Sony Blu-Ray Production To End?
I thought I’d confirm that Sony Entertainment is NOT ending the production of blu-rays.
Sony Storage Media Solutions Inc is ending “the production of all models of Blu-ray disc media, mini discs for recording, MD data for recording, and mini DV cassettes” in February 2025 according to their January 23rd, 2025 press release.
They had ended production of blank recordable CD-R and DVD-R on July 1st, 2024 in response to the drop in demand for optical discs, ending some of their BD-R production at their Tagaze, Japan manufacturing plant. And consumers now mostly backup their music and film on Cloud Storage services, external hard drives and solid state drives, because these offer more storage and have dropped in price in some countries.
Yes, LG had decided to no longer manufacture blu-ray players last month so people had believed Sony Entertainment had ended manufacturing Blu-rays in response to the popularity of streaming. But physical media remains popular in areas with little to no high speed access to the streaming services, which are getting more and more expensive and fail to provide access to all music and films.
I’m cancelling my Netflix subscription soon because of their price hike and I’m sure I wont be alone in looking for better options.
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Speaking of streaming services, you should note that a 5,000 PC Optimum point offer is available to individuals purchasing $50 Apple Gift Cards from participating Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix stores until January 31st, 2025. And Apple Music & Apple TV offers are available from PC Optimum.
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PS5 To Only Be Sold Online
I’m not much of a gamer but I thought those who are would like to know that Sony has decided to only offer the Playstation 5 online due to COVID-19. And here are the online retailers that will sell it on November 12th, 2020:
Click here for additional information on the Sony PS5.
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Attention Playstation Users
If you were registered on Playstation, PSN, Qriocity or Sony Online Entertainment from January 1st to May 15th, 2011 and have signed onto the PSN-POE Settlement, you may receive an email entitling you to a free game or other form of compensation. Keep an eye on your email.
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Bad News For Betamax Fans
It looks like Betamax is officially dead, according to a Sony press release that was released today.
Yes, the video format was not killed off during the format Betamax/VHS war and actually lived on in the video production and broadcasting industries until digital video. But Sony has now decided to stop making their blank beta format videocassettes.
Unfortunately that means that some of you hardcore beta fans will no longer have easy access to blank videocassettes for your classic videotape cameras, including those micro MV video cassettes that you’ve used in the 90’s and early 2000’s. And although I don’t have an official Sony betamax videocamera it appears that i’ve used the format several times to film some of my older Youtube videos and have a few of the discontinued Sony micro MV videocassettes in storage.
My format of choice is now of course those digital SDHD cards but hard drive and solid state hard drive camcorders
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EMI Music Publishing Sale Finalized
The regulators in the States and Europe have given the thumbs up for the sale of EMI Music Publishing to Sony. But Universal is still waiting for European regulators to rule on their takeover of EMI’s recorded music operations, which is due in August according to Billboard.
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Standardized 3D Glasses
Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and XPAND 3D have partnered to adopt a standard when it comes to 3D glasses.
In a joint statement, these companies stated that they “Will Seek Development of Joint Licensing on ‘BLUETOOTH® ENABLED RF’ and ‘IR’ Consumer 3D Active Glasses“.
A standardized version of these glassed are to be released next month whilst the full version, “with the new IR/RF protocols will be made available in 2012, and are targeted to be backward compatible with 2011 3D active TVs.”
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