WrenchNinja
Member
Well you were under some misinformation about how speed of downloads work.
Next time just press X one more time and let it download in the background.
Is PSN really this bad?
- Thread starter Ninja Scooter
- Start date
Next time just press X one more time and let it download in the background.
I just explained this.
The background download is reserved for things you want to download in a queue.
You can pause some things, resume other things, and it doesn't corrupt your download or anything (though you might think it did based on the OP).
The storefront is very obviously set up to download smaller things, which is why the word "background download" is featured prominently on anything you activate.
The bubble system Sony uses is clearly a necessary evil that Sony had to keep around to accommodate the way the PS3 accesses data.
Well, considering that the OP stil has his thread-making privileges while you have lost yours, I'd say the OP knows more about thread titles than you do.
Wait, you people are, without irony, expecting users to know that background downloads is a better and the only way to save files that's error-proof? A "feature" that was never actually acknowledged by Sony themselves...anywhere?
Boy, if there's ever an argument that console fanboys are completely oblivious...
Boy, if there's ever an argument that console fanboys are completely oblivious...
Jinfash
needs 2 extra inches
I've never had any weird errors and hiccups akin to the ones in the OP, but the slowness from my personal experience is very real. It's the type of low speeds that will make you constantly suspect your ISP is throttling your speeds only to dispel those concerns when you test another device.
Mr_Appleby
Member
amazingly, given i live in australia, PSN is not all that bad. Even on wireless I have no troubles with streaming services and the DL speeds are about the same I get on the computer. Dunno what I did, or what they did. It did used to be terrible.
RedAssedApe
Banned
Never had any problems outside of download speeds being atrociously slow off PSN. Firmware updates are laughably bad.
Xbox Live isn't all that great either being a paid service and all.
Xbox Live isn't all that great either being a paid service and all.
LonelyGreyWolf
Banned
PSN should recognize the size of the files. If it's 10GB big it should background download automatically, or at least tell the user in a warning message that it will take forever if you don't do it in background. XBL always does background, and you can change queue too. Also, it install in the background too.
This thread might help http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=462975&page=2
The proxy tool seem to have helped a few people out (worked for me)
What I'm trying to say is that the way the PS3 makes you install things after they background download is not something they can turn off.
Installing one single game takes all other tasks away from the user. It's probably how the PS3 was designed, rather than being one of those quirks that can be updated away.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Where is it written so that I would know? Is it just one of those things you should know just by knowing? I guess it's my fault for expecting Sony's download service to operate in the same way as every other major download service.
I've downloaded maybe 50 to 100 items of varying sizes from PSN over the course of 4 years and I still didn't know that PSN store downloads won't resume while background downloads do.
Yeah, I agree it's not intricate. It's just ridiculously obtuse and arbitrary.
You see the words background download by activating something.
Since the Playstation Store isn't a cloud application, it should be fairly evident that resuming downloads on it would be impossible.
I have been reading peoples' complaints about the Playstation Network since the PS3 launched, and honestly, this is the first time I've read this one.
WrenchNinja
Member
I think its acknowleged by Sony by having the big white button where it says "press x to download in background"
push the button
Release your inner Dee Dee
And the indication that this is anything more than an option is...where?
"oh hey look there's an option you can click it. *but we don't tell you if you don't click this you don't get benefit Z over option X*" No, even halfway decent user experience and interface design isn't this poor.
Ninja Scooter
Member
And this does waht exactly? Where do they explain, even simply, what the advantages/disadvantages are? Do you just assume? Because my assumption was "Downloading in the background is for when I want to use my PS3 for other shit while it's downolading. I have no other shit to do right now on my PS3 so I guess I'll leave it alone". There is nothing on this "big white button" to dispel my assumption.
Now I'm not sure whether you really know what you're talking about or are just pulling shit out of your ass.
WrenchNinja
Member
Well the alternative would be waiting for the download on the screen to finish with the inability to do anything with the system
I mean I guess you could do that, dont know why you would want to unless you were informed that this was somehow a better option
Maybe theyll retool it next system
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
ohsnap.jpg
It may be due to a combination of reasons.
I bought a PS3 day 1. PSN has never been slow for me at home or in the office. Download speed is blazingly fast in my office. The only one exception was the Eye of Judgment update, which took quite a while because the game had to authorize and decrypt each card.
If it's that definitively and obviously better, then why isn't it the default?
Stop defending crap functionality and design.
I've used the PS3 extensively since 2007. I know how it works.
There is absolutely no indication, NONE, that the Playstation Store keeps incomplete downloads for you to resume when you access the store again.
There is a place for buying/activating things, and a place for seeing them download. Those features communicate with each other, but they're still separate.
Again, the Playstation 3 is unique in how it moves from an activation to a download, and then a download to an installation.
Stoffinator
Member
I downloaded Dead Space 2 (which is 11gig) in about two hours from PSN.
I am a PS Plus member and I do notice speeds are faster with it. But not sure if Plus members do get better connections.
I am a PS Plus member and I do notice speeds are faster with it. But not sure if Plus members do get better connections.
I'm going to explain this to you directly, since you won't read my posts.
The bubble system is part of the PS3's design. It cannot be excised.
This means activating a 32 KB unlock key would produce another bubble if not for the Store's auto-install feature. This is the purpose of the storefront download.
Punkster_NY
Member
are you connected wired or wirelessly? download speeds have always been fast(75/20Mpbs) and I've never had a corrupt download. PSN has been rock solid from day one.
WrenchNinja
Member
I dont know. Probably because it wasnt a launch feature I think. Not sure.
Im not? I pretty sure all I said was press the button next time and that downloading in the background seemed like a pretty obvious choice between the two. Clearly its not for some.
Yeah, pretty much. I assumed four years ago "Do I want to have this dead space and lbp demo download with me not being able to use the system? Probably not"
Youre right, theres nothing saying that its got advantages like the no errors thing. They should probably fix the way downloads work on the next system.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
There's no real obvious indication that background downloads can be resumed either. Hell, even Brad Shoemaker didn't even know the distinction between the two before this thread. It's only obvious to people who have used it enough times to run into it and be aware of it, not necessarily because of anything we read in the store interface.
Then let me explain this to you, since you're not paying attention.
That's still shit design.
RedAssedApe
Banned
To be honest. I rarely download things off PSN. So my current estimation that PSN is slow is based on how long it takes to download those tiny firmware updates. Although that may be entirely by design since its pushing out those updates to everyone at once.
You mean other than the words and symbols for pause and resume in your queue, which looks very similar to other queues?
No, I don't buy this. If you can find your downloads as they're downloading, you can see that they can be resumed.
If you power off your PS3, then turn it back on, you can clearly see that download status spinner turning. That tells you that your stuff is still downloading.
Yeah, I'd say that's obvious. They don't hide it from you.
But it has nothing to do with the Playstation Network, or how Sony has chosen to roll out features over the year.
Questions of "Why is it this way" are pretty pointless if they can't fix it. Just a mindless dogpile.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
There are several people who may never even enter the download queue to even see that. That's the point of background downloads right? Let it download til it finishes, so for some they'd have no reason to look at it. Especially if they just let it go overnight.
I myself never looked at the queue list until several months after background downloads were implemented because I almost always had let large downloads go before heading to bed, as I wanted to pause a download until later to stream a video.
Quit projecting your assumptions.
True, the crappy download speeds though does have something to do with it. I'm with Brad, I always have had slow downloads both at home and at work, and our office bandwidth and speeds are massively high. I wonder if its Bay Area related? Which would be amusing, since SCEA is based here.
Ninja Scooter
Member
So the only way to figure out if background downloads can be resumed is to guinea pig test it an turn off your system and turn it back on...and you call that obvious?
I don't understand why some people with good internet have crap speeds from PSN. Took me about an hour to download around 4.5GB from PSN a few weeks ago.
I also read a lot about large patch updates taking 30 minutes or more to download, when I downloaded the Uncharted 3 patch (I think it was around 250MB?) in about 5 minutes.
Schrödinger's cat;41356095 said:
I think you have to be a SeeD, A rank.
Schrödinger's cat
Banned
Forgive me, I've interpreted 'GF' as 'Girlfriend' and I my brain won't consider any alternatives to it now. GF?
Where can I get a GF like that?
On topic: I've used PSN heaps over the years. Its ok. It's far from perfect. I had no idea that 'download in background' was any different to 'download in store whilst I sit here watch the progress bar for no good reason'. Thanks for the education GAF!
I suppose then you could use your PS3 and not know that it connects to the internet at all, or that it connects to an HDTV. I've seriously heard of people using composite cables.
I prefer to assume people have the initiative to see what their system can do.
No, you can check it by choosing pause, then choosing resume.
This is the same way it's done on Steam, incidentally. A little Gabe Newell mascot character didn't talk to me and show me how to do this either. I figured it out, just like with the PS3.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Is there two ways to download something in Steam?
What does that have to do with anything? I'm talking about the pause/resume function.
Way to dodge the issue.
Maastricht
Member
I think there was some maintenance with PSN yesterday - I got a notice about something like that myself. That could have interrupted your download (but as others have said, it wouldn't have hurt you if you'd have had background downloads).
The reason why background downloads aren't default, is because it was added to the firmware at a later stage. Sony has had to do an aweful lot of catching up this gen, but recently they're starting to get ahead of the curve a little bit here and there, finally, so there's some hope it will be better nexr-gen.
I've personally noticed by the way that if I look at the status of a background download, it seems to speed up. That is probably a safer way to make sure it goes fast than not using background downloading at all.
I'm thinking background downloading is held back a little bit to ensure that PSN, games and other applications that access the web have enough bandwidth (and if you play an online multiplayer game I think it pauses downloading completely).
The reason why background downloads aren't default, is because it was added to the firmware at a later stage. Sony has had to do an aweful lot of catching up this gen, but recently they're starting to get ahead of the curve a little bit here and there, finally, so there's some hope it will be better nexr-gen.
I've personally noticed by the way that if I look at the status of a background download, it seems to speed up. That is probably a safer way to make sure it goes fast than not using background downloading at all.
I'm thinking background downloading is held back a little bit to ensure that PSN, games and other applications that access the web have enough bandwidth (and if you play an online multiplayer game I think it pauses downloading completely).
PapaJustify
Member
Can't understand the criticism so much. PSN never gave much problems to me and I always have high download speeds. 5GB takes me half an hour or so. What takes long is the actual installation afterwards.
Ninja Scooter
Member
I'm not dodging the issue. Steam doesn't have this problem because there is one way to download. They don't need to explain the differences between two different download styles and their pros and cons. Sony would need to tell you "Hey this type of download lets you pause and resume...this other type of download, well, there's no real advantage to it but we'll give you the option anyway!". There's no trial and error with Steam. There's trial and error with PSN for no good reason.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Because those are completely valid comparisons to what I described.
Bravo, you're on a roll in this thread!