Sony withdraws from recordable Blu-ray, MiniDV, and MiniDisc media, but don’t panic!
Sony's withdrawal reflects a current trend towards the decline of physical media, although it does not necessarily mean the end of its trajectory.
Sony has announced that starting in February 2025, it will cease production of four recordable media formats: Blu-ray discs, MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV tapes, with no plans to replace them with newer versions. This news is unfortunate for enthusiasts of these formats and for devices that rely on them, although it is not surprising. The growing trend toward streaming services for movies, shows, and music, as well as the widespread use of smartphones to capture images and videos, has been bringing about the decline of physical media for years.
However, the end of these formats will not happen immediately. For now, Blu-ray discs, MiniDiscs, and MiniDV tapes continue to be manufactured by other brands, although options may be limited depending on the required format. In the case of recordable Blu-ray discs, Amazon offers a wide variety of brands and versions. There are also various options available for MiniDV tapes. However, MiniDiscs seem to be scarce among third-party brands, with HHB and JVC being the only alternatives available on Amazon. On the other hand, the MD data— the non-audio format that Sony developed from its MiniDisc platform— appears to be at risk of extinction, as a quick search did not show any non-Sony sources offering these cartridges. If you still rely on the MD Data format, it would be advisable to stock up before it completely disappears and to plan for a migration to another storage medium.
It is important to note that Sony's production of recordable media is not related to the use of Blu-ray as a distribution format for movies and other video content. So far, major producers have not indicated plans to stop releasing new titles on UltraHD Blu-ray, though some have begun phasing out the older 1080p HD Blu-ray format.
