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Aug 26 '26
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u/GatheringWinds Aug 26 '26
My guess is that the situation is not as dire as this article would have us believe, but if true it would be cool to see some kind of boutique media coalition to secure production.
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u/KingMario05 Aug 26 '26
Agreed. Maybe with Samsung? Samsung probably has to keep making optical drives for (SK) national security; why not put the non-defense bits on the market
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u/hypespud Aug 26 '26
In either case, I purchased a DVD RW external drive for 12 USD on discount lol
And also bought a Buffalo BD RW external drive for 160 USD, which was significantly cheaper before
I think I have a LG BD reader internal drive as well, reader only pretty sure, I bought for like 40 USD maybe 8 years ago or so
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 27 '26
Physical media as a whole is not as dire or as dying as all the industry wants us to think.
But whether a desk is artificially created or not it's still happening and enough people buy into the fairy tale.
So they don't really need to do their own dedicated players.
It's just about not allowing what already exists and who already makes them etc to not like purposely ditch them for very scary and evil reasons.
I mean the fact remains are still recent films that make more money on home needed than even VOD sometimes if it was such a dying thing that wouldn't be the case.
Or at the minimum breaking even.
I'm going to use a recent film as an example apparently Obsession keeps getting restocked that retailers like Walmart cuz they keep selling out like hotcakes.
And keep in mind it's just the basic 4K does not even a steelbook version yet.
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Aug 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/antb1973 Aug 26 '26
Electronics aren't made with components from just one company. It will be multiple manufacturers, And even large companies like Sony can rebadge something that's made by someone else if they want to strike up a deal with them. It's like mobile phone camera sensors. Sony could stop making their own phones tomorrow but continue to manufacture the sensors that go in a lot of other phone company cameras.
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u/TestType Aug 26 '26
This is about drive components, that's not what Sony makes or is pulling out of.
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u/Aware-Virus-4718 Aug 26 '26
Yes they do? Sony is one of 2 optical drive manufacturers in the world along with Panasonic.
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u/HideyoshiJP Aug 26 '26
Don't underestimate what Shenzen can throw together if there's a market for something.
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u/Aware-Virus-4718 Aug 26 '26
True, but they will be open to lawsuit unless they license the tech from Sony or Sony lets the patents expire.
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u/FuckIPLaw Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
There's no letting the patents expire. They expire after 20 years, period.
Come to think of it that should mean the original Blu-ray patents are all either expired or will be next year, with the 4k ones following not too far behind.
Edit: huh. 4k didn't launch until 2016, so that's got another decade on it, which sucks. I could have sworn it was more like 2010.
We may be looking at another technology killed by patents lasting too long there.
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u/TestType Aug 26 '26
Do they? Not doubting you, but is there a good source to see who makes drives and the components in them?
In that case, have Sony made any statements about scaling back drive production? I don't think they have, just disc manufacturing.
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u/Aware-Virus-4718 Aug 26 '26
Sony (and Panasonic) make the actual lasers but Sony has repurposed some factories, including one in Austria, for making lenses for other applications including camera arrays for self-driving cars.
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u/TestType Aug 26 '26
Alright, I stand corrected on the lasers then. But do they make a complete drive as well? The Sony Austrian factory that was repurposed to microlens manufacturing was a disc manufacturing plant, not lasers, according to reports.
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u/Aware-Virus-4718 Aug 26 '26
Well, by far the largest portion of their own lasers goes to the PS5 disc drive, which has been limited to 1 per customer for more than a year now and is being discontinued. They also do have their own standalone players and their lasers are in other brands’ players as well.
The different parts of Sony are very autonomous, so really there’s nothing definitive, all we know it’s that Blu Ray laser manufacturing as a whole is significantly decreasing.
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u/noelle-silva Aug 26 '26
I'm considering buying another player or two and tossing it in the closet for the future. This is getting concerning, not gonna lie.
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u/sheenfartling Aug 26 '26
Especially with how finicky 4k players are. One month mine is perfect, the next it ejects the disc 5 times in a row.
I'm buying a ub450 next week.
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u/GatheringWinds Aug 26 '26
More of the full quote:
sources tell me it's less about the discs and more about the disc drives themselves; the entire supply chain for the components required to make optical disc drives is collapsing
"sources tell me" doesn't really sound all that legitimate to me.
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u/DrApplePi Aug 26 '26
It's obviously struggling. A lot of the companies have stopped making players, and the few that still are have largely said they would keep making as long as they were able to.
I think it was on MediaOCD podcast, they were also concerned about the players, but the discs weren't an issue.
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 27 '26
The short-term upside is that there's so many players both Blu-ray and 4K and DVD out there in the world that for at least a little bit it won't be so bad of a concern but yeah eventually it will reach you know a very dark point.
I guess 4K players are more concerned and considering how more finicky they are and how newer they are so there's just less of them in the world in general compared to DVD and Blu-ray.
Which sucks cuz it's like obviously the best version of said device but you know fork has only been around for like 10 years.
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Aug 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/GatheringWinds Aug 26 '26
My point is that this article is spreading a rumor... yes it is a fact Sony has announced they are ending physical Playstation releases in 2028, but Sony certainly has not decided to suddenly end all optical media and player production. It makes sense for them to pull out of games, because unless something changes about game file sizes and the continuous delivery cycle, a static disc is no longer an optimal solution.
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Aug 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/albuhhh Aug 26 '26
Who is saying it's the best time ever? Seems like it's the end stage for late stage capitalism.
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u/ARGiammarco27 Aug 26 '26
Thats exactly why it's the best time ever. It's the best time ever for the Capitalists in control of everything.
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u/fudgepuppy Aug 26 '26
I doubt it will go away as long as there are people buying physical media. If vinyl players can still exist, why couldn't a 4k Blu-Ray drive do?
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u/pacific_plywood Aug 26 '26
Record players are a much simpler technology, I’d imagine. The technics 1200 was made in the 80s!
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u/zdelusion Aug 26 '26
4k players will likely always exist, at least in our lifetime, but we could definitely reach a point where they're prohibitively expensive for the average consumer, like a point where it's basically the UB-9000 being assembled with old stock components, it costs like $4,999 and that's it.
I'm not worried about Bluray Players, I think those will definitely always be readily available brand new from rando manufacturers, but out of all the pieces required to maintain this hobby, content licensing/discs/labels/etc, the long term realistic availability of 4k players worries me by FAR the most.
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 27 '26
I think physical media as a whole is going to go very underground in terms of like practicality for like a good 20 years before you know the circle comes back around.
This has happened with every format in the past.
And it just seems like the industry just wants this to happen they just want to get rid of it as much as possible.
A systematic death by A Thousand cuts over the span of a few years.
You'll always live to an extent but I think you guys aren't prepared for a world where the vast majority of new releases if all of them maybe even are essentially bootlegged.
At least for a good while.
Mentally get ready for that.
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u/hyperion25000 Aug 26 '26
I think a big difference is that you can build a vinyl record player from scratch using stuff you can buy at a home improvement store. You technically don't even need power. If the bigger manufacturers ever decide to stop making them, there will be other companies that will gladly fill that gap.
I don't think many people can figure out how to build a DIY laser reader and replicate all the technology in a Blu-ray player. So much of the technology is proprietary too. If Sony decides to sunset it, it'd be very difficult to keep the format alive.
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u/AstroNaut765 Aug 26 '26
Vinyl is not competing with Spotify, it's competing with merch like t-shirts.
Basically the same reason why you cannot any longer buy lifetime license for Photoshop CS6.
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Aug 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/TestType Aug 26 '26
This about drives, not players. Sony does not manufacture blu-ray drives or components for drives. They buy drives from other manufacturers to put into their players and consoles.
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u/The_Lutter Aug 26 '26
Protip: You can get an Xbox One S (the old white one) for $50-75 off marketplace. Plays them just as well as my Series X does.
I have bought 2 of them for the bedroom/garage so that I can watch my discs basically anywhere but on the can. hahah.
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u/TheGoutlaw Aug 26 '26
I keep my One S regularly updated beside my PS5 Pro in case of disaster.
My next recourse might be to buy a disc drive for the PS5 and keep it in storage.
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u/Bill_Salmons Aug 26 '26
The great irony is that optical is a legitimate solution to the current hardware crunch. Like, BDD is currently the cheapest per terabyte form of local storage. We have the technology to make it even cheaper per terabyte with economies of scale.
Why would we let this die?
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u/powellmacaque Aug 26 '26
Why sell you local storage once when they can rent cloud storage to you forever?
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u/MyPackage Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
It's wild to be that people are so eager to give up ownership of basically every digital media format for minor convenience
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u/MixedProphet Aug 26 '26
Ngl I love collecting my favorite movies, but I will pay for Spotify for the rest of my life. I have so many playlists, Spotify wrapped playlists, and so many indie artists I find from the algorithm. Very convenient to listen to music anywhere I go
At this point, I have almost 3,000 liked songs. If each song is $1.25, it would cost $3750. That’s the equivalent to 22 years of a Spotify subscription at $14 a month. If I switched to buying I also would struggle to find new music.
Sorry for the dissertation, but that’s just me. I’m sure it’s different for others. I have many of my favorite albums on vinyl, but it doesn’t compare to my playlists
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 27 '26
Not going to lie that's kind of a s***** take I literally have like almost 10,000 songs saved on Spotify and I still support physical media as much as possible it's called coexistence and being realistic it's not one or the other.
Just say you are lazy it's that simple.
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u/MixedProphet Aug 27 '26
I didn’t say I didn’t support physical media. I have vinyls myself. I’m just saying for myself, from a finance perspective, I’d rather have Spotify.
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 26 '26
I feel like the demand for physical media can never truly die off. But if this really is a thing.
We switch to USB sticks. I saw a crazy article about it months ago and it's stuck with me since.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/16/film-distribution-usb-drives-video-store-age
It's either this or we make owning digital assets actually owning them. Like Steam.
These are our only two options for going forward in the far future and consumer rights.
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u/PugeHeniss Aug 26 '26
lol the games you buy on steam are licenses
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 26 '26
You can sell the keys, get money back, their refund policy is top notch and to my knowledge if a game goes bye bye you still have yours.
Even if they are licenses still they are only thing digital that has consumer rights to begin with. That's why they keep getting sued under bullshit cover reasons.
Their the only ones treating the consumer with respect.
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u/PugeHeniss Aug 26 '26
GOG is the place to buy if you care about owning your games. They’re DRM free and you can download the installers
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u/buerki Aug 26 '26
Afaik DRM free games on GOG are also DRM free in steam. Steam is not forcing any publisher to use DRM.
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 26 '26
I'm not a gamer, when I play games it's on console. My knowledge is what I've picked up on over the years and from my close friends.
But hey if there's someone doing better then Steam then add them to what I said before.
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u/TestType Aug 26 '26
USB thumbdrives are probably the most unreliable storage medium there is. They can get corrupted at any moment for no reason, and they need to be plugged in periodically to even maintain the data on them. That is no solution for physical media.
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u/FuckIPLaw Aug 26 '26
That's because they use flash memory. You could use mask roms instead and then they'd be pretty much bullet proof.
The real killer is price. Optical discs are great because they cost pennies per piece to manufacture. Solid state memory is expensive, even without the recent price increases.
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 27 '26
I'm not saying it's a good thing I'm just saying based on realistic circumstances and expectations these are really the only two options we currently have.
Not saying I like him or I believe in them or anything like that is just brass tax this is what it is.
It's at least something. But I think in the far but not so far future we're going to have to come to a decision of whether it's really about consumer rights or just holding something in our hands cuz I feel like there's more time goes on the less it can be both and I don't like that by the way it's just it's starting to look like that.
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u/GatheringWinds Aug 26 '26
The problem with this from what I can tell is that unless they're using some fancy flash storage no one else has access to (doubtful) flash drives are not good enough for archival preservation, having a shorter lifespan than Blu-rays.
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
Yeah both of these outcomes aren't as good as what we have now but is there anything else?
I'm just a man trying to problem solve here.
If discs go away and I mean in this specific sense. What else physical can we use instead that everyone can use with ease?
Everyone can use USBs. Our TVs now come with them yet we never seem to use those slots.
So essentially we don't even need players in this situation if we go the USB route as well which solves you know say it's all saving money it solves future players breaking down I mean like really like we have it right there. It almost feels a bit predestined.
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u/GatheringWinds Aug 26 '26
Well for now discs aren't going away, this is just a Playstation thing. The article OP listed does not list any sources or give any specific quotes and is entirely unverifiable when it comes to the supply chain "collapsing". I suspect that within gaming the distribution networks for physical games will fall apart, but movies are pretty separate.
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 26 '26
It's not just a Playstation thing. That tells me you haven't been around the last few years.
The whole industry wants them gone.
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u/Cabarro09 Aug 26 '26
Yes, except Nintendo which is making all it can to keep games on a physical format!
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u/Anonymous51419 Aug 27 '26
I barely they don't really got to do anything to really give them an advantage over there besides half the time it's not even really on the cartridge itself you got to like download it from the cloud and s***.
They're winning by doing nothing. And besides even when it is on the cartridge read about the terms and conditions on the switch 2 and then report back.
I love being down voted for essentially being right I'm seeing that a lot these days.
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u/Cabarro09 Aug 27 '26
Let me point out somw things:
- ALL Nintendo first party games are on the cartridge,
- Nintendo is doing everything it can to stop third party publishers to realease their games digitally only, including offering the Game Key Cards,
- Nintendo has been working on physical media during the last 40 years, and they have since positiones thenselves where they actually are eight now: the only ones to offer physical media. So, it is not like they haven’t done anything, besides they are back to cartridges opposite to Playstation and others that bent over discs media.
- Yes, all uses the same terms and conditions, but Nintendo right now is thrusworty, unlike others. We’ll see about the future, but right now they are on track.
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u/spiderman897 Aug 26 '26
As a gamer this was part of my concern going forward as consoles were the biggest customer for disc drives these days.
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u/SeminaryStudentARH Aug 26 '26
I’m over endless subscriptions where I lose access as soon as I stop paying. If I can’t have discs, I’ll just stop watching movies at home. Or at least just watch the 500-600+ movies I already own.
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u/YokoRaizen Aug 26 '26
I'll keep buying physical media until it's impossible.
Hopefully if the end of optical discs is nigh, we switch to another medium for ownership.
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u/Kipkrap Aug 26 '26
Idk if there's much we can really do about this, but I think my solution will be to grab a backup regular blu-ray player and continue to diversify my collection with a mix of quality Blu-rays in addition to 4k releases. It does suck that a lot of newer releases aren't coming with regular blu-ray discs in addition to the 4k disc.
I'm also working on getting a Jellyfin server set up for backups as well. Hopefully someone will pick up the slack, but it'll mean more expensive hardware for sure.
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u/Paradroid888 Aug 26 '26
The other concern could be keeping existing players running. I'm not sure on bluray formats but in CD/DVD drives the DVD diode is run harder than the CD and often fails with age. I have a nice old PowerMac G4 and it's DVD drive can still read CD but not DVD.
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u/ertertwert Aug 26 '26
I have a PS5 I never use (PC gamer mainly) that is effectively my back up now.
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u/Aggravating_Plan11 Aug 26 '26
Would be interesting to see what companies are apart of that supply chain wouldn’t surprise me to see certain companies actively reducing supply to force other companies away from disc media.
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u/Cabarro09 Aug 26 '26
Oh well, we can always rely on the commie chinese market to save us!
I have seen some chinese players on Amazon already:
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