- Blu-ray was the talk of CES 2006 – and unlike HD-DVD, it’s still going strong
- 4K releases are still better than most streaming options
- It’s a buyer’s market for discs new and pre-owned
Every CES (the huge annual consumer electronics shindig in Las Vegas, Nevada) features lots of exciting new tech, and CES 2006 was no exception – no, not a typo, I genuinely mean the year 2006.
Some of said newness has weathered the test of time better than other examples – anyone remember the Toshiba Gigabeat S portable media center with full Vongo integration? – but two of the show’s stars 20 years ago were Sony and Toshiba devices built for an emerging movie medium: Blu-ray.
Blu-ray was one of two high definition rivals aiming to replace DVD; it had higher capacity than its rival, HD-DVD, and wider movie studio support. Being built into the PlayStation 3 onwards didn’t do it any harm either. It was pretty clear by CES 2008 that Blu-ray was going to win this particular format war.
In today’s streaming era it’s tempting to write off optical discs as dead tech, but in fact the streaming era shows why discs still matter to movie buffs: not only do they offer better quality than most streaming, especially streaming of the ad-supported variety, but they offer films that streaming platforms don’t. For example, The Sting (1973) was the oldest movie available on Netflix, but when I log in it’s not available in my country or on any of the other streaming sites I subscribe to. I can buy it on Blu-ray, though.
Discs aren’t dead yet
I wrote about Blu-rays over the holidays, and for me the biggest benefit of discs is the sheer breadth of what you can get. The main streaming options often have fairly limited movie catalogs with classic cinema and cult cinema often particularly poorly served – so for example, if you want to see something like the cult classic Vanishing Point you’ll struggle to stream it if you’re not in Japan. And with catalogs being constantly pruned, even if a film is available now it might not still be there the next time you want to watch it.
The other big benefit, of course, is quality. The mainstream platforms use lossy video and audio formats, and those formats can suffer from network congestion too. A 4K Blu-ray is going to deliver a much better version, or at least it will if it’s not a shoddy transfer. We’ve tested this in our labs and concluded that Blu-ray has better picture quality, sound quality and stability.
And of course, you can share a Blu-ray disc with, say, your 18-year-old film student child without having to pay a surcharge because they don’t live under the same roof as you for most of the week. Not that I’m bitter about password sharing crackdowns, oh no…
I think it’s fair to say that Blu-ray is no longer mainstream and is now considered a more niche choice. In the same way that many audiophiles have moved to hi-res audio from the likes of Qobuz and Tidal, high-end home cinema setups are increasingly linking to hi-res video services such as Kaleidescape or Sony Pictures Core. But at the moment it’s definitely a buyer’s market for Blu-ray discs, with plenty of discounts as well as very low second-hand prices.
The sun may eventually be going down on Sony’s format, but it’ll be doing so very slowly – and there are still plenty of worthwhile new releases to enjoy.
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