Samsung Blu-ray players are a thing of the past

If you’re in the market for a new Blu-ray player, you’re out of luck with Samsung.

The South Korean conglomerate has officially stopped production on 4K Ultra HD and some 1080p Blu-ray players.

“Samsung will no longer introduce new Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray player models in the US market,” a Samsung spokesperson told CNET.

In a Forbes article on the topic, it was speculated that the potential reason for this was that Samsung wouldn’t be able to take enough market share compared to Panasonic and Sony to justify a full production run of new models.

The possibility that Samsung will continue to manufacture existing models remains, but you won’t be seeing new Blu-ray players from them with any kind of high dynamic range format (HDR10+) capabilities. At least not any time soon.

This announcement isn’t likely to just affect the US market, however. Blu-ray player ownership has been on the decline around the world for a while now. Entertainment spending in the average household has seen a dramatic jump from discs to subscription streaming services. In 2015, disc sales dropped nearly 10% while subscription streaming climbed with 23%. This trend has continued ever since.

By Daniëlle Kruger
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