As Blu-ray manufacturers continue to drop like flies, it is hard to ignore the question of whether physical media is dead or not. LG is the latest company to announce that it will cease manufacturing players as it moves forward to stronger categories within the market. Taking another major name out of play and leaving few left to pick from as generic names fill in the space.
Of course, streamable content and the many sources from which users can obtain it, are the cause of this. Getting your hands on nearly anything you could ever want is just too easy, and you can do so using virtually any modern device. Whereas physical media requires you to have it on you at all times if you want to watch or listen to something.
Not only that, but for some, the price of streamable media is just too affordable or accessible. However, this is slowly changing as companies continue to hike their prices to the point that fewer users want to subscribe to multiple sources at the same time. But even then, it is still far more accessible and friendly for users.
But when it comes to quality, physical media is still hard to beat. Music has really come a long way, making it easier to find streamable solutions that come closer than ever to most physical formats. But this isn’t the case when it comes to video. Blu-rays still destroy all streaming solutions due to the amount of data you can squeeze onto a disk while minimizing (noticeable) compression as much as possible. Where streaming the content results in much higher compression rates that are easy to see with the human eye.
However, even though Blu-ray remains the king of quality, streaming content is still winning the majority vote due to how accessible/friendly it is. It also minimizes clutter so that you can dedicate that cabinet/closet space to other stuff.
So will physical media ever make a comeback? There is a chance of this happening, as companies are researching what the next generation of media will be. We still need physical media to store data on and all drive space (HDD, SSD, etc) comes with a limited lifespan. Most drives will last around 5-7 years on average, so we still need ways of storing the world’s data for a longer period of time to minimize loss. It just depends on if it will be affordable and accessible to the average consumer as well. If it is, then you can bet that physical media may stick around through a new format (as long as people buy it). But it does appear that current and older optical media is being phased out.
In the end, streaming technologies have the highest chance of squashing most consumer-friendly physical media opportunities if compression rates, transfer speeds (ie, ISP speeds), and decoding techniques can improve much further. If it becomes possible to stream 25-50GB of data for a single film without affecting the user or the source, and this can be done without hiccups or other issues in the connection or the device receiving it, streaming will win.
So there is a great chance that the days of owning the media you watch or listen to are indeed coming to an end. Mostly since streaming will always be in the favor of the companies as it costs much less to duplicate the content for everyone this way. There are no physical disks or other media that need to be manufactured and shipped everywhere. No artwork that needs to be mass-printed and inserted into sleeves or cases. No physical shelf space is needed across thousands of stores. It only costs them in bandwidth and the related needs of keeping their servers and services running.
In the meantime, if you were planning to swipe up an LG player, this is the time to do it before they are all gone. Amazon still has plenty of LG models in stock, as well as other retail sources. LG has only announced its exit this month, so you’ll still see it on the shelf until these numbers dwindle (including whatever LG still has left in its own surplus inventory).
Also, don’t forget that some of your favorite video game consoles support the playback of Blu-ray discs. Including the PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S (excluding the digital-only models) consoles.
1 Comment
Post entirely misses out how streaming companies censor media via removing episodes, cutting scenes, and dialogue censorship itself.
You can’t transfer or sell your digital rentals.
The post also says things are widely available, when there is an endless amount of media that is simply not available to find because of licensing agreements, and a major portion of that is bound to region.
Quality is dramatically different.
Convenience aside, and consumers, myself including, are lazy, there is little pros to the massive cons that streaming offers.