So, I thought to myself, “Why not scope out a new 4K Blu-ray player?” My browsing quickly led me to the damning reality – no one makes them any more.
Well, no one might be a bit dramatic. Panasonic seems to be working overtime to keep the market afloat, and Sony seems to be offering some backup in the form of a couple of models, but that’s about it for the mainstream brands.
There are enthusiast brands, such as Magnetar, with its awesome reference 4K players that also happen to cost between £1700 and £3100 – so they will remain a pipe dream for now. Most of the manufacturers known for producing 4K Blu-ray players, such as Oppo, Pioneer, Samsung and LG, have all packed up production and stopped selling 4K players. Another sign of the streaming times?
Well, it doesn’t seem entirely so. 4K Blu-ray discs have seen record sales figures as of late. This jump, reported by Media Play News, was mostly due to the success of Top Gun: Maverick, which created a surge of interest in 4K Blu-ray back in November 2022.
But whether it’s new releases or 4K re-releases of classic movies, there’s an abundance of new films coming to 4K Blu-ray, so where are the players that we need to, you know, play the discs?
HD-DVD gets its revenge in the end!
It was almost inevitable. And, let’s be honest, DVDs still sell well because sometimes people want to own a version of a film without paying out much money.
Next the comeback of Betamax.
I sometimes wish HD-DVD had won because there was no region coding in the specification.