This Console Has The Advantage For Blu-Ray

The PlayStation 5 appears to have won another battle in the "Great Console War." If your decision over between an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 comes down to which console has a superior Blu-ray player, it's going to be the PS5 according to a pretty technical comparison video from Vincent Teoh on HDTVTest.

While the PS5 appears to have the Blu-ray advantage, the good news is that the differences seem very small. But they do exist, according to Teoh, who analyzed the Blu-ray picture quality on both consoles using a number of different tests and TV screens. There is a lot of data to pick through here, but the primary points of contention are color and frame rate.

For starters, Teoh found that the color on the Xbox Series X was dimmer and that it had a harsher color gradient transition when compared to the PlayStation 5. "The PS5 rendered the gradations in a smoother manner compared with the Xbox Series X, which exhibited visible bands, including the occasional brighter streaks," he said.

Additionally, the Xbox Series X also jumped frames every 42 seconds or so in what Teoh described as a "micro stutter" when playing true 24 frames per second Blu-rays. As Teoh elaborated, the reason for this stutter is that the Xbox Series X reportedly plays 24 frames per second Blu-rays at 23.976 FPS. In a frame-by-frame video comparison of a 24 fps Blu-ray, you can see that the Xbox Series X eventually jumped one frame ahead of the PlayStation 5. When skipping chapters, Teoh claimed that the Xbox Series X would also skip a frame or two before resuming normally, "which could prove mildly annoying to the most anal videophiles, such as myself."

"To sum up, the Sony PS5 is better than the Xbox Series X in terms of 4K Blu-ray playback," Teoh concluded. "While casual viewers will still be satisfied with the 4K HDR presentation from the Xbox Series X when watching ultra-HD Blu-rays, the Sony PlayStation 5 simply delivered superior color gradation with less posterization, higher chroma bandwidth with less roll-off, as well as glitch-free 24 frames per second output."

Despite handing the console-based Blu-ray crown to the PlayStation 5, Teoh reaffirmed that most viewers likely would not notice issues such as "small color deviations." He also suggested that video buffs who prized accuracy should forgo the Blu-ray drives on the PS5 and Xbox Series X in favor of "a dedicated 4K Blu-ray player such as the Panasonic UB 9000." He even curated a playlist of other disc player reviews.

Teoh's assessment may not come as a surprise for some. While the latest Xbox generation has seen its share of successes, other analysts have recognized the PS5 for having a superior image quality and frame rate over the Series X. Though, finding a console that hasn't been scooped up by a scalper might still be difficult.