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25 Jan 2025

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Winston Peters speaks with new US Secretary of State
Peters reaffirmed New Zealand's partnership with the United States.

She has 2.6 million Instagram followers but couldn’t care less about social media
Ellyse Perry reveals what drives her to stay at the top of her game after 17 years ahead of the historic day-night Test at the MCG.

Myers glides home for Zatopek title
Eighteen-year-old Cameron Myers cruises past Jack Anstey to win the 3000m at the 2024 Zatopek athletics meet in Melbourne.

Commentator's disbelief over Djokovic booing
Sam Smith weighs in on the reaction from the crowd to Novak Djokovic after he quit his Australian Open semi-final.

Gun Aussie coach in Sinner's corner
Darren Cahill is the gun Aussie coach in Jannik Sinner's corner and Daniela Hantuchova explains the impact he had on her own career.

Breakers’ woes continue with loss in Christchurch
Breakers’ star guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright was injured during the NBL loss to Brisbane in Christchurch on Friday night.

Kiwis need to ‘get over ourselves’ and find DOC land for mining, minister says
Resources Minister Shane Jones says he will be making a “major speech” next week about mining and related economic matters.

Storms and heavy rain to sweep east across the motu
A change in the weather is expected this weekend.

Kiwi Zoi Sadowski-Synnott wins another X Games gold medal
New Zealand snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has claimed an X Games gold medal - and created history with her skill and courage in Aspen.

Boxing: All you need to know about Mea Motu's historic bout
It's the fight Mea Motu has been asking for and history now beckons for the NightMea on Sunday against fellow unbeaten boxer Ellie Scotney.

Watch: All Blacks Sevens suffer first-ever loss to Uruguay
Uruguay stunned the All Blacks Sevens by snaring an historic victory over the powerhouse team at the world sevens series' in Perth.

‘I’ll try anything’: Madison’s keys to try to stop Aryna Sabalenka’s history-making run
Madison Keys has learnt plenty since her last, and first, grand slam final – mainly to embrace the prospect of being “uncomfortable 99 per cent of the time”.

What next for ailing Djokovic?
Daniela Hantuchova and Chris Stubbs look at what next for Novak Djokovic after his shock Australian Open retirement.

Barty reflects on Djokovic retirement
Ash Barty gives her take on Novak Djokovic quitting his Australian Open semi final and the crowd's reaction to him.

Five reasons Penrith will win the premiership again ... and one reason they won’t
This might be tough reading for league fans who do not support the Penrith Panthers.

Fiji HIV outbreak: Too early to tell of impact on NZ, charity says
The rise in infections "put the entire Pacific region at risk", expert says, as charity monitors situation.

Nail-biting finale brings The Traitors to dramatic end
It brings to a close a hugely successful series which has been watched by more than nine million viewers.

Man faces charges after 5-hour police stand-off on Auckland’s North Shore
A resident told Stuff around eight police cars, two ambulances and a fire engine were at the scene, along with the armed offenders squad.

A young Aussie entrepreneur is working to put the buzz back into Wellington
Hannah Whybird already has three ventures under way at the age of 23, including the new community initiative, Wellington Alive, launched last week.

No, Sony’s Blu-ray exit doesn’t spell the end for physical media
Fans of physical media—myself included—tend to be a morbid bunch, dwelling on the rise of streaming while bemoaning the steady decline of Blu-ray, the home-media format of choice for cinephiles. So when word came down that Sony will exit the recordable Blu-ray market next month, it naturally triggered a firestorm in the physical media community, not to mention dozens of scary headlines about—once again—the imminent death of Blu-ray discs. The last time funeral bells tolled this loudly for Blu-ray, it was because Best Buy had announced it was pulling the discs from its stores, leaving physical media fans to scrounge the shelves at Barnes & Noble…or, you know, simply order our discs online at Amazon or plenty of other outlets. Well, Blu-ray (both standard and the UHD variety) survived the Best Buy debacle–albeit in a niche capacity, somewhat akin to vinyl–and from what some industry experts are saying, it will live through this latest Sony brouhaha, too. The editors at Highdefdiscnews.com reached out to David Mackenzie, CEO of Fidelity in Motion, a Blu-ray authoring facility that does work for such boutique Blu-ray labels as Arrow Video, Carlotta Films, Flicker Alley, Warner Archive, Second Sight, and Vinegar Syndrome. According to Mackenzie, Sony’s decision to quit the recordable Blu-ray business (as well as MiniDiscs, MD data, and MiniDV cassettes) has little to do with the overall market of “packaged” movies and TV shows available on Blu-ray. As Mackenzie explains, the types of Blu-ray discs that Sony won’t make any more are “home-recordable” discs, like the blank DVD-Rs and CD-Rs that many of us used for burning photos, MP3s, and other media to disc. That’s very different from the BD-ROM discs pressed in factories for the big movie studios and the smaller, boutique Blu-ray labels. Thus, the Sony news isn’t about how streaming is muscling out Blu-ray, Mackenize argues. Instead, it’s about how cloud and flash storage has decimated the market for blank Blu-ray media. “This story has been inaccurately–and, I would argue, irresponsibly–reported by some media outlets apparently unaware of the key distinction between home-recordable media (BD-R and BD-RE discs) and the professionally replicated Blu-ray movies you buy in a store (BD-ROM),” Mackenzie said, as quoted by Highdefdiscnews.com. “The latter is unaffected by Sony’s Storage Media division deciding to phase out home-recordable discs.” Now, to be clear, the standard and 4K Blu-ray market still represents only the tiniest sliver of the share DVDs commanded 20 years ago, and that’s not going to change. The vast majority of those watching movies and TV shows at home are going to stream them, not spin them up on Blu-ray. But while the audience for Blu-ray discs—particularly 4K Blu-rays—is small, it’s also quite passionate, and there have even been green shoots of growth for UHD Blu-rays in recent years. So, is Sony’s withdrawal from the recordable Blu-ray market a great thing for physical media? No. But it’s not exactly a death knell, either.