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NEWS: Aniplex USA Stops Shipping Sword Art Online DVD Set 1

I have to actually side with the people who say you should have a Blu-Ray player at this point. Honestly, the things are pretty dirt cheap now, and whether you like it or not obsolete technology isn't going to stick around and remain supported. This is particularly the case nowadays when streaming is really taking over and the home media sales numbers no longer support the idea of companies maintaining support for outdated formats. It's fine if you don't have a Blu-Ray player, but like it or not that means the support for your old format is going to dwindle as Blu-Ray players have the lions share of the market.

Just popping into say Media Blasters has the biggest #%@ quality control I've ever seen. If it's not one thing it's another with them whether it be defective discs, crappy subtitles or awful packaging with a loose disc flying around in the dvd case while shipping to my house.

All I have to say is at least Aniplex USA is taking care of the problem and meanwhile Media Blasters is still shipping out $&*@# quality dvd's and blu-rays since 2007.

So it's nice to see some diversity here, but for those who are actually upset at the other side for doing things how they prefer to do them... well, it's not your life, so don't judge.

For the money they charge, it seems aniplex is doing a really poor job with their release. If I recall correctly, they had a similar problem not too long ago with something else

You're absolutely right in that DVD's are still viable, the problem is the market is no longer as viable. Sales of home media as a whole are way down from where they once were as digital distribution becomes bigger and bigger. Heck, I use my Roku more than my Blu-Ray or my TV Tuner combined at this point. The big problem is that companies are now looking at supporting 2 formats in a market that is far less stable than it used to be, so for a lot of them something has to give. The reality is that DVD, being the lesser format, is going to be the first to go

It's not so much a matter of judging, but rather pointing out the fallacy of arguments against an older format being replaced by a new one. Like it or not DVD is the old format, and sales of discs, and particularly players, has declined substantially and has not had a green tick in years. The trend isn't going to change, and some people are seriously under-estimating how many people have Blu-Ray players now.

In the end though the bottom line is that physical media as a whole is on its way out, and it's just the way of things. You see this in the media world across the spectrum. Digital distribution has taken a huge chunk of the PC gaming market share and is taking its toll in the console market as well. Sales of digital books have now exceeded the sales of physical books. MP3 sales have outpaced CD sales for quite awhile now. This trend is coming to the video market. While Blu-Ray has fluctuated up and down as far as sales go, DVD has done nothing but decline. The sales of players themselves is far more lopsided with DVD player sales near rock bottom compared to Blu-Ray player sales and the media companies know this. When the time comes that something has to go the reality is that something will be DVD's, and even then Blu-Rays days are probably numbered as well. The transition as a whole is simply moving away from physical media.

Well, the "people I know" argument doesn't really apply much. I mean, from that perspective the only person I know that still has a dedicated DVD player is my parents, but they also have a Blu-Ray player on another TV (they also have a VCR still, but that's irrelevant).

You're absolutely right in that DVD's are still viable, the problem is the market is no longer as viable. Sales of home media as a whole are way down from where they once were as digital distribution becomes bigger and bigger. Heck, I use my Roku more than my Blu-Ray or my TV Tuner combined at this point. The big problem is that companies are now looking at supporting 2 formats in a market that is far less stable than it used to be, so for a lot of them something has to give. The reality is that DVD, being the lesser format, is going to be the first to go.

Juno016 wrote:

So it's nice to see some diversity here, but for those who are actually upset at the other side for doing things how they prefer to do them... well, it's not your life, so don't judge.

It's not so much a matter of judging, but rather pointing out the fallacy of arguments against an older format being replaced by a new one. Like it or not DVD is the old format, and sales of discs, and particularly players, has declined substantially and has not had a green tick in years. The trend isn't going to change, and some people are seriously under-estimating how many people have Blu-Ray players now.

In the end though the bottom line is that physical media as a whole is on its way out, and it's just the way of things. You see this in the media world across the spectrum. Digital distribution has taken a huge chunk of the PC gaming market share and is taking its toll in the console market as well. Sales of digital books have now exceeded the sales of physical books. MP3 sales have outpaced CD sales for quite awhile now. This trend is coming to the video market. While Blu-Ray has fluctuated up and down as far as sales go, DVD has done nothing but decline. The sales of players themselves is far more lopsided with DVD player sales near rock bottom compared to Blu-Ray player sales and the media companies know this. When the time comes that something has to go the reality is that something will be DVD's, and even then Blu-Rays days are probably numbered as well. The transition as a whole is simply moving away from physical media.

.....In the end though the bottom line is that physical media as a whole is on its way out, and it's just the way of things.

.....even then Blu-Rays days are probably numbered as well. The transition as a whole is simply moving away from physical media.

Until companies, both anime companies and the makers of the BD/TV market companies make it possible for closed caption to be passed through HDMI/Composite cables and not have locked subtitles for the Japanese track only, I will forever support DVD.

There are many reasons why DVD is still supported over BD. Most laptops still have DVD players instead of BD players installed in their systems and the closed caption/locked subtitle problem I mentioned above are a few reasons why DVDs are more widespread than BDs.

I personally hate BDs because of the reasons above. I am not going to pay extra for a portable BD drive for my laptop nor am I going to get a new laptop that has a BD drive if the one I have works perfectly fine.

I'm surprised that the N. American consumer base for these anime products has been so sluggish on accepting the Blu-ray format. I've always thought that anime fans were "ahead of the curve" when it comes to technology.

Internal laptop BD drives are less common, though you can still buy OEM versions to fit into your own laptop, but a solution are external USB powered slim BD drives, which are affordable and widely available.