After 18 years, Sony's recordable Blu-ray media production draws to a close — will shut last factory in Feb (Updated)
MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassettes will also be abandoned.
Sony has announced it will end its recordable Blu-ray Disc media production in February, marking the end of its nearly two-decade run. This end-of-production announcement also affects MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassettes.
The company ended the production of recordable consumer Blu-ray and optical disks in mid-2024, indicating it would retain production lines for business and corporate clients until it became unprofitable. However, as the general public prefers streaming services over physical media, commercial sales have quickly become insufficient to sustain Sony’s optical media business.
The first Blu-ray disc prototype was released in 2000, designed as a successor to the DVD, and competed against Toshiba’s HD DVD. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD became publicly available in 2006. Still, the latter lost out to the former in the format wars because of Sony’s partnership with film studios and the inclusion of Blu-ray technology in the PlayStation 3.
While ODD ownership peters out, many users store important files using cloud storage. However, this usually has a monthly cost and could become prohibitive if you store a large amount of data. Putting your data online also raises a lot of security issues. Some users and organizations prefer storing files on hard drives, which typically come with a lifespan estimated at five years. If you don’t move their contents to a new drive within that time, you risk losing the information within them — something that the music industry is just discovering now.
If stored properly, optical media could be viable for decades, which makes it an ideal medium for long-term cold storage. While Sony is no longer making recordable Blu-ray media, its competitor, Pioneer, has found a niche in long-term storage and created a Blu-ray disc designed to last a hundred years. Other researchers are even working on archival glass storage that should last 5,000 years.
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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
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Gururu I have two disc drives (BR and DVD). Is it safe to take them out? Is the storage any safer than USBs?Reply -
Jabberwocky79 This is sad. Every time I'm streaming a movie and see all of the banding lines and compression artifacts I can't help but lament the demise of physical media. Why did we settle for this? I know there are workarounds, like storing massive media files on a home server, but that comes with its own challenges, and you still have to start with a decent quality source, like a disc.Reply -
TheOtherOne The major issue with any streaming service is, despite you keep paying them a hefty sub fee every single month, at the end of the day you NEVER own any of it. As soon as you end your sub, you lose access to the movies.Reply
I know there's option to buy digital releases too, but as we have seen in the past due to various reasons like Rights agreements or the service simply shutting down, you lose even that digital release you PAID for. -
Jabberwocky79 ^^^ Yeah, digital ownership is a whole other issue, and also a huge one... bigger than the quality issue really. The streaming age just sucks period IMHO.Reply -
Jame5 I guess I need to buy one last spindle of BD-R's before they are out of print as it were.Reply -
why_wolf Reply
As long as there is still DRM on a digital purchase you didn't really "buy" rather you entered into a long-term "lease" which the selling party can revoke at any time for any reason.TheOtherOne said:The major issue with any streaming service is, despite you keep paying them a hefty sub fee every single month, at the end of the day you NEVER own any of it. As soon as you end your sub, you lose access to the movies.
I know there's option to buy digital releases too, but as we have seen in the past due to various reasons like Rights agreements or the service simply shutting down, you lose even that digital release you PAID for.
Only old school MP3s can be truly "bought" since Napster/Limewire managed to break the record industry. DRM is gone for music. Streaming managed to stave off the same fate for movies though. Though with the cableTVification of streaming services it seems like pirating is on the rise again. -
why_wolf Reply
The article is over selling the statistics from the Backblaze HDD longevity reports. I think 5 years is when they start to see the rate of drive failure begin a steady increase. Its still very low at 5 years though. Of course that's with drives that are under 24/7 load.scottsoapbox said:5 year life of HDD? That can't possibly be right.