Owners of Xbox Series X consoles are reporting issues with playback of triple-layer 100GB UHD Blu-ray discs and noisy disc drives. The playback error has persisted for months.

Xbox Series X disc woes
Xbox Series X is not just a game console. It is also a media player with a built-in UHD Blu-ray drive. Unfortunately, owners are experiencing widespread issues as detailed in a lengthy Reddit thread and highlighted by PureXbox.

- "For those who don't know, movies on 4K Blu-ray are usually printed on 2 different kinds of discs, a dual-layer 66GB disc, or a triple-layer 100GB disc," reddit user Ketamine-Kev wrote. "However, if you put a 100GB 4K disc in (which, at this point, a decent amount of 4K Blu-rays are), the Xbox completely shits out. For me, it plays everything at 1 - 2 fps with no audio, which pretty much results in taking minutes to get through the opening studio logo which is like 10 seconds at best."

The playback issue related to 100GB discs seems to have persisted for months, most likely since the launch of the console in late 2020. The Lord of the Rings and Tenet were mentioned as two discs that cause playback issues. A full list of UHD Blu-ray releases in BD100 can be found on Blu-ray.com here.


 The disc drive in Xbox Series X. Photo: FlatpanelsHD

Many owners also complain about a noisy disc drive in the Reddit thread. Some find that turning Xbox Series X on its side can help reduce the noise. FlatpanelsHD flagged the issue in our Xbox Series X review but found no solutions to the noisy drive regardless of the console's orientation.

Microsoft has previously fixed an issue with raised blacks on UHD and Blu-ray playback through a software update.

- Source: Reddit via PureXbox, 4KFilme