LG Ends all Bluray Players

[Rodney Bourke]

A few years back it was Samsung, and Now its LG, to End all Bluray Production.

https://www.techradar.com/television...really-worried

[Osi Osgood]

Buy an extra one or two, to keep ahead for when your present Blu-ray player is ready for the bin

[Ed Gordon]

Source: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/phy...-away.3293865/

Streaming is replacing physical media. Less demand for media, less demand for dedicated media players. Sales of physical media in stores is declining, but doing just fine online.

LG is stopping production of Bluray players for good reason; demand is falling. LG stopped making mobile phones back in 2021. They did not get out of the mobile phone business because interest it mobile phones declined.

Mass production of 8mm film projectors was over by the 1990's. Thirty five years later film collecting isn't what it used to be, but it sure is not dead.

I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that it is pointless to worry about things you can't control.

[Ken Finch]

I have just replaced a dvd player with a faulty dvd drawer mechanism with a Sony from Argos for £40 which upscales to high definition. The streaming companies would like to kill them off but they are refusing to die as are c ds. There are still loads of new films being released on blu ray and dvd

[Osi Osgood]

Well, it does make sense to cover all "bases", as, some cranky people like me are hard pressed to stream anything off the internet, but we'll go down and buy a Blu-ray or DVD of a beloved film. Besides, film lovers will constantly repeat to you that the streamed movie, whether on a 4K tv or otherwise, just doesn't have the same level of detail, and what makes matters worse is when you have these blasted companies who, when you have paid to watch the movie, have the
NERVE to put ads in the movie ... and you have to pay EXTRA to get the film without ads!😠

[Ken Finch]

I totally agree with you, Osi. I find the ads so annoying, they completely ruin my enjoyment of a film. They have increased in number over the years, are often repetitive and films are cut to allow them to fit the time slot. I wonder how many people actually respond to the adverts! What I also find fascinating is that people complain about paying the licence fee for our BBC but are willing to fork out more over a year to receive content from the other commercial sources, all of which contain ads.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

When it comes to streaming, I am more concerned about the available movies. At the moment, everything is either an action movie or a romantic one. Okay, there are also a few films for kids or for sci-fi-/phantasy-lovers. But what about other genres or movies shot before the 1980s? Or what about Non-Hollywood-productions? Okay, there are specialized streaming services for European or French movies - or only Western or only Crimes or only Musicals or only Comedies or only … . But when I start paying for everything I would like to watch, I will have to pay more than 100€ per month for subscription fees - with the high chance that the used services will nevertheless start to add ads.
On the other hand: How many films exist that I would like to watch more than once per decade? So why should I continue to fill my apartment with DVDs/Blu-rays/… when the media is outdated when I want to see the movie a second time?

[Claus Harding]

We are at the peak of availability right now for DVD, BR and UHD discs, but the end is looming as far as continuous new releases. Disc prices are already creeping upwards, particularly from the niche companies doing silents and other specialty films.

WIth companies pulling out of the player market, and with very few disc-replicatiing plants left, it becomes a matter of time before streaming will win. If you wish to have a library (big or small) of films on UHD, particularly as it pertains to movies shot in VistaVision or 65mm, now is the time.

Personally, I rip my movies via MKV, uncompressed, and store them in a hard-drive array for current and future use. The discs are stored as backups. I have two state-of-the-art Oppo 203 UHD players, but nothing lasts forever.

C.

[Graham Ritchie]

A few weeks ago my son Steven asked to borrow a title I had on blu-ray, sure, he later returned it and I asked how was it?, never used it was his answer, instead streamed it from the internet. Just the other week again asked to borrow another title I had on DVD. This time I said well what about that streaming service you were going on about, his answer its not available.

And that I think sums up streaming, it can be there one day and gone the next, with blu-ray or DVD you have it to watch any time you like and are not subject to changes from a internet provider. My good lady Yvonne uses Disney plus and the like for the TV, but for me with video projecting I only use blu-ray or DVD as its source. I do watch movies more than once and there are nights where I go out to our wee home theatre and look through the shelves and think... mmmm.... what one will I watch tonight

As I don't stream from the internet it would be interesting to hear from anyone who does, as to compare the picture and sound quality to projecting a blu-ray/DVD source? Also the icing on the cake is 3D blu-ray movies like "Jurassic Park" look fantastic. As far as blu-ray/dvd players I think there are still plenty around in the second hand market, new, not so much, but I think there will always be someone out there making them for a long time yet. New movie titles are still coming out here is a sample from last year from Imprint as a example with more to come for 2025 4K players are still for sale new locally, might get one soon

[Ed Gordon]

...As I don't stream from the internet it would be interesting to hear from anyone who does, as to compare the picture and sound quality to projecting a blu-ray/DVD source?...

Steaming services now offer 4K. The quality of streamed 4K exceeds that of DVD and Bluray. I don't know if the streamed 4K offers the ability to "tweak" the image as you can with a UHD player.

I do know that there is a lot of illegally copied media on the internet that is labeled "Webrip" indicating that streaming users are copying streamed content. I have noticed that as soon a studios offer their content to streaming services, that content is on the "dark web" for download. That is probably a major factor in the decline of physical media. It is the same thing that happened to the music industry. When is the last time you bought a CD?

[Graham Ritchie]

Only a couple of weeks ago during a visit to Pennylane Records in town. I usually call in once a week, always like to support a local business. The store has thousands of CDs and LP's both new and second hand all in good condition. They also have an extensive list of second hand DVD, and blu-ray titles on the shelves. One excellent CD they got in for me new a while ago was the brilliant "Interstellar" score, although its out on vinyl, it was way out of my price range.

I tend to go more for CD soundtracks, two weeks ago picked up the "20th Anniversary" CD of "ET" , however its the LP Soundtracks I like to go through the most, about a month ago picked up the recent new release of "Vertigo" on LP and it sounds great. I do prefer vinyl over CD if I can get it. The last brand new CD I bought was from JB High Fi and that was "20 Solid Gold Hits" around a month ago, a bit of nostalgia, a bit of a blast from the past but think my old vinyl version sounds better

The store is always busy with customers and stock always on the move, you never know what might interest you on each visit.

The only music I download is if I am making up a video to place on you-tube. In that case they have an extensive library of copyright free music you can download, providing you name the title and credit the artist, apart from that, I will stick to LPs/CDs Blu-ray/DVD for my music and movies..

[Rob Young]

Ed, the problem with streaming is that old achilles heal, compression.

Whilst I don't think anyone could convincingly argue that projecting a big image from DVD is better than a good 4K stream, a 4K stream is no where near as good as a 4K disc. And (this is subjective, of course) a big screen projection of Blu-ray, I'd argue is still better than a stream of 4K, and certainly better than a 2K stream. A 2K stream is generally about 5GB, whilst a Blu-ray is 25GB. My experience is that a stream is always softer looking.

I've always thought that being able to buy a download of a movie, which would then download to a media server in a file size equivalent to the Blu-ray or 4K would be fine, much like ripping a disc to a media server as Claus does. But no one seems to offer this. I guess if you're that bothered, you'd just buy the disc. Maybe this will change.

A few years ago I tried downloading studio quality albums to my laptop and playing them through a high quality DAC and amplifier. I'm a through and through vinyl lover, but the quality here was stunning. Sadly, the choices available were very limited and expensive. It's rather like the much ignored Blu-ray audio market. Streaming is driven by an on demand market place which accepts limited but acceptable quality and convenience; same old, same old...

I have a movie nut friend who uses both streaming and disc rental regularly. He watches everything old and new (pretty much) and he tells me that the range of titles available on disc is just huge compared to that available on streaming services.

[Lee McCaffrey]

There is a company called Kalaidescape that sells media players/servers for high bitrate digital downloads.
I don't think discs are dead just yet. 4k is very niche compared to blu ray, which is still outsold by DVDs. The UHD format is technically much more demanding than standard HD so lower priced/spec'd players can struggle with playback of certain titles, they also don't handle scratches well. If Panasonic and Sony backed out of manufacturing players, then that might be a problem, but I don't see the party ending anytime soon.

[Rob Young]

Lee, yes, Kaleidoscope are interesting but very expensive. Plus, they work on the assumption that you want to buy the movie, whereas I'd prefer just to rent it for a certain time period and for a suitable rental price, which is why I'm so keen on discs still existing! I see I said "buy" a download in my previous post when I really should have said "buy or rent".

But it is nice to know that someone is thinking along the lines of quality.

This page from their website says it all for me;

Streaming Comparison - Kaleidescape

As you say, I don't see the party ending anytime soon either. I think that as things change, it would be nice to imagine a future where quality is still important to the niche market that desires it, even if it will cost a little more. I mean, at the hight of VHS and Laserdisc, we were all paying hundreds of £ / $ for a single movie on super 8, so I think the likes of our film community here will always prefer quality over convenience.

The future may just turn out to be quite exciting for movie fans and not limited to compressed streaming, even if disc do disappear.

[Ed Gordon]

Ed, the problem with streaming is that old achilles heal, compression....

You are absolutely correct Rob. Compression is ignored. Everyone looks at the resolution numbers (480i, 720p, 1080p, etc.). Broadcast 1080p is superior to Cable 1080p because the cable companies compress everything to fit more channels on the wire. A 2k movie on Bluray is highly compressed compared to a 2k DCP package used in commercial cinemas. Movies on Bluray are no more than 50gb in size, compared to the same movie in a DCP which can be four times larger than a Bluray.

One of the best places for reviews of physical media is John Clancy's Movie Collector Youtube channel. John compares the quality of a movie whether it is on film or disc and make recommendations based on the perceived quality and will at times rate a Bluray version to be superior to a 4k disc.