Physical & Digital EST: The Future of Home Video Discussion Thread

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by alchav21

now Sony is calling it quits. Panasonic is still making Blu-ray Players, but for how long.

https://www.msn.com/

Most of you have backup Players or convert to Digital Storage for playback. Streaming is only 43%, but that is a big chunk. Yes I do IPTV and Streaming, and can watch all the latest Movies and TV Shows. Let's see what else 2025 has to offer!

Sony has only "quit" making blank recordable BD-R and BR-RE discs. This has no impact on the pressed commercial blu-rays that we buy. Sony still makes disc players, too. Keep working on your reading comprehension; we won't give up on you, so don't you, either.

Your link is useless; it just leads to the ever changing MSN homepage. You would think that someone who claims the internet expertise that you do would know how to correctly link to a specific news story.

Anyway, it looks you will have to keep waiting to celebrate the death of physical media. It must be really hard on you to have so eagerly waited these past 12 years, and counting, for it to happen.

[Gotho(redux)]

I wonder if Verbatim will continue to make blank discs? If not, I guess I better start stocking up

[stonesfan129]

Sony's writable discs were far more expensive compared to the competition were they not? I never bought the Sony branded ones because I thought you had to import them from Japan. I've always used Verbatim, and now SmartBuy - which I thought were made in Taiwan by Ritek and CMC.

I switched to SmartBuy because it was $25 for a pack of 50 discs. I'm sitting on two stacks of those right now. I've mostly gone to just doing my own rips and streaming them over Emby now, or I rent stuff on Apple/VUDU (I won't buy digitally). The bigger issue for me is how long do HDDs last if they are not constantly powered on? Plus I've not had BD-ROM PC drives last more than a year or two before they just randomly die. LGs were the worst, but I had a Pioneer that I used for maybe about 100 writes before it just quit powering on.

Even if they quit pressing commercial Blu-ray, I still see DVD being around for a long time, the same way that CDs are. As long as people keep buying them, studios will keep making them. Plus they're so cheap to produce vs the income the bring in, it would be dumb to discontinue.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Anyway, it looks you will have to keep waiting to celebrate the death of physical media. It must be really hard on you to have so eagerly waited these past 12 years, and counting, for it to happen.

He wants his symmetrical networking thing to be the best thing.

At least he knows what he wants, that's a start.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by stonesfan129

Sony's writable discs were far more expensive compared to the competition were they not? I never bought the Sony branded ones because I thought you had to import them from Japan. I've always used Verbatim, and now SmartBuy - which I thought were made in Taiwan by Ritek and CMC.

I switched to SmartBuy because it was $25 for a pack of 50 discs. I'm sitting on two stacks of those right now. I've mostly gone to just doing my own rips and streaming them over Emby now, or I rent stuff on Apple/VUDU (I won't buy digitally). The bigger issue for me is how long do HDDs last if they are not constantly powered on? Plus I've not had BD-ROM PC drives last more than a year or two before they just randomly die. LGs were the worst, but I had a Pioneer that I used for maybe about 100 writes before it just quit powering on.

Even if they quit pressing commercial Blu-ray, I still see DVD being around for a long time, the same way that CDs are. As long as people keep buying them, studios will keep making them. Plus they're so cheap to produce vs the income the bring in, it would be dumb to discontinue.

4K has a decent market, especially in the U.K. boutique labels will keep that going, not sure about DVD. Who wants to regress to SD when 8K tv will be a thing soon? I certainly wouldn’t.
If Blu-ray and UHD disappeared (they obviously won’t) DVD wouldn’t be enough to maintain the market.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I’m confused, I thought they announced this last year? What does this mean, the end of Blu-ray Discs produced for movie storage?

no same boring story.

The first was Sony was going to start shutting down recordable media soon, this is a follow-up announcement that says in Feb the last ones will be produced and shipped.

never had anything to do with stamped media (movies we buy).

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by stonesfan129

Sony's writable discs were far more expensive compared to the competition were they not? I never bought the Sony branded ones because I thought you had to import them from Japan. I've always used Verbatim, and now SmartBuy - which I thought were made in Taiwan by Ritek and CMC.

I switched to SmartBuy because it was $25 for a pack of 50 discs. I'm sitting on two stacks of those right now. I've mostly gone to just doing my own rips and streaming them over Emby now, or I rent stuff on Apple/VUDU (I won't buy digitally). The bigger issue for me is how long do HDDs last if they are not constantly powered on? Plus I've not had BD-ROM PC drives last more than a year or two before they just randomly die. LGs were the worst, but I had a Pioneer that I used for maybe about 100 writes before it just quit powering on.

Even if they quit pressing commercial Blu-ray, I still see DVD being around for a long time, the same way that CDs are. As long as people keep buying them, studios will keep making them. Plus they're so cheap to produce vs the income the bring in, it would be dumb to discontinue.

last week DVD and UHD BD where about equal. HD BD is getting squeezed out because people looking for the cheapest way are sticking with DVD and people willing to pay for better quality are going UHD BD because it is the best quality.

I can't imagine a future where there is DVD and no UHD BD. Much more likely if anything that one day studios will drop DVD. To put it differently I have not bought a DVD in roughly 20 years and there is no way I will buy a DVD in the future, but the person looking for cheapest that back in the day was buying VHS when they were taken off the market he was just buying the new cheapest DVD.

But right now all three are way too big for anyone of them to go anywhere.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by stonesfan129

The bigger issue for me is how long do HDDs last if they are not constantly powered on? Plus I've not had BD-ROM PC drives last more than a year or two before they just randomly die. LGs were the worst, but I had a Pioneer that I used for maybe about 100 writes before it just quit powering on.

If you are going to have your HDD’s on 24/7/365 then I would make sure they are rated for such use. My media servers have NAS rated drives in them but I only have the on when they are to be used. My data servers do not have NAS rated drives but they only wake up when needed.

My > 6 years old Pioneer 4K UHD Blu-ray BDR-211UBK has never given me any problems. My one LG and one of my ASUS drives were problematic. Added a Pioneer BDR-2213 to the mix a few months ago and so far no problems reading including 100GB triple layer UHD disc.

Don’t write to disc much these days, mostly use thumb drives.

[crutzulee]

I know my son has an unopened box of RITEK BDROMs that he's never had reason to use...he has one drive in the tower and one external that he's had for quite some time without issues that get a fair amount of usage ( close to daily)...

[crutzulee]

https://www.howtogeek.com/sony-hasnt...blu-ray-discs/

[cheez avenger]

The Heretic 4K disc is a winner! Great film and great 4K disc.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

[Show spoiler]https://www.howtogeek.com/sony-hasnt...blu-ray-discs/

Well this one appears to mostly understand what it is all about. A lot of the so called “expert reporters” could not grab their ass using both hands.

I have sent 2 emails to the expert that does the DEG quarterly reports and telling him his chart is a lie because he uses the term “Total Home Spend”. For total one needs to include cable and satellite which he does not. He also includes EST with streaming for “Total Digital Spend”. If EST continues to decline I would not be surprised if he drops the separate EST listing and just includes it with subscription spend.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

The Heretic 4K disc is a winner! Great film and great 4K disc.

I ordered it.

I bought the blu ray because I didn't realize there was a 4K release because there wasn't one of We Live in Time .... as far as I know of.

Oh well ... all is well that ends well ... looking forward to watching it again soon.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

The Heretic 4K disc is a winner! Great film and great 4K disc.

Originally Posted by bhampton

I ordered it.

Watched several days ago via ATV+. Thought it was good but have not assigned it a PFRV (potential for repeat viewing) number yet.

Ghosted (on ATV+) gets PFRV = 3 so it will be a buy if it makes it to disc. Will definitely want to see Ballerina (from the world of John Wick) when available. Ana de Armas once again stars. Trailers:

[Show spoiler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAdCsNtEuBU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FSwsrFpkbw

[Warm Gun]

My old Z9X switched to HDR10 when playing BT.2020 SDR movies like Toho's few Kurosawa UHDs and their Godzilla vs. Biollante disc, torching the wide range SDR. My new Z9X 8K switches to HLG with such content, preserving the intended look.

Remote is more comfortable.

You can now select subtitle and audio tracks on the title page of the movie.

Because of the way the default resolution options and aspect ratio options are now set up, my anamorphic 720x480 DVD rips all display in 1.5:1 instead of 1.33 (4:3), forcing me to switch to 4:3 mode after the beginning of every DVD rip. Annoying for someone who watches so many TV shows in that resolution.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

So, against my better judgement (given the average quality of many of the shows), I decided to preorder the most recent round of Disney+ Marvel and Star Wars shows getting the physical treatment a couple of months ago.

But I decided to import this batch from the UK. Over there they have come in 4K+Blu-Ray combo packs, and that is still this case this time around. In the US, they only have this latest batch coming out on 4K with there being no Blu-Ray option at all. And importing worked out to cost only slightly more than the US releases.

In the US, the previous releases came out separately in 4K and Blu-Ray. A friend of mine helped me get them all through Disney movie club before it shut down, so the discount helped justify buying both formats separately. This wasn't an option this time around.

The UK releases are staggered and just come out (as opposed to all 4 of them coming out in the USA at the same time back in December).

I just received my first of these. By some miracle, the Steelbook arrived in perfect condition, despite being packed in nothing more than a thin form fitting envelope. Now I just have to worry three more times that the rest arrive in the same condition. I wish there was an option to get these in regular cases, but Steelbook is the only option.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

https://i.imgur.com/afUtJrz.png

last week DVD and UHD BD where about equal. HD BD is getting squeezed out because people looking for the cheapest way are sticking with DVD and people willing to pay for better quality are going UHD BD because it is the best quality.

I can't imagine a future where there is DVD and no UHD BD. Much more likely if anything that one day studios will drop DVD. To put it differently I have not bought a DVD in roughly 20 years and there is no way I will buy a DVD in the future, but the person looking for cheapest that back in the day was buying VHS when they were taken off the market he was just buying the new cheapest DVD.

But right now all three are way too big for anyone of them to go anywhere.

These stats are going to start getting more interesting on the 4K side of things. It seems Paramount is doing away with standalone Blu-Ray releases, and is only doing 4K+Blu-Ray combo packs going forward.... which is the opposite of the approach that some studios like WB have taken, in which they pretty much no longer offer the option of a 4K+Blu-Ray combo pack, expect maybe when it is in a limited edition Steelbook or something. Sonic 3, for example, will not have a Blu-Ray only release, at least not in the USA (I haven't looked into other countries). So this means that when that comes out physically, it will likely give some boost to the 4K numbers, and give no benefit to the regular Blu-Ray numbers.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Sony has only "quit" making blank recordable BD-R and BR-RE discs. This has no impact on the pressed commercial blu-rays that we buy. Sony still makes disc players, too. Keep working on your reading comprehension; we won't give up on you, so don't you, either.

I gave up on him a long time ago!

Your link is useless; it just leads to the ever changing MSN homepage. You would think that someone who claims the internet expertise that you do would know how to correctly link to a specific news story.

Especially since this is not the first or second time he has done this, and not therefore not the first or second time one (or more) of us have had to point this out to him.

Additionally, beyond him being oblivious to the fact that the link to the MSN page likely won't display the article he is referencing when any of us click on it.... I have to assume that since he didn't post the link to the article itself instead, it means he never even clicked on or read the entire article, and only read the headline, and then posted this link thinking he had made some kind of point... but failed as per usual.

[stonesfan129]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

last week DVD and UHD BD where about equal. HD BD is getting squeezed out because people looking for the cheapest way are sticking with DVD and people willing to pay for better quality are going UHD BD because it is the best quality.

I can't imagine a future where there is DVD and no UHD BD. Much more likely if anything that one day studios will drop DVD. To put it differently I have not bought a DVD in roughly 20 years and there is no way I will buy a DVD in the future, but the person looking for cheapest that back in the day was buying VHS when they were taken off the market he was just buying the new cheapest DVD.

But right now all three are way too big for anyone of them to go anywhere.

Just saying... If they did discontinue Blu-ray/4K, they would still continue on with DVDs because they're so cheap to produce.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by stonesfan129

Just saying... If they did discontinue Blu-ray/4K, they would still continue on with DVDs because they're so cheap to produce.

I think they would close the remaining plants down before going DVD only.
But 4K is vital to boutiques now, not going to happen.