Samsung Quits Blu-ray Player Market

Megalith

Megalith

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Another blow for physical media: Samsung has announced it won’t be bringing any new 1080p or 4K Blu-ray players to the US market. The reason is supposedly related to technical oversights and/or market share vs. competitors, but streaming could very well be a factor. “The latest disc sales stats for the US show 4K Blu-rays accounting for just 5.3% of sales, while DVD - yes, DVD - still claims 57.9%.”

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. One of the reasons for pulling out could be that the existing 4K players' format support has lagged behind the rest of the industry. For example, instead of supporting Dolby Vision, Samsung created its own version of HDR10, called HDR10+, which was designed for use in streaming and physical media.
 
Oppo got out around last April.

Not much left in that market I guess.
 
Who'd wanna play $200+ for a 4k Bluray player anyway? I saw a phillips for under that, but i still buy $10 blu rays' because there's just not enough $30 4k content to choose from.
 
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I have an Oppo 203, paid like $550 for it. Almost bought a second when they announced, but they were out of stock at Oppo and going for over $1400 new at Amazon.

Barely use it for 4k Blu Ray, use it more for streaming 4K torrent rips from a PC.
 
The problem with 4K streaming is the quality of the stream and the bandwidth needed to maintain a certain level of quality. I am a huge fan of maintaining physical media, but who even makes a decent Blu-Ray player anymore? I am still using my Denon which is a rather higher end unit. The job it does with audio is impressive, but it is getting old as it only does 1080p. I am not sure if I want to spend that much money this time around on a player.
 
4k media doesn't take of because of contents being over priced. Dvds sell more because cheaper. Making an effin mess of things 'cause billions.
 
Well the thing is you only need, at most, one player per TV and that gets further limited to the TVs on which you are likely to watch blurays on. There are three TVs in my house 1 4K with a 4K player, Samsung's best plasma with a regular blu ray, and the guest bedroom has no player. Considering how much less use the player gets than a regular TV and how the upgrade cycle for players is even less frequent, means that market saturation is very much an issue. That 4K discs are generally limited to the newest releases and carry an extreme price premium also hurts the upgrade cycle.
 
DVD, cheap, fast, easy rips. Blu-ray, expensive, slow large and sometimes problematic rips, incompatible tech refreshes... Blu-ray, from the inventors of Betamax, who unlike Betamax, "bought the win" this time.

They deserve the worst.... I own just a few Blu-ray, there's simply no need. Sorry Sony.
 
BD movies aren't that expensive. Even at $30, it's not really much more then we paid for new VHS or DVDs when they were the hotness. For me it really depends on if it's something I'll watch once or twice ever, or something I'll watch once or twice a year. I'll drop 30 bux on the latter without any regret.

The main cause for physical media consumption going down is that convenience always wins. Media was great when it meant you didn't have to wait for it to show on TV or go to the theater. Why go to the store or order online now, then have to get up and change disks, plus having to manage a library, when you can just pull it up for streaming in less then a minute without getting off the couch. The fact is most people are fine with the current state of 4K streaming, so long as you have an adequate connection. It may not look as good as 'real' 4K most of the time, but it's certainly better then 1080P, and that's good enough for most people.

While I'm a big fan of physical media, I've never owned a standalone BD player, as the disk gets ripped as soon as it's opened. From their it's either played raw on the home theater, or streamed via Plex to whatever device I want. I'm honestly surprised BD players have hung on as long as they have, since even the studios started providing digital copies/streaming access with media purchases a while back. The market for internal BD drives seems pretty robust.
 
I would like bluray more if they didn't make 5 disc collections for a 7 episode season and other such shenanigans. I don't mind bonus content, but surely it can fit on a single separate disc?
 
Doesn't help when the average new release 4k disc costs around $26-35 unless on a good sale. If they offered ~$20 then physical sales rate would go up greatly. With effort I can sometimes source ~$20 for an new release but lately that's even become a challenge. 1080p blu-ray used to be around $5-10 less at release day but lately there's sometimes only a few dollars difference.

I've got a Samsung 4k player and honestly not very happy with it. When playing dvd or 1080p blu-ray it's pretty quiet but when playing 4k discs it you can hear the motor ramp up pretty loudly. This thing has even given some read errors occasionally with new discs even with latest firmware. Pretty shoddy piece of equipment. Won't miss 'em.
 
Yep, I still buy DVD only. We have never bought a Blu-ray player. Mostly just stream what we need.
 
Generally on parity since you can stream 4k HDR high bitrate from YouTube and Netflix... Seriously, 10mbps-20mbps 4k is on the upper end of noticeable quality and that's achievable for many residential ISPs.

sfsuphysics said:
How does streaming 4k compare with 4k bluray though?
Click to expand...
 
If you're any kind of gamer, or anyone in your household is, it's hard to see buying a standalone player over a PS4 Pro/XB1X. Most seem to run $200-250 at a minimum, tend to have less frequent firmware/format updates than consoles (with less streaming options), and most obviously don't play games. It's a tough value proposition, and would seem to put these solely in the realm of dedicated home theater setups.
 
Evil Timmy said:
If you're any kind of gamer, or anyone in your household is, it's hard to see buying a standalone player over a PS4 Pro/XB1X. Most seem to run $200-250 at a minimum, tend to have less frequent firmware/format updates than consoles (with less streaming options), and most obviously don't play games.
Click to expand...

Some truth there. PS2 was well known for it's effect on the DVD industry. PS3 continued that theme with blu-ray. Current gens were a mix/match though. PS4 pro didn't even get a 4k disc reader and that's what put me off from getting it. If it get's integrated in PS5 I'll probably reconsider. XB1X got one but there wasn't really any need for me to get one vs. the rig I already have in terms of 4k gaming(it's not bad but not going to compare to a RTX2080TI/ 6c12t) for ture 4k gaming and that reason applied to a lot of people as well. I do agree though, it if wasn't for MS/Sony mix match of things, a console would totally make a stand alone unnecessary for nearly all looking a 4k entertainment.

sfsuphysics said:
How does streaming 4k compare with 4k bluray though?
Click to expand...

I do agree with BloodyIron in that there is an uptick in quality for NetFlix 4k streams. The video is ~15Mbps and if your display supports it they have a lot of content w/ either HDR or Dolby Vision. Where I disagree is that a high bit-rate Blu-ray disc still looks comparable, less pixels but better color depth and often a higher bit-rate, and a 4k disc can completely blow 4k streams away. I'm grateful for their 4k shows but when it comes to something that exist physically I'll still opt for disc. Presently I also have some 4k Amazon stuff and the same is true there too.
 
PS4 Pro dont play 4k movies. Only bluray.. xbox 1s and x can and it's ok. I'm picky and if I spend 5k+ on my 4k screen, give me a stand alone high end player thanks.

I still use my first gen 4k stand alone player.. cant even remember the make haha.. no issues.
 
lostin3d said:
Some truth there. PS2 was well known for it's effect on the DVD industry. PS3 continued that theme with blu-ray. Current gens were a mix/match though. PS4 pro didn't even get a 4k disc reader and that's what put me off from getting it. If it get's integrated in PS5 I'll probably reconsider. XB1X got one but there wasn't really any need for me to get one vs. the rig I already have in terms of 4k gaming(it's not bad but not going to compare to a RTX2080TI/ 6c12t) for ture 4k gaming and that reason applied to a lot of people as well. I do agree though, it if wasn't for MS/Sony mix match of things, a console would totally make a stand alone unnecessary for nearly all looking a 4k entertainment.



I do agree with BloodyIron in that there is an uptick in quality for NetFlix 4k streams. The video is ~15Mbps and if your display supports it they have a lot of content w/ either HDR or Dolby Vision. Where I disagree is that a high bit-rate Blu-ray disc still looks comparable, less pixels but better color depth and often a higher bit-rate, and a 4k disc can completely blow 4k streams away. I'm grateful for their 4k shows but when it comes to something that exist physically I'll still opt for disc. Presently I also have some 4k Amazon stuff and the same is true there too.
Click to expand...
I fully agree with 4k streams, there is some content that does look good but looks comparable to high bitrate bd. 4k BD disc is a must for that quality content, plus I really like the additional audio channels and atmos/dts x audio from discs.
 
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I am about to buy a Blu-ray burner but I will not buy any blu-rays. I plan on ripping a bunch of Blu ray's and burning them to DVD 9 for 1080p playback and personal archive.

Does anyone know of a good BR ripper software?
 
Snowdensjacket said:
Good riddance. Samsungs blu ray players were extremely low quality, slow, and even worse buggy as hell.
Click to expand...

Agreed. We used some at my work for years, the Pioneers that were installed since day one were still running fine, but we've had to switch out the samsungs more than 20 times. I like their TVs and phones, but god those Bluray players are trash...
 
I knew the end was coming the first time I saw a blu disc in a bargain bin at walmart.

I have north of 100 blu discs around... and I honestly can't remember the last time I actually put one in to watch. I know I have streamed old movies that I have a higher quality disc around for. I guess I was just to lazy to go dig it out and wait for it to load.
 
I have 2 Samsung BD players that were low use and don't read discs reliably anymore, they are less than 5 years old.
I've got a Panasonic BD player that's probably 10 years old and works great still.
 
Nightfire said:
I am about to buy a Blu-ray burner but I will not buy any blu-rays. I plan on ripping a bunch of Blu ray's and burning them to DVD 9 for 1080p playback and personal archive.

Does anyone know of a good BR ripper software?
Click to expand...

I use MakeMkv to put all my blu-rays and 4k’s on my server. Now it just puts them in mkv no compression. All my stuff is stored full bit rate for my theater. Also run Plex so I can stream blu-Ray or 4K any where in the house. Also for this thread , 4K does look better on disk. I just wish they hadn’t done this HDR crap. They need to just pick a format, also need a good way of turning it off. Sucks for people with projectors. I just madvr to do mapping so it looks properly. That requires a 1060 gtx 6gig just to watch movies damn it. The new Panasonic does do tone mapping and does it well. Just runs you 500 bucks. Great player though.
 
Auer said:
Oppo got out around last April.

Not much left in that market I guess.
Click to expand...
Thank god I got a BDP-203 before stock was gone!
Streaming video quality completely blows compared to physical disks.
However, I'm old so watching movies on my phone seems to me like pissing in the wind. Sure you get the job done but it really is a sucky experience.
 
Makeroflostsouls said:
I use MakeMkv to put all my blu-rays and 4k’s on my server. Now it just puts them in mkv no compression. All my stuff is stored full bit rate for my theater. Also run Plex so I can stream blu-Ray or 4K any where in the house. Also for this thread , 4K does look better on disk. I just wish they hadn’t done this HDR crap. They need to just pick a format, also need a good way of turning it off. Sucks for people with projectors. I just madvr to do mapping so it looks properly. That requires a 1060 gtx 6gig just to watch movies damn it. The new Panasonic does do tone mapping and does it well. Just runs you 500 bucks. Great player though.
Click to expand...

Thanks, any suggestions for conversion/compression software from whatever BR is to .mpv/mp4
 
I'd say it depends on the quality of the stream. Planet earth 2 on Netflix vs high bitrate local, hard to prove a difference.

lostin3d said:
Some truth there. PS2 was well known for it's effect on the DVD industry. PS3 continued that theme with blu-ray. Current gens were a mix/match though. PS4 pro didn't even get a 4k disc reader and that's what put me off from getting it. If it get's integrated in PS5 I'll probably reconsider. XB1X got one but there wasn't really any need for me to get one vs. the rig I already have in terms of 4k gaming(it's not bad but not going to compare to a RTX2080TI/ 6c12t) for ture 4k gaming and that reason applied to a lot of people as well. I do agree though, it if wasn't for MS/Sony mix match of things, a console would totally make a stand alone unnecessary for nearly all looking a 4k entertainment.



I do agree with BloodyIron in that there is an uptick in quality for NetFlix 4k streams. The video is ~15Mbps and if your display supports it they have a lot of content w/ either HDR or Dolby Vision. Where I disagree is that a high bit-rate Blu-ray disc still looks comparable, less pixels but better color depth and often a higher bit-rate, and a 4k disc can completely blow 4k streams away. I'm grateful for their 4k shows but when it comes to something that exist physically I'll still opt for disc. Presently I also have some 4k Amazon stuff and the same is true there too.
Click to expand...
 
dwd999 said:
Since there's no indication that Redbox will ever be renting 4k blurays, not having a player won't matter to me.
Click to expand...

It looks like they started renting them for $2.50 recently, but I haven't seen any as an option yet. I also don't have a 4K player or TV, so I don't pay attention to it.
 
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