Can The Xbox One Play 4K Blue-Ray/DVDs?

Do you have an Xbox One or want to get one to play 4K Blue-Ray Discs/ DVDs? I’m here to answer all your questions about how your Xbox One plays DVDs and solve any confusion you have!

Both the Xbox One S & the more powerful Xbox One X support 4K Ultra HD streaming and comes with an inbuilt 4K UHD Blue-Ray player With support for HDR10 which is a high dynamic range that makes colors look extra vibrant.

So there you have it! If you have either an Xbox One S or an Xbox One X you already have a 4K Blue-Ray/DVD player waiting for you!

I will walk you through how to enable both 4K gaming and media for both consoles, and what exactly is 4K, and the differences between 4K and 4K upscaling. Are you ready? Let’s get to it!

Differences Between The Xbox One X & Xbox One S

The biggest difference between the two consoles is for gaming. The Xbox One X is a lot more powerful than the S and can natively play 4K games. These are called Xbox One X enhanced games(check out the complete list here).

Whilst the Xbox One S can only upscale games to 4K, but they will still look very good. The Xbox One S is a superb high-quality budget option which will cost you around £180/$220, whilst the Xbox One X costs around £285/$350.

Both consoles in terms of a 4K Blue-Ray/DVD player are the same and will output Blue-Ray in deliciously crisp 4K.

If you’ve heard about Xbox Project Scarlett or Xbox Series X that is Microsofts upcoming next-generation console, set to come out in the holiday season of 2020(learn more here). This console will be able to play DVD/Blue-Ray in at least 4K so you don’t have to worry.

4K Explained

4K is a resolution for your television, it could be called 4K UHD,4K Ultra HD, or 4K Ultra High Definition but it all means the same thing. 4K packs in 4 times as many pixels as standard 1080p HDTV.

This results in a far sharper and crisper image, to watch 4K and it’s buddy video technology HDR(high dynamic range) you must have a 4K TV with either an Xbox One S or Xbox One X console.

Differences Between Native 4K Vs 4K Upscaling

If you set your consoles resolution to 4K UHD, everything on the console from home, applications and games will display in 4K. Since the Xbox One X is more powerful 4K is content is displayed at native 4K and other content such as games encoded for 1080p will be upscaled to 4K.

But with the Xbox One S, it is less powerful and although it upscales content to 4K it will look better than native 1080p resolutions it will not be as rich or detailed as genuine native 4K found in the Xbox One X.

Heres how to set your resolution and upscale everything to 4K.

  1. Press the Xbox button  to open the guide.
  2. Select System > Settings > General > TV & display options.
  3. Under Display, select a resolution of 4K UHD

4K In Games & Applications

Now you do not need to set your console to 4K to play 4K content. You can easily set up your console to a resolution like 1080p and when a game or app needs 4K and your TV meets the requirements your console will switch to 4K automatically!

If you want to play 1080p content with it’s intended resolution but also want to use 4K resolution when playing 4K content. Follow this guide on how to set a lower resolution but switch to 4K content when 4K content is played

  1. Press the Xbox button  to open the guide.
  2. Select System > Settings > General > TV & display options.
  3. Under Display, select a resolution of 720p or 1080p.
  4. Under Advanced, select Video modes and make sure Allow 4K is checked.

How To Play 4K Movies & TV Shows Using Your Xbox One X/S

There are three different ways to play 4K movies and TV shows using your Xbox One X/S. I will explain each on them in turn.

Firstly, you simply buy a 4K Ultra HD Blue–Ray/DVD and insert it into the Xbox’s disc tray. It will automatically play in native 4K!

The second way is to use Microsoft’s video store(click the link here) where you can purchase or rent high-quality resolutions movies. You have the following purchase options SD, HD and UHD, UHD is the same as 4K

Lastly, the most common way is to simply stream 4K video from the application section of the Xbox store. Check this link for a complete list but the included apps you can use are Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu and Fandango Now, Youtube etc.

Now, certain people have had difficulties getting 4K streaming to work especially with Netflix. This is likely due to peoples TVs lacking 4K support for Netflix.

Now your TV is the most important thing when it comes to 4K, as your TV support will change what movies & TV display in no matter the application.

For example, if your TV only has 4K at 24Hz(Hz is refresh rate) and not 4K at 60Hz you could find issues. 4K 24Hz will always be fine but 4K 60Hz is too complicated for your TV and will instead display at 1080p.

Guide On How To Download 4K Assets For Xbox One X

This applies if you have an Xbox One or Xbox One S and want to upgrade to an Xbox One X. The issue is if you download a 4K game you normally don’t download the 4K assets because since your console cannot run them it would no sense wasting storage space.

So when you buy that shiny new Xbox One X and transfer all your game files you need to download all your 4K assets before you play anything to enjoy 4K. To make this easier, follow the following steps

  1. Press the Xbox button on your controller.
  2. In the guide, go System
  3. Go to Settings
  4. Choose Backup & Transfer.
  5. Select Download 4K content.

When all this downloading is finished, you can transfer the files to preexisting external storage, and immediately load the files to your new Xbox One X!

What Xbox One Games Support True 4K?

Now although the Xbox One X can natively play 4K games, the real question of which games are 4K is far more complicated. There are Xbox One Enhanced Games, where the developers have taken a game and made changes to utilise the Xbox One X enhanced power.

Now Xbox One X enhanced games do not necessarily mean they run-in 4K but they take advantage of the improved performance of the console. It can mean 4K or improved performance or an enhanced 60 FPS.

In total there are almost 700 Xbox One X enhanced games with more than half specifically providing native 4K support with less offering improved HDR visuals.

Now, please take a look yourself here of the complete list of Xbox One X Enhanced Games and HDR, hopefully, you find a lot of games you love!

FAQ

Does The Xbox One S Play 4K Games?

The Xbox One S does play 4K games but they are not true 4K but rather upscaled 4K so the quality will not look as good as true native 4K found in the Xbox One X.

However, the upscaled Xbox One S 4K will look better than 1080p and I tell you from experience the games still look amazing.

Xbox One Won’t Play Blue-Ray Discs

If you see this error code 0x91d7000a ensure your TV HDMI input supports HDCP rights management, if not try plugging your console into a different TV input.

Follow this guide to resolve the issue.

  1. Eject the Blu-ray Disc from the console.
  2. From Xbox Home, with Blu-ray in the big application tile, move the focus to the Blu-ray tile, and then press the Menu button  on your controller.
  3. Select Quit. If “Quit” is not available, the app is already closed.
  4. Press the Xbox button  to open the guide.
  5. Select System > Restart console.
  6. Select Restart to confirm.
  7. After the console restarts, reinsert the Blu-ray Disc.

Recommended Products

Xbox One S

Xbox One X