2. home-theater
  3. 185778-355

Bad news for home theater enthusiasts

Disney is ending all DVD and Blu Ray releases down under for Australia and New Zealand which may be a harbinger of what can eventually happen to the rest of the world. Their last release will be Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3. From now on it's streaming only for them.

It's a good read for those with a big investment in physical media as streaming still can't match the quality and the big players just don't care as there'll be one less product to make.

Are we going to see a run on blu ray players with prices going through the roof again like we did when OPPO decided to call it quits? My OPPO BDP-103 is old and the mid level Panasonic DP-UB820-K is starting to look a bit desirable right now. 

All the best,
Nonoise

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nonoise's avatar
nonoise OP
10,574 posts
 

All the best,
Nonoise

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,074 posts
 

@nonoise 

I am not surprised given declining sales of physical media. Anyone with a Disney channel subscription can see why Disney would likely discontinue producing physical discs. As far streaming quality, It comes down to your your subscription package. My Hulu subscription includes Disney channel, the new releases packs the identical stunning picture quality + Dolby Atmos audio as in 4K discs. I have not bought any of the Disney’s new releases over a year now. 

I don’t want physical discs to go away but I believe they are near their run. 

jasonbourne71's avatar
jasonbourne71
836 posts
 

There are still millions of DVD's available so that supply ain't gonna run out any time soon!

jasonbourne71's avatar
jasonbourne71
836 posts
 

I recently bought on eBay a nice Samsung HD841 DVD/CD/SACD for $26. Plenty of choices on the used market!

nonoise's avatar
nonoise OP
10,574 posts
 

@lalitk 

According to the article:

Quality: Although the quality of streaming video has improved over the years, it is still dependent on the viewer’s broadband speed. Unfortunately, not all consumers have access to or can afford the internet speed that will deliver the best possible quality. 

Using Disney+ as an example, an internet speed of 5.0 Mbps is the minimum required for HD content, while 25.0 Mbps is for viewing 4K UHD content. Other streaming services have similar requirements. 

Although standard definition DVD quality can be easily provided to most streaming viewers, physical 1080p Blu-ray supports transfer rates of up to 48 Mbps, and UHD Blu-ray supports transfer rates of up to 128 Mbps. The only streaming service that can support more than 40mbps is Sony Bravia Core which provides up to 80mbps. However, that is only available to owners of select Sony Bravia Smart TVs. Disney+ and Netflix are nowhere near that level yet. 

This means that streaming services have to use sophisticated compression techniques to try to deliver equivalent quality to their subscribers despite low transfer speeds. However, they don’t necessarily reach that goal.

So if they're going to take away the physical medium, they'd better up their game on the streaming end. I've always noticed the downgrading of video and audio quality through cable compared to disc playing. I'm stuck with Spectrum cable. 

All the best,
Nonoise

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