I won’t blame anyone for never even looking at the PS5’s streaming and home entertainment side. While the ninth-gen PlayStation got a lot of marketing push for its cutting-edge APU and 4K rendering capabilities, Sony never delved into the console’s home-entertainment features.
I bought my PS5 for the same reason as most people do: to play games. However, with no quality PS5 exclusive to sink my teeth into, the console was just collecting dust on my shelf. That is, until I decided to use it as a home entertainment system.
To my surprise, the PS5 works way better than my Fire TV when it comes to streaming, and on top of that, it can also play my old Blu-ray discs. That said, as I started using the PS5 for streaming, I realized one major flaw that keeps the console from being the perfect home entertainment center.
The PS5’s power draw is the biggest concern
Even while streaming
The PS5 does give me all the options I look for in a dedicated entertainment system. At the same time, it has an incredibly high power draw, which certainly is an issue for small households like mine. During streaming, the PS5 consumes an average of 70 watts, which is much higher than my Blu-ray player and 42-inch LCD combined. Thankfully, the console doesn’t consume more than 100 watts during regular streaming.
This certainly helps keep my entertainment center’s power consumption well within my UPS’s limits. That said, for an entertainment system, an average power draw of 70 watts during regular content streaming isn’t ideal. Combined with your display and audio setup, you can easily go past 100 watts, which is going to have a massive impact on the monthly energy bills.
|
Setup |
Average Power Consumption (Streaming) |
Average Power Consumption (Idle) |
Average Power Consumption (Gaming) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
PS5 with 43″ LCD (LG) and 5.1 audio setup (Creative) |
90 watts |
50 watts |
210 watts |
|
PS5 with 43″ LCD (LG) |
90 watts |
50 watts |
200 watts |
|
PS5 with 24″ monitor (LG) and USB-C soundbar (Creative) |
70 watts |
50 watts |
200 watts |
Another issue that stems from the PS5’s general power consumption is, well, heat. I own the “Fat” disc-edition PS5 from 2023, which I take apart to clean every three months. And even with all that maintenance, the console easily heats up while playing games and even streaming media from Blu-ray.
It’s not as bad as my older PS4 Pro, but it’s certainly noticeable, especially if your entertainment center isn’t in an air-conditioned room. Now, in Sony’s defense, the PS5 is a very powerful machine that can do a lot more than just play Blu-ray discs. And as such, it’s expected to have a significantly higher average power draw than a traditional media center.
To be fair, all things considered, the PS5 is still a very power-efficient machine. Compared to a PC with similar performance capabilities, the PS5 only consumes a fraction of the former’s average power draw. I recently built a mid-range RTX 4060 build, and even that system has an average power draw of 450 watts.
Compared to that, the PS5, even under full load (gaming and broadcasting), only consumes an average of 220 watts.
Sony’s push for a digital-only PlayStation ecosystem
With how aggressively PlayStation is pushing for an “all-digital” future, the PS5, at least the ones that still ship with a disc drive, might very well be the last line of Sony’s media center consoles. Although the next generation of PlayStation systems will likely retain the “digital” suite of media center features, i.e., streaming apps, they likely won’t have a Blu-ray drive. That makes these systems way less appealing as a home entertainment center.
The biggest reason why my PS5 even gets any use out of it nowadays is as a Blu-ray player. For games, there’s always my PC or Nintendo Switch 2. If I want to simply stream movies from Netflix or Apple TV, I can always do that on my Fire TV or PC, or, well, my phone.
However, what none of those devices can do is play my old Blu-ray discs. This is where PlayStation had an edge over the competition. Unfortunately, with Sony ceasing physical disc production for PlayStation systems starting January 2028, it’s very likely that the PS6 will ship without a disc drive.
That not only hurts game preservation, but also eliminates one of the biggest media center features of the console.
Xbox has decent alternatives to the PS5 if you’re looking for a Blu-ray player
While Sony certainly has a great Blu-ray player on the PS5, it isn’t the only console to offer such a feature. If you want a “cheaper” and “less power-hungry” alternative to the PS5’s Blu-ray and media center, you can always pick up the Xbox One S or One X. While Microsoft has ceased production of the Xbox One units, you can easily find decent deals on the second-hand market. The Xbox One consoles don’t offer Dolby Vision support.
However, you do get HDR10, which works quite well for most displays; yes, even on OLEDs. The One S does have some annoying quirks, besides the lack of Dolby Vision support. For instance, being an eighth-generation console, it’s quite loud, especially if it’s old and hasn’t been cleaned.
Furthermore, it also has issues reading triple-layer 100GB Blu-ray discs. However, if you want a Blu-ray player that also has streaming capabilities and don’t want to shell out upwards of $500 for it, the Xbox One is a great system to pick. Granted, you can get it at a reasonable price or at a discount.