The Blu-ray market has suffered another blow, with Sony announcing that it’s pulling all of its existing Blu-ray recorders from sale globally. It hasn’t announced any successors.
Sony’s decision does not come as a surprise, for it has been winding back on its Blu-ray products for several years already. In June 2024, the company laid off 40% of the staff within its optical media department, which researches and develops Blu-ray technology. Then, in January 2025, it said it would stop manufacturing recordable Blu-ray discs, ending more than 18 years of production.
Given that there are no more new BD-R and BD-RE format discs available to buy, there’s really not going to be much need for Blu-ray recorders in future, and so it makes absolute sense for Sony to stop selling the devices.
Sony last introduced a Blu-ray recorder in early 2024, just a few months before it made the decision to stop manufacturing recordable discs, which explains why it hasn’t offered any new models since and does not have any successors planned.
That said, if you have your heart set on owning one, there may still be a window of opportunity. A Google translated update on Sony’s website said the announcement affects the BDZ-ZW1900 recorder from 2024, as well as the BDZ-FBT4200, BDZ-FBT2200 and BDZ-FBW2200 models that launched a year earlier. It explicitly says they’re going to be “phased out” by the end of the month, so if you move quickly, you might just be able to purchase one before Sony draws the curtains. Failing that, Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace is likely going to be your best option.
We should point out that the announcement only pertains to Blu-ray recorders, and thankfully not Blu-ray players. So anyone with a Blu-ray disc collection in need of a new player will still be able to find Sony’s most recent model, the UBP-X700/K. The new device was surprisingly launched last year, the company’s first new Blu-ray player in six years. It isn’t really “new” though, but rather just a “streamlined” remake of the once-popular Sony UBP-X700 player that debuted back in 2018, minus functions such as WiFi connectivity, Spotify Connect and screen mirroring. It’s a downgrade and essentially just a disc player, in other words, but it does still have an Ethernet port, though that’s mainly intended for firmware updates.
Alternatively, if you look hard enough, you might be able to find Sony’s second-most recent Blu-ray player, the UBP-X800M2, which launched in 2019 and does have advanced network functionality.
You’ll probably want to buy a Sony model because there are very few alternatives these days. Sales of Blu-ray discs have been declining for years, with the industry being savaged by the popularity of video streaming services like Netflix, which are way more convenient for most people. But the agonizingly slow death of the Blu-ray format has been painful for many committed TV and video enthusiasts, for even the best quality streams fail to match the picture quality afforded by physical media.
Declining sales of Blu-ray discs convinced Oppo and Samsung to stop selling Blu-ray players several years ago, and they were followed by LG Electronics in 2024. Last year, another higher-end brand called Reavon quit, just before Pioneer said it has stopped making the optical disc drives that are essential components of Blu-ray, CD and DVD players.
Sony, together with Panasonic, is one of the brands still selling Blu-ray players that are easily affordable. Besides them, the alternatives include Magnetar’s high-end UDP900MKII and UDP800MKI Blu-ray players, which launched in December and cost £2,500 and £1,350, respectively. The Chinese brand Pannde also sells a couple of premium Blu-ray models.
