4 reasons I’m not buying a Blu-ray player any time soon

• Collecting Blu-ray discs is expensive (and tedious)
• Streaming expands viewing options
• Blu-ray is a technological dead-end
• Making the most out of Blu-ray means a high-end rig

Before I get into the meat of things, let me be clear — I don’t have anything against Blu-ray. In fact if I had things my way, physical media would be more popular than ever. It often allows for the best possible fidelity, and once you’ve bought a disc, you own it. It can’t be taken away because you stopped your subscription, or because one company acquired another or decided it was willing to pay more for the streaming rights.

Unfortunately, it’s hard for me to recommend that most people buy a new Blu-ray player unless they’ve already amassed a good collection. I’d like to be proven wrong, but here’s my justification. Maybe some sort of physical media will come back as a solution to the bandwidth problems of 8K. I doubt it.

Collecting Blu-ray discs is expensive (and tedious)

The heart of the matter

Before the streaming era, it used to be a real treat to bring home a new DVD or (going way back) a VHS tape. It felt like you were investing in something special, even if you were subconsciously aware that millions of others had bought the same product. Heck, a lot of people have nostalgia for renting discs, never mind owning them.

Most people can’t justify the cost of a personal library that can compete with streaming catalogs, though. New 4K Blu-rays can cost upwards of $20 or $30, and some older titles like The Matrix or Blade Runner 2049 may be $15 or more. For the price of one new release, you could subscribe to the Premium tier of HBO Max for a month and watch dozens of movies and TV shows. If you’re willing to put up with ads and 1080p resolution, you could subscribe to multiple services.

Most people can’t justify the cost of a personal library that can compete with streaming catalogs.

The economics just don’t make sense at a time when it’s difficult to afford a house, and buying a smartphone might as well be mandatory. Frequently, unless it’s a favorite, you might not even watch a Blu-ray more than two or three times — after which you’ll be left with nothing more than a disc taking up shelf or binder space.

Speaking of which, simply storing physical media can be a pain. A decent library can consume a whole bookshelf, and even if you use binders, you still have to prevent discs from being scratched, cracked, or ruined by heat or moisture. I might occasionally lose access to titles on streaming services, but I think some people would consider that fair trade for never having to carefully transport discs every time they move.

Streaming expands viewing options

Ready to go anywhere, any time

One of my greatest pleasures is turning a movie night into an event. Even if my wife or friends aren’t available, I still get a kick out of dimming the lights, grabbing a snack, and watching a new or favorite movie in my living room. I quietly miss the satisfaction of popping a tape into my parents’ old VCR.

Practically, though, I usually lack the time for this. Sometimes I have to settle for watching something in bed or during a flight. During the pandemic, I made it a habit of putting on a movie while I was lifting weights at home — it was much nicer watching Commando or Rocky IV than staring at a wall.

Blu-ray is just too limiting for my lifestyle, and you might be in the same boat. Whereas I can stream movies on just about any device with an internet connection, Blu-ray restricts you to your living room, or maybe your den, office, or gym if you’re lucky. Most laptops don’t have disc drives anymore, and I’m not about to haul both my laptop and an external drive on a trip when I could cache a load of videos on my iPad.

Blu-ray is a technological dead-end

At least for now

Back in 2006, when it first launched, Blu-ray was cutting-edge. It let you put 25GB on a single-layer disc, or 50GB on a dual-layer one. That was enough to store several hours of 720p or 1080p video at a time when most people were happy to watch something in 480p.

Later generations of Blu-ray would expand to 100 or (more rarely) 128GB of storage. That sounds impressive until you realize that a 100GB disc can hold about 3 to 4 hours of 4K video, at best. That’s enough for the majority of movies, but not all of them, especially at the highest possible bitrates. 8K Blu-rays exist, yet are impractical, since they’re limited to a little over 2 hours. Having to switch discs partway through The Godfather or Dune: Part One would be a hard sell in the digital era.

If physical media does make a comeback, it probably won’t be in the form of a denser Blu-ray disc.

I’ve already touched on some of the other points marking Blu-ray as outdated. There are relatively few devices that can play one anymore, and none of them are as portable as a phone, tablet, or AR glasses. It’s all too easy to damage a disc, and impossible to ignore the convenience of accessing hundreds of titles for the price of one.

If physical media does make a comeback, it probably won’t be in the form of a denser Blu-ray disc. I’m not sure what the design limits of the medium are, but it doesn’t make much sense to keep pushing Blu-ray forward when flash memory is both faster and over the 128GB mark. You can buy a 256GB USB flash drive for less than $30.

Making the most out of Blu-ray means a high-end rig

How far are you willing to go for perfection?

Let’s say you’re content with watching movies in one place. You probably already have a TV capable of maximizing the visual quality of Blu-ray, given the prevalence of 4K and dynamic HDR. But you may not have speakers capable of spatial audio formats like Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, and truly exploiting Blu-ray means access to their lossless versions. You’re out of luck if you don’t have a mid-range or high-end eARC speaker connected via HDMI 2.1. Purists might insist on going a step further, namely building out a full 5.1- or 7.1-channel system instead of using a soundbar.

You’re out of luck if you don’t have a mid-range or high-end eARC speaker connected via HDMI 2.1.

Any of that can get expensive in a hurry. And more importantly, the results may not be worth it. Many people struggle to hear the difference between lossless and high-quality compression, regardless of the caliber of speakers they’ve got. While you’re not getting the best version of a movie or show on a service like Netflix, for the average person, it’s like complaining that your filet mignon could use a little extra spice.

Something I like to remember is that surround sound isn’t that important, either. Some of my favorite movies and shows were mixed in stereo, and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything by watching The Fellowship of the Ring without ringwraiths screeching behind me.