Friday, 6 June 2014

The Hidden Features And Changes Of PlayStation 4 Firmware 1.70

I’m sure we’re all up to speed with the list of major changes made for the latest and greatest PlayStation 4 firmware, which has gone live this morning, but what about the little stuff? The minor tweaks which never get the spotlight, but can still make a big difference?

Stepping away from the changes that we know about already, here’s a quick list of some of the hidden features of the 1.70 update that we found while fiddling around with it this morning:

The Virtual Keyboard has a new shortcut: hold L2 and press triangle to quickly switch to and from the symbols layout. Should make typing in my horrifically randomised password a little easier…
Sony can now send you notifications “From PlayStation”. If you wanted slightly shoutier adverts, you’ve got what you wished for.
Turn off HDCP in Settings > System when you want to capture footage with an external device, but you’ll have to turn it back on when you next want to watch a Blu-ray film or hop onto Netflix:
There’s some new Blu-ray management options under the Video Playback Settings. You can set a default Language, delete cached data and decide whether or not to let your films have internet access.
There’s a “Noise Reduction” setting that has been added as an option during playback.
I’ve been told that you can force 5.1 audio over HDMI even if your amp is designed for 7.1.
You can have the PS4 automatically dim the screen with the Start Screensaver setting under Sound and Screen:
There’s some fresh privacy options under PSN > Privacy Settings > Real Name and Profile Picture. If you let someone see your real name, this makes them a “Close Friend”, and you can now decide if they see your real name in-game (which may then appear in saved videos and screenshots) and if their Close Friends can also see your real name and details.
TV & Video apps can now be started by voice, and ”Save video clip” and “Start video clip” have been added to the voice commands library.
Hidden behind the larger changes to the share functionality have been some slightly smaller ones:

The little logo to head to your Capture Library from your profile page is now a camera and a slice of film, rather than a non-descript folder.
The Capture Library also has a great big square all to itself on the main PDM menu:

There’s some fresh privacy options under PSN > Privacy Settings > Real Name and Profile Picture. If you let someone see your real name, this makes them a “Close Friend”, and you can now decide if they see your real name in-game (which may then appear in saved videos and screenshots) and if their Close Friends can also see your real name and details.
TV & Video apps can now be started by voice, and ”Save video clip” and “Start video clip” have been added to the voice commands library.
Hidden behind the larger changes to the share functionality have been some slightly smaller ones:

The little logo to head to your Capture Library from your profile page is now a camera and a slice of film, rather than a non-descript folder.
The Capture Library also has a great big square all to itself on the main PDM menu:
You can set the length of video clip that is automatically cached by the share system. It can be changed to 1, 3, 5, 10 or 15 minutes long – with 15 the default – in a setting that’s under Share Settings > Video Clip Settings.
Share Factory is a separate 942MB download. It’s also utterly baffling to get started with, so you can check out the manual here.
USB Export works with drives formatted in both FAT32 and exFAT, but not NTFS or HFS+. exFAT support is great because it supports files that are large than 4GB in size and larger hard drives than FAT32.
Using the USB export feature, I’ve checked a few captured videos, and can say that the PS4 captures video at 720p with a bitrate that varies between 5Mbps and 9Mbps.
Now, while I can’t do much broadcasting myself – my internet connection is awful – there have apparently been changes to that system too, as revealed by the notes on the USB install download page:

Screenshots and video clips will not be saved when you select Broadcast Gameplay in the menu for the Share feature. To save screenshots, select Upload Screenshot or press the Triangle button. To save video clips, select Upload Video Clip or press the Square button.
You can now set the audience on Facebook for sharing your screenshots and video clips.
Share Settings > Video Clip Settings > Indicate Blocked Scenes for Video Recording is now turned on by default.
The screen layout for when you are broadcasting has been improved.
Stop Broadcasting is now under Broadcast Settings.
You can now submit a grief report about an inappropriate profile picture or broadcast.


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