With over 18 years of history, Blu-ray technology was designed to take CDs and DVDs to the next level. Not only can they hold significantly more data than their predecessors, but Blu-ray discs even let you view high-quality (and 3D content) that often are closer to the experience of watching in theaters than the compressed versions you’ll find elsewhere. Not to be confused with DVDs, Blu-ray discs use a different kind of laser technology, which eventually became the industry standard for film and movies by 2008. In part, this is due to the fact that its players could be backwards-compatible with DVDs, but not the other way around.
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Although some things can (and have) lasted the test of time, the natural progression of most technology is that something becomes obsolete when a newer, better, or more efficient model comes along. In terms of the Blu-ray discs, there are several things that have pushed them to obsoletion.
The problem with streaming services right now is that the consumer does not know know how long a particular TV series or film is going to be available, so for any media that you would want to watch whenever you want for years to come in the highest fidelity (For example, the 2023 summer blockbuster “Barbie”), getting it on physical media is still the best option.
Asking people to get a dedicated Blu-Ray player in 2024 is a tall order, most people would fair better getting a PlayStation or XBox with disk support instead.
Consoles don’t support Dolby Vision from disc. Which is honestly shit, because whatever licensing costs they’d incur would be a miniscule sliver compared to the price of the unit.
I will admit that I prefer accessing my movies digitally. I will also admit that I absolutely prefer actually owning things I buy. So the compromise is to buy a disc, rip it onto a computer, and access it from there. Physical media won’t die until digital rights actually represents ownership. Unfortunately procuring those discs will likely continue to be more expensive and the discs themselves less prevalent.
It has been interesting that in the music realm selling digital files without DRM has become fairly common with some significant, respected storefronts, but I have not seen that with video files. I don’t know if it’s because of file size or less-convenient options for watching those files on your TV (if you’re not running a Plex or Jellyfin server it’s not exactly easy to play them on a Roku/Chromecast/whatever). Maybe it’s just that consumers are becoming more accustomed to streaming all their media, music and video. Maybe we’ll see the digital music stores disappear as sales decline because of streaming.
I think the DRM-free music stores were pushed into existence by independent artists selling their own music and eventually the big labels didn’t want to miss out on that market. Maybe we need independent video productions doing the same. Instead of asking for support on your Patreon, let me buy an episode of your YouTube show without DRM, or a “season” for a discounted price. The only DRM-free video I’ve bought that I can recall was a standup special sold by the comedian on his own website. Maybe we need more of that.
The real reason we have DRM-free stores is because there’s no copy protection on CDs themselves. Companies tried and failed several times to add copy protection to CDs. That, on top of a great public outcry, is the reason we have those online stores. For some reason the public didn’t fight as hard with video and rights are a lot harder to manage with so many contributors.
You’re right that Musicians can publish their products on their own because the funding requirements are much lower. Movie/TV costs have skyrocketed and very few can afford to publish their own products. Just look at Coppola with Megalopolis. He self funded like $200 million for the movie but still had to get a distributor.
Physical media won’t die until digital rights actually represents ownership
i wish that were true but I unfortunately disagree.
The content producers are the ones who want to restrict your digital rights. And they are the ones who produce the physical media that is in demand. I could definitely see them just not producing any more, and physical media being effectively dead
There are plenty of boutique brands out there that have taken up the physical distribution in lieu of the content owners. As long as there’s a market for it, physical discs will still exist. There are definitely some companies that have decided not to license out distribution but they also own their own digital platforms (looking at you Netflix). Fortunately, much of what they produce is merely content and not worth owning.
I understand your point of view but nonetheless I want my media in my hous, no matter what form it takes.
I don’t want my media in a computer I do not own.
I mean, it is in my house. It’s on my computer. But now I can access it from anywhere too.
Physical media won’t die until digital rights actually represents ownership.
I was aiming my remark on this particular passage.
I understand your take, I respect it, but even when that is true, regarding digital rights, I will still want all my media in my house, in a machine I own, instead of having it stored in a server somewhere.
I will still want all my media in my house, in a machine I own, instead of having it stored in a server somewhere.
If what they’re talking about does happen, that would just be personal preference. If you own the media, you can store it wherever you want, be it on your own machine, or on a cloud service if you desire, etc.
You have permission to watch it, and you will need permission to watch it.
Blu-Ray kind of shot itself in the foot by having an insanely restrictive copy protection (AAAC) applied, which made watching movies on a PC/Laptop all but impossible, especially offline (I traveled by train a lot in 2015)*. It was obviously broken fairly quickly, so they added BD+, which was also broken within 4 months.
It should be regarded as a cautionary tale against any form of copy pretention, but they sell the keys to the hardware suppliers, so I guess making the customer have a worse experience still paid off.
*No, paying PowerDVD a yearly ransom is not a valid solution
Honestly I’m always shocked by how much they cost. Who’s paying $30+ for these? Who even owns a blu-ray player that isn’t a ps5?
I actually own like 4 set top blu-ray players. As for drives that can read blu-ray disks…at least 20(not including the set tops)? I’d honestly need to count but I use 16 drives basically daily. Working through backing up my massive physical collection.
As for cost. A movie that’s $30 one place might be $10 in another country. I buy a lot of foreign movies (not bootlegs just foreign). I remember the Harry Potter set(all films) in the US was like $150…it was $45 shipped from the UK. HP was a weird one because the books and movies were a touch different in those two markets as well. So you got the UK audio track which was fine by me. They won’t play in your standard player sometimes but region free players are a thing. Also a lot of stuff on Blu-ray just isn’t region coded at all.
I’ve also found that some TV series that are dvd only here are released on Blu-ray else where…so I import those as well. I’ve been playing around with AI upscaling so honestly dvd’s can look damn good after that as well and they’re cheaper still. Just a lot of time/energy consumption which offsets the cost saving.
I run a watcher on all the disks I want to buy.
I get a notification when the price goes down and I nab them for 50% off usually.
If you don’t mind me asking: Are you using camelcamelcamel, blueray.com,or something else?
Asking for a friend that is starting to buy/collect 4k movies 😉
This one: https://changedetection.io/
I self-host it and it’s been pretty reliable at auto detecting prices on random webshops
Thank you for sharing!
I got a cheap visio from a thrift store, so I was lucky. The only problem is I have about a million ways to play DVDs, but don’t use it that much because I only got it for one movie. Came with DVD and Blu-ray, but my setup is old enough that Blu-ray makes little difference quality wise for me. Still cool to have since I have a dedicated distraction free DVD player, though.
Hi. It’s me.
Well that’s probably a bit predictable given what community this is. But I really think the pricing is way out of line with what your average person is willing to pay and it only serves to make the physical media more niche.
I fully agree with this. I’m sure the prices are so high to get people to use streaming services or online rentals like Amazon does. At $30/disk though, that’s enough that there isn’t a single piece of media I care enough about to preserve physically. The ones I care the most about are also television shows, so that’s even more expensive. I have nothing but gratitude for the people that are out here buying these disks, and saving them for the rest of us.
I mostly consider physical media to be merch when I buy it
That’s fair. My wife let me have this win. It was expensive though.
I will say I love watching movies on our blu ray but my toddler also likes the moves anywhere codes that let’s him watch Moana on any device.
Its the best of both worlds if you aren’t comfortable with ripping.
I do. But I’m old. No PS5. In fact I have an X box 360. That’s the NEW console. My old one is a SNES. Still love my Mario! I know.
I’ll stick with my NAS media server, fuck all that plastic with potential to be lost/damaged and whatnot
Yeah, but I bet the best quality copies of what you have on there were at some point ripped from Blu-rays. The death of physical media will hurt anyone who wants to “own” their library. Unless we get the GOG of Movies where high quality DRM-free copies can be bought, they are going to keep pushing everyone to their subscription streaming sites until the idea of owning media dies. Blu-ray is the last mainstream bastion of owning your movies. I agree the plastic is a problem, but let’s get a good replacement before we throw out what we have.
I still enjoy watching blurays more than anything. The only downside what I see is that it gets more expensive. But otherwise you own something physical that you can also resell.
Ownership is in bad shape, and it’s gonna get worse if we let them do away with things like cash and physical media.
This article is just a retread of the same things talked about for years. But boutique Blu-ray is still in a good place; there are more releases i’m Interested in than I keep up with, and particularly more 4K releases than ever.
One signal here is that some popular streaming series are still getting physical releases. Like, I didn’t think I’d see Severance or any of the Disney+ shows on Blu-ray, but here we are.
That said, now is the time to buy a dedicated player if you don’t already have one. Sony and Panasonic make the best ones, so it’s no accident they’re the last two manufacturers standing.
Nit picky: the word is “obsolescence,” not “obsoletion.”
Obsoletion is a word as well, and it was used correctly.
Yes, technically it is a rare synonym in British English, but it is what I would consider a word hanging from the cliff edge by its fingertips
I searched a few of the players it said are available for lower prices second hand and looks like Panasonic still has 4 models of 4K blu ray players available on their site right now. May have to snag one of those as I have a Samsung one from 9 years ago that could probably use an upgrade soon
