Slowly but surely, spinning discs are dying out, and Samsung just put another nail in their coffin. The company told Forbes that it’s done producing new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players — and CNET was able to confirm that Samsung is halting production on at least some of its 1080p Blu-ray players as well.
“Samsung will no longer introduce new Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray player models in the US market,” a Samsung spokesperson told CNET.
Technically, there’s still the possibility that Samsung may continue to produce its existing Blu-ray players for months or years to come — the company still has quite a few models on sale — or introduce new ones in specific countries outside the US. We’ve asked Samsung to clarify.
But practically speaking, Samsung may have just announced that it’s quitting the Blu-ray business, like Oppo did last April.
Even though Samsung was gung-ho enough about 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays to beat every other company to the punch with the first player in 2016, it’s not all that surprising that Samsung might bow out early now. Discs are on the decline, with research company Nielsen recently using Blu-ray and DVD players as the example of a technology that’s on its way out.
“Some devices, such as DVD/Blu-ray players, are in the declining phase of their product life cycle as streaming devices gain prominence,” reads Nielsen’s Q2 2018 report, adding that only 66 percent of TV watching households have one now, compared to 72 percent the year before. Nielsen also says the average US adult spends just 5 minutes a day — by far the least of any screen activity — using a Blu-ray or DVD player.
And streaming services have stepped up in a big way too, especially by making 4K streams less expensive. Apple and Google both sell 4K movies for the same price as 1080p HD now, and will upgrade your HD movies to 4K for free. Amazon notably dropped its prices as well. Plus, an excellent 4K streaming device has never been cheaper than it is now.
You could definitely argue that discs are still the best experience, with the best picture and audio quality. I prefer popping in a Blu-ray myself. But between the rise of streaming and the fact that 4K movies aren’t always actually 4K but often mastered at lower resolutions, they may just not be compelling enough as a business anymore.
Perhaps Sony wasn’t being stingy when it omitted a 4K Blu-Ray player from the PS4 Pro. Perhaps it was just being smart.
Comments
Does it means no more disc-based game consoles?
By Cherrypuke on 02.17.19 5:14pm
I hope so.
By mguniverse on 02.17.19 6:17pm
I don’t. Disc games decay in price much more quickly than digital on the Sony/MS stores.
By a5ehren on 02.17.19 8:36pm
I hope not, how am I going to re-sell all new PS4 games that I play once?
By Lorda on 02.18.19 10:23am
Nah, Sony will ride it out on Disk, maybe MS makes the jump.
By Kirielson on 02.17.19 7:16pm
Are you forgetting that Sony made the first foray into discless gaming with the PSP GO? Needless to say, it didn’t go all that well, since many retailers refused to stock it on their shelves. Microsoft very well could go first. They already are pushing their subscription based services (along with EA’s one).
By Eckythumped on 02.18.19 5:15am
I’d say Sony is just as likely as MS. Remember that they didn’t include an UHD player on the Pro, the same year MS included one on the S. Sony is all about cost cutting and making sure you rebuy your games if you want to play them again.
By spooky on 02.18.19 11:12am
If you buy them digitally from the PS Store they’ll be accessible through the library for the rest of your life. That’s why I like mine digital (disc noise counts as well). There are the usual discounts, although not as low in price as physical games in the sales bin, often reasonably prized.
By McJabberclackers on 02.18.19 12:37pm
I certainly hope not. Trading in old games for credit towards new ones is the only reason I get games sometimes. Turning a $60 purchase into a $40 purchase, or getting a game for free if I have enough older games I’m not playing anymore is awesome.
By hittrj01 on 02.17.19 8:18pm
Thank you and that’s exactly how I upgrade to new games and clear up space from unused games. Now there are so many big name titles flopping like Battlefield and Call of Duty…if you wait 2-3 weeks you can get games on sale with trade ins for $20 and under sometimes. With movies…the trade in market isn’t the same as games. The Apple TV outputs in 4K with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos so the superior video and sound quality from a disk is minimized and 4K streaming looks and sounds just as good especially if you have a surround sound system with Dolby Atmos. I have an Xbox One X, Sony Blu Ray, and Apple TV 4K so I’ve tried different formats to compare.
By lamar(USC) on 02.18.19 9:25am
Which is exactly why the manufacturers and game publishers want disks to die. They see no money off of used sales. Even if less people buy digital games, overall they see higher profits by killing off that market (which is already shrinking).
Not saying you aren’t right, but in the end, this is a shift that is inevitable.
By devwild on 02.18.19 9:33am
They’re talking about Samsung Blu-ray players, not consoles.
Nobody said they wouldn’t be making "game discs".
By NuViz on 02.18.19 9:27am
No, Sony WAS being stingy lol Microsoft added it to both the One S and X just fine. If anything they were being double-stingy not adding it to both the base and Pro models
By Hunter Smith on 02.17.19 5:14pm
There are still so many titles that are only available on physical disc and not available via streaming or a service like iTunes (Studio Ghibli being one example). I thought Sony didn’t include a 4K player as they wanted to focus on making the PS4 a gaming machine. Not to say they might not include one in the PS5.. who knows?
I’ve been burnt by digital media services – the BBC Store closed down, and was left without not an insignificant number of titles. Thankfully I got a refund for them, but the inconvenience was a massive pain in the arse. iTunes TV programs are inferior to the physical disc releases when it comes to features (read: practically none at all – you can forget episode commentary) – though I note with interest that many TV companies are only releasing titles on DVD and not Blu-Ray these days (hey – why not buy your favourite show that airs in HD in lower quality SD!). There are very few TV shows being released in UltraHD 4K Blu-Ray – the only example I can think of is HBO’s Westworld. Annoyed that they never released Amazon Prime’s American Gods on UltraHD Blu-Ray, only HD Blu-Ray, though it is available in 4K on Prime streaming.
It’s a pathetic state of affairs where consumers lose out again.
By mbdrake76 on 02.17.19 5:19pm
I really wonder if streaming will be the end of "DVD extras" or if they’ll figure out another good way to bring those back and make them prominent.
By Sean Hollister on 02.18.19 3:01am
As someone who’s bought a load of iTunes films recently, extras are back in a big way for me. I love the UHD discs I’ve bought, they’re the absolute best image quality available (and audio too, if I wasn’t yet to buy a standalone player rather than my Xbox, and so go back to lossless multichannel) but when Apple were doing 4k films for £2.99 each recently it’s hard to justify the price difference unless it’s something I truly adore.
But what I wasn’t prepared for is the benefit of iTunes supporting all the extras stuff; while the Big Telly is the way to watch films properly if you don’t have immediate access to a cinema print, I’ve listened to far more commentary tracks on my phone recently than I have in on DVD and Blu-ray since the initial novelty wore off in the early 2000s.
By iainl7 on 02.18.19 4:31am
I have over 348 movies on iTunes because they generally have the same extras as physical media – including audio commentaries. So yep, I am there for iTunes films as I can watch them on the big 60" TV and carry them about with me on the Mac, iPhone and iPad Pro without faffing around. Apple has the best (though expensive) ecosystem for this sort of thing for sure. But I do prefer to watch stuff on the big TV, the portability is a nice-to-have, but not an absolute requirement for me.
Where I find iTunes lacking is with their TV programs. They lack 4K and any extras with a very few notable exceptions. Breaking Bad Deluxe series had audio commentaries, though as an extra "file" (or title, or whatever you like to call them) each season – though if you had Dolby Digital selected in Apple TV, it didn’t play it – had to switch to Stereo. Kudos to the team at Breaking Bad who set this up, though, I just wish Apple would throw a bit more effort at presenting TV shows as they would film titles. Wishful thinking, I know, what with their own streaming service coming into fruition.
Mind you, Amazon has also tried the audio commentary route on their streaming service. Transparent had audio commentaries. Though I have yet to see any other titles with it – maybe it wasn’t as popular. That said, I find Amazon Prime Video’s UI to be an utter shambles. Netflix has only given us the Star Trek Discovery shorts which came along without any fanfare and was dumped under the "Trailers and Extras" section which you had to scroll right down to the bottom to find.
My real concern is when companies like the BBC Store decided to call it a day and shut up shop. Or if a film or TV studio wants to pull a title from a service you use. The BBC Store thankfully gave refunds or alternative access to Amazon’s digital store, but replacing withdrawn content can be bloody hard if it doesn’t exist anywhere else.
We’ll see where this goes, but I’m warning the big TV and film companies right now – screw this up and I’m certain that piracy levels will surge. I would find it bloody stupid if the pirates do a better job at presenting and making available content than said content providers.
By mbdrake76 on 02.18.19 8:02am
Apple and Google aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. And now that we have Movies Anywhere we can port our purchases to any other service we want so I feel a lot better about digital movie purchases than I did before.
The specter of a studio pulling a movie that people paid seems unlikely. Pulling them from streaming services yes. Yanking Frozen or Cars off the iPads of a 10 million kids? That’s a huge class action lawsuit and a whole lot of really negative PR. And for what? There’s a whole lot of negatives for the studios, what would be the upside to pissing off customers?
By minimalist on 02.18.19 11:59am
Those are mainstream movies though. What about the rest?
By Doge Man on 02.18.19 3:28pm
That’s not how movies anywhere works! Those are only for digital extra movies, purchased movies on non studio digital services don’t transfer.
By nico_mach on 02.18.19 8:32pm
No. Movies I bought on iTunes show up on Vudu and Amazon and Google Play right now. They are still waiting for paramount to join the service but in general all my movies sync.
By minimalist on 02.20.19 2:08pm
It’s not Apple or Google that I have a problem with. It’s the film or TV studios whose content Apple & Google distribute that I have a problem. If they pull a title (indeed – unlikely, but possible), what kind of compensation are you entitled to? What can you do if the title doesn’t exist on physical media? What happens if the title is available on another service, but that service doesn’t have an app or access on whatever devices you have in your home?
I’m pretty sure Amazon has pulled Kindle books from people’s libraries in the past. However, they may have good reason to. Why not the same with film & TV digital purchases?
I also can’t tell you what a massive pain in the arse Ultraviolet was in the UK. We don’t have Movies Anywhere or anything else like it, so I can’t comment on that.
By mbdrake76 on 02.20.19 8:40am
Exactly. Apple routinely sells 4K HDR Atmos movies with all the extras for less than 10 dollars when their UHD Blu-ray counterparts are still 20 dollars or more. It’s almost like the UHD Blu-ray industry WANTS to die.
Plus controlling streams on an Apple TV is a absolute delight compared with the hell that is controlling a blu ray disc with a game controller or whatever crappy remote that comes include with standalone blu ray players.
I still buy standard blu-rays for the titles that I REALLY love but I usually end up putting them on the shelf and watching the included digital copy instead (especially if apple gives me a 4K Atmos upgrade). But I am not bothering with UHD Blu ray. It was questionable if it would ever catch on when it was first released but it’s a sinking ship at this point.
By minimalist on 02.18.19 11:38am
I agree the Apple TV is great. Probably the only Apple product Id consider buying but I already have an Xbox and Fire Stick and I like the controllers on those plenty.
By Doge Man on 02.18.19 4:03pm
Most iTunes purchases come with "Extras". Commentary tracks, deleted scenes, sing-along modes, featurettes, alternative cuts. They’re all there. When I select a film with extras from my purchase history it pops up a menu that lets you choose from the extras.
By CPD_1 on 02.18.19 11:11am