PS4 System Software Preview – USB Music Player, New Home Screen Colors, More

We have not yet announced a date. That said we don’t want you guys playing some of the biggest games of the year without the biggest update of the year.

Saw this in the blog comments. This probably means it will be out by the end of October.
 
Backup data is what I've been waiting for mainly. Video player would be great as well as DLNA but I didn't want to upgrade my HDD while also having to download all my games again. Need to know what file systems it supports for external HDDs first. Also the library improvements were a must. So many digital games that were mixed in with video apps, demos, betas and all in some weird order.
 
Hmm, was hoping for video file support but all in all this sounds ok to me. Looking forward to it, even though I'd rather have small things like these...

  • Sorting trophies by date earned
  • Ability to pause a given download
  • Ability to turn off the controller w/ two steps

...get added than background music which I have no use for.
 
They haven't announced everything that comes with the update yet

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Here's hoping that means suspend/resume is still coming. It's becoming the last guardian of features :(
 
Share Play is pretty much the best feature so far this generation. I really hope it works as intended. All the media functions are just nice-to-have but not necessary on a gaming console imo. There are enough other devices which supports these things way better. Custom soundtracks aka playing my own music in any game is a killer app though
 
Wait, does this mean external HDD support?

Probably not.

I'm guessing it will be like the PS3 where you can back up onto an external drive to replace your PS4 HD for example. Instead of having to redownload/reinstall everything, you can just copy it back over from the external.

I highly doubt they will support usable installs and saves directly to the external like XB1 does.
 
You know, I really hate being like one of these ungrateful kids who complain about things and always act like nothing is enough. I do. These are nice updates in themselves, but all I can think about is how it will have USB MUSIC SUPPORT.

I don't want USB music. I don't have an MP3 player and I don't want one. I listen to CDs. I still buy CDs. Just last week I bought the new Weezer album.

I also have a really nice sound setup on my tv. Is it asking too much to have CD playback? Why can't we at least have the same features that PS3 did? Why are we taking a step back on this? Yes, I understand that kids these days don't have CDs, but it's not like it's difficult technology. The kids these days don't even use DVDs or Blurays either, yet those features are available.

It sucks that when I want to listen to an album in good quality now, I need to switch my equipment and plug in the 360. I don't WANT to use my 360, but I'm forced to because Sony doesn't think it's worth adding CD support to PS4. This really bugs me.
 
This looks pretty good to me, personally. My #1 (remaining)complaint was the lack of organizition. A Library with sort options is so obvious, it blows my mind it wasn't there Day 1. I don't much care about the other stuff, but clearly they're still behind the curve.

My former #1 complaint was the broken share button, but it started working after one of the stability updates (knock on wood).
 
+ Scott McCarthy on October 16th, 2014 at 1:20 pm said:

We have not yet announced a date. That said we don’t want you guys playing some of the biggest games of the year without the biggest update of the year.

So... Optimistically, before Nov 18?
 
That's completely up to the game though. For the vast majority of cases, it's going to be muting the game music and replacing it with your own. The first option doesn't even require a firmware update.

Yes, I know this. I was just explaining to him that "background music" is not the same as custom soundtracks.

I wish more games would have it. Unfortunately, it's never been a common feature.

I seriously cannot believe it took Sony close to a year to add colored themes and USB playback.

Meanwhie Microsoft puts out these kind of features 12 times a year.

Yeah, Sony sucks at this. Coming from 360 and Steam, it's amazing how much better Microsoft and Valve are when it comes to updates and adding new features. I know both have the advantage being software companies and all, but come on.
 
Here's hoping that means suspend/resume is still coming. It's becoming the last guardian of features :(

Suspend and Resume is a big feature, I doubt Sony would leave out a big feature like that as a small piece of information before/as it launches. Then again, Sony's handling of their firmware has been appalling so there is a chance it could be, but if there is anything added it's probably Pause Downloads, which is still ridiculous that it has omitted so far.
 
Hmm..quite nice. If "backup" actually allows everything, including full games...I can finally swap the HDD and not take over a week (non-stop) to download everything.
 
Fantastic update. Just give me SharePlay and Im good. Haven't really had any issues with the overall functionality of the Ps4. I boot it up, hit play and a game and I'm golden.

Everything sounds good though.
 
Sorry, that Library solution does NOT sound adequate to me. FUCK. This is the one thing I need, the ability to sort my games into folders based on my choosing. Not scroll 15 tiles to the right, select my library, then have to sort all 50 by A-Z or whatever and scroll to wherever my app is.

Jesus christ Sony, sort this fucking out.

I agree, it's really bad design just having everything just shoved onto the one line. Its good they are letting us sort the games on that line though....but its nowhere near where it needs to be
 
For the people who are complaining about the stupid webstore url, you realize you can type in store.playstation.com and it will redirect you. Which is only ever so slightly different than the proposed playstationstore.com
 
Probably not.

I'm guessing it will be like the PS3 where you can back up onto an external drive to replace your PS4 HD for example. Instead of having to redownload/reinstall everything, you can just copy it back over from the external.

I highly doubt they will support usable installs and saves directly to the external like XB1 does.

So, if I'm running out of room, could I back up some of my game installs to the external? If so, I'm happy enough with that.
 
Actually looking forward for the tablet optimised app.
 
No, custom soundtracks is where a game properly integrates your music into the game. Meaning if we take Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit for example, it allowed you to add your music into the game. It wasn't just simply using the console music player to just play music over the game, but NFS let you pick what songs you wanted to use, where you wanted to use them (do you want this song to play during races or only in the menus?), and properly transitioned when going between racing and back to the main menu.

Examples of proper custom soundtracks would be:

GTA games on PC and on OG Xbox
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)
SSX (2012)

there are others, but the point is simply playing music over a game via the console player is not the same as actual custom soundtracks. Hopefully my description made some sense.

this sounds pretty neat. although I just want the xbox360 level of playback. it had USB/DLNA/HDD support and in-game music tracks stopped when playing.

I guess some people were looking forward to some of these features but I'm also a bit underwhelmed. I want support for bluetooth headsets, folders and suspend/resume.

I don't think that is coming. Sony already released a bluetooth headset and it needs a dongle to function. maybe the controller/keyboard takes up too much bandwidth or something.
 
Pretty good update. Can't wait to load up some blood-pumping music for driveclub.

youtube is a godsend, it's fucking annoying using the browser (which does work better than expected tbh)
 
Can't believe online Friend notifications are not a priority for Sony when it comes to these Firmware updates.

Solid update, tho.
 
I want FLAC support, dammit!
This. Also, whatever happened to just dumping my music media directly onto the HD?

Anyone else remember using custom soundtracks on the original Xbox and the ESPN sports titles? It was GODLY in the NHL 2K series. Bring that shit back, yo.
 
I'm baffled at how long it took for them to add MP3 support, and even then you can't copy to the HDD? At least you can play it during any game, that's fantastic.

Some good progress here but I hate how quiet they are about DLNA and suspend/resume.
 
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