OG Xbox One vs Dedicated Blu-Ray Player

[Games Retrospect]

Over the years, I've amassed a collection of DVDs that, although nothing special, it means a lot to me. Lately, I've been thinking about getting some Blu-rays of movies I like, but I don't know that much about the format and the best way to play them. Some people say dedicated players are worth the investment because they are fast, you can use SD cards or flash drives to play pretty much any file, they come with a remote and they also support apps like Netflix or YouTube.Perosnally, my experience hasn't been the best because the Xbox One doesn't play discs right off the bat (you need to download the Blu-ray player app which isn't the best) and using the controller isn't the best, but maybe I didn't give it a fair chance and you get used to it. But I'd like to read other people's opinions with movie watching on consoles because I honestly don't know. I can get a used Blu-ray player for pretty cheap, but I already have an Xbox One. If anyone could help me that would be great!

[krslam]

I'd recommend getting a dedicated unit just to save wear on your xbone. Used bluray players are $10 and under at the local thrifts, sometimes with remotes. Of course, with a used system you have no idea how much wear and tear it's had or if it's a new enough model to have the features you want. I bought a used one that includes a USB port, but the only file format it supports is some obsolete camcorder type so is useless that way.

[Osgeld]

Yea I bought a new one for 30$ on a holiday sale couple years ago cute little phillips

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Dedicated for sure, unless for extreme budget or space reasons always better to use a dedicated player. I also think the extra wear and tear is not worth it on a console.

[spacecadet]

I think if you *just* want to play Blu-Ray discs, then a dedicated player is going to be less annoying in use. I do use an Xbox One S as my primary player, but you're right about some of its little hassles. I would get a third party remote for it, at the very least, which is an expense not necessary with a dedicated player. (I do use a Harmony remote.)

 

I use the Xbox One S because it's my one-stop movie player including all streaming apps, and all of its apps are updated regularly. I do have a dedicated player that doesn't have any of that, so I don't use it as much. (Though obviously there are Blu-Ray players with apps, but how often they're updated is a different story.) Also my dedicated player has some weird copy protection issue so I can't use it through my regular TV input - I have to switch the cable every time.

 

Only thing I don't use my Xbox for is Netflix, because its had an HDR bug for *years* now where it shows *everything* in HDR and that they never seem to fix, even despite regular updates. Maybe it's actually a bug in my TV, but others have talked about it and no other Netflix app I have on other devices does that (on the same TV).

[digdugnate]

speaking as someone that uses their xbox for blu rays exclusively, i really think you're better off with a standalone player- particularly if you don't like the xbox controls for playback.

[Games Retrospect]

I'm using Kodi for most of my movie watching and even that isn't ideal. The latest beta is completely broken, it isn't updating the data from all my media and apparently, there isn't a new update available. Some of my ripped files don't look that good, so I want to start using the real thing and having the plus of being able to watch Blu-Rays too. Like a lot of people on these forums, I'm really attached to physical media, but the thing about movie watching is that there are a lot of options and at this point, I have no idea what's more convenient. I have a bunch of DVDs that I love and some of them look terrific on my HDTV and some of them look horrible, so I don't know how that works. Then you have streaming, but I don't like paying for yet another monthly service even if I watch a lot of films and you have a slew to choose from: HBO GO, the Disney one, Netflix, Hulu and the list goes on and on. Then there's Blu-ray which looks amazing, but I have to import most of them or pay a lot for shipping in my country and starting a collection seems daunting since I'd have to replace all of my DVDs. Finally, 4K Blu-ray! I don't have a 4K TV, but I know this is slowly becoming the new standard and this has to look absolutely stunning. Then again, maybe in a few years the movie industry moves towards 8K and whatever and then I'm going to feel like an idiot for moving to a format that's dead from the beginning. I should have bought all those UMD movies when I had the chance... haha. How do you guys feel about the sheer variety of formats when it comes to this?

[MrMaddog]

If you're going to use your Xbox for watching Blu-Rays, or even streaming video, than you need to get a media remote because using gamepads really suck...especially if they keep shuttung off.

[Atariboy]

UHD Blu-Ray doesn't bother me too much.

 

I buy them when available, and happily it's mostly a handful of 90's movies that interest me like a few Tom Hanks movies that I hadn't yet bothered buying on regular Blu-Ray, so not much double dipping since I'm so focused on the 30's-60's in my collecting.

 

My big Blu-Ray collection of classic movies from Hollywood's Golden Age is largely unlikely to get a 4k rerelease, so I don't forsee a lot of double dipping. And regular Blu-Ray remains the standard for publishers like Kino Lorber and Twilight Time, so I expect my classic movie purchases for the life of Blu-Ray to continue to be dominated by the regular standard.

 

I do hope to be able to grab The Song of Music on UHD Blu-Ray sometime soon. Watched the new 4k restoration from a 70 mm print in theaters a month or so back and thought it looked beautiful. So hopefully it makes its way in full 4k to UHD Blu-Ray soon.

Edited October 9, 2018 by Atariboy