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 is this where you say there are so many boxes involved in cable and that is why it worse quality again?

 

And you are still wrong, the absolute best home cinema quality is achieved with streaming, Kaleidescape, way higher bandwidth than a 4K UHD Blu-ray. 

I’m going to start stocking up on VHS myself - my analog retirement plan. See cassettes. 

@fredrik222 can't be more correct. Kaleidescape is the only way to go when watching movies. 10x streaming's bandwidth. You haven't heard your sound system until you have tried one as your source. Picture is pristine. Both better than Blu Ray. Find your local dealer - they have a demo that they can drop off at your home for you to try out for a couple of days.

I am one of the luddites who still rents DVDs and Bluerays.  One thing few people talk about is depth of catalog.  Netflix DVD rental offers something like 100,000 titles, including many indie and foreign films, as well as music performance videos.  The Netflix streaming catalog is probably less than half the size of the disc rental catalog.  Sure DVD res and audio stink compared to BD and even streaming, but that doesn't matter if DVD is the only format a given film is offered in.  I had about 1000 films on two Netflix rental ques when they announced they were pulling the plug.  Dozens of great films and musical performances that aren't available on streaming will be lost to me forever, unless I want to purchase them, assuming they are even available in disc form.  It's really a shame.  If Netflix would duplicate their disc catalog for streaming, I would pay up for it.  Perhaps a multi-tiered subscription plan, like some other streaming services offer, could offer more indie and foreign releases.  Are you listening, Netflix?  

"Streaming" is a generic term with a lot of variables. That said, file transfer over the internet will be able to exceed the quality of physical media. Same thing with CDs, People think streaming music is not as good as physical media when the "better than CD quality" is already out there in the form of hi-res audio files. Will be the same for video. The only limitations will be what the provider offers, but the technology and infrastructure is already there and capable.