Is blue ray going out of date?

[v]

I think people generally stream things these days?

[ruthie7532]

The new 4k technology is supposed to be a lot better than the HD of Blu-ray, but I don't know if movies are actually going to be shot in 4k any time soon, or whether it will require a different player. It does require a 4k TV. Maybe that's what he was talking about?

ETA: I just found an article that says a few things are actually available in 4k, and soon some shows will be broadcast in 4k, but this stuff is mostly streamed, and a few broadcast shows in other countries. Apparently there is no new player on the horizon, though certain blue ray discs are mastered from 4k film to try to mimic the look. But these work on regular blue ray players, and you'd only see a difference if you had a 4k TV.

[Deleted]

You can get a great Sony blu Ray for about $100 that has all the major streaming services built in, so go for that. You'll be set for the foreseeable future.

[tacosforlife]

Jun 30, 2015 20:30:24 GMT -5 v said:

I think people generally stream things these days?

Yes. Physical media is dying (with the exception of the vinyl resurgence among a particular crowd of enthusiasts). Streaming is the future.

[M]

We gave away our blu ray player before we moved. That thing was $400 when it first came out but H had to have the newest thing.

I think I saw something similar for $40 not too long ago so if you want one, you're really not wasting much money.

[v]

Jun 30, 2015 21:49:59 GMT -5 @domerjen said:

Jun 30, 2015 21:45:41 GMT -5 tacosforlife said:

Yes. Physical media is dying (with the exception of the vinyl resurgence among a particular crowd of enthusiasts). Streaming is the future.

We get a lot of stuff from the library that you can't stream free online, like disney.  We do stream netflix and amazon instant video through our TV already, too.

Well, I think it's only a matter of time until libraries start streaming that stuff...  

If you want a player to tide you over, I'd buy a cheap Blu Ray player.  I doubt it will be worthwhile to invest in whatever the next technology is, particularly if a kid is the audience.  Disney will look great on Blu Ray.

Or figure out how to hook up your computer to the TV and play from your CD player, if that's feasible?

[Deleted]

Constantly hooking the computer up to the TV or having it at the ready to stream is kind of annoying, which is why I am such a supporter of the $99 blu Ray that plays discs and streams.

Physical media may be dying but we have a few dozen great DVDs which we arent tossing any time soon.

[tacosforlife]

Jul 1, 2015 6:52:14 GMT -5 @shoegal said:

Constantly hooking the computer up to the TV or having it at the ready to stream is kind of annoying, which is why I am such a supporter of the $99 blu Ray that plays discs and streams.

Physical media may be dying but we have a few dozen great DVDs which we arent tossing any time soon.

This is probably the right call. Definitely not worth spending more on fancier physical media technology.

[womet]

Jun 30, 2015 20:42:42 GMT -5 @shoegal said:

You can get a great Sony blu Ray for about $100 that has all the major streaming services built in, so go for that. You'll be set for the foreseeable future.

We just had to replace our Samsung blu ray player and got this. We are kicking oursevles for waiting so long. It's a great player. I think it was $88 on Amazon Prime.

[irene adler]

Jul 1, 2015 6:23:42 GMT -5 v said:

quote]Well, I think it's only a matter of time until libraries start streaming that stuff...  

[

The future is now! My library already streams a lot of movies

[Susie]

I agree with all the advocates of picking up a <$100 BluRay player. Useful for your needs now; not a big investment/commitment for the future.

[Norticprincess]

We just use the Xbox or play station. We don't have a standalone player

[niq]

There won't be 4k discs any time soon.

We still have our Blu-Ray Netflix subscription because the streaming movie selection is crap. And for technical reasons the video quality will always be better on physical media.

BUT, the industry is slowly moving away from physical media. Fox announced their not going to put me sessions The Simpsons on Blu-Ray because you can just pay them $7/month for unlimited streaming access. Which, ugh.

Note that the PS3, PS4, and Xbox One all have built in Blu-Ray players.

[karinothing]

Disney will never give up physical media. What would they do with the vault. Disney videos are expensive to stream

[frenchies]

We had a problem with a Blu-Ray movie we bought recently---maybe the most recent X-Men?--where our Blu-Ray player was "too old" for the most updated technology on the disc. We thought we had bought a bad copy but I checked Amazon and a ton of people were saying their players were not able to play the disc. Our old one was a wedding present back in 2011, so we bought a new player and have not had any problems since.

So even though Blu-Ray is still the most up-to-date form of physical media... it's getting upgraded in some way that could render your older player obsolete (or in our case, relegated to the bedroom where we don't watch movies that often.)