Physical media is making a resurgence, and it’s not hard to see why. People are starting to grow frustrated with the cost of streaming services and notice the quality issues that come with streaming content. TV show and movie buffs might be tempted to start a physical media collection again, and it’s not a bad idea. However, the physical media landscape isn’t as simple in 2026 as it was in the heyday of DVDs and Blu-rays. There are two kinds of Blu-ray discs now, and just looking for the translucent blue packaging isn’t enough.
Plenty of TVs, streaming boxes, and streaming services tout 4K video support — the higher-resolution streaming content has been the standard for a while. It’s easy to forget that not every Blu-ray disc offers 4K quality. If you try your hand at collecting Blu-rays and notice a quality dropoff compared to streaming, it’s probably because you aren’t buying the right ones. Many studios bundle lossless Dolby Atmos audio with the higher-quality Blu-ray version, so there’s a surround sound incentive too.
Please stop using old HDMI cables
That old cable is limiting what you can do with your modern display.
4K UHD is the Blu-ray that actually beats streaming
1080p is fine, but 4K Blu-rays are what you want in 2026
Looking back, we might recall DVDs offering decent or good picture quality, with Blu-rays offering an even higher resolution. In the context of modern display and recording technologies, DVD and Blu-ray discs are worse than we likely remember. The standard picture quality for a DVD in North America is 480p — that’s lower-quality than most YouTube videos automatically play at. This is only what is called “Standard Definition,” or SD for short. I know, it’s been a while since we had to think about the difference between SD and HD.
Blu-rays brought “High Definition” video content to media discs thanks to their expanded storage capabilities, and as the name conveys, the blue laser used to read the discs. A standard Blu-ray disc is 1080p, which firmly counts as HD. This felt like a massive upgrade over DVD at the time, but now, it lags behind what most modern streaming devices and services provide. We’re used to watching 4K content, or 2160p video. Blu-ray has a major bitrate advantage, but even that isn’t enough to make up for the lack of resolution when comparing a 1080p disc to 4K streaming content.
There are 4K UHD Blu-ray discs now, and they’ve been around for roughly a decade. If you’ve missed them, that isn’t exactly surprising. The first-ever 4K UHD Blu-ray released in 2016, and they became readily available right as the industry was shifting away from physical media toward streaming or digital downloads. Since playing 4K UHD Blu-ray content required a new player, many people opted not to upgrade. They simply rode their standard Blu-ray player into the streaming era, skipping 4K UHD Blu-ray entirely.
4K UHD Blu-ray discs feature a number of improvements over standard Blu-ray. For one, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs offer higher bitrates, which vary based on their size. 50GB discs provide either 72Mbps or 92Mbps bitrates, while 66GB or 100GB discs have bitrates of 92Mbps, 123Mbps, or 144Mbps. Contrast that with streaming services that provide typical 4K streaming bitrates of between 15Mbps and 40Mbps, and it’s easy to see why 4K UHD Blu-ray discs come out on top.
That supported 4K quality matters more than you think. A 4K UHD Blu-ray disc can display about 8.3 million pixels, and that’s quadruple the resolution of a standard Blu-ray disc.
Lossless Dolby Atmos is usually tied to 4K UHD
It’s not a technical limitation, but it’s a selling point of 4K Blu-rays
There are also surround sound implications to the Blu-ray disc you choose, but they aren’t as clear. There are no technical limitations that prevent studios from offering lossless Dolby Atmos audio on a 1080p Blu-ray disc. However, these lower-end discs often include 5.1 DTS-HD or 7.1 DTS-HD rather than lossless Dolby Atmos via Dolby TrueHD. The higher-quality, Dolby TrueHD-encoded Dolby Atmos masters are often reserved for the 4K UHD Blu-ray releases.
The best way to determine whether a Blu-ray release you want supports lossless Dolby Atmos is to check the packaging. Or, use a crowdsourced database like Blu-ray.com to verify the audio master that comes with a specific Blu-ray release. Chances are, though, that you’ll need a 4K UHD Blu-ray if you want lossless Dolby Atmos audio. It makes sense that home theater buffs wanting immersive Atmos sound would also enjoy 4K video resolution, and vice versa.
Don’t make the mistake of only upgrading discs
You need a Blu-ray player and TV capable of 4K playback, too
I’ve been slowly building a physical media collection for video to pair with my extensive vinyl, CD, and cassette collection for music. It was trickier than I thought — I expected the quality of DVDs and Blu-rays to be up to par. As it turns out, DVD and Blu-ray are lower-resolution than I remembered, and the upgrade to 4K UHD matters. You can’t just upgrade your discs, however. You need a compatible 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player to handle that extra resolution, and these modern players are backwards-compatible with standard 1080p Blu-rays as well.
- Brand
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Sony (UBPX700U)
- Ports
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Ethernet, Wi-Fi, HDMI, Coaxial
- Connectivity
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Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD, DTS:X
Sony’s UBPX700U 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player is the perfect solution for playing lossless Dolby Atmos discs. It supports Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD, DTS:X surround sound modes, with HDMI and coaxial audio outputs. The player also has Dolby Vision and HDR for visuals. In addition to Blu-ray discs, this player can handle DVDs and CDs.
