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Every PlayStation 4 Gets HDR This Week With System Update 4.00 (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the exciting-updates dept.

Sony announced today it is rolling out a new system updated -- dubbed Shingen -- to all the PlayStation 4 to bring High Dynamic Range (HDR) support. The new update, in addition, also brings Spotify integration, LAN data migration transfer, and tweaks to interface. From a CNET report: Other refinements to the system's interface include a redesigned content info screen -- the thing you see when pressing down after highlighting a game on your home screen. Similarly, the What's New screen has been updated with a new layout. 4.00 also adds support for HDR to all play PS4s, something Sony announced last week. This will be an option located in the Video Output Settings menu for existing PS4s and the new slim PS4, as well as the PS4 Pro. Those who get a Pro when it launches in November will also find support for several new features added in this update. As we learned recently, the system features 1080p streaming for Share Play and Remote Play (but only to PC/Mac and Xperia devices, not Vita), as well as 1080p/30 FPS streaming to Twitch and 1080p 30/60 FPS streaming to YouTube.

41 comments

  1. Sounds like it's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    turning Japanese!

    I really think so!

  2. Unless Linux is included by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do not want

  3. Fallout 4 mods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How about fixing the issue that prevents Fallout 4 mods and makes me wish I'd chosen an Xbox instead?

    1. Re:Fallout 4 mods by bmxeroh · · Score: 2

      I'm with you. I really enjoy Sony hardware and really hate Sony company.

      --
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    2. Re:Fallout 4 mods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how about not being a barrier to progress in gaming development and choosing a PC instead?

    3. Re:Fallout 4 mods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's always (at least) one. False dichotomy. Go away.

    4. Re:Fallout 4 mods by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      You're playing the wrong game. If you want mods you should be playing Farming Simulator 17, not Fallout 4.

      Ok, that makes no sense, but it makes about as much sense as anything Sony will say.

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  4. HDR via HDMI 1.4? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone want to confirm that HDR is not possible via HDMI 1.4 (which is what PS4's are using)?

    I keep hearing this, but not sure how factual it is.

    1. Re:HDR via HDMI 1.4? by HannethCom · · Score: 3, Informative

      That is correct, HDR is not possible via HDMI 1.4.

      As for the original PS4... "NeoGAF forums user Jeff Rigby discovered last year that the Playstation 4’s custom HDMI controller is apparently HDMI 2.0 compatible"
      Source: https://www.winbeta.org/news/s...

      Previously having read what he had said, but unfortunately cannot find the post, the PS4 HDMI controller is higher bandwidth than HDMI 1.4. This would suggest that it may have been designed to be upgradable to a later version of HDMI than was available at the PS4 launch via a firmware upgrade.

      --
      Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.
    2. Re:HDR via HDMI 1.4? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      HDMI 2.0a was released on April 8, 2015 and added support for high dynamic range (HDR) video.

      http://denon.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/192/~/differences-between-hdmi-versions-1.1,-1.2,-1.3a,-1.4-and-2.0%3F

    3. Re:HDR via HDMI 1.4? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Which is great, except the PS4s launched in 2013, which is well before April 8, 2015 and therefore use HDMI 1.4, which was what was available then.

      So whatever they're doing, they can't be using HDMI 2.0a because the hardware predates it. So who knows what this "HDR" thing is but it can't be using HDMI 2.0.

      Plus, it's Sony, so I suppose they had to add this feature so that they'd have SOMETHING to remove a couple of months down the line.

    4. Re: HDR via HDMI 1.4? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Except they didn't use the 1.4 hardware, they used th 1.4 FIRMWARE. Which is in every article and the parent post (which you didn't read clearly). They purposefully overbuilt the HDMI port to allow for this in the future.

    5. Re:HDR via HDMI 1.4? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      HDMI 1.4 has the same pinout as HDMI 2.0 only the speed of the transceivers has changed. They could have used transceivers that where capable of much higher speed than HDMI 1.4. Transmitting at different speeds is also much easier than receiving as you do not need PLLs for clock recovery.

      Still I wonder if the PS4 has a little FPGA in the HDMI output so they could change the output format, or if they had a custom ASIC that was programable to output different formats based on the full range (HDR) output of the graphics card.

      Sony may have worked with the HDMI standards organisation to include HDR output format in HDMI2.0 in the way they already implemented it in the PS4.

    6. Re:HDR via HDMI 1.4? by hattig · · Score: 1

      This depends on a lot of things.

      1. Dolby HDR can work over HDMI 1.4, but most TVs support HDR10 which needs HDMI 2.
      2. The biggest difference in versions of HDMI is the bandwidth available, and HDR10 really means 10-bit 4K video.
      3. The HDMI controller in the PS4 is programmable. It may be possible that the firmware can update it to HDMI 2 in featureset (even if it can't do 4K modes)
      4. It may be that 1080p HDR10 will work as long as the PS4 HDMI 1.4 port is connected to a TV that supports HDR10 on its HDMI 2 port.

      I don't see any reason why HDR10 should be limited to 4K resolutions - that may be the headline resolution but there is nothing stopping the same HDR10 bitstream working on a 1080p signal, indeed it would be kind of stupid to limit that. However stupid things do happen.

  5. Meanwhile, on PS3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They still can't get their ethernet port to actually work on LANs.

    1. Re:Meanwhile, on PS3 by Etcetera · · Score: 2

      They still can't get their ethernet port to actually work on LANs.

      Not sure what you're talking about, mate. Mine works fine on a Gig-E switch. Between my PS4, PSTV, and two PS3's, that's a whole lot of PlayStation... They're all on Ethernet and they're all doing fine.

      --
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    2. Re:Meanwhile, on PS3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mine works fine too. I only have one LAN cable to the TV area so I put a cheapo unmanaged 5 port desktop switch there. The PS3, PS4, WII, and Smart TV are all plugged in to it and work fine. Probably a loose nut problem.

    3. Re:Meanwhile, on PS3 by RalphtheDwarf · · Score: 1

      Not sure what OP is posting about, but my PS3 won't play nicely with my Netgear wndr3700v4 router. The newer firmware in the router won't work with it, had to roll it back to an older version.

    4. Re:Meanwhile, on PS3 by umafuckit · · Score: 1

      Ditto here. Been running my PS3 via ethernet for ages. Cable is always less flaky than Wifi.

      --
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    5. Re:Meanwhile, on PS3 by Arashi256 · · Score: 1

      Works fine for me - PS4 is attached to gigabit switch which it shares with my 360 and Raspberry Pi.

  6. Offline Trophy Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More importantly to me, this update finally adds the ability to view your trophies offline. I don't know why it took them this long to finally implement it, but I'm glad it's finally here.

  7. Wait, are there really HDR monitors? by Ecuador · · Score: 1

    Are there really HDR monitors or at least coming soon? I've missed this "development", so if somebody could explain. Mainly, is it just a gimmick, i.e. we start calling monitors with a very good color gamut and contrast "HDR", or is there really a significant leap in display technology and we are talking about something visibly different?

    --
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    1. Re:Wait, are there really HDR monitors? by radish · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There are many HDR TVs on the market right now, it's certainly "visibly different" but isn't some amazing new tech. The standard basically calls for high contrast and much higher than usual maximum brightness - most LCD panels achieve this with a version of local dimming/addressable backlighting.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    2. Re:Wait, are there really HDR monitors? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It may not be new technology, but the experience is new to most people. OLED panels were for a long time the only way to experience the HDR image in TV context. Most new high end 4k screens from this year are HDR compatible, I've heard.

    3. Re:Wait, are there really HDR monitors? by hattig · · Score: 1

      There are HDR TVs.

      What they do is increase the max brightness level of the TV from around 300 nits to a higher level. LCDs seem to get 600 nits, OLEDs seem to get 1000 nits.

      HDR movies are mastered with metadata that says what the max brightness means in terms of nits. HDR10 has 10-bits per channel, and a typical HDR10 movie is mastered with 1023=4000 nits (but 1000 and 10000 are also used). The encoding is non linear to prevent the issue of blacks being distinguishable.

      Dolby have their own HDR standard, which is 12-bits per channel, and mastering in this says that channel value of 4095=10000 nits. The encoding is different from HDR10 (dual-stream - SDR with HDR metadata).

      I presume in a games console that they will target 1000 nits as max channel value, because there aren't TVs yet that support more.

      It is very visually different, and most reviews I read say it's more important than 4K in terms of visual improvement over 1080p.

  8. PS3 "TV" remote still better by omfglearntoplay · · Score: 1

    I have a ps3 and ps4, and use the ps3 much more b/c the remote is 100000 times better for watching TV and video content via the internet. So, I kind of don't care about this upgrade... I'll still only use the PS4 for the 2 games I bought for it. :(

    1. Re:PS3 "TV" remote still better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Next gen does suck. Hopefully Battlefield 1 improves the situation.

    2. Re:PS3 "TV" remote still better by Yaztromo · · Score: 1

      Do you have a really old/cheap TV? If not, you can probably enable HDMI-CEC (known as "HDMI Device Link" on the PS4) and then just use your TV remote to control the PS4. As the logic for this actually happens in the TV itself, you can use whatever universal remote you want.

      It sure is better than having to have a separate remote for your TV and PlayStation. In some of the older firmware revisions I recall that some of the video apps supported this while others didn't, but that seems to have been a thing of the past for at least the last 6 months.

      Yaz

    3. Re:PS3 "TV" remote still better by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Do you have a really old/cheap TV? If not, you can probably enable HDMI-CEC (known as "HDMI Device Link" on the PS4) and then just use your TV remote to control the PS4.

      Doesn't work with my TV, which is a little known brand called SONY.

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  9. This function genuinely sucks for bright games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Makes all bright games look like pastel neon trip. I switched it off. Until SONY comes up with better algorithm for displaying HDR, I'll keep this function switched off for the remaining time.

    1. Re:This function genuinely sucks for bright games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're using the TV wrong.

  10. How about... by Alypius · · Score: 1

    ...giving the users FLAC support like they've been begging for for years? I'm sure the three people who asked for HDR are thrilled, though. Thanks, Sony.

    1. Re: How about... by Entrope · · Score: 1

      Are you mad, bro, that Sony has enough courage to deliver HDR?

    2. Re: How about... by Alypius · · Score: 1

      At least the controller has a headphone jack!

  11. What are the Benefits by polyp2000 · · Score: 1

    Anyone care to comment on how "HDR" will affect those of us who havent splashed out on 4k TV's yet? What is HDR ? Does HDR work on normal 1080p TV's ? Will it need to be supported by Games and Apps such as Netflix and Fallout 4? Nick

    --
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    1. Re:What are the Benefits by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 2

      You need an HDR-capable TV (with HDMI 2.0), no matter if it's 4K or 1080p. Unless your TV is relatively new, it won't matter for you.

      And yes, obviously the software will need to support HDR as well. Netflix already supports it.

      --
      Eat the rich.
    2. Re:What are the Benefits by hattig · · Score: 1

      HDR makes pictures more real, as in bright light emitting objects will finally look like bright light emitting objects. Nuclear explosions in movies will actually blind you. Etc.

      HDR needs a HDR supporting TV (HDMI 2a). This appears to mean a TV with a 10-bit panel (or 12-bit panel), and the ability for individual pixels to be displayed at very high light output levels (500 - 1000 nits).

      Theoretically a 1080p TV could be sold with HDR capability, but so far it's being bundled with high-end 4K TVs. I expect it will come to 1080p panels at some point.

      IMO it's worth holding off on a TV purchase atm until HDR TVs meet your price point.

    3. Re:What are the Benefits by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Nuclear explosions in movies will actually blind you.

      Will they make the furniture catch fire?

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    4. Re:What are the Benefits by hattig · · Score: 1

      Only if the Sony Camera detects an XBox in the room.

  12. Really? Only now? by sabbede · · Score: 1

    HDR has been around for over a decade! Why the wait?

  13. But no fucking mods. by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

    No mods for Fallout 4 that is. Farming Simulator 17 gets them, but not Fallout 4.

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