Best Buy Says Bye-Bye to DVDs
Best Buy announced recently they will stop selling DVDs/Blu-Rays in early 2024, so let's all give a big ho-hum. That will be my predicted response of the majority of people, and it's one they may regret down the line. Yeah, physical discs take up storage space and require another component to play them, but once you own one, it's yours to keep or do with as you wish. And I have yet to hear a streamed version of a movie that sounds as good as an actual disc. It's possible there could be a few exceptions to that statement, but I've never encountered one. I would assume that Best Buy will also stop carrying the players at some point, so any hard-core diehards may want to think about purchasing a spare before year's end.
Better get a hold of a high fidelity bluray player before they all get discontinued. Sony's Playstation 5 was the single biggest disruptor of the market for bluray player manufacturers. Bluray audio (when an artist chooses to also offer his album in this format) continues to be the highest fidelity audio format a hifi enthusiast can get a hold of... |
I don't have huge BluRay library, but I do keep my eyes out for classic movies and movies I prefer to watch more than once or twice. I also think that with some movies the disk is better, especially with movies that contain a lot of dark scenes. Movies like Gravity, Dune, Avatar or Notorious for example. Kind of like people switching to streaming music instead of vinyl. The quality might not be as good, but it is less money and less work.
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I like Blu-Ray's, DVD are out dated by a good margin though. I still find a Blu-ray is better over all then the same movie streamed. And you can get the additions a disk gives you like the out takes and the making of etc. But i can understand why they are cutting them out. to me though its not a cost thing its a movie industry thing and the poorly written and poorly made movies that seem to flood our market of late nothing worth buying IMO. |
We still buy and play BluRay discs regularly, and bought a new player not too long ago. Streaming is great and can handle better quality than discs given the service and bandwidth are available to do so, so yes some may feel physical media is dead, but it's not. After owning all kinds of discs for decades, some are actually degrading and starting to have playback issues, so definitely not a solution for a permanent archive as I thought they would be. I will replace certain ones, but seems eventually the physical media will all fail given enough time. |
I am with @ghdprentice on this…I have not spun a blu-ray movie for a very long time. The two OPPO’s in my home are turned off. The streaming content with right equipment is just as good as 4K Blu-rays, especially new releases. My Sony 77" BRAVIA XR A80L OLED 4K monitor + Apple 4K TV with full surround system provides a stunning audio/visual experience. I get the sentiment of owning a physical disc but please don’t tell me that streaming quality is not as good as 4K blu-ray. Just check out new releases on Amazon, Disney and Netflix. |
Other than the staunchest videophiles, who spins DVDs anymore? I don’t think I’ve touched one in 10 years or so. I get it — in many cases they may well sound/look better, but most people don’t care and are perfectly fine with streamed video. Yes, if I’ve sunk $10k+ in my home theater I’d spring for a DVD, but there just aren’t enough people out there to support that market when streaming video is perfectly fine for at least 95% of the population. It’s a totally understandable business decision, especially from a brick-n-mortar store perspective where each square foot of store space matters and needs to generate a profitable return that DVDs just can’t do anymore. Hopefully they’ll continue to be available through online merchants for some time to come, but as with audio and CDs it’s likely just a matter of time before increased bandwidth and technology will make spinning DVDs largely unnecessary. The times they are a changin’. |
It is very predictable yes. But the sound quality you get from a DVD or Blue Ray vs streaming is just like the comparison between CD and analog and streaming. It depends on your equipment. Careful choice of equipment and streaming sounds as good as Blue Ray and over time I suspect better. Just like audio streaming. |
Their decision is purely business. They are not selling and take up space. The only way Best Buy can keep selling them would be to raise the price. I doubt the market would bear that. The whole Best Buy concept might be on its way out. People usually go to Best Buy to listen to a piece of hardware and if they like what they hear they go online and buy it for less. Sad but true. |
