Is the End Coming?

[jinx100]

According to Tom's Hardware https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-indus ... tory-lasts, LG is ending production of DVD/BR players for televisions. Sony and Oppo have already done so leaving only Panasonic in that business. Best Buy ended sales of DVD and BR discs last year. Red Box rentals slow death finally arrived this Fall. Pioneer has warned that Intel has ended support of DRM (Intel SGX) for UHD discs on 11th Generation and newer processors https://hometheaterheroes.com/no-more-4 ... indows-11/ so no UHD playing on Power DVD etal.

Will streaming replace the need for physical media? Without players, why would anyone print discs?

[dcoke22]

Consumer demand for physical media is increasing as preferences change. Vinyl record sales are going up after decades of being almost zero. https://www.statista.com/chart/7699/lp-sales-in-the-united-states/

It may be the case that the majority of people worldwide get most of their entertainment via streaming, but I suspect there will always be a non-trivial segment of people who will buy physical media.

[mikeporterinmd]

Perhaps the quality will actually increase. If the customer base moves to knowledgable consumers, who knows?

[Coopervid]

There will always be a community who wants best picture and best sound. At least until streming is getting there. Right now they stream for the masses and try to reduce bandwith / quality that is acceptable for 90% of the viewers who are not quality geeks like me.

[drxenos]

Plus, there is A LOT of good stuff that is only on DVD/Blu-ray, not streaming anywhere.

[RasterEyes]

As far as I can tell after searching around a bit, Sony hasn't announced that it won't make players, just that it's abandoning disc production.

So we still might have Panasonic and Sony as options for new Blu-ray players.

[Toad King]

As far as I can tell after searching around a bit, Sony hasn't announced that it won't make players, just that it's abandoning disc production.

So we still might have Panasonic and Sony as options for new Blu-ray players.

Sony is not abandoning Blu-ray disc production. Only production of recordable Blu-ray discs (BD-R/BD-RE).

[jemima]

Didn’t Sony even take over the medium production for Disney?

[SamuriHL]

Yes

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