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I was in Paris recently, and visited both the Cinematheque Francaise and FNAC. I can confirm that they both had amazing selections of Blu-rays, and if they had English subtitles I would have had to have checked several extra bags for my flight home.

I did manage to find a copy “La Femme et le Pantin” (1929) with English subs on Blu-ray and on discount in FNAC, so mission accomplished.

I was also at the Cinematheque a little while back () for the Marilyn Monroe exhibit, and the store there does indeed sell Blu-rays. The larger Fnac outlets typically have good selections too. It’s a shame the location on the Champs-Elysées closed, since that one sold imported Criterions. None of the others do it seems. I’d also recommend Gibert Joseph on Boulevard Saint-Michel(which is akin to NYC’s J&R Music World(no longer exists ) in its overall vibe) and the Potemkine Store, which is sort of like your typical modern-day indie vinyl store except one that sells DVD and Blu-ray rather than music.

This was amusing: the Gamers Nexus channel is producing an in-house Blu-ray with a lot of their Factory Tours and Special Reports on it, and another one with the series about the GPU Smuggling Situation in Asia post-US tariffs.

Sony appear to cease production of the UBP-X700, at least in Japan.

Ugh. Maybe I should get that backup player for my UBP-X800M2 sooner than later.

EDIT: Oh no, they already discontinued the X800M2 in 2025. Eeek. This thing is now going for nearly a thousand bucks. I paid $320 for it only three years ago. Jesus. I really don't want to get a Panasonic if I can help it.

Finch wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2026 3:00 pm Ugh. Maybe I should get that backup player for my UBP-X800M2 sooner than later.

EDIT: Oh no, they already discontinued the X800M2 in 2025. Eeek. This thing is now going for nearly a thousand bucks. I paid $320 for it only three years ago. Jesus. I really don't want to get a Panasonic if I can help it.

Pardon my confusion, but why so against Panasonic?

Unfortunate that physical media sales are strong but the manufacturing capacity to even build physical disc players is eroding.

We're down to entry level Sony, midrange Panasonic (now $650 USD!), and the high end Magnetar players...

midnitedave wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2026 7:29 pm

Finch wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2026 3:00 pm Ugh. Maybe I should get that backup player for my UBP-X800M2 sooner than later.

EDIT: Oh no, they already discontinued the X800M2 in 2025. Eeek. This thing is now going for nearly a thousand bucks. I paid $320 for it only three years ago. Jesus. I really don't want to get a Panasonic if I can help it.

Pardon my confusion, but why so against Panasonic?

My own Panasonic 820 is *Great* 90 percent of the time, but the 10 percent of discs it absolutely bungles are maddening. I get 25 minutes into an incredible Dolby Vision encode of Eyes Wide Shut and the entire screen pixelates and tiles, sound drops out, disc is unwatchable. I've only had this problem with 4-5 Criterion UHDs and a couple of others, but cleaning the discs does nothing to resolve it.

I'm glad I bought a second Sony UBP-X800M2 player, but maybe I should've bought a third. They're now $949 on 220 Electronics, almost double what I paid just last year!

What onedimension said. Some Panasonic players are atrocious at reading the discs. I'd consider the PS5 since I like gaming but it's not DV compatible. So I'm stuck with the lower entry X700U or an LG player. Household finances don't allow for a massive spend so I'm left hoping there's no further significant price increases. I did contemplate getting a second player while they were still at normal price levels and decided against it. Dagnabit.

onedimension wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2026 9:56 pm the high end Magnetar players...

What did you hear/read about those, onedimension? I knew of Oppo but Magnetar are completely new to me.

Finch wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2026 11:38 pm

onedimension wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2026 9:56 pm the high end Magnetar players...

What did you hear/read about those, onedimension? I knew of Oppo but Magnetar are completely new to me.

It's $1599 for their lowest tier model- in theory it's Oppo tier, but I've heard anecdotes about their players having problems, too.

Here's a "TechRadar" review, not super rigorous.

Long blu-ray forum discussion I haven't read..

There's a "Krovatar" brand emerging out of China, too.. early discussion is on avsforum.com

Panasonic released the first firmware update in ages within the last 1-2 weeks. Didn't fix anything for me but they are aware of the problems. It's especially triple-layer 100GB discs that the laser struggles to pick up.

Thank you, I appreciate you. If I end up having to spend 1K eventually, might as well try one of the Magnetar.

This is interesting, because I've often heard it's the Sony players rather than the Panasonic ones that struggle with triple-layer discs.

I never bought the top-tier players from either brand, but my Sony UHD player has never frozen or broken up while my Panasonic did regularly.

I really hope some enterprising company comes along to make players, though I expect components like optical disc drives will be harder and harder to source.

So we're now down to one major company manufacturing 4K players, meanwhile in the same week Criterion literally can't make enough Kubrick box sets to keep them from flying off the shelves. The boutique labels continue to churn out releases that seem to do healthy sales and that doesn't seem to be slowing down, but will we have anything to play them on? Or is it more that the UHD format specifically is in danger and Blu-ray is "safe," at least for the time being?

If it were me, I'd grab a Blu-ray backup player while you can still get them cheap. I would not make the assumption those will keep getting made and it just can't hurt to have a second player at hand. I haven't checked if the big players have only discontinued the UHD players, for full transparency.

It must make sense for somebody to manufacture UHD units. This is kind of a real-life example in reverse, but the owner of Music Direct (while sells audiophile stereo equipment in Chicago) realized back in the 2000s that a dearth of new audiophile-quality releases would hamper his sales, so he purchased Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab which had been dormant for years after falling into bankruptcy. That was over 20 years ago, and the success of the label has vindicated his logic for buying that label. I don't expect Criterion to get into the Blu-ray manufacturing business - it makes less sense when the company is now heavily invested in streaming - but given how many boutiques are built on selling physical media, it feels logical that one of them might consider that path, maybe even licensing Oppo's technology and putting out new units.

hearthesilence wrote: Sat Oct 24, 2026 7:31 pm it feels logical that one of them might consider that path, maybe even licensing Oppo's technology and putting out new units.

Resurrection of Oppo would be a dream, but didn't they move to China & switch to phones?

Speaking of which, is there anyone (in the US) repairing or modding Oppo units still (knock on wood)? I miss being able to drive to the warehouse & dropping mine off to repair by Oppo themselves.

That would be the point of licensing - Oppo retains ownership of their technology but they allow someone else to manufacture the units and sell them. Presumably there’s no risk, they just collect a licensing fee and the licensee assumes all the costs. Where they’re located wouldn’t be a factor.

onedimension wrote: Sat Oct 24, 2026 12:48 am Sony is discontinuing their 700 player...

Has anyone here tried this upgraded X700 version from 220-electronics, and if yes, what is your opinion? Is it worth the price? Thanks!

I am in the market for a 4k player as well. Here in EU, we still have the Sony 700 readily available for prices around $300. I think I will go for this as it has DV and HDR100 and it is still half the price of the Panasonic ub820. It helps that EU consumer law demands that it works as expected for at least 2 years. It is pretty funny that it seems pretty evenly split as far as Panasonic constantly skips and Sony solved my problems and the complete opposite. I also have multiple dedicated region-free BD players, so I don't have to worry about that consideration.