It almost seemed like a sure thing. After having 4K TVs on the market for over two years and announcing the impressive new 4K HDR X930D Android TV, surely Sony would also unveil a 4K UDK Blu-ray player. In fact just two months ago, Sony Pictures announced six 4K HDR Blu-ray titles for 2016 which require the new UHD players for playback.

Alas, it’s not meant to be as no 4K UHD Sony Blu-ray players were announced at CES 2016. More on this after the jump.

Speaking with several reps at CES made it clear that Sony’s current focus is on their 4K upscaling units and that no 4K UHD was on the docket for the company. This seems like a strange omission, seeing how their own film division is preparing to pump out 4K HDR films and that rivals like Panasonic and Samsung did in fact unveil 4K UHD players.

Unlike other technologies like OLED, a 4K UHD player should be something far easier to engineer and release to the world as it’s all proven and standard technology by now. This leaves those who purchase Sony’s 4K HDR TVs in the position of having to reach outside the Sony ecosystem to complete their viewing experience.

While the Sony enthusiast in me is disappointed by this news, it actually makes sense. As much as Sony wants to push 4K HDR, the reality is that there are a lot of other players in this field with more money than Sony. With fewer resources at hand (read: less money in the bank), Sony needs to be selective about what products it spends its R&D money on and ultimately chooses to release.

As sexy as it sounds for the company to release a 4K UHD player, the reality is that sales of it would be nearly inconsequential, compared to money Sony would spend on the unit. After all, it’s not like the 4K TV market is all that big and even smaller is the number of TVs that can support HDR. On top of that, nearly no Blu-ray titles exist in 4K or 4K HDR and once on the market, you can be assured that they won’t be cheap.

Instead, what I hope and believe that Sony is doing is allowing others to mature and flesh out the market. Why not let Samsung spend money on getting the word out there on 4K HDR and release their players which at first won’t be cheap and will still be targeted at the few? Once the market has matured and consumer awareness is on the rise, Sony will be able to produce a great 4K UHD player at a better price point and release it to the masses with some demand in place.

As it stands, Sony is tasked with creating the tech and fanning the demand flames, something that even if the company was able to do, would yield very low returns – other than the praise of some journalists who at times have very little understanding of business/engineering and instead just ‘want’ things.

Make no mistake that a 4K UHD Sony Blu-ray player will come out at some point. It just might not be in 2016 and that’s okay. In fact, thanks to services like Amazon and Netflix offering 4K HDR content, there might be little reason for Sony to ever release such a player and the days of physical media are more numbered than ever. And before you grill me on the matter, I know how much compression happens when streaming versus physical media like Blu-ray but when the collective market decides, you simply have to roll with it. Otherwise, Sony would still be producing CD and vinyl players.

Discuss:

Would you purchase a 4K UHD Sony Blu-ray player or are you content with streaming services?