DVD and Blu-ray sales continue to nosedive

[Freddy]

Watching Top Gun on Apple TV through my amp and speakers and comparing to my Top Gun 4K Blu-ray through my 4K Blu-ray player, amp and speakers it was hard to distinguish between the two different sound and picture quality.

 

[Hifiman2007]

Sadly discs are also seen as bad for the environment from raw materials used to press them . Energy wastegage . Delivery to retailer etc...downloads have none of these so called drawbacks. I can guarantee however once discs stop the studios will then move on to special edition downloads that contain extras or are a bigger/better quality file and charge a premium and we will all start are library again!

 

[Jwad]

Sadly discs are also seen as bad for the environment from raw materials used to press them . Energy wastegage . Delivery to retailer etc...downloads have none of these so called drawbacks. I can guarantee however once discs stop the studios will then move on to special edition downloads that contain extras or are a bigger/better quality file and charge a premium and we will all start are library again!

Not sure this is entirely true. Those streaming options will be sat on power hungry servers somewhere using energy 24/7. They may or may not be fuelled by green energy but then there are the drives and other hardware it's running on to consider with rare earth metals etc. I imagine streaming comes out on top but it's probably not as cut and dried as you might think.

 

[Hifiman2007]

I don't expect 't investigative journalism.', if I did I'd get the job done right by Stacey Dooley, not badly by What HI Fii

Please explain how some thing USA focussed can have the slightest relivance to ewe kay audiences?
Can we expect an article on gun ownership in the next issue, please?

Stacey Dooley. Doing a right job. Erm not possible.

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

Those streaming options will be sat on power hungry servers somewhere using energy 24/7.

I suspect it depends upon how often the disc is played - there's likely to be a crossover point.

 

[flashgordon1952]

Blu rays and 3 D Looks now the 3D market has now vanished . Why? well it appears no one is making ? 3D TVs now and the 3D DVD market has almost gone to its grave. Reason like for Bluray is because of most people are downloading at 4k so why buy a DVD at all. Well actually every good reason to buy as many s/h as possible The value of these will increase ( like the old 12 inch records) Look for these 3Ds now but few TVs have that ability at all now Mine does it is a 2011 model PLASMA . This will be the thing to collect ( ihope) and so will DVDs in particular box sets
I am paying on average £5 for a box set of up to 20 discs
This is the future and i know certain VHS films are going huge prices ie Michael Jackson . How long this will last i do not know .
Back in the day (19870s and 80s i had a number of super 8 and 16 mm films these was put on a DVD mainly privately made films i got from a Jumble sale . They covered everything from soft porn to family made films .some of which i had a problem of viewing as they was 16 mm . These are now highly collectable. In particular the laughingly made soft porn made films made in the 1930s 40s 50s and ones show how people lived back then are highly prized now . And people just throwing them away oh its grannys film damp them they are rubbish . No they are not

 

[DELBOY14]

Discs are on their way out, and UHD Blu-ray is taking a bigger share of the diminishing market.

DVD and Blu-ray sales continue to nosedive : Read more

Did we not forget that the film industry came to a grinding halt when Covid broke out, its no wonder that DVD/Blu-ray sales have declined and as we now move into world recession, its going to get worse.
The fact is the cost of Blu-ray should have dropped to around £10 for a 4k Blu-ray movie more than two years back, that would have encouraged more people to bye them making sale's of 4k players step up as well. This would have insured stability in the players and discs.
When the recession fades away so the sales will then pick up but the price must drop.

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

The fact is the cost of Blu-ray should have dropped to around £10 for a 4k Blu-ray movie more than two years back

I'm curious as to why you say this, not that I would be complaining if that had happened. It looks like current films (i.e. not old stuff coming to 4k) are £20-25 for 4k, £15 for BR and £10 for DVD (that's looking at the last Jurassic Park rehash and Nope on Amazon UK) - I'm just wondering why you think 4k should cost what DVD does.

 

[Tinman1952]

I'm curious as to why you say this, not that I would be complaining if that had happened. It looks like current films (i.e. not old stuff coming to 4k) are £20-25 for 4k, £15 for BR and £10 for DVD (that's looking at the last Jurassic Park rehash and Nope on Amazon UK) - I'm just wondering why you think 4k should cost what DVD does.

My take is it's a digital file burned onto an optical disc....there is no reason for the excessive premium for 4K discs other than greedy profiteering...which ultimately has killed off the medium.

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

My take is it's a digital file burned onto an optical disc....there is no reason for the excessive premium for 4K discs other than greedy profiteering...which ultimately has killed off the medium.

You could argue that there's more data, so the price should be higher? I'm slightly playing devil's advocate here. What I suppose I was really asking is why the previous poster thinks DVD and 4K should cost the same.

Besides, 4k discs are increasing their share of the market as I understand it, it's the market a s a whole that's shrinking. I think 4k sales are slowly increasing, but don't quote me on that...

 

[Tinman1952]

You could argue that there's more data, so the price should be higher? I'm slightly playing devil's advocate here. What I suppose I was really asking is why the previous poster thinks DVD and 4K should cost the same.

Besides, 4k discs are increasing their share of the market as I understand it, it's the market a s a whole that's shrinking. I think 4k sales are slowly increasing, but don't quote me on that...

I don't really accept the 'more data' argument...technology/storage moves on and usually gets cheaper, and it is still a single disc.
I just think the pricing/marketing strategy for 4K blu-ray video discs was wrong from the start. Someone in a Sony marketing department may have thought they were not going to sell in high volumes....
Just imagine for a moment if 4K discs had launched at £15 and hailed as 'ground breaking' advance in video quality....HD bluray prices would have dropped to c.£10 or less....and DVD would have been obsolete. They would have sold millions and millions more discs worldwide and still would be selling!
Plus we would have more decent affordable machines to play them on....
People like to have their own physical movie collection but baulk at a certain price point.. it's just not perceived as good value any more.

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

I don't really accept the 'more data' argument...technology/storage moves on and usually gets cheaper, and it is still a single disc.
I just think the pricing/marketing strategy for 4K blu-ray video discs was wrong from the start. Someone in a Sony marketing department may have thought they were not going to sell in high volumes....
Just imagine for a moment if 4K discs had launched at £15 and hailed as 'ground breaking' advance in video quality....HD bluray prices would have dropped to c.£10 or less....and DVD would have been obsolete. They would have sold millions and millions more discs worldwide and still would be selling!
Plus we would have more decent affordable machines to play them on....
People like to have their own physical movie collection but baulk at a certain price point.. it's just not perceived as good value any more.

I suspect (again, being kind) that there are remaster costs to amortise, but it does feel as though the enthusiast is penalised with prices as they are.

I also suspect that physical media in general are in massive decline, and that there's no way of interesting those who have grown up streaming in something physical, even if it's visibly better to those of us who care. This shrinking market is only going to push prices up. And on top of that you've got the 'posh' editions - which don't interest me, by and large. There are only so many extras worth having (very few as far as I am concerned), so who gives a stuff about what is effectively extra packaging?

I don't really care for it all, but will buy 4k discs of the things I love - though using ebay and buying from other markets offers the odd bargain, as well as access to things for which there's no UK disc.

 

[Tinman1952]

I suspect (again, being kind) that there are remaster costs to amortise, but it does feel as though the enthusiast is penalised with prices as they are.

I also suspect that physical media in general are in massive decline, and that there's no way of interesting those who have grown up streaming in something physical, even if it's visibly better to those of us who care. This shrinking market is only going to push prices up. And on top of that you've got the 'posh' editions - which don't interest me, by and large. There are only so many extras worth having (very few as far as I am concerned), so who gives a stuff about what is effectively extra packaging?

I don't really care for it all, but will buy 4k discs of the things I love - though using ebay and buying from other markets offers the odd bargain, as well as access to things for which there's no UK disc.

Unfortunately Sony have a track record with this...just look how they ruined/abandoned SACD.