Best Buy Says Bye-Bye to DVDs


Best Buy announced recently they will stop selling DVDs/Blu-Rays in early 2024, so let's all give a big ho-hum. That will be my predicted response of the majority of people, and it's one they may regret down the line. Yeah, physical discs take up storage space and require another component to play them, but once you own one, it's yours to keep or do with as you wish. And I have yet to hear a streamed version of a movie that sounds as good as an actual disc. It's possible there could be a few exceptions to that statement, but I've never encountered one. I would assume that Best Buy will also stop carrying the players at some point, so any hard-core diehards may want to think about purchasing a spare before year's end.

128x128discnik

Their decision is purely business. They are not selling and take up space. The only way Best Buy can keep selling them would be to raise the price. I doubt the market would bear that. The whole Best Buy concept might be on its way out. People usually go to Best Buy to listen to a piece of hardware and if they like what they hear they go online and buy it for less. Sad but true. 

It is very predictable yes. But the sound quality you get from a DVD or Blue Ray vs streaming is just like the comparison between CD and analog and streaming. It depends on your equipment. Careful choice of equipment and streaming sounds as good as Blue Ray and over time I suspect better. Just like audio streaming. 

The point is with discs you can rip the files for convenience. With streaming fuhheddaboudit. Idiots that stream video are major causes. The facts are that video rental and retail stores are put out of business by libraries.

Other than the staunchest videophiles, who spins DVDs anymore? I don’t think I’ve touched one in 10 years or so. I get it — in many cases they may well sound/look better, but most people don’t care and are perfectly fine with streamed video. Yes, if I’ve sunk $10k+ in my home theater I’d spring for a DVD, but there just aren’t enough people out there to support that market when streaming video is perfectly fine for at least 95% of the population. It’s a totally understandable business decision, especially from a brick-n-mortar store perspective where each square foot of store space matters and needs to generate a profitable return that DVDs just can’t do anymore. Hopefully they’ll continue to be available through online merchants for some time to come, but as with audio and CDs it’s likely just a matter of time before increased bandwidth and technology will make spinning DVDs largely unnecessary. The times they are a changin’.

I am with @ghdprentice on this…I have not spun a blu-ray movie for a very long time. The two OPPO’s in my home are turned off. The streaming content with right equipment is just as good as 4K Blu-rays, especially new releases. My Sony 77" BRAVIA XR A80L OLED 4K monitor + Apple 4K TV with full surround system provides a stunning audio/visual experience.

I get the sentiment of owning a physical disc but please don’t tell me that streaming quality is not as good as 4K blu-ray. Just check out new releases on Amazon, Disney and Netflix.