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

128x128nonoise

What bugs me is that many years ago I read a post on an online blog from a tech who used to work for a cable TV service. He said that the cable boxes we using then were throttled down versions of the ones they use in Japan and barely operate at half the speeds they're made for. It was intentional from the get go. 

There was some mention of having to build up the infrastructure and they're just too cheap to do so, scrubbing every penny they can, so they take their time doing so. We could have been up and running at speeds that would eclipse the needs of the medium a long time ago but again, profits got in the way. Rant over.

All the best,
Nonoise

@nonoise 

I hear you! I am rolling with the times and feel fortunate to afford and enjoy latest tech while my faculties are still intact. In 15-20 years, none of this will matter unless the new tech comes aboard with audio/video tone controls 🤣

@lalitk 

Hopefully by then they'll have perfected it without cost being a consideration, or at least factored in. 👍

Netflix ends their DVD.com disc service this September as well.
For me the Blu-Ray discs sound and picture quality just seems much better than streaming.  Gonna miss Blu-Ray discs.