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Sony Issues Detailed PS4 FAQ Ahead of Launch

Posted by timothy on from the setting-expectations dept.

Sockatume writes "Sony has released a detailed FAQ for the PS4 system, which launches in coming weeks. Of particular note: although Bluetooth headsets will not be compatible, generic 3.5mm and USB audio devices will work; the console will require activation via the internet or a special disk before it will play Blu-ray or DVDs; media servers, MP3s, and audio CDs are not supported. The console's "suspend/resume" and remote assistance features are listed as unavailable for the North American launch, implying that they will be patched in before the console launches in Europe later in November."

17 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. No media server support upsets me by CokoBWare · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So I was excited to buy a PS4 until they announced no media server support. Same with XBone. I guess I'm just one of those guys who will stay with his PS3 for the forseeable future...

    I know why they made that choice, but it doesn't service the customers who put their media library on a server instead of on disc.

    1. Re:No media server support upsets me by omnichad · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's the hobbyist way to buy MP3/AAC tracks. They come with their own lossless backup.

    2. Re:No media server support upsets me by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Informative

      because for decent stereo systems, mp3 is not good enough.

      I prefer to buy a cd (used), rip it to flac and play that.

      when I rip, I know its done right and if there are errors, I send the cd back or re-rip until it comes out right.

      allofmp3 used to sell flac. times were good back then. now, to get flac, you mostly have to rip yourself (or have someone do it, but again, you don't have control over the quality and there's a lot that can go wrong when someone careless does the rip/encode/tag).

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:No media server support upsets me by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Informative

      DLNA is a standard so dreadful that it's hard to imagine that it wasn't written as some kind of joke, except that you never, ever, hit the punchline, it just keeps hurting.

      However, it should be noted that, with the PS3, Sony didn't let that stop them: They put out a DLNA client and, because their hardware was about the single most common DLNA client that anybody actually used (I think WMP, at least some versions, is nominally a DLNA client; but sharing from computer to computer, when both machines are Windows boxes and you could just use SMB, isn't much of a use case compared to streaming to your TV), people sucked it up and tailored their DLNA server support to the PS3. That's why "http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/" is called what it is. It's a DLNA server, it isn't locked to PS3s only or anything; but wherever something was fucked up or unclear (with DLNA, this is normal) the PS3's behavior was taken into account.

      Either Sony's figures suggested that only .01% of users ever used the feature, and it isn't worth the terrible burden of recompiling it for x86, or they actively wish to de-support streaming of 3rd-party media, for reasons of their own.

  2. No media servers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What ever?
    Seems like a backward step to me. If Sony thinks that 1000s and 1000s of its devices are being used solely as media servers, they are right.

    If they think that omitting that feature will mean more games sales, they are mistaken.

    1. Re:No media servers? by Captain+Hook · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If they think that omitting that feature will mean more games sales, they are mistaken.

      True, if people were buying consoles as media boxes then you are right, they won't sell more games this way, but they might sell less consoles are loss making prices so they would still be better off financially as a result.

      --
      These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
  3. Conflict of interest by JDG1980 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the console will require activation via the internet or a special disk before it will play Blu-ray or DVDs; media servers, MP3s, and audio CDs are not supported

    This is why Sony needs to spin off its media division, as Dan Loeb has proposed.

    As long as Sony is both a consumer electronics company and a major movie/recording studio, the consumer electronics division will always be compromised by the need to serve the overall corporate goals rather than the customer's needs.

    You just know that the "no media server" and "have to activate on the Internet for DVD/Blu-ray" restrictions were added at the insistence of the suits on the studio side. These restrictions do nothing for customers, and a pure consumer electronics company would have no reason to hurt the functionality of their product by inflicting them.

  4. If you want Linux instead of Sony by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    Give me Linux back or f off!

    Now that alternatives have appeared, it's that much easier to tell Sony Computer Entertainment to f off. OUYA runs Android, which uses the Linux kernel. The forthcoming Steam Machine from Valve runs SteamOS, a distribution of GNU/Linux.

    1. Re:If you want Linux instead of Sony by sI4shd0rk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And regardless of religious background, it is still impolite to use such language.

      Impolite? They're mere strings of letters, just like any other words. The only difference is that some people are irrational enough to be offended by these words and expect others to stop using them simply because they don't like to hear them.

      --
      Ignorance is a choice
  5. Brazil charges prohibitive import duty by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    As I understand it, the majority of the price of a PlayStation 4 console in Brazil is import duty paid to the government of Brazil. What you need to do to get the price reduced in Brazil is elect a legislature that raises the government's operating budget other than through prohibitive import duties.

    1. Re:Brazil charges prohibitive import duty by JDG1980 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, traditionally Sony, Apple etc. have actually opened factories to make the devices in Brazil because it's better for their bottom line than expecting customers to spend the import levy.

      And this is the primary reason that those tariffs exist. Brazil wants to build up its industrial base, rather than just serve as a cheap source of raw materials. High tariffs are a good way to do this, and that strategy is not at all new or unique. Prior to the 20th century, tariffs provided a majority of the U.S. government's revenue. It was a deliberate choice of industrial policy – Henry Clay's "American System" – to protect the growth of domestic industry by making imported products more expensive in comparison. The South, which primarily exported raw materials, disliked this policy, but they lost, and by the 1880s, the U.S. was the world's dominant industrial power. In Germany, Otto von Bismarck did much the same thing with his "marriage of iron and rye". The result is that a country which was weak and divided until 1871 became powerful enough to take on the rest of Europe and almost win.

      Economists don't like to hear it, but history proves that protectionism works.

    2. Re:Brazil charges prohibitive import duty by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yes, traditionally Sony, Apple etc. have actually opened factories to make the devices in Brazil because it's better for their bottom line than expecting customers to spend the import levy.

      And this is the primary reason that those tariffs exist. Brazil wants to build up its industrial base, rather than just serve as a cheap source of raw materials. High tariffs are a good way to do this, and that strategy is not at all new or unique. Prior to the 20th century, tariffs provided a majority of the U.S. government's revenue. It was a deliberate choice of industrial policy â" Henry Clay's "American System" â" to protect the growth of domestic industry by making imported products more expensive in comparison. The South, which primarily exported raw materials, disliked this policy, but they lost, and by the 1880s, the U.S. was the world's dominant industrial power. In Germany, Otto von Bismarck did much the same thing with his "marriage of iron and rye". The result is that a country which was weak and divided until 1871 became powerful enough to take on the rest of Europe and almost win.

      Economists don't like to hear it, but history proves that protectionism works.

      Hmm..sounds like we need to start a bit of this back up *slowly*...and start making it more profitable to make our own stuff in the USA again.

      LIke the recent example of the drug made in Germany, that they might not sell us anymore due to their views on capital punishment...the US is now at the mercy of depending on other countries' manufacturing for us instead of the other way around as it was back in the day.

      That is not only unsettling, but could soon prove a problem for national security.

      The US is large enough and has enough resources for the most part to be MUCH more fully independent than it is, and we need to look at idea such as tariffs, to bring more of this back home to us and allow us to be more fully in charge of our own needs and destiny.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    3. Re:Brazil charges prohibitive import duty by DM9290 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Depends on how you define "works". If you mean funds the state pretty well and protects some industries at the expense of everyone else, then yes they work great.

      not at the expense of "everyone else". That is an over simplification.

      For instance, If the price of imported electronics goes up (via an import tariff), this creates an opportunity for local electronics producers to benefit. The local cost of electronics increases, and the profit margins of local electronics producers increase. But the only people who have any increased expense are those who buy electronics.

      If you don't buy electronics then your costs are unaffected. And if you buy electronics your costs are affected only in proportion to that specific item.

      However the local manufacturing of electronics creates jobs, and creates demand in many sectors, not only electronics (for instance a factory requires construction and machines which are not necessarily made exclusively of microchips). the people with those jobs are now going to spend their money throughout the entire local economy, which in turn benefits everybody locally. In turn this creates more incentive for local investment and even greater local prosperity.

      Protectionism has a proven history of working. And every wealthy powerful nation started off as very protectionist. There is not 1 single example of a country becoming wealthy and powerful by starting as a completely open free trade zone.

      --
      No one has a right to their *own* opinion. They have a right to the TRUTH.
  6. CD defined by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Compact Disc Digital Audio is a lossless audio format introduced in the 1980s. Each disc 120 mm in diameter (the size of the later DVD) stored up to 80 minutes of stereo audio at a sample rate and depth that an adult ear cannot distinguish from any higher sample rate or depth. After the introduction of MP3 format in the late 1990s, people would buy CDs, copy them to computers using a CD-ROM drive, and compress the result to MP3 for later listening in a noisy environment that can get away with lower fidelity. And until the late 2000s when Amazon started selling MP3 downloads, CD was the only way to buy popular music for listening on a computer or pocket device without digital restrictions management.

  7. MPEG-LA, for one by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Who, exactly, does Sony have to pay?

    Sony would have to pay other BDA members, DVD FLLC, DVD CCA, (Mac)Rovi(sion), AACSLA, MPEG-LA, and anyone else who manages licensing patents or DRM trade secrets associated with BD or DVD video.

  8. Re:Halo 2 ended by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Until you can't play the game anymore because the last gen console's multiplayer servers have been shut down for good.

    Which, if you'd read my entire post where I said I don't play games on-line, you wouldn't be suggesting.

    For some of us, video games are played alone/with friends in our basement or living room, with no networking involved -- the way it was meant to be done. ;-)

    For me (and I realize I'm a relatively smaller minority of gamers), on-line gaming carries absolutely zero appeal. And all of the 'social' aspects (like badges and winning coins and spending real money to get better stuff) is equally meaningless to me.

    To me, when I'm in the mood and have time, I'll fire up the video game, play a while, and then turn it off. Driving games, Tiger Woods, Skyrim, the wife's dancing games for the Kinect ... none of these are the kinds of things I want to play against someone on the internet.

    My video game console doesn't get connected to the network, and is completely air-gapped. And I can't say I've ever felt I was missing out on anything. In fact, the brief period I had it on-line was enough to convince me that I definitely don't want it.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  9. Image Constraint Token; PAL market defined by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    But why does it support 480p?

    It's probably an AACS requirement to support at least one EDTV resolution, given the Image Constraint Token.

    But that last line really cinches it... "In PAL markets". WTF? Seriously Sony, what the hell does PAL-vs-NTSC have to do with it, when you only have digital outputs?

    "PAL market" refers to markets that use 50 Hz alternating current and historically used PAL video: Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. These tend to have fewer people per country than North America. This increases cost of licensing works for adaptation when distributors own exclusive rights in different countries. It increases the cost of localization as UI and games must be dubbed in more languages. It increases censorship as some PAL market countries have less comprehensive protection of speech than the United States, allowing no-swastikas policies and refusal to accept neighboring countries' classification for violent, sexual, or otherwise objectionable materials. Finally, Europe tends toward stronger warranty requirements for consumer products than North America.

    For that matter, does PAL-vs-NTSC even exist at all anymore?

    Yes. It would be cost prohibitive for the PAL market to switch to 60 Hz AC and a single media distribution territory, and it would be politically unpopular to adopt English language, free speech, and U.S.-style minimal warranty.