Ultimate PS4 FAQ is live on PS Blog

Will PS4 support media servers or DLNA support in order to stream videos or movies from a home PC?
The PS4 system does not support client functionality for media servers.

This isn't next gen :(
 
Hey Sony
fuck-you.jpg
You ain't getting my money until you patch your way out of this no MP3, DLNA, Save State etc etc etc issue.
 
No sharing with Youtube is a big problem. Sony, Microsoft and other game companies are controlling game footage each time more close.
 
None was given unfortunately, just not at launch.

Maybe you need to emphasize to your contacts that Sony needs to get clarification on these issues sooner rather than later. Twitter is blowing up about this, and quite frankly, even though I don't use this functionality at all on my PS3, just the fact that it looks like a blatant cash grab to force people to use Music Unlimited is a horrendous PR blunder that Sony really shouldn't be making this close to launch.
 
What a shambles, it sounds very "dumb" like the PS3.
No integration, no "smarts" just outright clunky.

I don't care about the rename thing but man they need to fix that for others.
The music thing? I find the very idea of playing music over a game, disgusting and insulting to the developers. BUT some people seem to love it, focusing on music unlimited is just lol. Fuck music unlimited.

NOT being able to disable video sharing sucks. Waste of hard drive space, BAD for SSDs - just fuck let me turn it off, I couldn't care less about video sharing.
Oh and Facebook as the primary upload place is wtf, I closed my account for 2 years. I reopened recently but I try to keep use to a minimum


Lightbar disabling? Well they've made this clear before about no disable - I'd just like a brightness option at least. I play in a dark room and it could literally be 1/3 as bright and it would still be beaming for me.

Anyone notice them stressing PS3 Backwards compatibility = no? No mention, no marketing, no push and no hints for "upcoming gaikai streaming" is interesting, it's either a LONG way away or they don't care.

No DLNA? I don't care - I got a proper HTPC but OMG is this going to make some people pissed (this is either due to 1 of 2 things, - they haven't had time to add it, or they won't add it due to people getting dodgy copies and playing it on the PS4, they'd rather promote selling content through video unlimited)
(I wonder if it can even play a local MKV from USB or copied to the HDD?)


The whole system feels like a HD PS3, with the XMB code hacked on to it and modified with several features falling off along the way. It's near 2014 and multimedia focus is kinda important for most.
 
160gb?!?! You can only replace the existing one with a hard drive 340gb smaller?!?!

Sorry but I just have to get this off my chest.

How is it possible for someone to fail at reading comprehension so bad. You read something and it's something so completely absurd that any normal person would be like, "Hmm, this is completely absurd, let me read it again cause that can't be right", and they'd quickly realize their mistake. But how someone reads something so wrong and just immediately goes to a forum to make their opinion known just blows my mind. Which is what had to have happened here, there's no way you re-read that and still managed to come to that conclusion.

Anyways, carry on.


The loss of mp3 playback is definitely dumb, but obviously done to force you to use Sony's music service. It sounds so bad right now, but honestly I think I've played mp3s maybe once or twice through the entire life of my PS3 so it's not a huge deal to me.
 
Can I no longer put shows/movies on a USB stick and watch them on a PS4?

And no media streaming?

Weird to completely shut down the device as a media player, it was always one of the coolest things with the PS3 :(
 
Will PS4 support custom Dynamic Themes, as currently available on the PS3 system?
No, PS4 will not support Dynamic Themes as they currently exist on the PS3 system

That is a bit disappointing, i love the dynamic Wave Theme, the way it changes its color according time and day.

Will PS4 support media servers or DLNA support in order to stream videos or movies from a home PC?
The PS4 system does not support client functionality for media servers.

This one is terrible, especially coupled with

Will users be able to connect an external hard drive to expand storage on PS4?
No, this feature is not supported on PS4.
and
Will I be able to play MP3s on PS4?
No.


i and some of my friends use the PS3 as Media hub. Plug in an external HDD, USB drive (i have a phat 60GB with Card reader so SD cards for me) listen to music, look at pictures, watch movies. Occasionally stream Pictures and home movies from my DLNA enabled phone to the PS3.

in it's entirety, this points are a deal breaker for me personally. i won't replace my ps3 with this one yet.

Does PS4 include a music visualizer feature?
No.
a bummer, the Gaia visualization is beautiful, so so beautiful in HD on a flatscreen. That purple wave is a looker too.


so the PS4 is a gaming machine and all its media capabilities are reduced to pay services.

what comes next? will the youtube application get axed? i just started to dig it, linked to my phone.

the next generation should be better or at least as good as the last one, regarding features. maybe my views are too egocentric and people actually want this, wouldn't be the first time was would be wrong with my beliefs.

sincerely yours
 
Maybe you need to emphasize to your contacts that Sony needs to get clarification on these issues sooner rather than later. Twitter is blowing up about this, and quite frankly, even though I don't use this functionality at all on my PS3, just the fact that it looks like a blatant cash grab to force people to use Music Unlimited is a horrendous PR blunder that Sony really shouldn't be making this close to launch.

I'll see if I can find out more information.
 
So it says the pulse elite isn't supported at launch, does this include plugging it into the DS4?

I'm 99.99% certain that will work. When you plug the Pulse Elite into something using a wired 1/8" jack, it operates just like a standard pair of headphones. The DS4 won't know the difference between the Pulse Elite or the included mono headset.
 
I'm still not entirely clear on the game caching thing. Am I doing a full install of every physical game that I buy?

It's still INCREDIBLY unclear.
I just want to FORCE it before I play, but no clarity if you can, or indicator it's complete.
Some of it outright reads as if it simply installs games off the bat, unless you're lucky enough to have a game which does partial copy then play?
 
No MP3 support has to have been something enforced by SNE to try and increase adoption of Music Unlimited. It's nonsensical.

I actually tried Music Unlimited when it was something like £12.99 for a year on PS+, and it's quite good. But would I use it when I'm "forced" to on PS4 if I want music? No, I won't. For a start I have Google Play Music, so it's useless to me apart from on PlayStation devices, and I'm not paying £40+ per year for music. Either include it in PS+ or make it optional, like it should have been.

I don't even listen to that many MP3s on the PS3, but it's the principle of this. Such an obvious attempt to get people to pay for their music service. Nope.
 
I'm still not entirely clear on the game caching thing. Am I doing a full install of every physical game that I buy?

My guess (just a guess).. A physical game needs to be cached. When you look at your drive space usage, it shows you the available space on your drive NOT INCLUDING CURRENT GAME CACHES. So if you have 10GB used from download games and game saves, and 460GB used from game caches, it shows your available space as 490GB even though you "technically" only have like 30GB available. Now when you go to play a game that requires 35GB, the system purges the cache from the game you haven't played the longest time ago. System still says you have 490GB available.

On the other hand if you have 480GB of software installed and you go to play that disc game that requires 35GB of cache, the system will yell at you and say you need to clear out space.

It also sounds like this whole "cache/install" thing doesn't apply to digital downloads.
 
Wii U was the last time I buy anything at launch. Too many promises to only finally see the damn system get a price cut and slowly see its potential. I do understand the early adopter mentality this day and age though. Every Firmware update is an exciting day and slowly building a collection means one gets to try some new fun games instead of just having to choose games from everyone's top 50 lists.
 
I want to hear from Sony for a lot of these omissions. I use my PS3 for a lot of these missing features. Features I thought would be the basic building blocks of their next console on the media side.

I'm not going to overreact just yet but I want to hear from them. There are a ton of games I could use my preorder money on though. If they truly want to make a pure gaming platform, that's fine, but I can easily wait for another year or more for a redesign/price drop/HDD size increase.

Let's see what they say.
 
While is sucks that a lot of these services and features aren't available at launch, I'm not all that miffed about it.

Sony built a gaming machine and made sure it was ready to play games right out of the box. Their OS plans were too big and took too much time to have ready at launch, but most of the features they have already talked about are there or are coming in a future update. I'm 100% sure that all of the functionality that the PS3 has the PS4 will have in the near future. I don't see Sony dropping the ball here, they just aren't offering it because it's not going to be there at launch for you to use.

As gaming systems start relying on a more robust OS to handle more 'PC' style tasks, including suspend/resume and multitasking, the more complicated it will become if they want to offer a fluid experience. The only big issue here is that Sony didn't allow for enough time to get everything that was included on the PS3 implemented for launch on top of some of the newer features.

Sony is offereing what we wanted and what they said they would offer at launch: a gaming machine that is built for games and will play some pretty awesome games at launch. If you're that upset about missing out on media stuff at launch, I'm sorry. I'm not sure what you can do other than wait it out or abandon ship.

Me? I'm sticking it out.
 
Mmm yeah. I wouldn't worry too much. Some of these overreactions are going to look hilarious in the near future.

The biggest thing I'd like is way better app support. PS3 was a bit crappy really - I'd love some kind of PS mobile style app store to bring media apps in. Sony need something to compete with what will almost certainly be a subset of the Windows 8 store on Xbox one.
 
The biggest thing I'd like is way better app support. PS3 was a bit crappy really - I'd love some kind of PS mobile style app store to bring media apps in. Sony need something to compete with what will almost certainly be a subset of the Windows 8 store on Xbox one.

Have you SEEN the Windows 8 store?
 
I just set-up my NAS device and can stream my video collection to my PS3. No client functionality for media servers means this is something the PS4 doesn't support? If so, guess I need to move my Apple TV out to the living room.
 
So yeah, I'll be sticking to my plans to not buy a next gen console before March.

I keep wanting to say this past week might help the WiiU this holiday season, but I can't make the words come out of my mouth
 
My theory on the lack of YouTube support is:

-YouTube is rumored to do streaming like ustream and twitch soon
-hasn't been formally announced yet
-want to make sure that PS4 supports that tech properly
-asking Sony to hold off until it's formally announced
-then PS4 will get an update that supports both video upload and streaming to YouTube
-might require different parameters than what they were given for PS3 recording/upload feature (pixeljunk eden had this)
-Facebook didn't have any special requirements for the upload feature so it was a done deal long ago, same with ustream
 
But if it's cached, that means it probably won't stay on the system permanently.

Yeah but that means you will need to cache it every time you play. It's basically like 50GB reserved for the game you are currently playing. Depending on how much needs to be cached before you can play it can be pretty bugging.
 
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