Playstation 4/Xbox One versus dedicated Blu Ray Player

[StevenMal]

 I would like to get a Blu Ray player eventually and I'm wondering how the PS4 and Xbox One compare as a Blu Ray player to a similarly priced dedicated Blu Ray Player. I understand that you're paying for more than just a Blu Ray player when you get a PS4 or Xbox One but how do the game consoles compare to a similarly priced Blu Ray Player? I would bet that a Blu Ray player that costs more than a PS4 or Xbox One plays Blu Ray much better but how would a Blu Ray player that costs $300-$450 compare against the game console that plays Blu Ray discs? Thank you.

[BC_Programmer]

The most expensive Blu-Ray Players I can find was a 4K & 4K upscaling 3D Blu-Ray Player for about about $200 USD. That is about the price of a XBox One S and a good $100 less than a PS4 Slim- The latter of which doesn't play 4K Blu Ray.

Otherwise, the dedicated players don't really play better than game consoles capable of playing the same formats. The biggest difference is going to be in the interface. A remote can often be easier to use and the dedicated players have a content focus where as the more general consoles require you to run "apps" in order to Play Blu-Ray discs (or DVDs, for that matter). and sometimes it doesn't work, for no particularly good reason. I've found Microsoft arbitrarily and sometimes wildly changes their entire interface on the XBox every few months,  for example.

I usually don't bother to use my XBox One to play Blu Ray Discs. However, it is perfectly acceptable for it, and I presume both the PS4 and the PS3 even are just as fine for the purpose of "standard" blu rays. It's only with 4K that you have to start shopping around and doing comparisons, I expect. Personally, I opted for another alternative- I got a Blu Ray Drive for my PC. With a capable enough system and with some additional software, it is fairly easy to play Blu Ray discs in VLC Media Player- but even better- I can skip the "unskippable" garbage they always have at the beginning, and directly play the actual content.

[camerongray]

Video quality wise they will all be similar so you aren't going to notice a huge difference, the main difference between a console or dedicated BluRay player will be using a controller vs a dedicated remote (although you can get a remote for the Xbox one S).

I the main decision in this is if you want the ability to play 4k BluRays.  If you don't have any intention of doing 4K, a relatively inexpensive BluRay player would work out to be a lot cheaper but for 4K, the Xbox One S is a really good option - Costs around the same as the player, can also be used as a console and supports various online streaming services in 4K.

I've been toying with the idea of the Xbox One S myself - I want the ability to watch 4K BluRays but it just feels a bit wrong spending that amount of money on a dedicated player when I probably won't use it that much.  I initially planned to do what BC did and get a drive for my HTPC but due to the joys of DRM, I'd not only need to buy an expensive 4K Blu Ray drive, I'd also have to upgrade the perfectly good PC to a Kabylake or newer Intel CPU to support the appropriate security features that are required to play 4k BluRays!