Blu-ray turned 20 this year, and although streaming is now the way most people watch films, physical media is dead is far from dead. Collectors are still buying Blu-rays for their new restorations, special features or limited-edition packages — and younger audiences are discovering the value of owning their films rather than dealing with your favorites disappearing on your all the time.
History lesson
Blu-ray replaced DVD in the mid-2000s. Named after the blue-violet laser it uses to read data, it offered high-definition video and much greater storage capacity. In 2016, Ultra HD Blu-ray was introduced, which added 4K resolution and HDR.
Throughout this article, when industry experts refer to “Blu-ray”, they’re generally talking about that latest version, Ultra HD Blu-ray, as it’s still considered the highest-quality consumer format for watching films at home.
So if people still want to watch movies on discs at home, is there a Blu-ray successor on the horizon to offer something new?
Every major home video format before it has eventually been replaced. VHS gave way to DVD, then DVD gave way to Blu-ray. As someone who appreciates the quality of Blu-ray films but isn’t an expert in the technology behind them, I assumed there would be a straightforward plan for something to come supplant them. Maybe an 8K Blu-ray? Maybe another physical format I’ve never heard of because home cinema is an interest of mine rather than my specialism?
Latest Videos FromTechRadar
But after speaking to analysts, hardware manufacturers and the organization behind Blu-ray itself, I discovered that most of them don’t think another disc is coming. In fact, there’s no obvious “next format” about to be unveiled, and I wanted to find out why.
Why Blu-ray still has loyal fans
To understand why the future of Blu-ray is such an interesting topic, it’s worth first getting to grips with why people still buy it. And the top reason came up in every conversation I had: ownership.
“Ownership matters more now than it did in 2005. When you buy a disc, you own that film. It’s yours, permanently, in its best possible form, sitting on your shelf whenever you want it,” says Victor Matsuda, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association, the group behind the development of Blu-ray.
He tells me that people are switching on to the fact that most of what we “buy” digitally today is really a license that can change or disappear. His comments come shortly after Sony removed over 500 purchased movies from people’s accounts without compensation, and right at the same time as Disney+ was forced to remove 4K and HDR support in many countries.
“We frequently hear complaints about people losing access to content they thought they’d purchased, and there have even been lawsuits brought on exactly this issue,” Matsuda says. “A disc doesn’t have that problem. Nobody can reach into your home and take it back.”
I’ve spoken to many physical media collectors over the years, and ownership is almost always the first thing they mention. But the second reason is quality. Ultra HD Blu-ray is still widely considered to be the best technology for watching films at home.
“20 years ago, Blu-ray set the standard for what a movie should look and sound like in the home, and it’s a standard both consumers and the industry recognized,” Matsuda tells me. “Ultra HD Blu-ray remains unsurpassed as the best overall experience for consumers.”
He explains that this has been the case even as streaming services have rolled out 4K and HDR. “The respective Blu-ray formats became the benchmark they chased, and in my opinion they still haven’t caught it. Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray remain the reference,” Matsuda says. “A stream can approximate it, but the disc carries the full, uncompressed picture and sound with nothing thrown away to fit a data cap.”
Olivier Semenoux, Europe head of GTM and Product Management at TCL Electronics, explains that much of that comes down to bitrate. “Blu-ray can be coded up to 128Mbps because that’s the disc’s technical limit,” he explains. “Streaming is a different story, most popular platforms cap out natively around 25Mbps, with some going up to 40 or 80Mbps.”
Unfortunately, the latter is very rare — when it comes to the big streamers, 16 to 18Mbps is the maximum you can expect.
This means that Ultra HD Blu-rays carry significantly more data per frame than a typical stream, meaning less compression and what you see at home is more of the original picture and sound being preserved. It’s one of the reasons discs continue to set the standard for anyone who really loves home theater.
Variations of the same argument came up repeatedly in conversations with manufacturers too. I spoke with Rob Jones, President of Magnetar, a manufacturer of high-end 4K UHD Blu-ray and universal disc players. “When consumers invest in physical media, they get ownership, content preservation, and quality control,” he says. “While streaming is incredibly convenient, it cannot match physical media when it comes to that combination.” Jones says that’s what continues to drive Magnetar’s investment and development in this space.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean streaming and Blu-ray are in competition. One of the more surprising things I heard was that several companies see them as complementary rather than competing technologies.
“We see many customers choosing both formats,” Kenichi Ikenoue, Head of Strategic Planning at Panasonic Consumer Europe, tells me. “They enjoy the convenience of streaming for everyday viewing while turning to physical media when they want the highest picture and sound quality or want to own their favorite films.”
Why 8K isn’t the answer
If Blu-ray still has loyal fans, isn’t the next step an 8K successor? That’s what I expected to find, as someone who isn’t deep on movie production. Instead, almost every expert I spoke to questioned whether there was any need for a successor at all.
“Honestly, I don’t think so, at least not right now,” says Victor Matsuda. “From a BDA [Blu-ray Disc Association] perspective, we don’t see anything from content creators or consumers to indicate a need for a new format. They’re both extremely satisfied.”
There are signs elsewhere that the industry isn’t preparing for another optical disc format either. In 2025, Sony announced that it was ending the production of recordable Blu-ray discs, MiniDiscs and MiniDV cassettes, saying that there would be “no successor models”. Now, while that decision applies to blank recording discs rather than pre-recorded movie discs, it seems to reflect a broader shift away from consumer physical media formats.
One obvious reason for a new format would be 8K support, which is a format that would theoretically offer four times the resolution of today’s 4K discs. But that wasn’t what the experts I spoke to had in mind.
“The resolution race is interesting, but I don’t see 8K finding a place with consumers anytime soon,” Matsuda says. “The content community, meaning the Hollywood studios, produces its content in 4K and has stated their intent to continue doing so. Additionally, a number of manufacturers have dropped 8K from their lineups.”
Jones agreed that 8K isn’t ready for the mainstream, but says the challenge goes beyond content. It’s also about the wider home theater ecosystem. “8K is a distraction until it’s mainstream and the ecosystem simply does not justify it,” he says.
He points out that an 8K player wouldn’t just require 8K discs, but would also depend on compatible TVs, projectors, AV receivers and processors. “In order to sit down and experience 8K content, a viewer’s entire home entertainment chain needs to support 8K,” he says. “A consumer would need to replace every single link in their entertainment chain with a component capable of supporting 8K, which is impractical at best.”
And it seems as if lack of demand isn’t the only reason experts are sceptical. Some argue we’ve reached the point where higher resolutions matter much less than other improvements we can make to picture quality. “HDR and wide colour gamut make a far bigger difference to perceived picture quality than resolution does,” Semenoux tells me.
Which means the challenge facing an 8K Blu-ray isn’t just about a lack of content or compatible hardware; it’s that the improvement itself may not feel significant enough to justify an entirely new format.
That’s exactly how Mark Vena, CEO and Principal Analyst at SmartTech Research, sees it. “Frankly, an 8K Blu-ray would be a technical feat in search of a commercial problem to solve,” he says. “There’s still little native 8K content, 8K TV adoption is modest and streaming platforms will almost certainly meet mainstream demand before another optical format ever reaches critical mass.”
In other words, it’s not as if we’re all sitting around waiting for a new format to happen, it’s more that it doesn’t really have a reason to exist.
What creates a new format?
Vena’s point made me realize I’d been thinking about this the wrong way. Every major home video format solved an obvious problem. DVD improved on VHS by offering non-degrading video and the capacity for extra features. Blu-ray improved on DVD with the space for higher-quality video. And now we have Ultra HD Blu-ray, which improved on Blu-ray’s quality further.
Crucially, each of those steps solved a real technical problem. But right now, there isn’t a real problem that a successor to Ultra HD Blu-ray could actually solve.
Matsuda explained this to me using a framework from his time as a product planner that he calls “needs” and “seeds”. A “need” is a problem consumers or the industry want solving. A “seed” is a new technology that has the potential to create that demand in the future.
“I don’t see a compelling driver for a new format at the moment,” Matsuda says. “I think it’s unlikely that a new format would arise out of consumer demand as there doesn’t appear to be an expressed need. Similarly, Ultra HD Blu-ray continues to deliver content that takes full advantage of display technologies so I don’t see a need arising from the industry side.”
Matsuda says that could change. “From a seed standpoint, companies may have some technologies in development that could plant those seeds,” he explains. “But in my view, if a driving factor ever prompts a new physical format, it will most likely be the emergence of content the internet infrastructure simply can’t deliver at scale without compromising quality. As long as streaming can handle what people want to watch, I don’t see any real pressure for a new disc.”
So a technological breakthrough on its own wouldn’t be enough, a new format would also need the entire industry to then build around it.
Panasonic’s Ikenoue makes the same point from a more commercial perspective. “A successor format would also depend on significant investment from film studios and content providers. New hardware alone would not be enough. The content ecosystem would also need to support a new format. For the moment it is difficult to see the requirement for a successor.”
A successor wouldn’t just need a better disc, there’d have to be a need to even build that better disc in the first place. Only then would studios create the content, manufacturers would build the players, TV makers would support it and consumers would decide if it was worth upgrading. But right now none of the experts could identify a good enough reason.
What if the successor isn’t a disc at all?
That doesn’t necessarily mean Blu-ray is the end of the story. Optical storage technology is still evolving. Companies are developing discs capable of storing far more data than today’s Blu-rays, but the key thing is that they’re aimed at archiving data on an enterprise scale rather than at home entertainment. Which means they aren’t about to become the next movie format that you’ll buy.
Instead, several people I spoke with pointed towards a future where the successor to Blu-ray isn’t about discs. “If Blu-ray has a successor, it may not be something you can hold in your hand,” says Mark Vena. Rather than another physical format, he believes the future lies in premium digital delivery through high-quality, studio-certified, lossless downloads stored locally on home servers or network-attached storage.
“This is why the real successor to Blu-ray, for most consumers, is not another disc at all,” he says. “It’s the combination of ultra high bitrate streaming, cloud libraries and AI-powered video optimization that’s closing the quality gap.”
So maybe the future isn’t about replacing Blu-ray with another physical format but instead preserving the quality of audio and visuals that enthusiasts value about Blu-ray without even needing a disc in the first place.
One possible future is already beginning to emerge. Kaleidescape, a company specializing in premium digital movie delivery, offers downloads with bitrates to match what Blu-ray is capable of, preserving much more picture and audio quality than traditional streaming services while still providing the convenience of instant access.
Kaleidescape even recently launched a new ‘Cinematic 4K’ format for movies, which it says will offer even higher-quality bitrates for video, promising over 100Mbps of average bitrate (not maximum), which it compared to 60Mbps of average bitrate for 4K Blu-ray in its own marketing materials.
“In 10 years, the highest-quality movies at home will be delivered digitally, not on disc,” Tayloe Stansbury, chairman and CEO of Kaleidescape, tells me. “Consumers will expect instant access, reference-quality presentation, and technology that evolves with each generation of content. That’s the future Kaleidescape is building today.”
However, for many fans of Blu-ray, the biggest hurdle here is still ownership and Kaleidescape’s technical proficiency doesn’t address that. It’s a digital storefront, and the same concerns of losing access to things you’ve bought still applies.
Kaleidescape told me that its priority is delivering the best possible digital collecting experience rather than addressing licensing, and it declined to comment on people’s increasing concerns about this side of buying movies.
Digital purchases may be able to close the gap on quality, but until they can offer the same promise of permanence as a disc, then physical media will continue to offer something digital can’t.
Blu-ray remains resilient
When I first started researching this story, I thought I’d be talking to experts about the technology that’s waiting to replace Blu-ray. But instead, I learned the future is a little more complicated than that.
Every home video format in the past has reached a point where its limitations became too impossible to ignore. But Ultra HD Blu-ray appears to be in a different position. According to the people building and supporting the format, there isn’t an obvious problem left for another new type of disc to solve. It still delivers the highest quality experience available to most consumers and continues to attract collectors who are willing to invest in physical media.
Looking at recent sales numbers, the Blu-ray market is much healthier than I expected. Mark Frampton, Senior Commercial Marketing Manager at Elevation Sales, a film sales and distribution company, says the format has remained remarkably resilient.
“We’re forecasting 2026 to be another year where the market stabilizes. Catalogue [older releases] has been very strong and only 2% down year-on-year. This is driven by collector’s editions and steelbooks, particularly on 4K Ultra HD which remains a format in growth.”
In other words, older film releases are continuing to sell well, with premium collector editions helping to keep the market strong — and it’s not just older enthusiasts buying discs today.
“Although the core buying audience is still people over 35, we’re increasingly seeing younger audiences entering the market,” Frampton tells me. “People aged between 25 and 34 are the second biggest buyers of Blu-ray. But Gen Z and Younger Millennials (aged between 14 and 30) who are experiencing ‘digital fatigue’ are becoming highly engaged in the format as well.”
The wider industry paints a similar picture. Kath Summersgill, Group Joint Head of Sales at Key Production Group, a music manufacturer that specializes in producing physical media, points to figures from the Entertainment Retailers Association showing continued growth. “The current state of the physical movie market is incredibly encouraging, with ERA’s 2025 figures showing Blu-ray sales increased by 19.5%,” she says.
Now, these surprisingly healthy numbers don’t mean Blu-ray discs will be around forever. Streaming will continue to improve, premium digital libraries will become more sophisticated and companies like Kaleidescape are already demonstrating that top-quality movies don’t necessarily need to be on a disc.
All of this means another physical format may never arrive. Instead, the next chapter for home theater could be digital — but there’s a long way before collectors would be ready to trust digital libraries.
For now, at least you know you won’t have to worry about buying your favorite movies yet again on another new disc format in the future.
The best 4K Blu-ray players for all budgets
Thinking of buying a new TV?
Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we’ll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we’ll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.
Read the full article here
