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What is The Best Product Ps5 4k Blu Ray Player Review
Ps5 4k Blu Ray: The one incorporated inside the disc drive-carrying version of the PS5 is not and was never intended to be its star attraction, just as the 4K Blu-ray player built into the Xbox Series X.
Of course, Sony’s latest system is first and foremost a gaming machine.
Support for the latest and greatest video disc format in the disc-carrying version of the PS5 is a pleasant home cinema benefit.
However, Sony’s inclusion of a 4K Blu-ray player in the PS5 might have far-reaching implications for the home entertainment landscape.
With the majority of manufacturers abandoning the standalone 4K Blu-ray player market, and even those that remain showing little interest in updating their lineups.
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fans of physical media (like myself) are excited about the prospect of the PS5 and Xbox Series X leading to the installation of 4K Blu-ray players in tens of millions more homes than they were previously.
After all, even if only a small number of those new console owners discover 4K Blu-allure, ray’s it should result in significantly higher sales of 4K Blu-ray movie discs, and therefore a far more secure long-term future for a physical media business decimated by the convenience of video streaming.
Sony’s decision to include a 4K Blu-ray player in the PS5 disc edition is all the more welcome given the brand’s infamous failure to include one in the PS4.
Not even the PS4 Pro comes close. Despite the fact that the Xbox One S and X both had one.
While I had my own suspicions about why the PS4 went this way, Sony sought to justify its PS4 absence by claiming that streaming was the future of home video at the time. Despite this, we now have the PS5 with 4K Blu-ray support.
Omens are mixed.
So, what can we expect from a 4K Blu-ray player embedded in a powerful Sony gaming console? The signs are contradictory.
Denon Unveils New X-Friendly AV Receivers For The PS5 And Xbox Series, Nvidia RTX 30 Graphics Cards Cause Issues With LG OLED TVs, According to reports, the most recent LG OLED TV firmware update makes gaming less enjoyable.
On the plus side, while Sony’s standalone 4K Blu-ray players are a little cumbersome to use in certain ways, their performance is exceptional considering the price points they are available in.
On the flipside, none of the Xbox One S and X or Series X’s 4K Blu-ray players are particularly good examples of their kind in terms of usefulness or performance.
The one incorporated inside the disc drive-carrying version of the PS5 is not and was never intended to be its star attraction, just as the 4K Blu-ray player built into the Xbox Series X.
Of course, Sony’s latest system is first and foremost a gaming machine. Support for the latest and greatest video disc format in the disc-carrying version of the PS5 is a pleasant home cinema benefit.
However, Sony’s inclusion of a 4K Blu-ray player in the PS5 might have far-reaching implications for the home entertainment landscape.
With the majority of manufacturers abandoning the standalone 4K Blu-ray player market, and even those that remain showing little interest in updating their lineups, fans of physical media (like myself) are excited about the prospect of the PS5 and Xbox Series X leading to the installation of 4K Blu-ray players in tens of millions more homes than they were previously.
After all, even if only a small number of those new console owners discover 4K Blu-allure, ray’s it should result in significantly higher sales of 4K Blu-ray movie discs, and therefore a far more secure long-term future for a physical media business decimated by the convenience of video streaming.
The PS5 includes a built-in 4K Blu-ray player in the disc version. Is it, however, any good?
SONY PLAYSTATION PHOTO
Sony’s decision to include a 4K Blu-ray player in the PS5 disc edition is all the more welcome given the brand’s infamous failure to include one in the PS4.
Not even the PS4 Pro comes close. Despite the fact that the Xbox One S and X both had one.
While I had my own suspicions about why the PS4 went this way, Sony sought to justify its PS4 absence by claiming that streaming was the future of home video at the time. Despite this, we now have the PS5 with 4K Blu-ray support.
Omens are mixed.
So, what can we expect from a 4K Blu-ray player embedded in a powerful Sony gaming console? The signs are contradictory.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR YOU
Denon Unveils New X-Friendly AV Receivers For The PS5 And Xbox Series
Nvidia RTX 30 Graphics Cards Cause Issues With LG OLED TVs
According to reports, the most recent LG OLED TV firmware update makes gaming less enjoyable.
On the plus side, while Sony’s standalone 4K Blu-ray players are a little cumbersome to use in certain ways, their performance is exceptional considering the price points they are available in.
On the flipside, none of the Xbox One S and X or Series X’s 4K Blu-ray players are particularly good examples of their kind in terms of usefulness or performance.
There’s also no getting around the fact that the PS5 doesn’t support the premium HDR standards Dolby Vision or HDR10+.
Compatible players and TVs can employ extra scene-by-scene HDR image data from discs that support one or both of these formats to produce better, more dynamic images.
Because neither format is supported, customers are limited to the HDR10 system, which does not supply scene-by-scene image data and forces TVs to make the best of the minimal data available.
Sony has never supported HDR10+ on any of its TVs or standalone 4K Blu-ray players, so I suppose expecting it to appear on the PS5 would have been a stretch.
However, Dolby Vision was supported by Sony’s previous two generations of standalone 4K Blu-ray players.
albeit in a sloppy manner (see this review of the Sony X1100ES for more details). Dolby Vision would have been lovely to see on the PS5’s 4K Blu-ray player as well.
Is this a late addition?
It’s possible that things will alter in the future. Dolby Vision is no longer reliant on up-front hardware integration, thus a firmware update might bring it to the PS5.
In reality, with the Xbox One S and X, this is exactly what happened (though the DV support on those consoles only supported streaming services, not games or 4K Blu-ray playback).
But I can’t help but think that if Dolby Vision was coming to the PS5 soon, Sony would have announced it by now.
Other than 4K Blu-ray playback, the PS5’s 4K Blu-ray player is lacking. There’s no way to tell the player what kind of monitor the console is attached to, for example, so the player may adjust the output properly.
There’s also no way to modify the audio sync, which would be useful for anyone running the console’s audio over a TV with ARC/eARC technology, as this setup can frequently result in lip synchronisation issues with some TVs and soundbars.
The lack of an audio sync adjustment is particularly unfortunate on the PS5, given that, as previously reported in this article.
Some PS5 users are currently unable to pass 4K and HDR simultaneously from the console through their soundbars due to what appears to be a hopefully fixable settings bug/limitation.
As a result, they’ll have to rely on the potentially sluggish ARC/eARC approach to get both 4K HDR and surround sound on their PS5s.
There’s no way to remove HDR from a 4K HDR image, for example, which could be handy with low-brightness projectors.
However, this option was never anticipated to appear on a console’s built-in 4K Blu-ray player.
Object sound It appeared for a brief while that the PS5’s 4K Blu-ray player didn’t support Dolby Atmos or DTS:X’object-based’ sound codecs.
Even after selecting a bitstream output (rather than the default Linear PCM choice) in the console’s primary Audio Output menu, I couldn’t get either format to trigger on my audio system.
I eventually realised that the PS5’s 4K Blu-ray player app had a distinct bitstream output option (as people who use PS4 consoles as their Blu-ray players could actually have reminded me, since the PS5 approach is the same).
To get to this, tap the PS5’s Choices button (the little white one to the top right of the touch pad), then scroll down to the ‘three dots’ more options symbol on screen, choose settings, and then choose Bitstream instead of Linear PCM under the Audio Format section. So that’s all there is to it!
As an added complexity, the console’s (rather than the 4K Blu-ray app’s) Audio Format Priority selection screen has distinct options for Bitstream (Dolby) and Bitstream (DTS), despite the fact that the console doesn’t appear to support Dolby Atmos or DTS:X from any game or streaming app.
Even if the PS5 DID support either of these audio formats from games or streaming apps, the fact that there are separate Dolby Atmos/DTS:X priority options to pick from rather than a single Bitstream out option seems weird.
Maybe when/if object-based sound becomes more of a thing in the PS5’s gaming or, more likely, streaming app environment, the issue will become apparent.
In any case, once you’ve worked out how to do it, your 4K Blu-ray player will be able to play Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio into your home theatre system.
Select a mode.
However, there is one additional set-up issue to mention. Because the PS5 doesn’t (yet) allow automated low latency mode switching, when watching a 4K Blu-ray on your console, you’ll need to remember to manually switch your TVs from Game to Standard or Cinema.
Failure to do so may result in negative 4K Blu-ray picture quality side effects, such as diminished backlighting performance and flatter colours, depending on your TV.
The Blu-ray player app’s Settings menus do, somewhat surprisingly, include a few of noise reduction settings.
While these perform well with grainy HD sources – possibly better than the NR systems seen in certain mid- to low-end TVs – they don’t appear to do anything special for 4K playback. Aside from making the image appear processed from time to time.
The number of disc formats supported by the PS5’s disc drive is one final item to consider. Or, more accurately, how many it doesn’t.
While there is support for 4K Blu-rays, HD Blu-rays, and DVDs, there is no support for 3D Blu-rays or even CDs.
Sony has a track record in this area. The PS4 doesn’t support CDs (in fact, Sony has indicated that trying to play CDs in a PS4 could “destroy your system”), and 3D support was only added after the PS4’s introduction via a firmware upgrade.
I suppose the PS5 will get the same late 3D support, perhaps in conjunction with a future update to the PlayStation’s Virtual Reality hardware.
Given the declining amount of 3D-capable displays and new 3D Blu-rays hitting the market, it doesn’t seem plausible this time around.
Who is this 3D guy?
On the question of 3D, the PlayStation Blog is maybe particularly insightful. The short answer to the question “Does PS5 Support 3D Blu-ray Movies?” is “No, PS5 does not support 3D stereoscopic output.”
There’s no mention of a “for now” at the end, or any other indication that Sony would introduce it later.
Can the PS5 at least make a case for itself in terms of performance now that we’ve shown that it’s no match for a solid standalone 4K Blu-ray player in terms of features? Yes, in fact.
On an LG CX OLED TV test screen, first impressions of the PS5 4K Blu-ray player in solo action, devoid of comparisons with rival players, reveal a picture that strikes me as detailed, clean, lively, and colourful.
This is a significant improvement over the HD Blu-ray experience. Even without Dolby Vision or (on Samsung TVs) HDR10+ to boost the HDR visuals on 4K Blu-rays, the images look great.
The black levels appear to be uniform and deep. Without any artificial improvement, the detail levels appear to be 4K.
The brightness levels of the background and highlights appear to be appropriately ‘HDR’.
The video noise appears to be contained. Colors are vibrant, rich, and pure, with the extra brilliance and potency you’d expect from the wide colour gamuts featured on practically all HDR discs.
So far, everything has gone well. So let’s try to deflate those warm fuzzy emotions right away by pitting the PS5 against the Oppo 205, a 4K Blu-ray beast.
Dolby Vision is sadly no longer available.
One thing this comparison quickly revealed was how disappointing it is that Sony has not included Dolby Vision support in the PS5.
The extra picture information supplied to the LG CX TV by the Dolby Vision master accessible by the Oppo 205 consistently delivers a much more controlled, balanced.
And natural-looking image, focusing for the sake of consistency on the 4K Blu-ray of It I used for most comparisons during my review of the Xbox Series X 4K Blu-ray player.
For example, as Eddie walks down the road towards a blazing sun just before his first encounter with his ‘infected nightmare,’ the sun behind Eddie appears controlled rather than flared out on the Oppo.
And the area around it contains subtle colour detail that is lost in the PS5’s actually brighter but less controlled image. On the PS5, there’s also more colour noise in the sun-lit front of the wooden building to Eddie’s left, thanks to the console’s heavier but less regulated saturations, which bring emphasis to such flaws.
On the back of Eddie’s left thigh, another surprising disparity between the PS5 HDR10 and Oppo Dolby Vision colour performance can be seen.
This appears to be severely sunburned on the PS5, while it appears to be a much more natural skin tone on the Oppo.
In fact, even a single frame like this one demonstrates the benefits of Dolby Vision’s increased colour mastering as well as the additional data available to assist a TV optimise the way it shows such an intense image.
The black power/phone lines running across the image at 48:29 in this It sequence look cleaner and more refined on the Oppo when focusing on finer elements where the Dolby Vision difference isn’t as noticeable. On the PS5, they appear to be ‘bittier’ and even somewhat thicker.
Premium distinctions
The PS5’s image in this 48:29 still frame appears a little noisier than the Oppo’s, especially at the wires’ borders.
In addition, the image’s backdrop trees, particularly those to Eddie’s right, have a little less definition and sharpness.
This appears to be partly owing to the PS5’s increased Dolby Vision colour precision, which brings out more subtle green shading, but there’s also a blurrier look to the tops of the trees that’s more directly detail related.
It’s worth noting that the PS5’s pictures in this It sequence look brighter and bolder using the LG TV’s Standard picture preset than they do using the Oppo’s Dolby Vision. So you can’t say the PS5’s graphics are lacking in HDR impact.
However, the Oppo’s images appear more natural and controlled, utilising more of the HDR’s ‘range,’ whereas the PS5 brightness results in an overall flatter, less natural, slightly overdone look.
The LG TV’s Movie picture preset gives the PS5’s image a calmer tone, but the lack of precision and balance remains.
While it’s important to note what the PS5 loses in terms of picture quality potential by not supporting Dolby Vision, as many standalone 4K Blu-ray players (including Sony’s) do.
Mad Max: Fury Road provides a more accurate comparison of what the PS5 can do with the HDR10 format it DOES support. The Oppo can’t use its Dolby Vision advantage because this 4K Blu-ray only has an HDR10 master.
Unsurprisingly, the outcomes of this head-to-head comparison are remarkably similar. In reality, considering how much less expensive it is and that its 4K Blu-ray player is part of a larger entertainment ecosystem rather than simply a video disc spinner, the PS5 does a really good job.
The PS5’s Mad Max images aren’t quite as clear as the Oppo’s; if you stop the movie at exactly seven minutes in, when Immortan Joe gets fitted with his translucent armour, the Oppo exposes somewhat more detail and clarity in the light reflections and, in particular, the ribbons and badges.
The beauty is in the details.
In spots like the red ribbon tied to Joe’s ‘500’ badge, colour appears slightly more rich, refined, and controlled, and there’s significantly less noise in highly detailed regions like the circuit board decoration.
At 08:32, Immortan Joe looks down on a crowd below, which is another useful view for highlighting the distinctions.
The Oppo brings out greater distinction in this area; you get the impression that you’re seeing more actual people rather than a fuzzy mass of vaguely human features. And this appears to be due as much to the Oppo’s improved colour management as it is to its improved sharpness or detail reproduction.
This combination of advantages also makes the Oppo’s image appear more three-dimensional. When you’re watching a 4K disc rather than staring at a frozen frame, it’s this three-dimensionality that makes the most difference between the two players’ HDR10 visuals.
At this point, it’s vital to remember that the Oppo 205 would have cost £1,300 if you could have purchased one.
And, in the light of such a price disparity, while the PS5’s photos are certainly superior to the Oppo’s, they are far from disgraced.
Especially in terms of black level and brightness, as well as degrees of detail in ultra-bright picture places like the sun reflector at 08:21.
I then pitted the PS5 against the Panasonic UB820 standalone 4K Blu-ray player for a more accurate HDR10 comparison. This is a mid-range deck that costs roughly $500 in the United States (and a bargain £300 in the United Kingdom).
It supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ premium HDR formats, but unlike the Oppo, it also allows you to disable this support if you prefer to continue with the vanilla HDR10 master that underpins both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision masters.
I took advantage of this option right away so I could run a straight HDR10 PS5 comparison using the same It sequences I’d used for all of my PS5 and Xbox Series X 4K Blu-ray tests.
It’s difficult to distinguish the PS5 and UB820 photographs apart in the reference shot of Eddie heading into the sun before of his first Pennywise meeting.
The Panasonic, however, shows a bit more detail and colour neutrality in the fascia and side of the house on the left, as well as a little more definition at the borders of the vapour trails, after a lot of long, hard looking.
There’s a little less noise on the shaded side of the home, as well as around the power lines in the top right corner.
Panasonic vs. PS5
In terms of clarity, detail, and colour tone refinement, the trees in this photo look similar on the PS5 and UB820. In truth, colour is pretty much the same across both players, from Eddie’s “sunburned” leg to the representation of the trees and the bright blue skies.
As we join the Losers Club at the carnival ground at 1:09:00, the players’ differences become slightly more evident. On the PS5, the cable that extends across the sky to the left of Paul Bunyan’s statue appears noisier and more damaged.
On the Panasonic player, the red ‘ice cream’ wording on the truck in the backdrop is a little cleaner and more apparent, while the colours of the balloons and flags are slightly more refined, adding to a slightly more obvious 3D aspect to the image.
Even in this photo, finding the variations I’ve outlined was difficult enough that the PS5 rightly felt pleased with itself.
I also used the UB820/PS5 comparisons to better understand the PS5’s black level performance. On the LG CX OLED, I’m delighted to report that it doesn’t suffer from the raised black levels and instability concerns that the Xbox Series X 4K Blu-ray drive does.
Apart from a strange momentary brightness pulse in the black bars above and below the picture as the scene cuts to the first shot inside the cellar in the opening scene, brightness and black levels remained as deep and rock solid on the PS5 as they did on the Panasonic UB820 in the extremely difficult-to-show sequence in Georgie’s cellar in It’s opening scene.
PS5 vs. Panasonic budget
I pitted the PS5 against a relatively modest Panasonic UB450 (£179 in the UK) for one final stand-alone 4K Blu-ray comparison (I’ll be producing a separate piece comparing the PS5 4K BD drive with the Xbox Series X soon).
The PS5 matched its competitor at nearly every step in this HDR10 ‘shoot out.’ Apart from a brief black bar flash on the PS5 during the Georgie cellar episode in It, I couldn’t find any substantial picture advantages in favour of the solo deck.
Colors appear to be indistinguishable in terms of saturation levels and balance, while black levels appear to be equally dark and constant. Detail levels and sharpness also appear to be almost same.
On the LG CX TV, peak brightness and clipping levels looked to be the same on both decks. The only significant performance difference was in favour of the PS5, which handled video noise in dim settings somewhat better than the UB450.
The UB450 does have one significant trick in its sleeve, though: it supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision active HDR systems, just as the more expensive UB820.
For the above head-to-head comparisons, I disabled this support, but as we’ve seen, the HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats can give picture quality benefits when both content and your display device support them.
Upscaling
While I’ve focused on the PS5’s ability to play 4K Blu-ray discs, it’s worth mentioning its performance with lower-resolution discs as well. Especially because it upscales HD Blu-rays to 4K if the console is set to output 4K (which happens by default if you have a 4K TV).
When it comes to testing the upscaling of a screen or source, the HD Blu-ray of the final Harry Potter film has long been a favourite of mine.
It’s a genuine 4K upscaling problem because to its complex colour palette, dramatic contrast, and strange mix of clarity and sometimes rather significant levels of filmic grain. So it’s encouraging to see the PS5 handling it effectively.
For starters, a reasonable amount of information is added without making the image appear harsh. The upscaling technique does not emphasise noise or natural grain in the HD source, and colours remain more or less the same tones; there is no significant colour shift.
However, there are some limitations to the upscaling as well. When compared to the results you can achieve with, instance, the X1 upscaling chip included in Sony’s 4K TVs, some skin tones can appear a little plasticky/detail-lite.
When using their own 4K upscaling, Sony and Panasonic standalone 4K Blu-ray players can look a little cleaner with the same disc, especially on skin tones or highly bright areas. On the PS5, there’s also some slight ringing around high contrast details that you won’t see on even the greatest TVs or standalone 4K Blu-ray players.
While the PS5 isn’t an excellent upscaler of HD Blu-rays, I’d say it’s decent enough to avoid you the pain of having to turn off the console’s 4K playback when playing HD discs (so that your 4K TV’s upscaler can take over).
This means that the PS5 will be able to provide the kind of seamless and polished user experience that will be crucial to the 4K Blu-ray drive’s adoption by consumers who bought the console for gaming first and foremost.
Similarly, I have yet to experience any crashes from the PS5’s Blu-ray sector. I’ve played over 40 4K Blu-ray discs in it, and they’ve all booted and played wonderfully.
There are no frame rate or audio errors when moving around a game using fast forward/rewind or chapter skipping, and there appear to be no system stability concerns when switching back and forth between disc playback and the console’s main menu.
You can even move from a film to a game and back without any apparent issues.
The PS5 is a little noisier than any of the stand-alone decks I compared it against (once the Panasonic UB450 has settled down after some initial rather ugly grating noises whenever you first insert a disc, anyway).
Apart from the odd but short-lived little buzz that appears on top of the basic disc whir, I can’t imagine the PS5’s 4K Blu-ray playback noise causing a substantial distraction during anything other than a silent movie.
It’s probably a good time to address the PS5’s Blu-ray/4K Blu-ray audio capabilities at this point. Basically, everything is fine.
Movie soundtracks, particularly those encoded in Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, sound as crisp, clear, and powerful as you’d expect, and, as I mentioned earlier, I didn’t notice any errors or distortions even after going between different portions of the console’s OS.
Verdict
The PS5 isn’t a flawless 4K Blu-ray player by any means. Its odd audio setup will confuse newcomers, its inability to play 3D Blu-rays or audio CDs feels stingy, and its refusal to join Sony’s standalone 4K Blu-ray decks in supporting the Dolby Vision HDR format immediately eliminates it as a path to better picture quality for those with Dolby Vision-compatible TVs.
Having said that, its performance with HDR10 4K Blu-ray masters is on par with respectable entry-level stand-alone 4K Blu-ray players, and only a hair behind a well-regarded mid-range deck. Once you’ve got everything set up correctly, it also runs reliably and smoothly.
While it may not be the new 4K Blu-ray player that some Sony fans had hoped for, it is excellent enough to potentially introduce 4K Blu-ray to millions of new PS5 owners. That’s probably as much as the more realistic members of the 4K Blu-ray fan club could hope for.
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