it's a very niche market that want's Blu-ray's and even more niche for 4k discs. If you were to ask a lot of the mass market, I would wager they had never even heard of Blu-ray movies, yet alone their 4K counterparts.