Slow death of UHD Blu-ray: LG discontinues its players
LG no longer manufactures stand-alone players for UHD Blu-rays. Previous models are being sold off.
(Image: LG)
The list of manufacturers of UHD Blu-ray players continues to shrink. LG is exiting the market: The manufacturer has already removed the German product pages, while the US pages explicitly state "discontinued".
In Germany, only the cheaper LG UBK80 model is still available anyway. Dealers are now selling the last units from – LG is no longer producing new ones. The website flatpanelshd claims to have heard from several sources that no successors are planned.
Since the introduction of UHD Blu-ray for movies in 4K resolution, LG has introduced two compatible players. The manufacturer has not released a new model since 2018. Samsung already said goodbye to UHD Blu-ray in 2019 and discontinued its players.
This now leaves only three options: Panasonic, Sony and, for the particularly well-heeled, Magnetar. Apart from Magnetar, no manufacturer has launched a new UHD Blu-ray player since 2019. Although the Playstation 5 (Pro) and Xbox Series X are available with a UHD Blu-ray drive, the consoles do not support the Dolby Vision format for image optimization.
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For those for whom streaming is not enough
UHD Blu-rays serve a niche market: they are for movie and series fans who want the best picture and sound quality. They do not have the compression artifacts that can occur with streaming due to a bit rate that is too low. They also support more sound formats such as Dolby Atmos for surround systems. Streaming services usually stop at Dolby Surround 5.1.
The first UHD Blu-rays with 4K resolution were released in 2017, before the first players were available. The responsible Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) also tested media with 8K resolution in Japan, but discontinued the project due to low interest.
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