Best Buy customers looking to purchase DVDs or Blu-ray discs will have to find another retailer after the 2023 holiday season. Starting in 2024, sales of hard copies of movies and TV shows by the consumer electronics seller will cease, according to Variety and The Digital Bits.
In September, Netflix NFLX +1.8% ended its DVD service, and Best Buy BBY -0.3% announced it will stop selling DVDs and Blu-ray discs at the end of the 2023 holiday season. "To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago," Best Buy said in a statement.
Is Best Buy exiting the physical media business in 2024?
In yet another sign of the triumph of streaming, Best Buy will reportedly stop selling physical DVDs in-store and online beginning in 2024, according to CNBC and other media outlets.
But it still hit me hard when Best Buy announced it will wind down sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs, ending sales completely early in 2024. Physical movies will be sold in stores and online through the holidays, and video games aren't affected by the change.
Best Buy will stop selling Blu-rays, DVDs in 2024: 'The way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today' It's going to get a little bit harder to get your hands on a physical copy of your favorite movie.
Report Claims Best Buy Will Stop Selling Physical Media - IGN The Fix: Entertainment (YT Edition)
Are they getting rid of DVDs?
Popular on Variety
The consumer-electronics retailer will phase out sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs both in-store and online in early 2024, according to industry sources familiar with the company's plans.
Blu-ray technology is a storage medium for video, audio and data. As with any technological innovation, it will eventually be replaced by the next big thing. The next generation of video storage is likely to be called "4K". 4K UHDTVs have four times more pixels than full HDTVs and offer a much better resolution.
Many Blu-ray and DVD selling stores and collectors are planning to revive more than 700 million discs in the market in 2022. Most of the awaiting customers are 90s kids aged between 25 and 39. This tells us the possibility of DVDs and Blu-rays coming back to the top by the overwhelming responses from their enthusiasts.
The changeup was first reported on Thursday by The Digital Bits, before Variety cited sources Friday that said Best Buy made the decision to end DVD sales nine months ago. Movies will continue to be sold in stores and online through the holiday season before sales end in early 2024.
Becoming customer centric is one of the key reasons Best Buy has survived in the brick-and-mortar electronics space in the U.S. while a company like Circuit City has not. Early on in its development, Best Buy took the time to survey and understand its public and what that public wanted.
The electronics giant said it planned to close 20 to 30 of its large-format stores as it opens eight smaller concepts and 10 outlet locations, without specifying where these openings or closures would occur. The company typically closes 15 to 20 large stores per year as leases are reviewed.
Best Buy is bidding adieu to DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. The electronics retailer announced on Friday that it will stop selling the once-essential movie-viewing tool online and in stores after the 2023 holiday season as consumers continue to shift to streaming services over physical discs.
A much lower-quality viewing experience. On the other hand, DVDs deliver an uncompressed, high-quality image and sound, providing the viewer with an authentic cinematic experience. Furthermore, DVDs often come with superior audio options like Dolby Digital or DTS, which can enhance the immersive atmosphere of a movie.
Streaming services can't provide you with special features, deleted scenes, outtakes, interviews and commentaries like DVDs and Blu-rays can. Buy a physical version of your favorite movie if you want to see interesting behind-the-scenes content.
Put simply, Blu-ray is here to stay for the foreseeable future, and we couldn't be happier about that. But while there's still a steady supply of new discs, the best 4K Blu-ray players have become scarce, with most AV manufacturers ceasing to make new players, or limiting production to a single model.
The highest resolution of Blu-ray BD is 1920 X 1080, which is not as good as 4K streaming media, but its color and shadow details are richer and more subtle, especially for dark environments.
Among the manufacturers that have done testing, there is consensus that, under recommended storage conditions, CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs should have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more; CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM discs should have a life expectancy of 25 years or more.
How many times can you play a DVD before it wears out?
Optical media like CDs and DVDs does not wear out from repeated use. It can degrade or become damaged, however. CDs and DVDs can degrade over time because their recording layers are made with a dye that is extremely photosensitive; it deteriorates when exposed to UV rays over time.
First, the product had bad timing. Blu-ray launched in 2006, offering higher quality video and audio than DVDs; then, in 2007, Netflix launched its initial online streaming service. Online streaming was the way of the future, and Blu-ray's demise was only a matter of time. Insufficient marketing also played a role.
A DVD will only be able to store about 4.7 GB of data, which equals about two hours of a movie. A Blu-ray can hold about 25 GB of data, which allows for more high-definition information. It can hold about 13 hours of standard definition information or about two hours of high-definition information.
A Netflix spokesperson told CNN it has no plans to sell the DVD business and will be recycling the majority of its DVDs through third-party companies that specialize in recycling digital and electronic media. It will also donate some of its inventory to organizations focused on film and media.
But, to repeat, this isn't the end of physical media. Now, Disney will likely cut back its 4K releases in the future because the medium isn't taking off like it hoping it would. But we'll still see general Blu-Ray releases, as well as re-releases of stuff from Star Wars and Marvel that still caters to fans.
