1. The end of Sony standalone players (in Japan) isn't necessarily the end of the bluray format. There are other manufacturers.
2. However, it is concerning that Sony, the creator of the format, is moving away from it. If the PS6 does away with the disc drive, that's complete abandonment. It's possible Sony plans to implement a high quality streaming service to replace physical media, but not guaranteed.
3. 4K Bluray likely struggles because it's not a huge upgrade over 4K streaming or even 1080P for the average user who watches on a small screen. A majority of users prefer convenience.
4. Given that Video/Audio-philes are a niche market, we may see a contraction of what is available due to tariff barriers. Some low-demand products are only viable if one manufacturing location can amortize its costs across the entire global market. If trade barriers are put up, that market shrinks and becomes less efficient. Products that were barely profitable become unprofitable. No U.S. manufacturer will on-shore production of such products because the U.S. market isn't big enough to make them viable. That may have contributed here.
5. There is nothing to prevent high quality audio/videophile oriented streaming services from picking up the slack, but we can probably expect them to be expensive and openly hostile to the concept of ownership. The joy of finding a title you've been looking for in the bargain bin at a local store could become a thing of the past. Sony probably views a 4K Bluray discounted to under $5 as a lost opportunity.
I think it’s really obvious that the ps6 won’t have an optical drive.
IMO, the main reason Sony are discontinuing ps5 disc manufacturing now is so by the time they get around to launching the ps6, the move away from optical discs is old news. They know the move is unpopular and they don’t want the drama associated with the launch of their new console.
I’m less sure about what will happen to bluray movies. But this is not a good sign.
> The Ultimate 4K System includes every 4K movie available (at the time of shipment) pre-loaded onto two Terra Prime 120TB movie servers along with one Strato K movie player.
The system retails for over $100,000, and appears to essentially be a streaming service with local cache, so the bulk of licensing fees are probably only paid for movies customers actually watch.
For the upgrade, it depends what you mean by small screen. For people who watch on a phone, sure. On any TV-sized screen, I think anyone can see an upgrade from streaming to a 4k bluray (or even a regular bluray), no matter if you are streaming 4k or not.
I cannot think that yet another service will be the solution, especially considering the market is already extremely fragmented and each service is getting more expensive and have tiers. Eventually, affordability might catch up with convenience (although arguably piracy might short circuit both).
> The end of Sony standalone players (in Japan) isn't necessarily the end of the bluray format. There are other manufacturers.
I think it's just Panasonic at this point?
It's strange that Sony are retiring their current player so soon after they introduced it. As the article mentions, that model was introduced last year. It's the exact same as Sony's previous model from 8 years ago except they took out the streaming functionality and raised the price. It's the sort of thing you'd expect them to do if they were going to keep the product on the market for a long time, since they wouldn't have to invest in firmware development to keep the streaming functionality working.
I quit all streaming services about 6 months ago and am strictly on CD's DVD's and records. I recommend it. The library has a ton of stuff, and if enough demands comes back maybe dvd shops will open back up. Its really nice, no ads, no data mining, no supporting awful streaming services, no subs, finite choice. Again, I recommend it.
Also a big plus that does not get talked about enough is the browsing of the "collection".
Avoids the infinite scroll with the mood "ugh I have nothing to watch", and it is infinitely nicer to choose with your kid/spouse/friend/etc from a physical list of choices rather than a list of thumbnails with search bar in 3 or 4 different apps
Some of my friends insist on watching movies only in 4K, but once I secrectly played a proper 1080p BluRay copy and they would not believe it was 1080p.
Not much to do with the OP other than that it's been a long time since even the "tech-savy" have watched anything on disc. I guess 95% or more live with whatever potato bitrate they get from streaming services.
Also depends on the quality of the upscaling and of the Blu-ray release.
A fair number of UHD Blu-ray releases are upscaled from 2K masters, after all (presumably 4:4:4 or 4:2:2, to be fair, so chroma detail closer or equal to UHD Blu-ray).
Another considerable advantage of 4k blu-rays is that they are not region-locked, while regular ones usually are.
Considering how the market is sometimes chaotic with certain releases happening only in some countries, it makes importing (although sometimes quite expensive) less problematic.
If Blu-ray is diseapearing, what's left for people who care about media quality? Last time I checked, the quality on legal streaming platform was barely comparable with Blu-ray. Did this improve?
Considering its price and the fact that it's not actually streaming, you are kind of making the same point that streaming services cannot compete on quality.
I'm tempted to buy one of their boxes and tell claude to make no mistakes, but if they're smart they're also using watermarking so cracking the DRM alone will not be enough.
Although I assume the actual disks will stop being produced soon, this is a good reminder that LibreDrive[0] exists and is unfortunately still the best way to watch blu rays
I feel like we need an open source DVD and CD so that they will survive for the long term. Streaming is nice but I don't want to pay monthly fees forever just to hear the music I like.
Encryption keys, being purely random, are not copyrightable. (In light of recent events, this raises the question of artisanal human-created keys.) Distributing keys probably violates DMCA section 1201 though.
Answering in this way has done nothing to further my understanding of the topic, you haven’t explained the difference or why there is a difference and you haven’t offered a counter-example.
I can only surmise that you’ve answered in order to feel superior, but that doesn’t make sense because while I have examples of behaviour that can be explained by my statements, you haven’t added anything to explain yours.
So, your statement stands alone, undefended and without context or explanation.
What were you trying to achieve? A key that is used to decrypt copyrighted material being /itself/ copyrighted means it cant be distributed which is what we see.
Spotify's offline playback DRM hinges on a HMAC key that's a human-readable phrase, based on a certain lyric. I'm curious whether it's just a fun easter egg, or if there's some kind of legal basis for the choice.
beloch 1 day ago
1. The end of Sony standalone players (in Japan) isn't necessarily the end of the bluray format. There are other manufacturers.
2. However, it is concerning that Sony, the creator of the format, is moving away from it. If the PS6 does away with the disc drive, that's complete abandonment. It's possible Sony plans to implement a high quality streaming service to replace physical media, but not guaranteed.
3. 4K Bluray likely struggles because it's not a huge upgrade over 4K streaming or even 1080P for the average user who watches on a small screen. A majority of users prefer convenience.
4. Given that Video/Audio-philes are a niche market, we may see a contraction of what is available due to tariff barriers. Some low-demand products are only viable if one manufacturing location can amortize its costs across the entire global market. If trade barriers are put up, that market shrinks and becomes less efficient. Products that were barely profitable become unprofitable. No U.S. manufacturer will on-shore production of such products because the U.S. market isn't big enough to make them viable. That may have contributed here.
5. There is nothing to prevent high quality audio/videophile oriented streaming services from picking up the slack, but we can probably expect them to be expensive and openly hostile to the concept of ownership. The joy of finding a title you've been looking for in the bargain bin at a local store could become a thing of the past. Sony probably views a 4K Bluray discounted to under $5 as a lost opportunity.
phire 1 day ago
IMO, the main reason Sony are discontinuing ps5 disc manufacturing now is so by the time they get around to launching the ps6, the move away from optical discs is old news. They know the move is unpopular and they don’t want the drama associated with the launch of their new console.
I’m less sure about what will happen to bluray movies. But this is not a good sign.
lokar 1 day ago
mostlysimilar 1 day ago
What? How are they getting away with that?
jasomill 1 day ago
lokar 1 day ago
But I think the lower end systems start at 1/10th that
lp92 1 day ago
gnabgib 1 day ago
> It’s now been a month since Sony announced it is ending physical disc production for both PS5 and PS6 in 2028
https://www.vice.com/en/article/sony-responds-ps5-physical-d...
K3UL 16 hours ago
I cannot think that yet another service will be the solution, especially considering the market is already extremely fragmented and each service is getting more expensive and have tiers. Eventually, affordability might catch up with convenience (although arguably piracy might short circuit both).
ndiddy 1 day ago
I think it's just Panasonic at this point?
It's strange that Sony are retiring their current player so soon after they introduced it. As the article mentions, that model was introduced last year. It's the exact same as Sony's previous model from 8 years ago except they took out the streaming functionality and raised the price. It's the sort of thing you'd expect them to do if they were going to keep the product on the market for a long time, since they wouldn't have to invest in firmware development to keep the streaming functionality working.
nphardon 1 day ago
K3UL 16 hours ago
Avoids the infinite scroll with the mood "ugh I have nothing to watch", and it is infinitely nicer to choose with your kid/spouse/friend/etc from a physical list of choices rather than a list of thumbnails with search bar in 3 or 4 different apps
lp92 1 day ago
Jhsto 1 day ago
Not much to do with the OP other than that it's been a long time since even the "tech-savy" have watched anything on disc. I guess 95% or more live with whatever potato bitrate they get from streaming services.
brianwawok 1 day ago
jasomill 1 day ago
A fair number of UHD Blu-ray releases are upscaled from 2K masters, after all (presumably 4:4:4 or 4:2:2, to be fair, so chroma detail closer or equal to UHD Blu-ray).
K3UL 16 hours ago
gnabgib 1 day ago
Strange media sources though:
FlatPanelsHD (5 points, 1 comment) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50199610
DarkHorizons (3 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50199874
PushSquare (41 points, 14 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50201821
LollipopYakuza 1 day ago
wmf 1 day ago
K3UL 16 hours ago
Retr0id 1 day ago
jasomill 1 day ago
wmf 1 day ago
Retr0id 1 day ago
K3UL 16 hours ago
Moreover, 4k access is not guaranteed. Recently Disney+ removed it completely here in France due to some legal thing with the HEVC codec.
Retr0id 1 day ago
andrepd 1 day ago
wmf 1 day ago
I heard the other day there are a few shows that are streaming in 4K (probably low bitrate) but the discs are only HD.
edude03 1 day ago
0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41784069
WheelsAtLarge 1 day ago
wmf 1 day ago
dijit 1 day ago
wmf 1 day ago
dijit 1 day ago
> NB: Most commercial Blu-Ray are protected by AACS or BD+ technologies and this library is not enough to playback those discs.
https://www.videolan.org/developers/libbluray.html
clicking into the libaacs and libbd+ yields:
> NB: this project doesn't offer any key or certificate that could be used to decode encrypted copyrighted material.
pseudalopex 20 hours ago
dijit 19 hours ago
Answering in this way has done nothing to further my understanding of the topic, you haven’t explained the difference or why there is a difference and you haven’t offered a counter-example.
I can only surmise that you’ve answered in order to feel superior, but that doesn’t make sense because while I have examples of behaviour that can be explained by my statements, you haven’t added anything to explain yours.
So, your statement stands alone, undefended and without context or explanation.
What were you trying to achieve? A key that is used to decrypt copyrighted material being /itself/ copyrighted means it cant be distributed which is what we see.
Retr0id 1 day ago
See also https://theapplewiki.com/wiki/Dont_Steal_Mac_OS.kext