Disney just delivered potential death blow to DVDs and Blu-rays

[Harold Hallikainen]

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/disne...hats-happening

Disney just delivered potential death blow to DVDs and Blu-rays — here’s what’s happening

By Nick Pino


(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Bad news for fans of physical media: Disney has announced that it will no longer release DVDs and Blu-rays in certain regions of the world due to declining sales.

According to Sky News, the first country to have its physical media taken away is Australia — which will no longer have DVDs or Blu-rays after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 releases on August 1.
Although physical media sales have been declining for years, the final nail in the coffin here seems to be the success of Disney Plus, Disney’s streaming service that competes with the likes of Netflix, Prime Video and Max.

No other markets have been announced by Disney so far, but it does feel like this is the first domino to fall and a telling sign of what’s to come.

Anyone who’s lived through the ’90s will remember a time when VHS collections were all the rage. But, when DVDs came around offering a crisper image and didn’t need to be rewound after every viewing, VHS tapes began to disappear off store shelves.

Although the circumstances are very different here — the DVD/VHS switch replaced one type of physical media with another — there are still some pertinent parallels.

That said, the decline and now utter disappearance of physical media is a shame: 4K Blu-rays, Blu-rays and DVDs still present some huge advantages over streaming, which is why I still advocate for owning a 4K Blu-ray player.

What makes physical media better? For one, once you buy physical media, it’s yours forever. With shows and films disappearing off streaming services every month, owning a copy of it means it will always be available for you to watch.

More importantly, however, physical media often represents the highest quality of the film. All streaming services need to compress digital media to send it over the internet to your TV. Physical media is still compressed but not to the same amount and therefore offers the best visual and audio experience.

Finally, physical media can be shared. I love letting friends and family borrow movies from my collection. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune was a cinematic masterpiece, so when I heard a friend of mine hadn’t seen it, I rushed over to my Blu-ray shelf to give him my copy. (I've yet to see that Blu-ray returned, mind you, but that doesn't change my thoughts on the subject.) In my mind, movies are meant to be shared experiences.

[Mike Blakesley]

The Panasonic DP-UB820-K 4K Blu-ray player linked sells for $458. There's also this one Panasonic Streaming 4K Blu Ray Player, Ultra HD Premium Video Playback - DP-UB420-K (Black) on Amazon for $227, I wonder what the extra $221 buys you? I mean, what's the difference between "HDR10+" Ultra HD Premium Video Playback and just plain off-the-shelf Ultra HD Premium Video Playback?

[Steve Guttag]

Success of Disney +? Has it made money yet? I suspect that is more of a move to FORCE people to sign up for Disney + rather than buy physical media if they want to see any of the classics or their purchased IP.

As for the Panasonic Blu-ray players...at first glance, the lower-cost one seems to like integration features like 7.1 analog audio out, possibly one or more digital audio (i.e. Toslink or Coax) and possibly a means of controlling it via automation (beyond mimicking the IR remote).

For cinemas now, we use the Tascam line of Blu-ray players (two models, BD-MP1 and BD-MP4K)...they aren't cheap but are 1U tall (and come with rackmounts) plus have integration features (and we have made QSYS components for them). These sorts of features can drive costs up. For the consumer that just wants to watch the movie and is plugging their HDMI cable into the TV...are lost on them so there can be a lower cost alternative.

[Benjamin Ruder]

Success of Disney +? Has it made money yet? I suspect that is more of a move to FORCE people to sign up for Disney + rather than buy physical media if they want to see any of the classics or their purchased IP.

As for the Panasonic Blu-ray players...at first glance, the lower-cost one seems to like integration features like 7.1 analog audio out, possibly one or more digital audio (i.e. Toslink or Coax) and possibly a means of controlling it via automation (beyond mimicking the IR remote).

For cinemas now, we use the Tascam line of Blu-ray players (two models, BD-MP1 and BD-MP4K)...they aren't cheap but are 1U tall (and come with rackmounts) plus have integration features (and we have made QSYS components for them). These sorts of features can drive costs up. For the consumer that just wants to watch the movie and is plugging their HDMI cable into the TV...are lost on them so there can be a lower cost alternative.

I am considering some replacements for existing OPPO units that are now failing after 10+ years of use. One feature that is very important is being able to have the DVD Region and Blu-ray Zone restrictions removed as we are a University and use a variety of imported discs. This was solved long ago for our OPPO units. Do you know of any company that is offering this service for the TASCAM players?

[Steve Guttag]

I do not but there are places that are dedicated to region-free players, of various sorts. For some reason, I seem to think that for Blu-ray, most, if not all releases are region free (and they only had the three of them). I would think that DVD wouldn't be too much into regions, anymore. Of course, that doesn't address existing libraries.

[Benjamin Ruder]

I do not but there are places that are dedicated to region-free players, of various sorts. For some reason, I seem to think that for Blu-ray, most, if not all releases are region free (and they only had the three of them). I would think that DVD wouldn't be too much into regions, anymore. Of course, that doesn't address existing libraries.

Thanks! I will check in with our friends at JVB DIgital. They aren't offering that brand at this time but maybe they have some info. We get releases from Europe of Blu-rays that do not get a US release and need Zone B.

[Bobby Henderson]

My habits of buying movies on Blu-ray have severely declined in recent years. With that being said, I have never bought a "digital" download style movie and don't plan on getting into that habit either. So many new movies these days are worth only watching once. So why buy a copy of a movie that's only going to gather dust on a shelf?

I've heard a LOT of complaints in recent years about Disney and its "efforts" on UHD Blu-ray. The discs are priced too damned high. They data compress the hell out of the video to keep it within the limits of a BD-66 disc rather than spill over onto a BD-100. So many movie discs from major studios are devoid of extras. Or if there are any extra features they have to be downloaded or streamed from some online source. Disney can try to strong arm consumers into getting on the Disney+ subscription band-wagon. But that's going to work only so well. I think there is growing fatigue in the general public over the sheer number of different streaming services. I don't think the market can support all that many. The negative "churn" may build up enough to cause one or more to fail.