• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Xbox One S + UHD Blu-ray woes

D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
I've been waiting to see Arrival and just picked up a UHD Blu-ray copy to watch this evening and I simply have not been able to get it working on my Xbox One S. No matter what, it simply freezes on the Blu-ray splash screen with the spinning circle. Reading various forums, it seems like certain other UHD movies are also crashing for people.

Has anyone else run into this? It's absolutely driving me nuts since this was one of the main reasons I wanted an Xbox One S (and did not want to include an extra stand-alone device in the mix).
 
dark10x said:
I've been waiting to see Arrival and just picked up a UHD Blu-ray copy to watch this evening and I simply have not been able to get it working on my Xbox One S. No matter what, it simply freezes on the Blu-ray splash screen with the spinning circle. Reading various forums, it seems like certain other UHD movies are also crashing for people.

Has anyone else run into this? It's absolutely driving me nuts since this was one of the main reasons I wanted an Xbox One S (and did not want to include an extra stand-alone device in the mix).
Click to expand...

Haven't had issues but I don't have arrival.

Maybe try returning and getting a different disc? If it still doesn't work then yeah it's probably Xbox related (likely the BR software needs an update. Could be hardware I guess maybe the drive itself needs a firmware update. Or yeah your drive is busted).
 
Haven't had freezing but I've had bad experiences with mine. Lots of movies will get choppy briefly or stutter randomly during playback.

Pretty disappointing as the whole reason I bought the system was for 4k BD
 
It worked fine for me when i bought it on release. the only thing i have to do now since im in preview, with the PassThrough option checked, is cycle the audio back to atmos when the movie is playing. Other than that, my tv tells me its in 2160p with HDR.

I've heard that some 4k discs are the culprit as it occurs in other 4k players.
 
ZOONAMI said:
Haven't had issues but I don't have arrival.

Maybe try returning and getting a different disc? If it still doesn't work then yeah it's probably Xbox related (likely the BR software needs an update. Could be hardware I guess maybe the drive itself needs a firmware update. Or yeah your drive is busted).
Click to expand...
Already exchanged once just in case.

I think it's software related since the drive reads everything else fine. I only have three UHD movies right now and it's just Arrival that does not work.

Are you on the Alpha Preview Program?
Click to expand...
Nope. Using standard firmware.
 
damn this is a tad concerning because I've been looking for a UHD player and the Xbox One S is the only option it seems - stand alone players are 500$ + (In Canada.)
 
I haven't bought any 4K BDs yet but it's literally the only reason I still have an XB1S in my house so I fucking hope it doesn't crap out on that functionality
 
One thing you can try is to disable bd-live access in the console settings. I find that slows down everything regarding blu rays.
 
Sounds potentially like an HDCP 2.2 handshake issue.

Make sure HDCP is enabled, perhaps another HDMI cable too.
 
iMax said:
Sounds potentially like an HDCP 2.2 handshake issue.

Make sure HDCP is enabled, perhaps another HDMI cable too.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't that impact other UHD movies then?

Deadpool and The Revenant both play fine.

It really seems like the app is just crashing - the spinning circle pops up and immediately freezes. It will sit there until I manually close it.
 
Hope that things work out , that sucks buying something & not being able to use it with the product that it should work with.
 
I just recently bought a LG 27UHD68 monitor and connected my Xbox One S and when I watch UHD blu rays, the picture will go black for a few seconds and come back. I see a lot of people having issues on 4k monitors and it's really irritating since I bought the system for a 4k player only pretty much.
 
dark10x said:
I've been waiting to see Arrival and just picked up a UHD Blu-ray copy to watch this evening and I simply have not been able to get it working on my Xbox One S. No matter what, it simply freezes on the Blu-ray splash screen with the spinning circle. Reading various forums, it seems like certain other UHD movies are also crashing for people.

Has anyone else run into this? It's absolutely driving me nuts since this was one of the main reasons I wanted an Xbox One S (and did not want to include an extra stand-alone device in the mix).
Click to expand...

I've got Arrival on UHD Blu-ray, I'll try it out on my One S when I get home from work. So far though I haven't had any issues with any of the other disks I have.
 
dark10x said:
Wouldn't that impact other UHD movies then?

Deadpool and The Revenant both play fine.

It really seems like the app is just crashing - the spinning circle pops up and immediately freezes. It will sit there until I manually close it.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of an issue with some early Disney DVDs. Peopel thought their DVD player was the issue, but ti was actually a flaw with the DVDs where it would lock up on some players. However, I think a software update could fix this, as it probably is an issue with the java on the disc. Submit feedback with Xbox Support.
 
Interesting. I had this same issue with that movie but all I had to do was disable Blu-ray audio pass through in the settings. But that's only in the preview builds...
 
I have three seemingly dumb suggestions that I'm sure you've already tried:

1.) Full power cycle

2.) Attempt in offline mode

3.) Disable BR audio pass-through

I'm hoping more people with that specific disc and the XB1S can chime in. I'm curious what the story is.
 
Foxix Von said:
Interesting. I had this same issue with that movie but all I had to do was disable Blu-ray audio pass through in the settings. But that's only in the preview builds...
Click to expand...

Yeah I am in the preview program and Deadpool did not like pass through either.
 
storybook77 said:
I've had to go to the dashboard and then select the Blu Ray player again to get it working with some films.
Click to expand...

i can agree to this statement. i had to either dashboard then re-open or dashboard, menu-quit and then re-open.

its not the smoothest app when playing blu-rays unfortunately. :(

edit:

OOOH! But Passengers in 4kbluray HDR was really impressive. i believe that is a 4K DI too, right? That sun closeup...
 
dark10x said:
Wouldn't that impact other UHD movies then?

Deadpool and The Revenant both play fine.

It really seems like the app is just crashing - the spinning circle pops up and immediately freezes. It will sit there until I manually close it.
Click to expand...

Ah, right. In that case, absolutely. Sounds like it's either a problem with the disc or the OS.

I have a handful of Blu-ray movies that the Xbox One OS will just simply not play—and others that literally send the entire console and OS into haywire.
 
dallow_bg said:
It's a 2k mastered movie upscaled to 4k which is probably why.
Click to expand...

No, I hate that people keep peddling this misinformation. Arrival just a very dull and drab movie visually. That's what was intended but it isn't going to stand out because of it.

As for the OP, your solution is to get a better Blu-Ray player since the One S isn't a very good one.
 
dallow_bg said:
It's a 2k mastered movie upscaled to 4k which is probably why.
Click to expand...

Might be true for this particular movie, but most of my reference quality discs are 2k masters. Check out the shallows, hacksaw ridge, ghostbusters and Inferno. You will see how good these look even at 2k upscale.

Edit: passengers is a 4k DI not a 2k.
 
dark10x said:
Already exchanged once just in case.

I think it's software related since the drive reads everything else fine. I only have three UHD movies right now and it's just Arrival that does not work.


Nope. Using standard firmware.
Click to expand...

I've heard certain movies don't work. Lucy and the original Ghostbusters being two. Haven't tried them myself.
 
Chamber said:
No, I hate that people keep peddling this misinformation. Arrival just a very dull and drab movie visually. That's what was intended but it isn't going to stand out because of it.

As for the OP, your solution is to get a better Blu-Ray player since the One S isn't a very good one.
Click to expand...

receipts.gif?
 
Samurai G0SU said:
i can agree to this statement. i had to either dashboard then re-open or dashboard, menu-quit and then re-open.

its not the smoothest app when playing blu-rays unfortunately. :(

edit:

OOOH! But Passengers in 4kbluray HDR was really impressive. i believe that is a 4K DI too, right? That sun closeup...
Click to expand...

Passengers is a 2k DI.

Edit: passengers is a 4k DI, my mistake.
 
Does it open a UHD app when playing the disc? If so, is the app up to date? Perhaps it's worth deleting it and downloading it again.

I have seen a list somewhere of UHD films that don't play on Xbox One, I'm not sure where but I think it may have been on the xbox.com forum.
 
Okay...

So my UHD disc of Arrival is working fine here. I am not on the same firmware though.

vfQjjru.jpg
Click to expand...
 
You have a LG B6 right? If so don't watch Arrival. The Film is mastered with this hazy look. Very poor black levels and low contrast (intentional) and as such it shows all the flaws OLEDs have with near black and light grey 5-10% material. I honestly wanted to return my E6 after watching Arrival on it. Terrific film though.
 
Lima said:
You have a LG B6 right? If so don't watch Arrival. The Film is mastered with this hazy look. Very poor black levels and low contrast (intentional) and as such it shows all the flaws OLEDs have with near black and light grey 5-10% material. I honestly wanted to return my E6 after watching Arrival on it. Terrific film though.
Click to expand...

https://youtu.be/Z48RV2REAnA

This video pretty much says it all
 
I've watched several PAL region UHD-BD movies on my XB1s. None of them showed any playback issues.

On both default firmware and preview firmware.
Lima said:
You have a LG B6 right? If so don't watch Arrival. The Film is mastered with this hazy look. Very poor black levels and low contrast (intentional) and as such it shows all the flaws OLEDs have with near black and light grey 5-10% material. I honestly wanted to return my E6 after watching Arrival on it. Terrific film though.
Click to expand...
Second this. The black levels in Arrival are terribly chosen, they had a negative impact on my viewing experience, shame as the movie itself is great.
 
Chamber said:
No, I hate that people keep peddling this misinformation.
Click to expand...

Except it's not misinformation. It's the actual honest fact that very few movies are actually shot and edited end-to-end in 4K with 4K effects shots. Arrival uses a 2K digital intermediate so there's really nothing questionable about the original assertion.

As for movies having issues with players? That's nothing new with a new format. The PS3 received a constant stream of firmware updates addressing issues along similar lines early in Blu-ray's lifespan.
 
I haven't had app crashes with my XB1S and 4K blu-rays yet (I own about 6 so far) but there are occasional freezes with all blu-rays, where the audio continues but the image freezes, then after about 5-10 seconds the image speeds up to catch up. It's super annoying and I haven't seen a solution for it yet.
 
Chamber said:
No, I hate that people keep peddling this misinformation. Arrival just a very dull and drab movie visually. That's what was intended but it isn't going to stand out because of it.

As for the OP, your solution is to get a better Blu-Ray player since the One S isn't a very good one.
Click to expand...

Get your facts right. Arrival UHD is upscaled from a 2K master.
 
nekkid said:
Get your facts right. Arrival UHD is upscaled from a 2K master.
Click to expand...

Lady Gaia said:
Except it's not misinformation. It's the actual honest fact that very few movies are actually shot and edited end-to-end in 4K with 4K effects shots. Arrival uses a 2K digital intermediate so there's really nothing questionable about the original assertion.
Click to expand...

The misinformation is that 2K DI UHD Blu-Rays can't look absolutely phenomenal. A lot of reference quality discs are 2K.
 
dark10x said:
I've been waiting to see Arrival and just picked up a UHD Blu-ray copy to watch this evening and I simply have not been able to get it working on my Xbox One S. No matter what, it simply freezes on the Blu-ray splash screen with the spinning circle. Reading various forums, it seems like certain other UHD movies are also crashing for people.

Has anyone else run into this? It's absolutely driving me nuts since this was one of the main reasons I wanted an Xbox One S (and did not want to include an extra stand-alone device in the mix).
Click to expand...

I own Arrival, and have an Xbox One S hooked up (not mine!). I'll check it out later and see if I have any issues getting it to play. In general though, I really do not like the player with the console. It's slow as shit and sometimes you have to exit out completely to access other chapters.

Lima said:
You have a LG B6 right? If so don't watch Arrival. The Film is mastered with this hazy look. Very poor black levels and low contrast (intentional) and as such it shows all the flaws OLEDs have with near black and light grey 5-10% material. I honestly wanted to return my E6 after watching Arrival on it. Terrific film though.
Click to expand...

What I don't like is that you can adjust the luminance levels to get around this issue for the most part with 1080p content on those TVs. You can't however with HDR, since it locks out luminance adjustments. Ironically, watching the 1080p version of Arrival upscaled to 4K via madVR actually looks fine. You just don't get the specular highlight improvements.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Digital Foundry: Directive 8020 - PS5/PS5 Pro/Xbox Series X|S + Pro Ray Tracing Upgrades vs PC Path Tracing!
21
154
Karim replied
  • Poll
Sony pulls the plug on recordable Blu-ray Disc manufacturing..
38
1K
Magic Carpet replied
The Xbox One has been hacked
12
499
Bry0 replied
Considering trading Switch for ROG Xbox ally (white one)
2
69
444
Ebrietas replied
Marathon rated for PS4 and Xbox One
2
94
1K
Redneckerz replied
Top Bottom