Samsung quits making new Blu-ray players

pete_c

Guru
The Verge
The beginning of the end for physical discs?
By Sean Hollister  Feb 17, 2019, 5:04pm EST


Slowly but surely, spinning discs are dying out, and Samsung just put another nail in their coffin. The company told Forbes that it’s done producing 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players — and CNET was able to confirm that Samsung is halting production on at least some of its 1080p Blu-ray players as well.

“Samsung will no longer introduce new Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray player models in the US market,” a Samsung spokesperson told CNET.

Technically, there’s still the possibility that Samsung may continue to produce its existing Blu-ray players for months or years to come — the company still has quite a few models on sale — or introduce new ones in specific countries outside the US. We’ve asked Samsung to clarify.

But practically speaking, Samsung may have just announced that it’s quitting the Blu-ray business, like Oppo did last April.

Even though Samsung was gung-ho enough about 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays to beat every other company to the punch with the first player in 2016, it’s not all that surprising that Samsung might bow out early now. Discs are on the decline, with research company Nielsen recently using Blu-ray and DVD players as the example of a technology that’s on its way out.

“Some devices, such as DVD/Blu-ray players, are in the declining phase of their product life cycle as streaming devices gain prominence,” reads Nielsen’s Q2 2018 report, adding that only 66 percent of TV watching households have one now, compared to 72 percent the year before. Nielsen also says the average US adult spends just 5 minutes a day — by far the least of any screen activity — using a Blu-ray or DVD player.

And streaming services have stepped up in a big way too, especially by making 4K streams less expensive. Apple and Google both sell 4K movies for the same price as 1080p HD now, and will upgrade your HD movies to 4K for free. Amazon notably dropped its prices as well. Plus, an excellent 4K streaming device has never been cheaper than it is now.

You could definitely argue that discs are still the best experience, with the best picture and audio quality. I prefer popping in a Blu-ray myself. But between the rise of streaming and the fact that 4K movies aren’t always actually 4K but often mastered at lower resolutions, they may just not be compelling enough as a business anymore.

Perhaps Sony wasn’t being stingy when it omitted a 4K Blu-Ray player from the PS4 Pro. Perhaps it was just being smart.
 
Here shut off the DVD/Blue Ray player a few years back.  It is sitting on the AVR shelf.  Clutter today.
 
I have Blu-Ray players upstairs and down - and whenever a collectible movie comes out (think Disney-type stuff), we buy the 3 disc set so that I know I have absolute control over it - but to be honest, all I do is sit down with the digital code, enter it into iTunes or Movies Anywhere, then queue it up on the AppleTV to watch.
 
It does kinda suck that Comcast has the 1TB limit with streaming becoming more and more prevalent... we started exceeding it a lot largely due to streaming - so my solution was to cut out DirecTV and put that money towards the $50/
month unlimited override with Comcast.  We started the experiment 2 months ago (suspending billing and service with DTV) but we're going to finalize it in the next couple weeks. 
 
The problem with streaming video is the same as streaming audio. What you want to hear or see may not be available at the point in time that you want to consume it. You can mitigate the audio situation by downloading mp3s from Apple or Amazon and store them on your NAS or other repository. If you don't have DVDs to rip from what is the model for purchasing (not licensing) videos to download to your permanent collection?
 
Yes here only let my kids watch TV / Disney movies in the 80's / 90's and nothing else on television.  The only VHS tapes I saved are the old Disney movies today. 
 
 
 
Started to collect CDs, DVDs and Blue Ray disks and one day just took them out of their boxes and put them in notebooks that could hold 500 disks and threw out all of the boxes.  They remain unwatched today in notebooks. 
 
The NAS box has many movies on it that I do not watch any more.  Music though is replicated from the NAS to the automobile computers and I prefer to listen to my music than satellite radio or regular radio today in the cars. 
 
upstatemike said:
If you don't have DVDs to rip from what is the model for purchasing (not licensing) videos to download to your permanent collection?
Precisely why I can't break the habit of buying the DVD packs.  I had a CD I bought on iTunes a while back just disappear - which was quite unfortunate, since it's one I use to fall asleep to nearly daily - but one day, it was just no longer in my library despite me paying for it.  It's probably happened more than I realize.
 
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