Does anyone leave their Blu-rays SEALED?

[cyniclaus]

Originally Posted by nickmate

I agree that there's no point investing a fortune in blurays 1080p but what would you say when 4k hits mainstream? Don't build a collection because 8k is coming soon. I see 4k really being big either late next year or late 2013, since lg has there 4k rolling out this year. I won't stop buying blurays 1080p, I'll just get new release 4k

Wow, what an optimist! BDs have been out since 2006 and we still have problems getting decent transfers/remasters of many films. We still haven't transitioned from DVD (95% of U.S. households own a DVD player but Blu-ray is still around 20%...half of which are PS3s). The related problem is display technology since people have just upgraded to flat screen, 720/1080p sets. Most the people I know, even film lovers, have trouble seeing the difference between upscaled DVD and BD on their 42-47" screens. Studios are not going to waste money on expensive 4k masters in the near future just to try and sell them to 2% of the population. At best, we may see a format aimed at the HT crowd that will have very limited penetration much like Laser Disc did, but even that is likely years away, especially in this economy and the risk-adverse environment that comes with it.

Consider that it took 9 years from the introduction of DVD Video for BD Video to be released.

Finally, bear in mind that VOD/streaming is growing at a rate that exceeds BD penetration and it represents a strong trend away from physical media that will certainly not prevent affordable 4k from making its way to HT, but will inevitably delay it if only from the impact on BD sales that will make studios leery of investing in next-gen platforms.