In terms of actual picture quality, both consoles output a pure 1080p image without artificially changing the source material in any way, meaning colour accuracy, sharpness and detail are identical. Still, as first impressions goes, it's not a great indicator of the overall stability of the system.
Thankfully, we didn't encounter any issues on other discs we tried, and we imagine that problems such as this can easily be fixed with a software update. Our experience is initially less pleasing on the PS4, with the original release of James Cameron's Avatar crashing to a black screen across two different units after around a minute of playback.
Blu-ray playback - a mixed bagįirst impressions of Xbox One Blu-ray playback seem positive once all of the updates are out of the way and the bespoke app is installed: the machine loaded up every disc we threw at it, and we weren't confronted by any obvious incompatibilities. However, it's clear from the outset that both Microsoft and Sony are keen on locking out homegrown (and yes, pirated) content, but in our tests, the lack of functionality and too many bugs impact the support of 'official' material. In terms of other user-generated video, it's worth pointing out that the Microsoft console plays burned DVDs but stubbornly refuses to process BD-Rs, while PlayStation 4 happily runs both. These are functions common to the last-gen consoles, but are mysteriously absent in their successors - although Xbox One can receive "stream to" content from Windows 8 PCs. However, alarm bells start ringing straight away when you realise that neither console offers users the means to play their own media files - either from attached storage or from network shares.
On the face of it, besides the ability to pump live TV through Microsoft's system (a feature that currently lacks the potentially game-changing One Guide functionality found in the US), both machines feature very similar features, such as the ability to play back Blu-ray and DVD discs, along with dedicated apps covering a range of streaming video services, including those exclusive to both Sony and Microsoft. So the question is, just why do the next-gen consoles appear to perform less capably than their predecessors? Our tests produced some disappointing results, with the PlayStation 3 in particular providing a clearly superior experience overall.
With the arrival of next-gen console, the potential is there to bring media integration to a whole new level - indeed, that's the core proposition of Xbox One, with PS4 also featuring a rich array of movie and TV services. With the arrival of Xbox 360 and PS3, console manufacturers realised that games consoles could be so much more - they could be the media player that takes centre-stage in your living room, able to deliver movies and TV shows streamed from the internet as well as traditional disc-based entertainment. But not to worry - Digital Foundry re-assessed the media functionality of PS4 and Xbox One in December 2014, and you can read the revised piece here. This article was originally published in February 2014, and much of the information is now out of date.