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Sony has finally come through for its fans and has added a new media player feature to the latest PS4 firmware. Media Player, creatively named, will be available to download from the PlayStation Store as an app.



The Media Player app will work with your existing DLNA streaming servers, so that means anyone using the PS3 Media Server, or Plex, or even Windows Media Player, will be able to stream media straight to their PS4. The app also will read media from USB storage devices attached to the PS4, but not any media stored on the hard drive locally. That limitation might be because of the PS4’s habit of installing almost every game to the hard drive, making media storage on the PS4 a bad idea if you want to pop in a game without worrying about how much space is left from your media storage.



The Media Player also works with music, which can be played in the background even while a game is running. It can also run slideshows of your photos, so you can show off those vacation photos to your family in the lounge without having to whip out a notebook or phone and hook it up using HDMI. If you look at the screenshot above this one, there is mention of a “generic mass storage” device, which would be how devices like phones and tablets will pop up when plugged into the PS4 to access the internal SD card or phone storage. Pretty neat.

Sony might add more functionality later on as this is an app separate to the PS4 firmware, so updates to add in new capabilities will become available later on. This will be particularly important in the shift to media using the H.265 codec, which is required for streaming 4K content, as H.265 makes improvements to bandwidth requirements and compression quality. The GPU inside the PS4 is also HEVC capable, so that will probably come later as well.

As for file formats supported by the media player, here’s what will work on it thus far.

Video formats supported by Media Player

MKV:

Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)

AVI:

Visual: MPEG4 ASP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)

MP4:

Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
Audio: AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)

MPEG-2 TS:

Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2, MPEG2 Visual
Audio: MP2 (MPEG2 Audio Layer 2), AAC LC, AC-3(Dolby Digital)

AVCHD

.m2ts, .mts container support

Photo:

JPEG (based on DCF 2.0/Exif 2.21)
BMP
PNG

Music file support:

MP3
AAC
M4A

Saw this 2 days ago on my Ps4 and right away I downloaded it. I love how they expanded the playback options for videos. Though I don't use the Music side function personally, I'm sure that being able to use it in game is an added plus to those who do use it.

But what about those who have 2TB hard drives. I wouldn't mind putting 50gb of music on the hard drive along with the 2gb it would take for the media player.

finally a decend use for the ps4 untill Rocket League gets released ^^
sucks it doesnt support seperate subs nor soft baked subs (itunes subs)

I know what you mean, I tried with UMS ( Universal media server) and it refuse to play the video if it has an external subtitle source. Hopefully they implement the subtitle feature soon but in the meanwhile I guess I have to go back using my PS3 as a main source of media entertainment.

Really wish we could store the movies.

Now I can watch all my movies on my external HDD. So happy they finally added this

No need for Spotify now, I can stream music from my PC.

I deactivated my Spotify account because of Media Player. I made a Spotify account 2 days before Media Player came out, lol.

Shame any application needs to be suspended before we can open Media Player though...

YES! Dis is awesome. And maybe this will allow for self radio in GTA