• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Some Xbox Series X Owners Are Having Major Problems With 4K Blu-Rays

Joule

Joule

Member
Nov 19, 2017
4,243
www.purexbox.com

Some Xbox Series X Owners Are Having Major Problems With 4K Blu-Rays

"No update has patched this yet"
www.purexbox.com www.purexbox.com

While a dedicated player is ideal, I am currently stuck with my Series X as the only option for watching my discs while I await my player. Unfortunately, there is one glaring problem.

For those who don't know, movies on 4K Blu-ray are usually printed on 2 different kinds of discs, a dual-layer 66GB disc, or a triple-layer 100GB disc.

The Series X can play 66GB discs perfectly fine. The tight bastards over at Disney have never issued a movie on a 100GB disc afaik, so Doctor Strange in 4K went down a treat the other day.

However, if you put a 100GB 4K disc in (which, at this point, a decent amount of 4K Blu-rays are), the Xbox completely shits out. For me, it plays everything at 1 - 2 fps with no audio, which pretty much results in taking minutes to get through the opening studio logo which is like 10 seconds at best.

I have had my Series X for about 6 months now, and no update has patched this error yet. Microsoft loves to slap "Ultra HD Blu-ray playback" on the box, but in reality it can currently only play about 30 - 40% of 4K discs. Appalling.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Screen-Shot-2022-01-15-at-7-51-51-PM.png

In addition to this, the thread is filled with complaints about how loud the drive can get when playing 4K Blu-Rays. Interestingly, a reliable solution is to reportedly turn the Xbox Series X on its side, rather than keeping it upright.

In regards to the more serious issues, reports are varied. Some say they can play 4K Blu-Rays with no problems whatsoever, others have suggested fixes such as clearing persistent storage and moving the Blu-Ray app to the internal drive before inserting the disc, and some say they simply can't get 4K Blu-Rays to work properly at all.

The one thing everyone seems to agree on, however, is that the PS5 simply does Blu-Rays better than Xbox.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

500 comment reddit thread that is the source

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com www.reddit.com

It appears the main issue is that the Xbox has difficulty reading 100GB discs
 
Tokklyym

Tokklyym

Member
Oct 28, 2017
276
I've had a Series X for a little over a year, and I haven't had any issues. How can I tell if the discs I've been playing are 66GB or 100GB?
 
Coolsambob

Coolsambob

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,268
I played my first 4k disc on the One X and immediately ordered a dedicated player after, I guess this is why. It just seemed worse than Blu-Ray
 
Ryuelli

Ryuelli

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,209
I had trouble with 4k blu rays on both my Series X and my One S, so I ultimately decided to go down the dedicated player route. I picked up a UB820 and have no regrets, it's excellent.
 
coma

coma

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,576
I just looked up a list of which discs are 100GB and I've watched a number of them recently without issue on my Series X.
 
Phokal

Phokal

Member
Oct 25, 2017
452
WI
I've noticed similar issues, but less severe: at certain points in the movie the disc drive gets really loud. Like it's spinning extra hard. I've actually noticed that both the ps5 and xsx have the same issues at the same time stamps, but the ps5 is a tad quieter about it: it's "that's loud" while the xsx is "is this going to break?" loud.

Both usually resolve in about 5 minutes. My hunch has been it's reading near the center of the disc or something, but hadn't seen anyone else report issues.
 
Dhruvenator

Dhruvenator

Member
Aug 29, 2019
1,168
Hmmm I haven't had any problems so far! Hopefully there is a fix for those that do have problems
 
canderous

canderous

Prophet of Truth
Member
Jun 12, 2020
8,688
in reality it can currently only play about 30 - 40% of 4K discs
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If that's actually true, it's kind of insane that it took this long to hear any kind of hullabaloo about this. Either it shows just how few people buy 4k media or maybe an update broke something. Like you'd think initial series x reviews would mention it that 2/3 of movies don't function.
 
CommodoreKong

CommodoreKong

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,707
canderous said:
If that's actually true, it's kind of insane that it took this long to hear any kind of hullabaloo about this. Either it shows just how few people buy 4k media or maybe an update broke something. Like you'd think initial series x reviews would mention it that 2/3 of movies don't function.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I wonder if it could be issues with only a certain brand of drives if Microsoft uses more than one kind.
 
Powerofthecloud

Powerofthecloud

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,427
I had this issue with one of the lord of the rings 4K movies the first time I used it. The same thing happened as what the op was saying the thing just played at a frame or two second or froze. After 5 minutes I just put it in my PlayStation
 
gr8kamon

gr8kamon

Member
Oct 30, 2017
430
I watched Nobody on 4k UHD recently and it was giving me some problems starting and when I paused. Once it went once to the home screen

The bigger problem imo is my disc drive is loud as hell when playing a disc. Both PS5 and XSX though so maybe I'm sensitive to it
 
etta

etta

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,512
canderous said:
If that's actually true, it's kind of insane that it took this long to hear any kind of hullabaloo about this. Either it shows just how few people buy 4k media or maybe an update broke something. Like you'd think initial series x reviews would mention it that 2/3 of movies don't function.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Just goes to show not many use it for that purpose.
 
krae_man

krae_man

Master of Balan Wonderworld
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,599
I had an issue with Knives Out on my PS5 where it kept going in and out of HDR. Had to disable HDR on my TV to get it to work. There may have been one other disk I had this issue with that I'm forgetting. Other than that, no issues.
 
JigglesBunny

JigglesBunny

Prophet of Truth
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
31,119
Chicago
The 4K Blu-Ray experience on consoles has never been particularly robust. They're the most barebones players, prone to issues like this and controlling the menus is often a nightmare.

The obvious "answer" for the consumer is to buy a dedicated player, but that's not realistic for many and is frankly just unreasonable. I've gone through dedicated players all my life but consoles should offer a reasonable experience if they're offering the functionality. Dedicated players, especially high end models, are expensive. Consumers shouldn't feel pressured into going that route when their console claims to offer a satisfactory experience. In my opinion, the last solid console-intergrated player was the PS3 and even that wasn't always perfect with menus occasionally chugging or BD-Live functionality being spotty.

Both Microsoft and Sony should put some elbow grease into making their consoles more respectable entertainment players if they're going to plaster the logo and marketing everywhere on their boxes. A dedicated player is for dedicated home media enthusiasts, it shouldn't become the default for casual consumers who just want to watch the occasional Marvel 4K disc on their Xbox.
 
Dan-o

Dan-o

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,893
100GB (triple layer) discs are just shit in general. Some will play perfectly fine on one player, and terrible on another, and then other discs will be the opposite.

This is one reason why I've got into the habit of backing my discs up when I open them. There's just no guarantee that they'll play properly down the road.
 
Hero_of_the_Day

Hero_of_the_Day

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
17,341
Don't own a Series. But, my One was a fucking garbage 4k Blu-ray player. It absolutely hated certain movies/discs.
 
Firmus_Anguis

Firmus_Anguis

Member
Oct 30, 2017
6,116
I've only used my PS5's so far (as it's slightly better), but haven't really tried it out on my XSX...

This sucks though! :(
 
Zem

Zem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,970
United Kingdom
hmm I have the Spider-Verse 4K disc and that played fine for me. I don't like playing discs though because the Series X is really loud when you do so that tip in the OP might be useful in future.
 

Alby_Duckett

Member
Oct 27, 2017
74
I think there's just increasing problems with triple layer 4k discs or at least certain standards across players. Even my dedicated sony x800m-2 and my friend's Panasonic 820 have issues with discs freezing and skipping, but probably not at the same rate as the issues on the xbox series x. I've had discs skip on my sony x800 that play perfectly fine on my ps5.
 
aspiring

aspiring

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,545
Can't say I have had any troubles with mine but I don't know what size the discs would be. Also lots of mine are Disney so I guess they would be fine.

Saving Private Ryan, and the Spiderman movies were all fine though.

interested if the PS5 is the same?
 
Magnus

Magnus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,369
Couldn't get Atmos off Thrones 4K on the Series X, but worked perfectly on the PS5.
 
Cream Stout

Cream Stout

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,613
After the shitty playback my One X gave me, I bought a standalone player. Had hope for my Series X but still had lots of artifacting and stuttering issues. Made me sad
 

cecilpaladin32

Member
Apr 24, 2018
3,607
I bought Nobody around Black Friday, but I haven't gotten around to watching it yet; it'll be the first 4K disk that I try on my XSX. Fortunately, I plan on on being completely digital for tv/movies and will be giving the disk away to a friend after I watch it once.
 
tapedeck

tapedeck

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,977
Thankfully I've yet to have any issues, I think I've watched about 10 movies on 4K disc on it.
 
THE RABID MOOSE

THE RABID MOOSE

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,282
Too be fair, the Xbox one was even a terrible Blu ray player, the issues persisting into its successor were not surprising. It varies so much between each 4k Blu ray, played the Indiana Jones trilogy just fine, but others like that war movie thats 60fps, I go through scene select and it hardlocks the whole Xbox. I should buy a dedicated one but they're still like $300 CAD and I have no room on my damn shelf.
 
MrBenchmark

MrBenchmark

Member
Dec 8, 2017
2,034
4K discs are honestly a giant pain in the ass period! You honestly have to clean them right from New always because they have this residue from manufacturers and it makes them skip freeze etc. even on a dedicated player I have an lg UBK90 and even on that they act up some they are very picky where I can throw in any regular Blu-ray or dvd and they just play.
 
theAllseeingEYE

theAllseeingEYE

Member
Apr 4, 2018
4,513
Vancouver, BC
ghibli99 said:
I have no idea if I have any 100GB 4K BRDs. Guess it's time to look...


This more specific link might help:

List of 4K UHDs which use BD100 - Blu-ray Forum

List of 4K UHDs which use BD100 4K Blu-ray and 4K Movies
forum.blu-ray.com forum.blu-ray.com
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Just took a look at this list, and I've had no issues playing several of these discs on my Series X.

For example, I have:
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy
- Hobbit Trilogy
- Watchmen Ultimate Cut
- Alien

I've never personally seen any sort of consistent issue where a movie will run at 2-3 fps. I have seen on occasion though, as issue when the movie will go black screen until I reboot the app. Not sure if that is an HDCP handshake issue with my TV.

My guess is that there are certainly some faulty players out there, maybe even a faulty run of certain models are causing consistent issues for a certain batch of users?
 
Beef Supreme

Beef Supreme

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,073
The only problem I've had playing movies on the series x is the lack of Dolby Vision support. Otherwise, no problems at all.
 
NinjaGarden

NinjaGarden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,550
Interesting...not a Series X problem but my Pacific Rim disc doesn't work on my PS5 but has no problems on my One X. Maybe the same issue.
 
JFoul

JFoul

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,783
For me at least, no issues on my Series X.

Alien, Godzilla KOM, Pacific Rim and The Thing have played with no issues.

I have a feeling it depends on which OEM Drive is being used.
 
TheKid

TheKid

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,517
Bay Area
My series x just randomly stopped reading 4K discs :( anyone know of any tricks? I tried restarting the console, full power cycle, uninstalling the blu ray app, clearing the blu ray cache. Nothing will work. Also my warranty just expired a few weeks ago. It reads regular blu rays fine just not the 4K ones
 
MauroNL

MauroNL

What Are Ya' Buying?
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,253
The Netherlands
Yeah, the Blu-ray app definitely has some quirks. My Jumanji and Dark Knight Rises discs won't read at all and when I was watching Inception a while ago it started skipping frames so I had the restart a scene every once in a while. Gets kind of annoying sometimes but I can't be arsed to buy another device for my set-up.
 

martinstraka8282

Member
Dec 15, 2017
1,354
Their background music app sucks too.

PS5 I can play all my FLAC files from a hard drive and mix it with game audio. I do it every time I play a sports, racing or platforming game.

On Xbox, I can do that too... but limited to 200 songs, so it's essentially useless. Half assed bs.
 
Koukalaka

Koukalaka

Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,287
Scotland
gr8kamon said:
I watched Nobody on 4k UHD recently and it was giving me some problems starting and when I paused. Once it went once to the home screen

The bigger problem imo is my disc drive is loud as hell when playing a disc. Both PS5 and XSX though so maybe I'm sensitive to it
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I noticed the noise the other day on my Series X with a 4K disc. I'll need to pop in a standard Blu-ray to compare.
 
Last edited:
FrsDvl

FrsDvl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,118
Had the issues with my One X and bought a dedicated player. Never tested the Series X playback but I'm not surprised there's issues. Don't count on them getting fixed. They never were on the One X
 
You must log in or register to reply here.