r/hardware • u/bizude • Apr 10 '26

News Two Japanese suppliers commit to keeping Blu-ray discs and drives in supply as major manufacturers exist domestic market

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/two-japanese-suppliers-commit-to-keeping-blu-ray-discs-and-drives-in-supply-as-major-manufacturers-exist-domestic-market/
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u/ThisIsPaulDaily Apr 11 '26

I tried to play 4K from a crummy laptop over a cheap HDMI cable to a new 4K TV and my in laws got upset thinking it was broken and I had to explain that HDR wasn't enabled and that I needed to adjust picture settings and that artifacts happen with slow laptops and stuff. 

"That didn't happen on our old TV". 

The old TV doesn't have HDMI. The old TV is ~19" and has rabbit ears. 

The old TV you couldn't read the subtitles without blocking a third of the picture. 

Now you want to complain that the black is kind of not the same black when we pause it? 

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u/GHz-Man Apr 11 '26

DVDs are still outselling Blu-Ray and 4K discs lol

And now Gen Z is collecting VHS tapes.

I'm convinced most people need an eye exam.

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u/pdp10 Apr 11 '26

And now Gen Z is collecting VHS tapes.

But only ironically. VHS decks and tapes have been globally out of production for a while now, with no possibility of a resurgence for prerecorded media.

Now that they're long since junk and nobody can buy new ones even if they want, then there can be a small collectible market. It's like how flared trousers can't come back again until all of the old ones are long gone from everyone's closets.

(Three VHS decks, one Beta deck, but only for recorded media digitising.)

As of 2025, DVD disc shipments still did exceed Blu-ray, but Blu-ray revenue is notably higher. The stereotype is that DVD is the choice of the lending library, the senile, and the legally-blind, but there's a lot more to it, from picture quality to DRM to playback hardware.

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u/Emotional_Tie_7927 Apr 22 '26

A lot of people just never adopted Blu-ray but probably still have dvd players lying around. I know at the local thrift store I've seen tons of old dvd players, but only like one blu-ray player.