Dan

Sonic

morriscroy

Heh. Another one bites the dust.

Now Samsung is exiting the 4Kbluray and bluray player market.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarc...player-market/
https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-to...s-report-says/

Viper187

Had a Samsung BD player once. Absolutely hated the motherfucker. The energy saver auto shut off shit couldn't be disabled. Left the cheap piece of shit at an ex's house. lol

Honestly, I'm not too impressed with any players. My Oppo 103 didn't last 3 years, and the laser is burned out. Now it's out of warranty in spite of the ridiculous prices they sold for. I do wish someone would do proper firmware hacks for these discontinued players instead of just letting certain companies cash in with physical mods. I don't want just region free. I want all prohibited actions bypassed and Universal's bullshit on disc screensavers blocked. I got a cheap Sony UHD player, and started just ripping my region locked discs to watch on PC. Fuck it.

Why So Blu?

This does not bode well for the format.

Viper187

Well, the way they've been handling the BD/UHD format is a total shit show anyway. I still have 2 HD-DVDs I can't replace. There are already a ton of OOP BDs, including Warner catalog titles that should've been moved over to Warner Archive instead of just disappearing entirely and being left at the mercy of ebay sellers. Not to mention Warner's sudden aversion to releasing unrated things (*cough* Jason Goes to Hell *cough*). The Abyss is still being held back by that asshole Cameron, Fox or both. The movies I would've bought UHD upgrades of either aren't releasing or getting botched releases. Patriot, Punisher, Terminator 2, all got fucked out of extended/extra cuts in 4K. Gladiator is the only one that got done right so far. I own every F&F movie except Fate because the extended cut isn't on disc. They just keep doing stupid shit then wondering why things aren't selling.

The whole HDR vs Dolbyvision vs HDR10+ etc bullshit just made things worse.

Jay G.

I mentioned in the UHD releases thread that the next gen of game consoles is likely going to use BDXL 100GB discs for games, so those will likely play UHD Blu-rays as well. XB1S and XB1X already play them, even though games are still limited to 50GB Blu-rays for compatibility with the original XB1. The PS4 Pro skipped UHD Blu-ray compatibility, but I think the PS5 will step up.

Also, Sony and Panasonic are still making players, so while the market may shrink, there may always be at least one manufacturer making players. Wasn't Pioneer the only Laserdisc player manufacturer for, like, decades? They only stopped in 2009, and that was after newer competing physical formats were out.
https://www.techradar.com/news/home-...players-501351

I do wonder about the economics of licensing UHD/Blu-ray/DVD/CD for these players. UHD Blu-ray may have been one license fee too many, and the price of players dropped really fast compare to Blu-ray; I don't think they even started as high, as I remember Blu-ray standalones cost at least $1000, with the $600 PS3 being considered a "bargain" option for just playing Blu-ray discs.

Viper187

The pioneer thing makes HD-DVD even stranger. The format was dead and buried faster than any fucking format in history. PC optical drives used to keep supporting EVERYTHING, but not HD-DVD. Support died instantly.

I think people are tired of new formats and constant changes to get them to upgrade things they shouldn't have to upgrade. Look at this mess with HDR formats. Who the fuck is that benefiting? Plus, everyone knows these players are all made of the cheapest shit possible and engineered to barely survive the goddamn warranty if you're lucky. Nothing is built to last like it used to be. It's not worth spending a grand on a player that only has a year warranty and won't last more than 2 or 3, so only idiots would do it. They can't sell players for those prices anymore.

Why So Blu?

^It's becoming even more niche. Yeah, Pioneer was the only LD make for all that time and LD was one of the biggest niche markets ever -- how did that work out for them in the end, though?

I'm not gonna spend 1,000$ for a PS5 with UHD, so that cuts me out of that.

LorenzoL

I need to see what they include on the next generation of console systems before I decide to purchase one. Having an optical drive is not a 100% guarantee either.

Viper187

XB1 already has a UHD player, and that only started at $500. Don't be such a drama queen.

zyzzle

This news doesn't really faze me, I'm more afriad that BD-R media will suddenly be discontinued. Already several plants have stopped production, I think only the crappy CMC plant is still manufacturing blank BD-Rs? Along with the crappy RITEK media IDs?