4K Blu-ray is on the verge of dying out and no one seems to care

[What Hi-Fi?]

With just two mainstream manufacturers still making 4K Blu-ray players, its a concerning time to be a collector.

4K Blu-ray is on the verge of dying out and no one seems to care : Read more

 

[giac]

PS5 does support Dolby Atmos TrueHD when playing Blu-Ray 4K (and it also supports Dolby Atmos in Dinsey+ app). Please amend the article accordingly.

 

[the associate]

The same seems to be the trend for all phisical media including gaming.
For me the biggest dare for phisical 4k movies is better picture quality and sound. I do have a dedicated player and like you went mad on physical media in the DVD era. I have since limited myself in only getting major movie releases.

My last purchase was 'The last of Us'

 

[manicm]

PS5 does support Dolby Atmos TrueHD when playing Blu-Ray 4K (and it also supports Dolby Atmos in Dinsey+ app). Please amend the article accordingly.

It does not however support Dolby Vision, which maybe can be overlooked.

 

[manicm]

This just reinforces why I will not buy a physical 4k player. 1080p Blu-rays look fantastic on a good TV which upscales like my LG C1. And the dearth and high cost of a 4k player actually prohibits me from getting one in my region.

I fully understand that streaming 4k from Disney+ or Netflix will never offer the same disc quality, but I'll just have to live with that.

Yes a PS5 does play them, but it seems fiddly, and it may be a gaming compromise, as I decide on which console to get my 6 year old.

 

[Friesiansam]

Seems most people, who enjoy watching films, are happy to stream and, many probably don't care about the best image and sound quality, as long as it is acceptable, just as most people don't care about HiFi.

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

Seems most people, who enjoy watching films, are happy to stream and, many probably don't care about the best image and sound quality, as long as it is acceptable, just as most people don't care about HiFi.

This is what I don't get about hi res music. I can't tell the difference on a pretty good setup, so how are most people supposed to on the sort of stuff that most people have? No wonder the platforms seem to offer different mixes for some music so users feel they are getting something for the extra cost.

 

[Friesiansam]

This is what I don't get about hi res music. I can't tell the difference on a pretty good setup,

Me too.

 

[DougM]

<Describes owning many thousands of dollars worth of physical media>
But there's no way i'm paying 3100 for a player!
I never understand this attitude. If you care so much about the quality advantage of physical media, enough to spend this vast amount of money on the media, why don't you spend a tiny fraction on a high quality player for it?

 

[russelk]

The average consumer values convenience over quality. That's not news. Been that way forever. Many people (and I mean MANY) still can't see the difference between DVD and blu-ray, so forget about UHD. Most people also use their TV's built-in speakers so the audio fidelity of UHD discs is not relevant either.

Another factor in the poor adoption of UHD is that a lot of enthusiasts of my generation had large VHS collections, and then large DVD collections, and then large blu-ray collections. I'm guessing a lot of people in that category don't want to re-buy everything all over again on another new format, especially one that is not the quantum leap in quality that blu-ray was over DVD for instance. As @manicm said, 1080p blu-rays can look spectacular on a good TV, making investing in UHD a lot more difficult.

 

[DistortedVision]

I've been collecting 4K film steelbook boxsets. The funny thing is I don't have a UHD player. I don't even have a 4K TV. I still have a 10 year Sony Bravia KDL55W905. I'm holding out for a little longer before buying a 4K TV and UHD player. I was somewhat shocked that only Sony and Panasonic are making UHD players as I hadn't looked at them yet. Yes streaming is to blame here. But I like collecting physical formats. I agree about the pain of upgrading collections from DVD to Bluray then to UHD. I only had a relatively small DVD collection then Bluray collection.

The reason I'm collecting 4K UHD boxsets is that I'm convinced this is going to be the last physical format. The thing with 4K UHD is that it makes films made in the 80s and 90s look amazing and puts modern films with CGI to shame:

Why Old Movies look better Than New Ones in 4K - GetConnected

Lots of old movies are being remastered in 4k and this is why they look better than newer Blu-Rays that have been transferred to 4K.

getconnectedmedia.com

 

[Sounds Spectacular]

The streaming services will catch up. I just sold my Panasonic UB9000 player ( literally 2 days ago ) because the writing is on the wall. I purchased a media player and am in the process of copying and selling all my physical media before it's absolutely worthless. I've purchased some movies 4 times. From Laser Disc ( yes, I'm old ), to DVD, to Blu Ray, to UHD. I swore when UHD came out I would not accumulate a large library and then I looked and had exactly that, so I'll attempt to at least retrieve a small amount of my investment back while I can. If you have Apple TV + go and look, they have begun improvement over other services. If nothing else they will do it to try to combat piracy and MKV.

 

[Arron]

Reminder for those who don't want to pay a fortune for a 4K player...
Plex Server
UHD-capable BD/DVD drive
MakeMKV

It turns your collection into your own personal Nutflicks equivalent. You can put an exact copy of the disc on your Plex server. That can be your home PC/Mac or a dedicated NAS. The player app is available for lots of devices like Fire Stick or Apple TV. Both server and player are free unless you want the bonus features which you probably don't.

My experience: it was free so I imported 5 old DVDs to see what the fuss was about. The next day I splurged a grand on a dedicated NAS and enough drives for my collection. It's that good.

 

[DistortedVision]

The Sony UBPX800M2 is £300:

Sony UBPX800M2 (Black)

Shop for Sony UBPX800M2 Black UHD Blu-ray Player with Richer Sounds for expert advice and lowest prices guaranteed

www.richersounds.com

What Hi-Fi 5* review:

Sony UBP-X800M2 review

Sony serves up another great 4K Blu-ray player

www.whathifi.com

Why would you need to spend any more on a UHD player?

 

[manicm]

I fully understand that streaming 4k from Disney+ or Netflix

The Sony UBPX800M2 is £300:

Sony UBPX800M2 (Black)

Shop for Sony UBPX800M2 Black UHD Blu-ray Player with Richer Sounds for expert advice and lowest prices guaranteed

www.richersounds.com

What Hi-Fi 5* review:

Sony UBP-X800M2 review

Sony serves up another great 4K Blu-ray player

www.whathifi.com

Why would you need to spend any more on a UHD player?

Usability? From what I read some Sony players need you to manually switch on Dolby Atmos and/or Vision when playing such encoded discs. That would be a dealbreaker for me right away no matter how cheap. 300 quid is still quite a chunk, and I'd save up a bit more for one the the lower Panasonics.

 

[DistortedVision]

Usability? From what I read some Sony players need you to manually switch on Dolby Atmos and/or Vision when playing such encoded discs. That would be a dealbreaker for me right away no matter how cheap. 300 quid is still quite a chunk, and I'd save up a bit more for one the the lower Panasonics.

Yeah I've not really look in them properly. I always buy Sony TVs and naturally a Sony player follows. Will have to look into it when I buy my new TV.

 

[Coolcity]

Seems most people, who enjoy watching films, are happy to stream and, many probably don't care about the best image and sound quality, as long as it is acceptable, just as most people don't care about HiFi.

That's the point though isn't it? If the quality is good enough then why pay extra? I've watched movies on Sky Q and have watched 4K movies on Sony Bravia Core, as well as having a small number of 4K Blu-Ray discs and I honestly can't tell the difference to any worthwhile degree.

Same with music, there are plenty of Bluetooth speakers around now that give a good enough listening quality for casual listening, which is what most people do. You didn't get that 10, 20, 30 years ago and had to buy Hi-Fi to get any sort of decent quality sound, there was a vast difference between Hi-Fi quality and your average "stereo", but that's not the case any more.

I have some basic Hi-Fi stuff but I've never understood the point of paying thousands of pounds for it, although to be fair I wear hearing aids these days so much of the quality would be lost on me anyway. I want as good a quality sound as I can get but does the high end stuff really make enough of a difference for people to want to pay for it? Same with video, and the fact that nobody is buying 4K Blu-Ray players suggests not.

 

[no-name-123]

Seems most people, who enjoy watching films, are happy to stream and, many probably don't care about the best image and sound quality, as long as it is acceptable, just as most people don't care about HiFi.

Any chance of a VHS and interlaced TV revival, the Fat Boy sort with no remote, mono sound and push buttons for the channels? No watching NTSC on PAL TV either