1. The end of Sony standalone players (in Japan) isn't necessarily the end of the bluray format. There are other manufacturers.
2. However, it is concerning that Sony, the creator of the format, is moving away from it. If the PS6 does away with the disc drive, that's complete abandonment. It's possible Sony plans to implement a high quality streaming service to replace physical media, but not guaranteed.
3. 4K Bluray likely struggles because it's not a huge upgrade over 4K streaming or even 1080P for the average user who watches on a small screen. A majority of users prefer convenience.
4. Given that Video/Audio-philes are a niche market, we may see a contraction of what is available due to tariff barriers. Some low-demand products are only viable if one manufacturing location can amortize its costs across the entire global market. If trade barriers are put up, that market shrinks and becomes less efficient. Products that were barely profitable become unprofitable. No U.S. manufacturer will on-shore production of such products because the U.S. market isn't big enough to make them viable. That may have contributed here.
5. There is nothing to prevent high quality audio/videophile oriented streaming services from picking up the slack, but we can probably expect them to be expensive and openly hostile to the concept of ownership. The joy of finding a title you've been looking for in the bargain bin at a local store could become a thing of the past. Sony probably views a 4K Bluray discounted to under $5 as a lost opportunity.
> The end of Sony standalone players (in Japan) isn't necessarily the end of the bluray format. There are other manufacturers.
I think it's just Panasonic at this point?
It's strange that Sony are retiring their current player so soon after they introduced it. As the article mentions, that model was introduced last year. It's the exact same as Sony's previous model from 8 years ago except they took out the streaming functionality and raised the price. It's the sort of thing you'd expect them to do if they were going to keep the product on the market for a long time, since they wouldn't have to invest in firmware development to keep the streaming functionality working.
Although I assume the actual disks will stop being produced soon, this is a good reminder that LibreDrive[0] exists and is unfortunately still the best way to watch blu rays
Some of my friends insist on watching movies only in 4K, but once I secrectly played a proper 1080p BluRay copy and they would not believe it was 1080p.
Not much to do with the OP other than that it's been a long time since even the "tech-savy" have watched anything on disc. I guess 95% or more live with whatever potato bitrate they get from streaming services.
If Blu-ray is diseapearing, what's left for people who care about media quality? Last time I checked, the quality on legal streaming platform was barely comparable with Blu-ray. Did this improve?
I'm tempted to buy one of their boxes and tell claude to make no mistakes, but if they're smart they're also using watermarking so cracking the DRM alone will not be enough.
I quit all streaming services about 6 months ago and am strictly on CD's DVD's and records. I recommend it. The library has a ton of stuff, and if enough demands comes back maybe dvd shops will open back up. Its really nice, no ads, no data mining, no supporting awful streaming services, no subs, finite choice. Again, I recommend it.
I feel like we need an open source DVD and CD so that they will survive for the long term. Streaming is nice but I don't want to pay monthly fees forever just to hear the music I like.
Encryption keys, being purely random, are not copyrightable. (In light of recent events, this raises the question of artisanal human-created keys.) Distributing keys probably violates DMCA section 1201 though.
Spotify's offline playback DRM hinges on a HMAC key that's a human-readable phrase, based on a certain lyric. I'm curious whether it's just a fun easter egg, or if there's some kind of legal basis for the choice.
FWIW me reading the headline alone was enough to help justify a NAS purchase with my not-as-tech-inclined wife so we can just start dumping things there one way or another...
PS3 is a great Blu-ray player IMO. Solid console, solid controller, good laser implementation. Just pop it in and it Just Works.
Seeing a native Blu-ray (god I hate typing that out) on my then 1080p Panny Plasma was a sight to behold. The quality was fantastic, incredible detail and color in a dark room. I miss the console, the television, and the couch I sat on. All of that is gone. But I still remember the glory of seeing it for the first time.
No, but I believe there's 4k version of the PS4 that came out towards the end of that console's lifecycle. I'm satisfied with my regular 1080p PS4 though.
Vinyl is far from open source CD due to limitations of phisical format and the fact that good vinyl contains specifically mastered for vinyl with those limitations taken into account.
You can still easily buy Bluray player and open source your discs with ARM (not CPU/SoCs, different one)
Like all analog formats, vinyl has a non-linear response. Things like total amplitude and frequency content affect noise and distortion when reproduced. Another factor is that it's a constant angular velocity medium, so the response is different at the beginning than the end. These are factors that a good mastering engineer takes into account.
This occurs in the digital world as well. When we went to DVDs, the studios had encoders/authoring engineers, who tweaked compression parameters per scene, as compression is another non-linear process. For example, they might apply a small amount of blur on a dark scene where film grain trips up the compression.
Eta: Apple provides the exact pipeline [1] they use for their services so the sound engineer can listen to the output and adjust.
Better yet, you don't need any components in the supply chain that weren't well within the means of people 100 years ago. Vinyls and Edison cylinders will outlive every CD ever made.
Pretty wild that even the PS5 still has a blu-ray player and that PS5 games still come on optical discs. No doubt this adds significantly to the costs of both the PS5 hardware and to the costs of game distribution.
I have a feeling the PS6 won’t have an optical drive…
Sony has already announced the end of physical games for the PS5. If the PS6 will have an optical drive, it'll be an add-on and only for backwards compatibility purposes. Any kind of a PS6 optical drive will definitely not add significantly to its retail price though.
Regulars to 4k forums know that nearly all the 4k players on the market suck, with regular lock-ups. I have a high end sony 4k player , and it crashes with double-layer disks.
4k blu ray player development hasn't had any innovation for 7+ years. The new products are mostly recycling the chips & firmware from years ago. Still java-based and buggy
well, yeah. the Blu-ray format is based on Java. what would you expect, Rust? Go? I know it's HN, but come on already. A format does not change how it works because you don't like the language it is based on.
I have a modern 4k dedicated player and I enjoy the experience once I got audio and video properly configured (which was a surprising pita).
You put in the disc, it plays, if you want subtitles you press the subtitles button, that’s it. I never had it hang or anything like that, and there is no bullshit internet connectivity/ads etc.
The only thing I’d like improved is better streaming/playing local files.
I never encountered any hangs, slowdowns or any other problem really.
Now it's buy continuously through a subscription, watch for as long as the deal remains in place to provide that particular movie on that particular platform, and thrill to having your individual viewing habits tracked, catalogued, and monetized.
1. The end of Sony standalone players (in Japan) isn't necessarily the end of the bluray format. There are other manufacturers.
2. However, it is concerning that Sony, the creator of the format, is moving away from it. If the PS6 does away with the disc drive, that's complete abandonment. It's possible Sony plans to implement a high quality streaming service to replace physical media, but not guaranteed.
3. 4K Bluray likely struggles because it's not a huge upgrade over 4K streaming or even 1080P for the average user who watches on a small screen. A majority of users prefer convenience.
4. Given that Video/Audio-philes are a niche market, we may see a contraction of what is available due to tariff barriers. Some low-demand products are only viable if one manufacturing location can amortize its costs across the entire global market. If trade barriers are put up, that market shrinks and becomes less efficient. Products that were barely profitable become unprofitable. No U.S. manufacturer will on-shore production of such products because the U.S. market isn't big enough to make them viable. That may have contributed here.
5. There is nothing to prevent high quality audio/videophile oriented streaming services from picking up the slack, but we can probably expect them to be expensive and openly hostile to the concept of ownership. The joy of finding a title you've been looking for in the bargain bin at a local store could become a thing of the past. Sony probably views a 4K Bluray discounted to under $5 as a lost opportunity.
I think it's just Panasonic at this point?
It's strange that Sony are retiring their current player so soon after they introduced it. As the article mentions, that model was introduced last year. It's the exact same as Sony's previous model from 8 years ago except they took out the streaming functionality and raised the price. It's the sort of thing you'd expect them to do if they were going to keep the product on the market for a long time, since they wouldn't have to invest in firmware development to keep the streaming functionality working.
0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41784069
Not much to do with the OP other than that it's been a long time since even the "tech-savy" have watched anything on disc. I guess 95% or more live with whatever potato bitrate they get from streaming services.
I heard the other day there are a few shows that are streaming in 4K (probably low bitrate) but the discs are only HD.
Strange media sources though:
FlatPanelsHD (5 points, 1 comment) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50199610
DarkHorizons (3 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50199874
PushSquare (41 points, 14 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50201821
See also https://theapplewiki.com/wiki/Dont_Steal_Mac_OS.kext
Seeing a native Blu-ray (god I hate typing that out) on my then 1080p Panny Plasma was a sight to behold. The quality was fantastic, incredible detail and color in a dark room. I miss the console, the television, and the couch I sat on. All of that is gone. But I still remember the glory of seeing it for the first time.
You can still easily buy Bluray player and open source your discs with ARM (not CPU/SoCs, different one)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization
This occurs in the digital world as well. When we went to DVDs, the studios had encoders/authoring engineers, who tweaked compression parameters per scene, as compression is another non-linear process. For example, they might apply a small amount of blur on a dark scene where film grain trips up the compression.
Eta: Apple provides the exact pipeline [1] they use for their services so the sound engineer can listen to the output and adjust.
[1] https://www.apple.com/apple-music/apple-digital-masters/
I have a feeling the PS6 won’t have an optical drive…
4k blu ray player development hasn't had any innovation for 7+ years. The new products are mostly recycling the chips & firmware from years ago. Still java-based and buggy
well, yeah. the Blu-ray format is based on Java. what would you expect, Rust? Go? I know it's HN, but come on already. A format does not change how it works because you don't like the language it is based on.
You put in the disc, it plays, if you want subtitles you press the subtitles button, that’s it. I never had it hang or anything like that, and there is no bullshit internet connectivity/ads etc.
The only thing I’d like improved is better streaming/playing local files.
I never encountered any hangs, slowdowns or any other problem really.
Now it's buy continuously through a subscription, watch for as long as the deal remains in place to provide that particular movie on that particular platform, and thrill to having your individual viewing habits tracked, catalogued, and monetized.