Samsung stops creating new Blu-ray players

Slowly but surely, the discs that are turning are disappearing and Samsung has just put another nail in their coffin. The company said Forbes completed the production of 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players – and CNET was able to confirm that Samsung was also shutting down the production of some of its 1080p Blu-ray players.

"Samsung will no longer introduce new models of Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray players in the US market," said a spokesman for Samsung. CNET.

Technically, it is still possible that Samsung continues to produce its existing Blu-ray players for months or years to come – the company still has a lot of models on sale – or introduce new ones in specific countries outside the United States. We asked Samsung to clarify.

But in practice, Samsung has just announced that it was leaving the Blu-ray market, as Oppo did last April.

Even though Samsung had enough control over 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs to beat all other companies with the first player in 2016, it's not surprising that Samsung could retire earlier. The records are down, the Nielsen research company having recently used Blu-ray and DVD players as the example of an endangered technology.

"Some devices, such as DVD / Blu-ray players, are in the declining phase of their product lifecycle, while streaming devices are gaining importance," Nielsen's report states. second quarter of 2018, adding that only 66% of households watching television had one, compared with 72 percent the year before. Nielsen also claims that the average American adult spends only 5 minutes a day – by far the slightest activity on the screen – with the help of a Blu-ray or DVD player.

Image: Nielsen

And streaming services have come a long way, including making 4K streams cheaper. Apple and Google both sell 4K movies at the same price as 1080p HD and will upgrade your HD movies to 4K for free. Amazon has notably lowered its prices. Plus, an excellent 4K streaming device has never been cheaper than today.

You can certainly say that the discs remain the best experience, with the best quality of picture and sound. I prefer to get into a Blu-ray. But between the rise of streaming and the fact that 4K movies are not always 4K movies but are often mastered at lower resolutions, they may not be convincing enough as a business.

Maybe Sony was not stingy when it omitted a 4K Blu-ray player from the PS4 Pro. Maybe it was just being smart.