Japan's Surging Demand for BD Drives?

[zoom+slomo]

WHAT???!! https://www.tomshardware.com/software/w ... ts-3887853

Is THAT why it's practically impossible to find a brand name internal BD drive from any reputable stores in the US? Because of a surge in demand for them from Japan?? I can't believe this is happening. Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, LG and every brand I know have discontinued production of internal and/or external BD drives. Japan based Buffalo still makes them but only one external model. I don't mind paying double the price that they used to be, but it would be bad for me if production ended globally as I play BD/DVD movies via JRiver and output 3.1 audio to my system. But while it seems reassuring, it's probably no indication that BD drives are still not headed the way of VCRs.

[xwmkf]

I just saw the article myself a few minutes ago. I was wondering why LG drives were so hard to find now even though Pioneer is the one who left the market. (As far as I know I haven't seen announcements that LG has left the PC burner market; I have seen announcements that they left the home theater BD player market.) Regardless, if there's demand in Japan for blu ray PC drives, that gives me some hope that maybe a manufacturer might see the demand and ramp up some production that could improve availability overall. Maybe hopefully. My mind is still pretty pessimistic about it though and it wants me to buy up existing drives to be prepared for only worsening availability.

[Mystique_r4]

There have been a lot of articles like this popping up and although I have not read this one some articles are making blind leaps to suggest that it has something to do with the EOL of windows 10 and people buying new computers because of that. I don't think that it has anything to do with that at all. What I do believe it is more about is that people that respect the physical format are aware that manufacturers are winding down production and discontinuing production altogether as is the case with Pioneer. LG on the other hand has discontinued all internal drives in my region and appears to be only selling two external drive models, one budget end slim dvd drive and another slim blu-ray drive.

I am aware that LG had discontinued manufacturing home media players if I am not mistaken so perhaps the leap towards a total shutdown of drive manufacturing is not very far off but one would have to consider that whilst home consoles such as the PS5 and XBOX exist one would have to assume that a manufacturer still exists.
We have seen some very budget end DVD drives from out of china so weather or not the now owner of Pioneer drive tech will put that to use is up for debate but I doubt that they will be up to the same standards as Pioneer set and given that LG couldn't even get that right then I doubt it but time will tell.

Perhaps we will see a return of LiteON to produce high quality Blu-ray/UHD drives again. (Suddenly remembering setting booktypes and stuff for drives to DVD-ROM for better home theatre compatibility. Good times.)

[zoom+slomo]

I was wondering why LG drives were so hard to find now even though Pioneer is the one who left the market. (As far as I know I haven't seen announcements that LG has left the PC burner market; I have seen announcements that they left the home theater BD player market.) Regardless, if there's demand in Japan for blu ray PC drives, that gives me some hope that maybe a manufacturer might see the demand and ramp up some production that could improve availability overall. Maybe hopefully. My mind is still pretty pessimistic about it though and it wants me to buy up existing drives to be prepared for only worsening availability.

First, I am a "5.25 inch tray type" BD drive person. I simply don't trust any other design to handle my discs safely. And when I went here yesterday https://www.lg.com/us/burners-drives and
clicked on retailers for those drives zero availability. I called that LG customer service number twice but no one picked up. And the live chat
agent was clueless nor especially enthused to assist, I felt.

That TomsHardware report got me wondering if Buffalo 5.25" tray BD drives really are made in Japan. https://buffaloamericas.com/products/me ... ray-writer If so, then given economic pressures and Japan's reputation for high design and build quality have you heard how that external BD drive compares to this popular ASUS model? https://www.microcenter.com/product/479 ... toreID=171

Or this oddly non-Asian brand. https://www.kanguru.com/pages/contact-us And from where you can apparently buy direct. https://www.kanguru.com/products/kangur ... isk-burner

Note from that report that the big local demand among PC builders was for internal BD drives, which Buffalo, Kangaru nor ASUS make, at least not the 5.25" tray drive kind I prefer. Don't know how popular BD burning may be in Japan but USB limits external drive burning speeds and/or like me they may prefer internal aesthetics and especially not having the added clutter from an external drive.

BTW, my sustaining interest in makeMKV and BD drives is for directly viewing BD and DVD movies and TV shows, and later how they will improve expand the capabilities of the 3.1 system I'm building. makeMKV decrypts my BD movies for VLC, PowerDVD or JRiver, which decodes DTSMA surround sound to output to almost any processor, stereo or multichannel DAC. And if you love to play around with content like I do, VLC has the best slow motion and JRiver and/or PowerDVD have the best zoom control. Only the >$1500. Magnetar is the only currently available BD player with zoom control.

My advice to members of forums where BD optical media matters is to contact brands who clearly feel the same way, particularly Kangaru and Buffalo. Let them know why BD media and a specific kind of drive are important to you and your member communities. Even they don't reply they did get the message and may act on it within the year. If not, then try giant ASUS, who may feel more inclined to market specialty products to niche communities like ours and like these. https://www.blu-ray.com/