PS4 and the missing 4K Drive
A lot has been said about the recent announcement of the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro. One thing that is being very much hyped is the lack of a 4K Blu-Ray drive. Something found as a standard in the "base"model Xbox One S.
Microsoft has yet to confirm any details of their upcoming project "Scorpio"but when asked about the inclusion of a 4K drive, Microsoft's Albert Penello has said
"We haven't announced anything specifically on that. You could assume that would be our intent, but we don't have anything specific on that."
When pressed for general details Penello said,
"Physical media is still important, the decision to include a 4K Blu-ray player in the Xbox One S came down to two main things, the first is Microsoft's belief in 4K.
I really believe in 4K and HDR. I have one myself. I thought I was going to regret it. I think it's as meaningful an upgrade as it was going from SD to HD, when you start seeing the native 4K content."
The other part of the equation is that physical media remains important around the world. Even with the growth in popularity of digital content.
"When you look around the world, not
everybody's at the same state when it comes to digital," he explained.
"You could argue they're probably not at the same state when it comes to
4K either. But I still think there's room for physical. For the high-end
enthusiast, 4K Blu-rays look amazing. And there are still going to be places in
the world that won't get that streaming because of their internet connections,
but might have access to physical."
This sums up my entire argument when it comes to the lack of a 4K drive in Sony's "Premium" console. I live in the Sydney metro, on a standard NBN plan and cannot get the speeds required to stream in 4K. My playstation is the centre of my entertainment system.
The big question I have in regards to the PS4 Pro is the term, "native 4K" Going by the specs alone, 4.2 teraflops of power from the GPU is not enough to run native/true 4K. Will it be running our most beloved games in beautiful, crisp, true 4k? Or upscaling them when it would be better to run at 60 frames and 1080p.
Only time will tell.
For a more in depth discussion on our views on the release of the PS4 Pro and PS4 Slim be sure to check out our latest podcast Episode 143.
Pat (Snoogan512/Snoogs)
Thanks for reading and as always comments and feedback are welcome, we even encourage it. While you're at it, check out our Facebook Page, YouTube channel and weekly Podcast for all things gaming related or hit us up online, we are always up for a game or a chat.
Thanks for reading and as always comments and feedback are welcome, we even encourage it. While you're at it, check out our Facebook Page, YouTube channel and weekly Podcast for all things gaming related or hit us up online, we are always up for a game or a chat.