Xbox One Doesn't Support BD-Rs, Has 50Hz Framerate Issues

[admin]

Microsoft's Xbox One will not play any recordable Blu-ray discs, and Microsoft's help document even says that DVD-Rs are not officially supported.

While DVD-Rs do work on the Xbox One, BD-Rs and rewritable BD-REs, from any brand, will not be supported. The lack of support is not a hardware issue, but a deliberate decision made by Microsoft on the software level.

No rationale is given for the lack of recordable Blu-ray support, although commentators have speculated that copyright protection may be behind the decision. With Xbox One games now coming on Blu-ray discs, pirated games that have to be burned onto BD-Rs will no longer pose a threat to Microsoft if their console no longer reads them.

While illegally copied games may be stopped by this measure, people's home video recordings, archived to BD-Rs for long term storage, will also be unplayable, and this has left many Xbox One owners unhappy.

This development is just the latest in a disconcerting trend against media compatibility for the recently released next-gen consoles, with the PS4 lacking CD, MP3 and DLNA support, while neither supports Blu-ray 3D playback at launch.

Another common problem that has since come to the surface in PAL 50Hz regions, including the UK and Australia, is the Xbox One's inability to handle 50Hz inputs properly via the built-in TV integration feature. 50Hz signals are being converted to 60Hz using frame duplication, which means an extra frame every sixth frame - this causes judder to be present.

A workaround currently exists to force the Xbox One to display in 50Hz mode, but this also forces games, most of which are designed to be outputted at 60Hz, to stutter.

Microsoft has yet to comment on the timeframe for a potential fix.

[drfsupercenter]

If it's a software issue, I'm sure it could be "fixed" just like the Xbox 360 has flashable DVD firmware to let you use burned game discs.

Silly, really. But I see why they did it.

As for the hertz thing... I thought Blu-Rays were being displayed at 24Hz, at least it's an option in the Blu-Ray player of the Xbox One (mine has it - though I'm in the USA)

[admin]

The Hz thing is with the TV integration. US TV is in 60Hz, and so when it goes through the Xbox One, everything is fine. But in the PAL regions, TV is 50Hz, and it gets badly converted to 60Hz when it goes through the Xbox One and judder is added. The Xbox One should be capable of outputting in 24Hz, 50Hz and 60Hz - a fix is needed so that it detects the correct TV input and outputs it correctly too.

Have to say, not very impressed by the media capabilities of both the next-gen consoles so far. Too much of the vague "maybe in the future" type of stuff, which is not really understandable given how mature the PS3/Xbox 360's media features are.

[drfsupercenter]

Do PAL region HDTVs not support 24Hz?

I'm assuming if you set 24Hz to "off", it'll output in 60Hz, so I get what you're saying about the jitter from 60 -> 50. Hopefully they can fix that.

As far as the media stuff goes... I agree, but, as far as I know when the Xbox 360 and PS3 launched, they didn't support most of what they do now. It's a whole new platform, and developers have to code their apps to support it (Hey, Netflix is available at launch, that's a good thing)

I really think both consoles were extremely rushed. They probably could have waited another 6 months, or even a year, and gotten more developers on board, as well as perfecting everything (since both PS4 and XB1 had some defective units at launch)

[admin]

24Hz is only for film content on Blu-ray though, it won't work for games or TV.

There is a workaround that forces the Xbox One to output in 50Hz, but this then ruins it for games which are all 60Hz.

I think with the PS3/Xbox 360, it was more understandable because many of the video/disc formats that we use now weren't widely available when these consoles were launched (eg. Blu-ray 3D, MP4/H.264). It's a bit harder to accept the PS4 not having DLNA support, for example, considering every other Sony connected device has it. Same for Blu-ray 3D on both consoles, again considering you can find the feature on a $50 standalone, but they couldn't fit it into a $399 console that is supposed to be Sony's (and Microsoft's) flagship CE product?