Physical media might be back in vogue when it comes to music, but the love has not been shared in the home video department. A quick search inside a local Target Superstore down here in Florida prior to my ongoing therapy revealed that the big box retailers are bailing on Blu-ray and UHD 4K titles with very little fanfare.
Best Buy is moving on and an FYE that I visited in Palm Beach Country was having a huge sale on DVDs (yes…people still buy those), Blu-ray and UHD 4K titles. Your local Barnes & Noble might be one of your best options going forward along with Amazon.
As we discussed in our recent look at Sony’s decision to terminate its support of recordable Blu-ray Discs — consumers are not buying many physical movies anymore in either format.
And shame on everyone who didn’t focus on the “recordable” part of that announcement and started sitting Shiva for Blu-ray. I can’t even go away for 2 months of inpatient care without people losing their minds.
Why so Blu on Blu-ray?
Believe it or not, Blu-ray has been with us for eighteen years. Debuting in 2006, Blu-ray was intended to replace DVD as it offers playback of Full HD video, whereas DVD is a standard definition format that only supports up to 480i/p Standard Definition resolution.
Even with the increased presence of streaming, physical media (Blu-ray, DVD, Vinyl Records, CDs, etc…) remained more popular in Japan than in many other markets. However, that trend is now subsiding, and with reduced demand for physical media home recording, Sony has made the decision to end recordable disc products.
Streaming is king and while demand for new titles on DVD, Blu-ray Disc and UHD Blu-ray fell by almost 25% in 2024, there were some high points. Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune 2” sold over 132,000 copies worldwide on Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray Disc. And specialty labels like the Criterion Collection continue to support physical media with their excellent high quality restorations of classic films onto 4K UHD Blu-ray Disc. But blockbuster movies and the efforts of specialty labels are unlikely to be able to sustain physical media indefinitely.
With LG and Samsung no longer offering physical 4K Blu-ray players, it sorta made sense for Sony to stem the flow of new players over the past few years. The well-regarded Sony UBP-X700 was not discontinued and one can find it rather heavily discounted ($168 at Amazon) at this point — but there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm in Japan to develop new players.
Back to Samsung for one second — the Korean manufacturer still offers Blu-ray players in other regions like Korea, Japan, and select markets in Europe.
Lesser known brands Reavon and Magnetar continue to release new models and R_volution provides Disc playback – and even disc ripping – on some of its 4K and 8K Media Players. Audio/videophiles were sad to see venerable OPPO Digital stop making their universal disc players players in 2018 (although they still provide limited support for their existing products).
All of that changes right now with the announcement that the Sony UBP-X700/K is forthcoming for around $300 USD.
$300 for a solid performing 4K Blu-ray player doesn’t sound too crazy in 2025, but when I fished around for some of the details in regard to this new player — there are some omissions from the previous iteration that might make one wonder why the price is more than the model it is replacing.
No Streaming?
The Sony UBP-X700/K looks almost identical to the previous iteration and does all of the things you would expect it to do like play UHD 4K and standard Blu-ray discs, as well as DVDs. It supports the latest audio formats such a DTS:X and Dolby Atmos and video technologies such as HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, as well.
Same remote.
No streaming. Zero Wi-Fi support although it does offer an Ethernet port for firmware updates. There is also no longer support for screen mirroring or Spotify Connect.
Can I be frank? Nobody buying a Blu-ray player in 2025 which will be connected to a Smart TV is using that player for Netflix, ESPN+, Disney+ or Amazon Prime.
The Bottom Line
The decision to offer the Sony UBP-X700/K for $300 feels like a win-win for those of us who still prefer to watch movies the old-fashioned way. In the backyard with a portable projector, outdoor screen, and pro audio speaker system with the beef and chicken on the Braai and who can’t wait to watch The Empire Strikes Back or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the 40th time.
Price & Availability
We expect to see the new Sony UBP-X700/K 4K Blu-ray hardware over the next 45 to 60 days from the usual sources like Amazon, Crutchfield and participating Sony dealers in North America for around $300 USD.
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