Blu-ray

UltraViolet: Gone, And Best Forgotten

UltraViolet's shutdown announcement nearly vanished unnoticed into a spam folder - a fitting metaphor for a service most users had already abandoned. The digital content locker promised seamless access to purchased movies across devices, but its clunky registration process drove customers straight to Netflix and Amazon Prime instead. With major studios already gone and 30 million largely inactive accounts, its quiet death reveals how quickly even well-funded digital ecosystems can become irrelevant. The real question is what that means for today's streaming services.

Pete Putman
column

Blu-Ray: On The Endangered Species List?

Physical media is losing ground fast. Ultra HD Blu-ray players are selling at roughly two units per hundred 4K TVs purchased, while streaming subscriptions surpass 100 million worldwide and codec advances keep closing the quality gap. Futuresource projects global Blu-ray player shipments will shrink from 72 million to 68 million by 2023. Whether disc-based formats can survive a market increasingly defined by broadband delivery and disposable hardware is a question worth examining closely.

Pete Putman
Columns

Ultra HD Blu-ray: Getting Closer

Ultra HD Blu-ray specifications are finalized, bringing 3840x2160 resolution, 10-bit HDR imaging, object-oriented surround sound, and mandatory HEVC H.265 decoding to optical disc. But compatibility requirements - HDCP 2.2, HDMI 2.0, and H.265 support - add real-world hurdles for consumers. Meanwhile, streaming continues claiming a larger share of Hollywood revenue each year. Whether this ambitious new format can reverse that tide, or simply serve a shrinking enthusiast market, remains an open and genuinely fascinating question.

Pete Putman
column

A Tale Of Two Companies, Revisited

Japan's fiscal year 2014 results reveal a striking contrast between two CE giants. Panasonic's aggressive restructuring - including its painful exit from plasma TV manufacturing - delivered a stunning $1.18 billion net profit, reversing a $7 billion loss. Sony, meanwhile, faces a 67% drop in operating income, battered by its PC exit costs and a faster-than-expected collapse in Blu-ray disc sales. The full Sony numbers arrive soon, and they promise to tell an even sharper story.

Pete Putman
column
Kaleidescape Cinema One - Review

Kaleidescape Cinema One - Review

The Kaleidescape Cinema One is a 4TB media server priced at $3,995, capable of storing up to 100 Blu-ray-quality or 600 DVD-quality movies, with bitstream pass-through of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio over HDMI. Testing against an Oppo reference player in a high-end home theater revealed that a default-enabled detail enhancement setting degraded image quality when used alongside a Darblet video processor, and AACS licensing requires the physical Blu-ray disc to be present during playback of imported titles unless a $3,995 DV700 vault is added. Factoring in hardware amortization, per-movie cost-of-ownership for Blu-ray collectors ranges from roughly $60 to $105 depending on system configuration, making the value proposition heavily dependent on collection size and usage pattern.

Rodolfo La Maestra
Articles

HDTV Expert - DEG: Here's The Rest of the Story

The Digital Entertainment Group's mid-2013 home entertainment report buries significant declines behind optimistic headlines, with overall DVD and Blu-ray disc sales falling 4.7% year-over-year to $3.6 billion while subscription streaming surged 32% to $1.5 billion. Physical disc rentals across all channels continued a multi-year contraction, and the 61 million Blu-ray players cited by DEG increasingly function as streaming media boxes rather than disc players. The looming implementation of MPEG-4 H.265 (HEVC) encoding, enabling 1080p/60 streams at 2-3 Mb/s, suggests the shift away from packaged media will only accelerate.

Pete Putman
Columns

HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #593: Blu-ray: Here to stay?

Blu-ray remains the benchmark for home theater quality, delivering uncompressed audio codecs and bitrates that current streaming services cannot match, even as newer compression formats narrow the gap. Physical media also guarantees consistent playback without buffering, bandwidth throttling, or license verification requirements tied to an Internet connection. For viewers with 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 surround systems and high-end displays, or those in areas with unreliable broadband, Blu-ray is not just the superior choice but often the only practical one.

The HT Guys
Podcasts

HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #592: Is Blu-ray a Dead Format?

Blu-ray delivers the highest quality audio and video available to consumers today, yet its long-term viability is challenged by streaming services already surpassing DVD quality at bitrates around 4-10Mbps and SD cards capable of 40MB/s transfer speeds on 64GB media. BD-Live's community features have been rendered largely obsolete by social platforms, while in-store kiosk downloads and online lockers represent plausible physical-media alternatives. For home theater enthusiasts, the practical question is not whether Blu-ray will be replaced, but how soon gigabit internet and studio DRM policy shifts will accelerate that transition.

The HT Guys
Podcasts

HDTV Expert - TV, Over The Air and Everywhere!

Aereo's antenna-based internet rebroadcasting service has drawn legal threats from CBS and Fox, who demand retransmission fees despite losing two court battles, while the NFL's silence on Aereo carrying its games without rights payments raises pointed questions about selective enforcement. Nielsen data shows Blu-ray disc adoption grew 14% year-over-year in 2012, yet streaming faces serious reliability problems, with Conviva's analysis of 22 billion video streams finding 60% experienced quality degradation including re-buffering, slow startup, and low bit-rate picture quality. For consumers, the choice between physical media and streaming remains a genuine trade-off between convenience and consistent playback quality.

Pete Putman
Columns
Blu-ray Review: Magic Mike

Blu-ray Review: Magic Mike

Magic Mike arrives on Blu-ray with a Warner 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer shot on Red Epic cameras, faithfully reproducing Steven Soderbergh's deliberately skewed, near-monochromatic color palette with well-resolved textures and crisp edges. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is the disc's standout, delivering pulsing low-end, aggressive rear-channel support, and eerily realistic directionality during the club sequences. Viewers seeking a technically capable Blu-ray with strong audio performance will find this release rewarding, even if the intentionally muted video presentation limits outright demo-disc appeal.

Ryan Gibbs
Reviews
Blu-ray Review: The Campaign

Blu-ray Review: The Campaign

The Campaign arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer delivering clean edge definition, deep black levels, and fine detail resolution down to individual facial textures. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track handles the front-heavy mix competently, with solid LFE output and clear dialogue, though immersive rear-channel activity is limited to crowd-heavy scenes. Buyers seeking a raucous R-rated comedy with reliable A/V performance will find this disc a worthwhile pickup, even if the film itself ranks as mid-tier in the genre.

Ryan Gibbs
Reviews

Panasonic Announces Pricing & Availability For Its 2013 Blu-ray Disc™ Player Lineup

Panasonic has unveiled pricing for its 2013 Blu-ray Disc player lineup, spanning six models from $79.99 to $349.99, with the flagship DMP-BDT330 at $199.99 offering built-in 4K upscaling and Miracast display mirroring for Android 4.2 or higher devices. Select 3D-capable models include a 192kHz/32-bit audio DAC, twin HDMI ports, and 2D-to-3D conversion, while all but the entry-level BD79 feature built-in Wi-Fi. Buyers can choose a player matched to their budget and feature needs, from basic IP VOD access on 2D models to the full VIERA Connect IPTV platform on 3D-capable units.

HDTV News
Bulletins
Blu-ray Review: This is 40

Blu-ray Review: This is 40

Universal's Blu-ray release of 'This Is 40' delivers a strong 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer with warm colors, clean edge definition, and an intact grain structure free of serious artifacting or banding. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is front-heavy with restrained LFE output and limited rear-channel activity, though dialogue clarity and live-performance music reproduction are highlights. Viewers who appreciate Judd Apatow's comedic style will find the disc's technical presentation a worthy complement to the film's relatable domestic humor.

Ryan Gibbs
Reviews
Blu-ray Review: Wreck-It Ralph

Blu-ray Review: Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph arrives on Blu-ray with a reference-quality 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer delivering eye-popping color accuracy, pristine edge detail free from ringing or aliasing, and zero macro-blocking or banding artifacts. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track matches that standard with aggressive rear-channel activity, deep LFE engagement during first-person shooter sequences, and precise cross-channel panning. Together, these technical strengths make this Disney animated release a strong candidate for a home theater showcase disc.

Ryan Gibbs
Reviews
Blu-ray Review: Perks of Being a Wallflower

Blu-ray Review: Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower arrives on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1, but despite its Super 35 origins, the image skews surprisingly soft and murky with wildly inconsistent contrast that undermines detail in dimly lit scenes. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless track performs adequately, with discrete channelization shining in crowd sequences though the mix remains largely front-heavy throughout. Buyers should temper video expectations while the strong ensemble performances from Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller, and Emma Watson make this a worthwhile addition to any collection.

Ryan Gibbs
Reviews