An era of media ownership has officially come to a close. On February 9, 2026, Sony announced it has completed its final shipments of Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorders in Japan. As the pioneer that launched the world’s first consumer BD recorder in 2003, Sony’s withdrawal signals a permanent shift in how we own—and lose—our favorite content.
A “One-Brand” Market
Sony’s exit follows the departure of TVS REGZA in late 2025, leaving Japanese consumers with almost no domestic choices.
- The Last Survivor: With Sony out, Panasonic (DIGA) is now the only major manufacturer actively developing new Blu-ray recorders in Japan.
- The Software Signal: Sony had already foreshadowed this move by announcing its companion app, Video & TV SideView, will be discontinued in 2027.
- Market Collapse: Once a staple of Japanese living rooms, the recorder market has been “hollowed out” by the rise of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and local catch-up services like TVer.
The Streaming Trap vs. The Disc
It is crucial to distinguish between the recorder and the format. While Sony is stopping the production of recording hardware, the Blu-ray disc itself remains the gold standard for quality.
- Permanence: Streaming catalogs are unstable; titles vanish overnight due to licensing shifts. A physical disc offers the only guarantee of ownership.
- The Quality Gap: UHD Blu-ray software for anime and films remains healthy, offering bitrates and stability that streaming services cannot match.
- Archiving Risk: Many households have switched to recording on external USB hard drives attached to TVs. However, these recordings are often “locked” to a specific TV—if the TV breaks, the data is lost forever.
Why It Matters for 2026
As global TV hardware increasingly shifts toward brands like TCL, which do not prioritize recording ecosystems, the responsibility for preserving media now falls entirely on the user.
- The Archive Role: Blu-ray may no longer be the center of daily viewing, but as a long-term archive format, it is the only reliable defense against “disappearing” digital content.
- Final Call: Sony’s exit is a bittersweet reminder that in a streaming-first world, if you don’t own the disc, you don’t truly own the content.
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