So what is everyones thaught about the new so called "PS4.5/Playstation 4K"?

It won't be native 4k, it'll obviously be upscaled. Sony should of have made it so you can play 1080@60fps, i think most people would want 60fps before 4k

Hello,


I think that the PS4k is going to sell well, because they're incredibly good at marketing, i.e fooling unsuspecting consumers. This is both a good and bad thing, because a console with better specs is just the beginning, Sony (and Microsoft), have put far too many resources into their console(s) development and software, that they won't give up anytime soon. I don't think that the option to customize the hardware in a console isn't too far away, if the comprimise is you're locked to the Sony or Microsoft custom OS.

What Sony is focusing on that's obvious to me, is that they want to add support for the new UHD Blu-ray standard, which consists of 3 straight forward specs, HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2 and HDR. That's a massive selling point and very appealing to your average consumer, and probably enthusiasts and experts as well. Because not only is Sony going to have full support for the new Blu-ray standard, but they also have the software on their side as well, no subscription fees, and no mandatory updates to software to play new discs (PowerDVD on PC), but if any updates, it'll just be a quick screen telling the user to update the app, very straightforward.

As far as 4k gaming is concerned, it's now possible to hit 4k 60 Hz output, but the hardware to support 4k gaming isn't there. Infact, developers would have to re design all older titles prior to release, and console games are definitely going to have more performance issues and bugs than before. Developers are hitting frame timings which are seriously good, infact, a 30 FPS console game properly optimised, beats a average optimised 60 FPS title on PC, in terms of how smooth each plays.

I don't know what to think, I don't think Sony thought this through, it doesn't make sense to me, at all. The way I look at it is, they are either going to force consumers to buy the new console, because they're intentionally ruining the experience for their 'older' generation console, because consumers likely won't sell their existing console, just to go out and buy the new one.

Or, what makes the most sense to me, is that the new PS4k is a solid and perfectly reasonable replacement for all movie enthusiasts, it's smaller, quieter, cheaper, easier than any competition out there for playing back movies, plus streaming platform combo.




They'll be able to have the GUI completely in native 4k. As far as upscaling is concerned, it doesn't quite work like that, which is a common myth by the way, so don't be upset because you've been mislead.

The upscaling doesn't work like that, if it did, literally every PC and console would be using this technique, if it didn't have any impact on performance. When a display upscales, it doesn't take a 1080p signal and turn it into (almost) 4k, that's a myth. What it's doing is taking the 1080p signal, and trying to match what it would look like in 1080p on a 1080p screen, of the same screen size. I will break it down in the simplest way possible.

4k TV
[console] 1080p signal out -> [TV] 1080p signal in -> processing (internal scaler algorithm) -> Trying to map pixels as perfect as possible -> Not possible with current technology yet -> Result is 9/10 at best

However, on a 1080p TV, it's a clean 1:1 pixel mapping, a solid 10/10, meaning a native 1080p TV is always going to be better at displaying 1080p content. It's sharper, and doesn't destroy small detail, which losing pixel mapping does, after the scaler has done it's job.

Now obviously there are a lot of TV's available, some with better scalers than others, but we have yet to see a 4k TV score a solid 10/10 in a 1080p image test, it's simply not possible yet. With that said, upscaling can't add information to the original output signal. That's easily the most common myth about upscaling.





All the best!

For movies and videos it won't be that hard to display a native 4K, but what about games? Sony would need a gpu like a GTX 980 to play at 4k@30fps, and making the customer pay $900 for a console doesn't sound likely. Plus, developers would have to remake older PS4 (non K) games so there are no performance issues. Thanks for the lesson on upscaling by the way, learning something new everyday in this forum haha

I just realised that I completely forgot about Sony's attempt at a VR set. I guess that's a big deal too.

sony are charging $30 a pop to rent a 4k film... this will be another delivery method for those.

Personally, I think it is a mistake on Sony's part. It would seem that this is an attempt to compete more directly with the PC market. There are two main advantages of the console over the PC (this coming from a recent convert from console to PC). First, it is much more simple to own and play games. No specs to check, not outdated hardware to worry about, no drivers to install, just simple plug and play. Second, and much more importantly, the price point is well below a decent PC. Now, Sony is going to have to step up their hardware which is going to cost the end consumer a nice chunk of change. The question at purchase for the consumer will come down to something like this, "do I pay $1,000 for a console, or do I use the same $1,000 to build a gaming PC?". That is not a question Sony wants its target audience to be asking itself. When they do ask that question, I think a fair number of folks that had been considering the jump from console to PC will make the switch. Furthermore, I would submit that a significant percentage of the target market for this thing are already PC gamers. I don't think most of that group of gamers is going to want BOTH a high end PC rig and a high end console. That means, for this console to be successful, Sony will have to penetrate the custom PC gaming market. All that being said, it will come down to price. If they can (somehow) keep it in the $400-$600 range, they have a good shot at market saturation, but it will be tough the closer they get to $600. $600-$800 will be a very tough sell to the general console gaming market. They will sell units here, but the market saturation will be much smaller than the current PS4. At $800+, not only would it be an extremely tough sell to the general market with much lower market saturation, it will have to compete head to head with custom gaming PC's. All in all, this is definitely going to be interesting to watch.