Samsung To Stop Making Blu-Ray & 4K Blu-Ray Players For US Market

CNET ^ | February 15, 2019 | Ty Pendlebury

[CaliforniaCraftBeer]

Samsung [announced] that it was no longer making 4K players and has confirmed that it will also halt production on new 1080p models. "Samsung will no longer introduce new Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray player models in the US market," a Samsung spokesperson told CNET.  Samsung launched its last 4K players in 2017 and didn't add any new models to its lineup in 2018. A high-end 4K player for 2019 along the lines of its UBD-M9500 was in the works, a Forbes report says, but has now been scrapped...

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I see it as you do. This is bad news.

[wally_bert]

I have a 2 inch quad tape in storage but it will be tough to play back and convert. At one time, I converted quad, 3/4, and 1 inch to dvc pro and digital beta.

No audio cassettes in my inventory.

Most of the music I buy comes from distributors of vintage TV and movie soundtracks.

I rip copies when they arrive.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Oppo, LG, Sony and Microsoft X-Box One S.

I use LG on my computer. I have an old Oppo Blu-Ray on the TV, but I usually rip the discs to my home server and watch them from there.

Oppo hardware is VERY expensive, but really strong and reliable.

[CaliforniaCraftBeer]

Seriously, why would I want to own a CD or DVD?

 

  For videophiles and audiophiles it does matter. 4K Blu-Ray encoded discs offer the highest bit rate per second image quality of any other digital source (100 to 130 Mbps) and uncompressed .WAV audio (not .mp3 compression). Most people don’t notice or care, until they see a side by side comparison of what they’re missing out on. Streaming on your laptop, tablet or phone is a convenient way to enjoy our favorites, and image and sound matter less on those appliances. BUT when you see a 4K Blu-Ray encoding with Dolby Vision/Samsung HDR10 disc on your OLED or Series 8 4K display at home well now, you’ll understand why some of us are willing to pay for that experience.

[edh]

HDDVD maxed out at 1080p when it was on the market. It never had the capacity for 4K video at the time, but, like BluRay, it was capable of adding layers to the disc (like BluRay)

Sony owns the patents on BluRay IIRC ... Samsung probably got sick of paying them + the world is moving to streaming.

I prefer having media I own, but I’m clearly in the minority these days :-). If I were emperor, we’d all be using cartridges with ROMs for everything since they’re cool looking :-).

[Steve_Seattle]

Good points. With a hard-copy DVD, you get extra features and are protected in case the show or movie is not offered as a download or goes out of print.

People who like niche items are also in danger of being pushed out of the market; for example, many ministries create DVD's as educational and fund-raising items, and many documentaries might fall between the cracks.

All that will be available will be mainstream, mass-market stuff. Reliance on downloading threatens niche markets and makes people vulnerable to corporate censorship.

[Sans-Culotte]

I had heard about Samsung stopping production of 4K models, but this is the first I have heard about them quitting Blu-ray. I usually stay up to date with technology, but I have not made the jump to 4K. My 1080P television still looks great (and it does 3D), and I am not ready to start upgrading to yet another format. In spite of what some say on this thread, Blu-ray is miles ahead of DVD in terms of quality (both sound and picture). A lot of FReepers are content to watch a postage stamp sized picture on YouTube and claim it to be "good enough". Just as a lot of people think a compressed MP3 sounds as good as a CD or SACD. They don't.

I will likely upgrade to a 4K TV when my current 1080P TV bites the dust, but not before. However, based on this news, I may buy another Blu-ray player as a backup. None of my home theater products are Samsung anyway. I sometimes buy digital copies for cheap (from resellers) of movies or TV shows that I don't care about enough to buy on Blu-ray. But the worry there is that the digital copy can be pulled out of circulation if the studios decide the content is objectionable somewhere down the road. Already, streaming services pull content all the time just to make room for other programs.

[wally_bert]

I have a Blue Ray burner on my PC that I used to make backups of stuff on.

At most I’ve gone through 3 spindles if discs. It’s been a year or more since I bothered.

In storage there are containers of burned CD and DVD media that haven’t been touched since they were made.

I keep little of importance on the box. Photos and video go to certain places. A few docs live on jump drives that get edited sometimes.

[Jmouse007]

Yeah, the old, dreaded DIVX model:

You don't OWN anything, you RENT it from us, WE CONTROL ALL OF THE CONTENT: "pay per view" and if you don't pay up, we shut you out. Or as in the case of Ultraviolet: "we close up shop, and all of those movies in your personal library that you thought were yours magically 'disappear'".

I, along with thousands of other people across the country fought against DIVX, until both it and Circuit City were DEAD. Now, another generation has sprung up that doesn't remember that fight, or what the studios and a bunch of hack lawyers tried to foist on the public.

Sadly, they are lapping up streaming, never own anything, but rent it model with a spoon, even though the audio and video content stinks in comparison to 4K UHD, and even 1080p HD Blue-Ray just because it's "convenient".

Thanks but NO THANKS. I'm sticking with PHYSICAL MEDIA that I OWN. And if I want a digital copy of what I own, I will rip it to my personal hard drive and stream it from there.

[edh]

Also, the PS4 Pro has an optical drive for UltraHD ... I don’t think Sony is going to kill off BluRay since they have an interest in seeing it exist.

[cableguymn]

They forgot about the half of the population on metered internet connections and connections to slow to stream.

[gibsonguy]

Ok you’re right l meant UHD—DVD of course jeez, you got me.

[CaliforniaCraftBeer]

Sony sees the PS4 (and it’s next generation PS5) as a totally streaming high definition box. The trends indicate most young men aren’t streaming prime time network produced entertainment, they largely spend they’re high def display time playing and watching others in online global video games. The rise of pro online gaming tournaments, twitch.tv and even ESPN now showing these gaming competitions tells you a lot.

[Jmouse007]

Panasonic, and SONY to name a few. You can also buy new and used OPPO 203 and 205 4K players on the secondary market.

But the new Panasonic players that have just been released are better than the OPPO's in that they can read the meta data on the disk and correct the HDR (High Dynamic Range) output being sent to your 4K TV or projector.

[dangerdoc]

The streaming services are about to fragment, unless you want to pay for each studio’s service, a disc may end up being your best option.

[gibsonguy]

“Also, the PS4 Pro has an optical drive for UltraHD “

Wrong tt’s Blu Ray not a 4K DVD and at their cost it could hsve been for less then 10 bucks more per unit which makes it even more aggravating.

[edh]

I’m wrong about the PS4 Pro ... It has a regular BluRay drive.

I thought you meant something else :-) ... HDDVD was rather short lived and the quality was on par with BluRay (I think HDDVD was higher capacity per layer, but I forget all of those details).

[Da Coyote]

Streaming and on-demand is the future for city dwellers.

Yup, city dwellers always get the crap. In every way.

[Jmouse007]

So that the studios along with a bunch of hack lawyers don’t control the media and CHARGE you money every time you want to watch something either via a monthly subscription or renting it “pay per view”.

This is the same DIVX SCAM originally cooked up by Circuit City and a bunch of hack lawyers when physical DVD’s were originally seeking to get off the ground and come to market.

You need to do some research on DIVX and Circuit City if you want to understand what is really at stake, and what their end game is.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

4K only matters if you have a HUGE screen, and then it doesn’t matter all that much.

It’s mainly for people who always have to brag about everything they have being the best.