Physical media is making a resurgence, especially in home theater circles. Rather than pay for streaming services in perpetuity, some buyers are realizing that owning higher-quality 4K UHD Blu-ray discs is the better option. However, finding a new 4K player in 2026 is trickier than it should be. Only a handful of brands make quality players, and the good ones often start at $500 and up. If you’re looking for a budget 4K UHD Blu-ray player to start your collection, the best option might not be a standalone player at all.
Game consoles are making a name for themselves as affordable 4K UHD disc players, and they’re cheaper than you think. The disc version of the PlayStation 5 is renowned for its 4K Blu-ray playback abilities, but Microsoft actually added 4K UHD support first. Both the Xbox One S and Xbox One X support 4K UHD Blu-ray playback, and they’re dirt cheap on the used market these days. I’ve been looking for a standalone 4K UHD Blu-ray player for months —until I realized one was hiding in my closet all along.
The Xbox One S is the best 4K player under $100
You can find used consoles for cheap, and they can handle 4K UHD discs
I made the switch to a digital-only Xbox Series S years ago. Once I started collecting Blu-ray discs and decided to try my hand at 4K UHD releases, I dug out the Xbox One S from my closet. It’s surprisingly capable as not only a 4K UHD Blu-ray player, but also has a home theater solution. Aside from the main HDMI 2.0a output port on the Xbox One S, the console also has an HDMI input for other media devices and an optical audio output.
I expected the Xbox One S playback experience to be extremely barebones, but that wasn’t the case. The player’s big omission is its lack of Dolby Vision support, which enables dynamic metadata and 12-bit color depth. However, every Dolby Vision disc also has HDR10 metadata included. You’re still going to get HDR10 color from 4K UHD Blu-ray discs played via the Xbox One S, even if you’re giving up scene- or frame-specific color and brightness information. For a budget player, that’s not too bad.
In terms of hardware, the Xbox One S has the same 4K UHD disc player and Blu-ray app as the Xbox One X and Xbox Series X. You can go with the Xbox One S, the cheapest console of the three, and get a virtually identical 4K UHD Blu-ray experience. The latest Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles don’t have Dolby Vision, either. If your TV and/or AV receiver lack Dolby Vision support, you wouldn’t be able to use it anyway.
The conversation around the Xbox One S always comes down to price. You can find a used Xbox One S on resale sites like eBay for under $100. The cheapest working models are around $50, but be careful to avoid listings described as “box only” or “for parts only,” so that you get an actual, working console. Microsoft sold tens of millions of these consoles, and there are plenty out there. You might already have one waiting for a second life, or know someone that does.
The Xbox One S can handle Atmos and DTS:X
Plus, you can let your AV receiver decode Blu-ray audio itself
I recently built a Dolby Atmos home theater setup, complete with a JBL MA710 receiver capable of decoding 5.1.2 audio. I feared the absence of Dolby Vision on the Xbox One S was a bad sign for Dolby Atmos support. Fear not, because the Xbox One S can handle both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio. This was music to my ears. I didn’t build my home theater around Dolby Vision, but I did center it around Dolby Atmos. Since the Xbox One S will let my receiver decode the Dolby Atmos audio on 4K UHD Blu-ray disc, it could save me from having to buy a standalone player.
There are two ways to make sure an Xbox One S is handling your surround sound audio properly. You can open the Audio output menu in your Xbox’s settings app and set the HDMI output preference to Bitstream out. Then, download the Dolby Access app, and set the bitstream format to Dolby Atmos for home theater. This system-wide toggle is great for streaming apps, but the optical drive has its own setting under the Discs & Blu-ray menu. Here, select the checkbox beside Let my receiver decode audio.
This setting lets my JBL MA710 receiver decode the Dolby Atmos audio on my Blu-ray and 4K UHD discs, sending the output signal to my 5.1.2 speaker system. I get all the Atmos benefits of a fancy 4K UHD Blu-ray player without having to pay premium prices for one. Instead, the Xbox One S does the job for cheap.
The 4K Blu-ray player market is shrinking
Older Xbox and PlayStation consoles might be the saving grace
There are some complaints about using the Xbox One S for 4K UHD Blu-ray playback, such as the loud noise or the inconsistent reading of triple-layer 100GB discs. That’s in addition to the missing Dolby Vision support, which is a big part of the 4K UHD experience for some. That said, I think many of these drawbacks can be overlooked when you consider the price of an Xbox One S in 2026. It’s a cheap way to play CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K UHD Blu-rays, as well as any Xbox One and Xbox 360 games. That level of versatility in a game console isn’t something to sleep on.
With so few quality options for 4K players on the market today, it’s easy to settle for an Xbox One S. You can try it out, see if the 4K UHD Blu-ray hobby is right for you, and upgrade to a better player down the line. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. If the Xbox One S I pulled out of my closet meets my needs as a 4K UHD player, I’ll stick with it. I’d certainly rather keep the $550 that I had set aside for the Panasonic UB-820 in my pocket.