- Finest Purchase Market sells DVD and Blu-Ray discs
- On-line solely by way of third social gathering sellers
- Obtainable in-app and on-line from as we speak
We have been saying for ages that stories of the dying of film discs are untimely, and it seems like Finest Purchase agrees with us: it is launching a brand new on-line market that’ll promote DVDs, Blu-Rays and UHD Steelbooks as a part of a doubling of its on-line providing.
If you happen to’re pondering, “Hold on, did not Finest Purchase cease promoting disc-based films in early 2024?”, you are proper: they did. Citing the altering method we get pleasure from leisure, Finest Purchase introduced in late 2023 that it’d cease promoting DVDs and Blu-rays in its shops and on-line after the vacation season, although it continued to promote the very best 4K Blu-ray gamers afterward.
So what is going on on? As FlatpanelsHD stories, this is not a reversal: you are not going to see the DVD or Blu-Ray aisles return to your native retailer. The brand new market is on-line and options third-party sellers, and people sellers would be the ones providing DVDs, Blu-rays and Steelbooks.
Chances are you’ll like
Oppenheimer’s 4K Blu-Ray offered out in its first week at many main retailers. (Picture credit score: Common Photos)
Why the dying of the disc is not inevitable
Caring about films on Blu-ray is not simply nostalgia. Some films merely aren’t accessible to stream, and those which can be do not stream in the identical high quality as you may get from the very best Blu-Ray editions. That is as a result of streaming makes use of compressed media codecs, and that inevitably includes loss, one thing notably obvious with film soundtracks.
There’s additionally the continuing fear with streaming that what’s accessible as we speak will not be accessible tomorrow as licensing offers expire or bean-counters determine to chop again the catalog. And naturally, totally different films are on totally different streamers, and with costs of streaming companies ever rising – Apple TV+ upped its costs simply final week – slicing again in your streaming subscriptions means shedding entry to plenty of films and reveals.
I am not being naive: the times of disc-based media being the world’s favourite residence leisure possibility are over. However for severe film followers – and other people with severe residence cinema setups – it is nonetheless a superior expertise. Simply ask Christopher Nolan.
