Question Apparently no more Disney/Fox catalog on 4K

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Today I read on The Digital Bits that Disney apparently has decided that they will no longer release 4k discs of their catalog titles !
They will shift their focus on Disney+ and related ventures as they think it's more profitable and easier to distribute their main family friendly movies.

They would however still release new fare on disc after their theatrical debut from franchises like Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and Disney Animation.

Keep in mind this is not officially announced by Disney themselves but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if this was true though.

Here's a link to the article on The Digital Bits:

Yes, it appears that Disney currently has no plans for more live-action catalog on physical 4K

What do you guys think of this development ?
 
To be honest what’s left of their back catalogue isn’t going to bowl anyone over so sales would likely be low so understandable
 
The death of physical media is clearly on the horizon. It costs money to produce stuff on disc. Few manufacturers now make players -- Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer (maybe). In the UK, we're mired in the low-rent DVD world, if we actually get stuff released here at all. Streaming services like Disney can exert more control on their content -- for them it's a win-win situation. Welcome to the world of reduced choice and ever-increasing costs.
 
Seriously I was hoping for Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Return to Oz to drop on 4K disc.
 
To be honest what’s left of their back catalogue isn’t going to bowl anyone over so sales would likely be low so understandable

I would disagree as there are many catalog titles in the library that would be nice to have on 4k disc, to name a few :

The Sound Of Music
Speed
Die Hard 2
Die Hard With A Vengence
Aliens
The Day After Tomorrow
Home Alone 1 and 2
The Abyss
True Lies
Avatar
Ice Age 1-2-3-4
Titanic
Unbreakable
The Sixth Sense
Signs
Pearl Harbor
Armageddon
Con Air
Gone in 60 Seconds
Enemy Of The State
King Arthur
Crimson Tide
Tina : What's Love Got To Do With It
National Treasure 1-2
The Three Musketeers
Count Of Monte Cristo

And many more including Disney (Animation) titles that are not released on 4K like Mulan and so on.
They bought Fox but apparently only for the Marvel/Star Wars/Avatar titles for the rest to be put away forever without getting any proper restoration treatment whatsoever !

They apparently have thought about the idea of licensing their catalog to other companies about didn't make any steps going forward with that.
I hope Disney does license out their catalog and smaller companies like Arrow and Shout do get a chance to make proper discs for those movies to enjoy.
 
Indiana jones will still come on 4K UHD hopefully one day!

Disney's loss not putting out 4K UHDs of so many excellent catalog titles they have or Fox have. I could easily list 50 or so I would blind buy with a reasonable 4K transfer so instead of them getting my money for that they get nothing as I do not want or need Disney + & cannot get the 4K HDR streams from it anyway (but can playback 4K UHD HDR discs).

Most will get pirated heavily by consumers who do not live in a part of the world where Disney+ offer 4K HDR streams. They get access to the kaleidescape system & record & put the 4K stream up so Disney lose all that revenue!

It only cost a few £ to put an existing 4K UHD HDR file on a disc so this decision is so shortsighted & will just limit how much Disney make from existing media. This is going to be a massive growth area if the pandemic continues & cinemas stay shut as they can no longer invest $200M+ in a theatrical movie when cinemas can no longer play it on as many packed screens the economics simply do not stack up so that mega budget movie will go away for now.
 
I would disagree as there are many catalog titles in the library that would be nice to have on 4k disc, to name a few :

The Sound Of Music
Speed
Die Hard 2
Die Hard With A Vengence
Aliens
The Day After Tomorrow
Home Alone 1 and 2
The Abyss
True Lies
Avatar
Ice Age 1-2-3-4
Titanic
Unbreakable
The Sixth Sense
Signs
Pearl Harbor
Armageddon
Con Air
Gone in 60 Seconds
Enemy Of The State
King Arthur
Crimson Tide
Tina : What's Love Got To Do With It
National Treasure 1-2
The Three Musketeers
Count Of Monte Cristo

And many more including Disney (Animation) titles that are not released on 4K like Mulan and so on.
They bought Fox but apparently only for the Marvel/Star Wars/Avatar titles for the rest to be put away forever without getting any proper restoration treatment whatsoever !

They apparently have thought about the idea of licensing their catalog to other companies about didn't make any steps going forward with that.
I hope Disney does license out their catalog and smaller companies like Arrow and Shout do get a chance to make proper discs for those movies to enjoy.
The Rock as well is a great movie they own the rights too sadly! I already own on DVD & BD would buy most of these tiles as well if they were on 4K UHD but hey hoo Disney would rather not provide them so I keep my money for the other studios selling great 4K UHD content!!
 
Indiana jones will still come on 4K UHD hopefully one day!

Disney's loss not putting out 4K UHDs of so many excellent catalog titles they have or Fox have. I could easily list 50 or so I would blind buy with a reasonable 4K transfer so instead of them getting my money for that they get nothing as I do not want or need Disney + & cannot get the 4K HDR streams from it anyway (but can playback 4K UHD HDR discs).

Most will get pirated heavily by consumers who do not live in a part of the world where Disney+ offer 4K HDR streams. They get access to the kaleidescape system & record & put the 4K stream up so Disney lose all that revenue!

It only cost a few £ to put an existing 4K UHD HDR file on a disc so this decision is so shortsighted & will just limit how much Disney make from existing media. This is going to be a massive growth area if the pandemic continues & cinemas stay shut as they can no longer invest $200M+ in a theatrical movie when cinemas can no longer play it on as many packed screens the economics simply do not stack up so that mega budget movie will go away for now.

I agree with your last remarks.
Disney isn't making money of their theatrical releases because there is no real market available due to the corona restrictions.
How dumb can Disney be to not invest in their catalog which already exists and has many beloved movies that can earn them money if the product is well made.
A new 4k file could then also be used for streaming/VOD services as well so double as much use and profit.
They are the only company at this point that is losing money while other studios are taping into their catalog and are releasing them while they can't make any real money of new movies.

The live action movie Mulan, which they are going to make available on VOD, cost them 250+ million in production costs and marketing they already did so that will be a BIG dent in their profits by the end of the fiscal year, that's gotta hurt no doubt !
They already have skipped several movies for theatrical release so theater owners aren't happy with Disney either !

Let's keep in mind that Disney has not commented on these rumors themselves yet so all this could be just rumors but if true they have really lost their minds in my opinion.
 
That's a real shame if true, especially since Fox were well on the way to doing much of the groundwork on it's back catalogue for 4K. In many cases it only needed Disney's willingness to release them.
 
Boooo to Disney. :nono:
 
What do you guys think of this development ?
Disappointing news but I don't think many of us are surprised. Disney's commitment to the format has been half hearted at best. If we're honest, most of their UHD releases have been mastered for streaming in mind with the disc release being an afterthought. 2K upscales, rubbish sound mixes designed for soundbars/tv speakers, aggressive DNR etc. The recent (pre-Disney) Star Wars release was a perfect example; they took an eight year old 4K scan of the movies, added an almost unnoticeable HDR layer and scrubbed the film grain to keep the bandwidth down. This was all done with Disney+ in mind and the UHD release is barely worth bothering with as a result. Compare that to some of the great catalogue titles Sony, Universal, Paramount and WB have released in that time?

Personally, the worst part of this news is all the great 20th Century Fox titles we'll be denied by this decision. I've no real interest in any of Disney's ongoing franchises, but losing titles like 'The Abyss' (which underwent a 4K restoration last year) is a bitter pill to swallow. In the longer term, where Disney goes the rest of the media world eventually follows. UHD will limp on for a number of years but one day we'll look back at this moment as the beginning of the end for physical home video.
 
I would disagree as there are many catalog titles in the library that would be nice to have on 4k disc, to name a few :

The Sound Of Music
Speed
Die Hard 2
Die Hard With A Vengence
Aliens
The Day After Tomorrow
Home Alone 1 and 2
The Abyss
True Lies
Avatar
Ice Age 1-2-3-4
Titanic
Unbreakable
The Sixth Sense
Signs
Pearl Harbor
Armageddon
Con Air
Gone in 60 Seconds
Enemy Of The State
King Arthur
Crimson Tide
Tina : What's Love Got To Do With It
National Treasure 1-2
The Three Musketeers
Count Of Monte Cristo

And many more including Disney (Animation) titles that are not released on 4K like Mulan and so on.
They bought Fox but apparently only for the Marvel/Star Wars/Avatar titles for the rest to be put away forever without getting any proper restoration treatment whatsoever !

They apparently have thought about the idea of licensing their catalog to other companies about didn't make any steps going forward with that.
I hope Disney does license out their catalog and smaller companies like Arrow and Shout do get a chance to make proper discs for those movies to enjoy.
I have to admit that of that list its only Aliens and The Abyss I'm bothered about!
 
Home Alone has been announced as coming out on 4K Blu-ray on September 15 in the US which sounds like it is going to be one of their last releases on the format if this is true.
 
Disney’s approach to the format has been odd what with dropping Dolby vision (or was it atmos? Or both?) and now this. The frustrating thing besides missing out on so many catalogue titles is the fact streaming is still some way short of the quality of physical media.
 
While this sounds bad it’s not confirmed yet, let’s wait and see. And those who are saying it’s the death of home media, I doubt it. While it won’t ever be king again it will continue. Just look at music sales, you can still get CD’s. There will be a physical media market for a LONG time to come yet.
 
Disney’s approach to the format has been odd what with dropping Dolby vision (or was it atmos? Or both?) and now this. The frustrating thing besides missing out on so many catalogue titles is the fact streaming is still some way short of the quality of physical media.
I dont think there's anything odd about it...Oddball ;)

Disney want us all to sign up to their streaming service. Well I'm not so that's one person's money they ain't getting!
 
I would disagree as there are many catalog titles in the library that would be nice to have on 4k disc, to name a few :

The Sound Of Music
Speed
Die Hard 2
Die Hard With A Vengence
Aliens
The Day After Tomorrow
Home Alone 1 and 2
The Abyss
True Lies
Avatar
Ice Age 1-2-3-4
Titanic
Unbreakable
The Sixth Sense
Signs
Pearl Harbor
Armageddon
Con Air
Gone in 60 Seconds
Enemy Of The State
King Arthur
Crimson Tide
Tina : What's Love Got To Do With It
National Treasure 1-2
The Three Musketeers
Count Of Monte Cristo

And many more including Disney (Animation) titles that are not released on 4K like Mulan and so on.
They bought Fox but apparently only for the Marvel/Star Wars/Avatar titles for the rest to be put away forever without getting any proper restoration treatment whatsoever !

They apparently have thought about the idea of licensing their catalog to other companies about didn't make any steps going forward with that.
I hope Disney does license out their catalog and smaller companies like Arrow and Shout do get a chance to make proper discs for those movies to enjoy.

Fair enough. I was meaning Disney not FOX , my bad for not reading the post properly
 
If this is true, then what a shame.

Di$ney only purchased Fox to get their hands on the Star Wars franchise amongst other franchises.

If Disney have no interest in releasing anymore Fox titles (that may never see the light of day on Disney Plus), then maybe they can licence these titles to other studios.
 
Yup. Sell off the bits they dont care for. Not just lock the stuff away.

Shame On Disney.

Easy for me to boycott all Disney stuff going forward.

Hopefully someone over there will see fit to break them up. Or their greed will be their downfall and they’ll be forced to offload parts of their empire.
 
I dont think there's anything odd about it...Oddball ;)

Disney want us all to sign up to their streaming service. Well I'm not so that's one person's money they ain't getting!

But I'm sure the mass market would still sign up to Disney+ in droves even if they continued to support 4K Blu Ray, and also AV enthusiasts would buy their titles on 4K disc too in enough numbers to make it worthwhile.
 
The worrying thing is what this means for Disney's less family friendly catalogue releases mainly the ones linked to Fox or touchstone\beuna vista entertainment. It means either
A. They'll have to change their Disney + content policy to allow more adult movies on
B. Set up a secondary streaming platform for their more adult movies
C. Censor movies to make them more acceptable in their view (just look what happened with splash)
D. Quietly forget about these movies and the current physical\streaming versions of them will be as good as it gets
 
In their conference call last week Disney president Bob Chapek said that they are apparently going to release a new streaming platform named Star.
Under this they would drop content from ABC Studios, Fox Television Studios, FX , Freedom and 20th Century Fox / Fox Searchlight.
I would assume that they would drop Touchstone/Hollywood and other movies under that label as well.
Nothing is known if it will be a international service so we'll see what happens in 2021 when it's supposed to launch.
 
so my hope for The Abyss and Aliens Terminator in 4k is lost, although i did hear the caveat that James Cameron has final say over his work, only downside is, he's making 19 Avatar sequels nobody asked for, and hasn't got time to master his old work.
 

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