(Credit: LG)
LG is setting the stage to exit the Blu-ray player market.
As FlatpanelsHD reports, LG has discontinued Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray players, including the UBK80 and UBK90. Its website also no longer features a dedicated Blu-ray players page. Instead, it redirects users to its catalog of 4K TVs.
But it looks like LG isn’t ready to fully exit the market. The company told FlatpanelsHD it could churn out more units if demand picks up, although LG hasn’t developed a new Blu-ray player since 2018. In the interim, vendors, including Amazon, continue to offer LG Blu-ray players, but sales will only continue while supplies last.
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The news doesn’t bode well for the future of Blu-ray, a disc format that launched in 2006 but has since waned in the face of online streaming. This year, Best Buy ended physical media sales, while Target has reduced DVD and Blu-ray disc sales at its stores. Meanwhile, Sony’s newly released PS5 Pro doesn’t feature an optical drive by default.
LG’s main rival, Samsung, also halted manufacturing new Blu-ray players for the US market in 2019. The shrinking presence of Blu-rays represents a blow to physical media ownership, as some streaming services have been removing TV shows and movies without warning, making it harder for consumers to watch their favorite content.
In some good news, customers can still source Blu-ray players from Sony, Panasonic, Philips and Pioneer, although many of the products were originally developed five or more years ago.