The short version
- Sony Japan has stopped shipping the UBP-X700/K, its last standalone 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player there. It launched in May 2025 and last sold for ¥58,300 (about ₹32,000 converted).
- That leaves the PS5 with a disc drive as Sony's only 4K Blu-ray player in Japan.
- This is Japan only for now. Sony's US site still lists the UBP-X700 ($259.99) and UBP-X800M2 ($329.99), and Sony hasn't announced a global exit.
- Sony keeps selling the BDP-S1700/K in Japan, but it plays regular Blu-ray, not 4K discs.
What changed
FlatpanelsHD spotted the "discontinued" label on Sony Japan's site, and Notebookcheck reports shipments ended on October 22. Sony's Japanese store lists the player as out of stock with no restock planned. There's no replacement model and no statement from Sony.
Japanese site Kunkoku summed up the result: the PS5 will be Sony's only UHD Blu-ray player in Japan.
The UBP-X700/K was itself a stripped-back version. The original UBP-X700 launched in 2018 with streaming apps like YouTube built in. The 2025 /K model dropped those apps and kept the disc playing, which tells you who Sony thought was still buying: collectors who care about discs, not people who want another streaming box.
Part of a longer goodbye
Image: Zerocade
This is one more step in Sony walking away from discs:
- February 2025: Sony stopped making recordable Blu-ray discs.
- February 2026: it said it would gradually end shipments of all its Blu-ray recorders, with no successors.
- Its higher-end UBP-X800M2 player had already been discontinued in some regions.
Other brands are pulling back too. LG ended Blu-ray player production in 2024, though Panasonic still sells 4K players. Streaming has eaten the market, and in many countries new 4K discs are getting harder to find in shops.
Why 4K discs still matter to some people
On paper, a 4K Blu-ray still beats streaming on picture and sound quality. Discs carry far more data than a typical 4K stream, so you get less compression in dark scenes and fast motion, and lossless audio formats. You also own the film, so it can't disappear from a library when a licence runs out.
That's why the remaining audience is small but passionate, and why a dedicated player matters to them.
Where the PS5 fits
The PS5 is now doing two jobs in Japan: games console and default 4K movie player for Sony fans. It isn't a perfect one, though.
Image: Zerocade
The biggest gap is Dolby Vision. Many 4K discs use it for scene-by-scene HDR tuning, and the PS5 doesn't support it for disc playback, while dedicated players like the UBP-X700 do. It also depends on which PS5 you own. The Digital Edition has no drive at all, and the PS5 Pro ships without one too. Both need Sony's separate Disc Drive accessory to play anything physical.
Games are heading the same way. Sony's PS5 page says that from January 2028, new PlayStation games will be sold in digital format only. Sony keeps tweaking the hardware itself too, as our look at the quiet PS5 Slim revision showed.
What it means in India
Nothing changes here yet: Sony hasn't announced anything for India, and the discontinuation so far only covers Japan. If you collect 4K films and own a standalone Sony player, keep it running and look after it. If you're shopping for one, a disc-drive PS5 does the job well enough unless Dolby Vision matters to you.
What to watch
Whether Sony's US and European sites drop the UBP-X700 too, and whether Panasonic, now the biggest name left, keeps making 4K players.
