I didn’t think I’d spend hours reading about this today, but some things surprised me:

  1. Just using a Playstation sounds like it won’t work or will be a huge time sink.
  2. Blu ray optical drives are way more expensive than I thought
  3. The copy protections on Blu rays are exceptionally annoying, to the extent where there is really only one closed source software – MakeMKV – that can work around them. This post goes into some interesting details.
  4. Finding a drive that is known to work with MakeMKV is a pain. There’s a brand called Pioneer that seems promising but they have stopped producing bluray drives went out of business last year. I have no idea which model works, and it’s common that secondhand sellers will swap enclosures and pass it off as a different model.
  5. Sometimes you need to flash the firmware on the drive to make it work with 4K UHD discs.

Anyway I was going to try ripping a Blu-ray that I bought recently, since I couldn’t find a quality rip anywhere, but I’m pretty turned off from the whole prospect at this point.

Anyway I’m not really asking for a specific reply, I just thought this topic was interesting and I’m curious what people think about Blu rays and optical media in general. Does the future seem bleak? Are we going to be stuck with shitty WebDLs for most new content? Or is physical media here to stay?

  • SolarPunker@slrpnk.netEnglish
    11·
    15 hours ago

    Because Blu-Ray is the format for enthusiasts and collectors. A burned one don’t have the same collection value, and many times even the same content since you don’t have extras or alternative version of the movie. USB or Streaming is just more convenient for mosts.

    Still would be nice to see more FLOSS support in this sense. We used to make custom art for our burned CD in the 90s.

    I always prefer dedicated physical media for the stuff I really care and/or can afford: people underestimate the value of something you can easily show, gift, play, sell, etc. Digital contents don’t have this intrinsic value in our physical world, so I don’t think physical media will disappear in the next future.