It’s no secret that physical media in general, and Blu-ray in particular, has been in decline. Best Buy began removing Blu-ray discs from its stores and website at the beginning of 2024, and some manufacturers, like LG, have stopped production of Blu-ray disc players due to low demand. DVDs have even shown some issues due to their age, with disc rot reportedly affecting Warner Bros. titles from 2006-2008. I’ve been hopeful that physical media will stick around for as long as possible, but staying positive has been decidedly difficult.
News out of Japan from publication Monohika, as reported by flatpanelshd.com, indicates that Sony is releasing its first Blu-ray disc player since 2019. The UBP-X700/K isn’t a brand new player designed from the ground up, but instead an update to the existing UBP-X700 originally released in January 2018. Also, quite often the letter K is used at the end of a model name to denote the products color — K for black — so the naming itself is curious.
The player is scaled back in terms of features, with Monohika pointing out the new version includes no video and TV SideView app, no networking features (although images include an Ethernet port, perhaps only for updates), no video streaming apps, no Spotify Connect support, and no screen mirroring support. All of this and the pricing in Japan makes it more expensive than the non-K version.
The removal of streaming capabilities makes no difference to me, and I assume to anyone that would plan on buying it. Streaming offerings are available everywhere. TVs, game consoles, and external streaming devices have this well covered. There’s no reason for a Blu-ray player to also include the ability to stream from Netflix or Spotify.
The benefits of owning physical media
Putting aside the current disc rot situation affecting Warner Bros. DVDs, owning a physical copy of media — be it a Blu-ray, a CD, or a vinyl record — is the only way to make sure you’ll always be able to watch or listen to your favorite content. Streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ regularly remove content, so we’re all at the whims (and financial statements) of our streaming overlords. Content moves from one service to another (like when Westworld was pulled from Max so it could be moved to the FAST service Tubi) making it hard keeping track where shows can be streamed. Being able to walk over to the shelf and grab whatever you feel like watching — that you own — is turning into a privilege.
The ability to take a movie down off the shelf does bring up one of the issues with owning your media — space. Having copies of absolutely everything you ever want to watch would be costly, both in the price of the media and the price of the real estate it takes up. But the tradeoff of knowing I’ll always have my favorite movie available to watch, in the version I’m familiar with, is worth it.
There’s also some things that just aren’t available streaming. David Lynch’s classic Wild at Heart is only watchable on physical media. There are bands that only have albums released on vinyl or CD. The only way to watch the original versions of Star Wars is on a DVD, laserdisc, or VHS.
Call me old fashioned, but there’s also something to be said about holding a disc. One of the reasons vinyl has had a resurgence, I think, is because of the ritual of taking a record out of the sleeve, putting it on the turntable, and looking at the album and liner notes while you listen to the music. There’s a similar feeling with collecting movies on disc — especially those that have collector’s editions with bonus material. Very often, that extra content isn’t included on streaming services.
Sony keeps Blu-ray alive… but will it be for the U.S.?
The fact that Sony is releasing a new Blu-ray player is an encouraging sign for the industry. The problem for those of us in the United States is it’s unclear if the UBP-X700/K will be available here or not. Reports state that the player will be released in the April/May timeframe, depending on region. There’s just been no clarification if one of those regions is North America.
But even if it isn’t, the fact a new player is coming in any region is good. As much as we like to believe it, the U.S. is not the middle of the universe, and the inclusion of other areas of the world matters. More Blu-ray players everywhere means disc production will need to keep pace. I, for one, will be happy to continue adding 4K UHD Blu-ray discs to my collection.
