By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - Would it make sense for Sony to add an UHD drive in 12 months?

There's tons more content digitally, and Sony has their own 4K service which will most likely be on Pro. Why even add UHD drive for what is it now.....45-47 movies? Which only 1-2 were native 4K....with the rest being remastered in 4K



Preston Scott

Around the Network
mutantsushi said:
Teeqoz said:
I suppose they might release a PS4 Pro Slim in early 2018 that featured a UHD blu-ray drive, but physical media is only becoming ever less common. By the time 4K TVs are in enough homes for 4K blu-rays to have mattered, blu-ray discs won't matter regardless of resolution (they hardly do now).

But Sony is selling PS4Pro as a near-4K experience, that you need a HDR 4K display to fully benefit from.
So most of PS4Pro market does have the 4K TVs needed to benefit from UHD Blu Ray, irrespective of over-all consumer market.
Given HD streams do not now approximate even standard Blu Ray disc bandwidth, I don't expect much for UHD 4k streams any time soon.

Yes, most of the PS4Pro market have the 4K TVs required, but only a small subset of those that have 4K TVs will actually buy 4K blu-ray discs. Streaming bandwith and bit-rate isn't as high as it is with blu-ray discs, but evidently, the convenience (and lower price per hour of content) of streaming trumps the higher quality of blu-ray discs, even for those that have 4K TVs.



So by the same argument they could just exclude a drive completely, since games can be downloaded. OK. Enjoy that one.

MS can manage to do this with their Slim model for cheaper price. I doubt there is more than $`1-2 difference in costs.
Obviously this is marginal to the main gaming experience, but is $1-2 worth creating a complaint against their product?
Not every potential buyer is going to rush to buy PS4 NEO immediately, and the more complaints the longer some will wait.
Wait long enough, and MS Scorpio will be soon coming along so why not wait a bit longer and buy Scorpio?

Sony's strategy seems built on leveraging their platform size and continuity with PS4, given Scorpio will be more powerful,
and when Sony decides to do PS5, MS will be able to do Scorpio NEO with similar/better performance,
so getting PS4 NEO customers now is the best way to prevent them buying Scorpio (and then likely Scorpio NEO).
Not really seeing why that is worth $1-2.
Being able to make multiple generations/iterations of a platform that people are like "Wow! No complaints!"
is what really builds their brand, when people feel like corners are cut, they become disloyal.
I have no real complaints for the NEO other than this (and the name , and am not really a fan of MS' platform, BTW.



mutantsushi said:
Kerotan said:
Currently that would cost them about $15-20 per console. 

What is actual difference in bill of materials? Seems like you're assuming those numbers, when it could be more like $1 difference.
Some BD drives just need a firmware update.  If it just needs a firmware update, I don't see why next week wouldn't work.
If somebody wants to pay a lot of money for a HDR 4k TV,
I would imagine they would appreciate a full quality 4K disc instead of low bit rate 4k stream.  
Isn't it Sony themself who control the BD standard, and who therefore created the 4K BD standard?

You are ignoring that they can also buy regular blu rays.  Modern 4k TV'S do an awesome job upscaling them to 4k.



That would be very Apple of them.



Around the Network

not really the bigger selling point for MS is going to be how much more power it has but i think its going to bite them b/c the PS4pro will have at least a year on them on the market aswell as being priced cheaper



                                                             

                                                                      Play Me

DaveTheMinion13 said:
There's tons more content digitally, and Sony has their own 4K service which will most likely be on Pro. Why even add UHD drive for what is it now.....45-47 movies? Which only 1-2 were native 4K....with the rest being remastered in 4K

Holy shit is that actually true?  So this whole meltdown is over a player that has like 2 movies in native 4k? 

 

Yeah Sony were right.  Why even bother.  Funny how people won't buy a neo because it's not a proper 4k experience like scorpio will be or because it doesn't have a uhd drive but they'll but an Xbox slim for its uhd drive that doesn't even offer a proper native 4k experience.  With very limited number of upscaled films. The irony! 



Well, it depends on if this feature is nearly as important as many on the web are claiming it is. If the Xbox S outsells the ps4 2-1 this holiday, then it's obvious they made the wrong choice. If things stay pretty much as they have been, I doubt they'll see the need. 



Kerotan said:
DaveTheMinion13 said:
There's tons more content digitally, and Sony has their own 4K service which will most likely be on Pro. Why even add UHD drive for what is it now.....45-47 movies? Which only 1-2 were native 4K....with the rest being remastered in 4K

Holy shit is that actually true?  So this whole meltdown is over a player that has like 2 movies in native 4k? 

 

Yeah Sony were right.  Why even bother.  Funny how people won't buy a neo because it's not a proper 4k experience like scorpio will be or because it doesn't have a uhd drive but they'll but an Xbox slim for its uhd drive that doesn't even offer a proper native 4k experience.  With very limited number of upscaled films. The irony! 

That is absolutely not true. Even movies from the 50s-70s were filmed in a resolution way beyond 4K.



No.

Even though this contradicts my own prior interest in the PS4 P as a 4K BD player, I'm currently not convinced that UHD 4K BD will become a standard media distribution format before optical media becomes completely marginalized into obsolescence.

Yes, the next large screen HDTV I buy will be UHD; there's no reason to buy anything else, and the next computer displays I buy will also be UHD, but I can just about count on one hand the number of existing movies I would pay $30 to collet on 4K BD and I don't see that number becoming any higher than the number of 3D BD films I want for the collection for the 3D HDTV that I never bothered to buy.

I may change my mind if 4K BD sees better distribution and a larger catalog than HD-DVD did at its peak, but right now I have a hard time seeing that happen.