LG stops making Blu-ray players

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Marees

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FlatpanelsHD reports that LG has ended production of its Blu-ray player series, which includes the UBK80 and UBK90 models

After Samsung and Sony's departure from physical media, LG was one of the last major manufacturers of Blu-ray players.

Panasonic remains one of the last bastions guarding Blu-ray media, but its future remains uncertain as the industry transitions to online streaming.

Blu-ray players aside, even physical disks are at risk of extinction. Last year, Best Buy quit its Blu-ray and DVD business following market trends.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-i...ra-limited-units-remain-while-inventory-lasts
 
Sad, still ripping here.

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applegrcoug said:
I dont know about anyone else, but I can tell the difference between physical and streamed quality...especially in the blacks.
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100% i can tell the it is good enough for majority of people. Convenience trumps all for people. I think physical media will be completely dead in 5 years. Next gen consoles are going to be all digital.
 
Just because they aren't making more doesn't mean that all the players are going to suddenly disappear. Pretty sure there's no shortage of them. You can still buy 8-track, cassette, VHS, CD, DVD, etc. etc. players at any yard sale, second-hand shop, or pawn shop around. Vinyl even made a full-on comeback and new players + albums are being made every day.
 
Domingo said:
Just because they aren't making more doesn't mean that all the players are going to suddenly disappear. Pretty sure there's no shortage of them. You can still buy 8-track, cassette, VHS, CD, DVD, etc. etc. players at any yard sale, second-hand shop, or pawn shop around. Vinyl even made a full-on comeback and new players + albums are being made every day.
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Vinyl is a very niche example though of something... that had other advantages going for it. Vinyl was the hey day of cool music releases with full on books sometimes included. Some blu have special editions, I would argue though its all so much more generic and boring. (mostly) IMO LG exiting physical media is a pretty big indication that the end of new physical media is nye. lol
 
applegrcoug said:
I dont know about anyone else, but I can tell the difference between physical and streamed quality...especially in the blacks.
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<resists horrible jokes about casting choices in remakes>

More seriously, I've personally found it varies, wildly, upon title and service. When they dig too deeply with compression, we can see and hear it for sure.
 
mullet said:
I love mine.
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Same, I got a great deal on an open-box one on eBay. Was brand new, never used.

Streaming/rip quality is "good enough" for most things, but some things I want to have the best quality possible, and that's UHD Blu-ray. You really notice streaming artifacts in dark scenes, much better on Blu-ray.
 
Debating if I should get a set top UHD player before they disappear or just use the Xbox Series X that I have.
Anyone have both that compared the two?
 
Whatever compression most streaming services use for the audio seems to also level out all of the different channels. To me that's the bigger issue vs. a pure quality difference. It always leads to having to crank up the volume to hear the dialogue and the next thing you know the walls are shaking due to music, a car starting, a gunshot, etc. That's a problem I don't have with my disks and/or rips. I ended up having to create a separate sound setting for my AVR for streaming vs. my PC and disks/rips as a result. The center channel is at 100 and everything else is at 50%.
 
Both audio and picture quality are VERY noticeably worse compared to disks. Ironically disks can be compressed into a very small size if you use the right codecs and tools.

I guess there is a mixture of financial and technical reasons to explain why streaming is so mediocre. Like bitrate CAN be factor but it's not always just that. Netflix's (or Amazon's) 720p/1080p looks ridiculously blocky and it's not a bitrate issue, I can make 1080p rips with a similar or lower bitrate that look crisp (and if you sail the high seas it's easy to find similar rips).
 
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Domingo said:
Whatever compression most streaming services use for the audio seems to also level out all of the different channels. To me that's the bigger issue vs. a pure quality difference. It always leads to having to crank up the volume to hear the dialogue and the next thing you know the walls are shaking due to music, a car starting, a gunshot, etc. That's a problem I don't have with my disks and/or rips. I ended up having to create a separate sound setting for my AVR for streaming vs. my PC and disks/rips as a result. The center channel is at 100 and everything else is at 50%.
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Not to mention with disks you can find out exactly what you are listening to, instead of a no-controls stream and hoping for the best. With no debug tools.
 
Still using my Oppo BDP203, In hindsight I wish I also bought the higher end model at the end or at the very least a second BDP203 player for a spare.
 
Zepher said:
Debating if I should get a set top UHD player before they disappear or just use the Xbox Series X that I have.
Anyone have both that compared the two?
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Both the Series X|S and the PlayStation 5 have no codec hardware in it as far as I'm aware, so the picture can look a bit rough sometimes. That also means no Dolby Vision or HDR10+ support. I've also read that there are some UHD discs that won't play in the consoles, but I've never run into that issue. It's adequate if you're a casual viewer, I guess, but I much prefer the UB820 I bought last year since I have a couple of LG OLEDs and that player supports Dolby Vision.
kalston said:
Both audio and picture quality are VERY noticeably worse compared to disks. Ironically disks can be compressed into a very small size if you use the right codecs and tools.

I guess there is a mixture of financial and technical reasons to explain why streaming is so mediocre. Like bitrate CAN be factor but it's not always just that. Netflix's (or Amazon's) 720p/1080p looks ridiculously blocky and it's not a bitrate issue, I can make 1080p rips with a similar or lower bitrate that look crisp (and if you sail the high seas it's easy to find similar rips).
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"1080P" streams are 10 Mbps and "4K" streams are 25 Mbps on most streaming services. 25 Mbps is the average on a standard Blu-ray. I think some services now go up to 40 Mbps for 4K streams now? UHD Blu-ray averages around 65 Mbps, but some go up to over 80.
 
kalston said:
Both audio and picture quality are VERY noticeably worse compared to disks. Ironically disks can be compressed into a very small size if you use the right codecs and tools.

I guess there is a mixture of financial and technical reasons to explain why streaming is so mediocre. Like bitrate CAN be factor but it's not always just that. Netflix's (or Amazon's) 720p/1080p looks ridiculously blocky and it's not a bitrate issue, I can make 1080p rips with a similar or lower bitrate that look crisp (and if you sail the high seas it's easy to find similar rips).
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Lol! Isn't it ironic that people were clamoring to move from SD to UHD content + 4K TVs, where now streaming will:
1. Kill off the movie theaters and create lower quality movies
2. Roll us back to visually lower quality content

Bigbacon said:
that sucks, there are so many movies and shows you either can't watch on streaming or you can't do it all from the same service.
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"You will own nothing and be happy." -WEF
"We will control all that you see and hear." -The Outer Limits / Netflix / Disney+ / Amazon Prime / Hulu

People are like lemmings to their totalitarianism overlords - letting the distributors determine what they are allowed to watch.
 
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I love my 4K discs. There is no comparison between disc and streaming. A few titles are showcases for streaming, such as Bright, but otherwise, most are crap. And then there is the shit show that is the LFE track on streaming titles. Gross.
 
choices are getting slim, I have a LG BR player/ripper that I used just rip my own CD's and store them on my drive so I could add them to my portable player. I have not ripped one in years as any new music now I just purchase and download it. It's there if I need it but it's been ages
 
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