senor_flojo
PSLS Level: Bronze
Something I just thought to consider (over-edited copypasta from a disqus post I wrote):
If I want a broken Battlefield 4 experience, or to revisit best-of's from the previous generation, I use my PS4. If I want to play games, listen to music, or watch a Bluray, be it 3D or otherwise, I use my PS3. In regards to music, I stick with the last-gen system for a number of reasons: the PS3 has a surprisingly nice sorting system for music collections, I've grown attached to the background visualizations, and I love how easy it is to back-up new CD's I've bought over the years. Yes, someone still buys CD's! I have exactly 205 unique artists/bands, many of them comprising of full discographies. Somewhere in the ballpark of 14,000 songs. Even if I could transfer my music to my PS4, I wouldn't due to the sheer magnitude of the project, but I doubt this is a problem everyone has. In fact, most people seem to have the opposite problem, that they funded their PS4 by selling their PS3. Here's where I find the argument a problem because they perceive that audio is necessary on what essentially is a fairly dedicated device (Bluray movies and Apps aside).
Something to remember is that early PS3 models included SACD support, a format that was eventually dropped because of cost and due to the lack of consumer demand. Perhaps Sony--yes, the company who ushered us nearly all things audio for roughly half a century--noticed a trend in music-listening habits, which have gone mobile. Thanks, Apple! Suddenly, people don't buy albums; they buy songs. When you consider that most people use iPods or a phone for music, be it purchases off iTunes, or streaming via Pandora or some other similar service, I can see a growing argument against MP3/CD support. Sometimes I feel that nobody really uses MP3 anymore, outside of broke-ass pirates. But even most of them moved on to FLAC or some other lossless format.
Something I wonder about MP3 on PS4 is if the system can playback music at 44.1/88.2/176.4 kHz vs. 48 kHz. You know, since the PS4 doesn't even play CD's. Considering video games and film use 48 kHz sampling, whereas CD's run off 44.1/88.2/176.4 kHz, perhaps there could very well be some technological issue that might eventually be worked around on the firmware, but would take away resources at a time when other things take higher priority--you know, like games. But then again, I'm not entirely familiar with sound processing on a current-gen video game console so I could be completely wrong.
But consider this evidence: using 48 kHz sampling on PS3, it's clearly less taxing on the system because songs start up immediately and you can access the XMB during song playback. On 44.1etc kHz, there is a slight delay prior to playback and you must stop the song before accessing the XMB.
Sure, you might say you can up-sample 44.1 kHz files to 48 kHz, considering that's an option on the PS3, and then you can play your music that way. Do me a favor, and listen to music on your PS3 in 48 kHz, and then in 44.1 kHz. If you have good equipment, music will sound brighter and fuller. If you can't hear a difference, just stick to listening to music on your phone.
But if you really want to be hardcore, you can simply buy an audio receiver with network functionality, and then set up a NAS to share all of your music straight off the network, no transferring required. And suddenly it doesn't matter if PS4 plays music.
If I want a broken Battlefield 4 experience, or to revisit best-of's from the previous generation, I use my PS4. If I want to play games, listen to music, or watch a Bluray, be it 3D or otherwise, I use my PS3. In regards to music, I stick with the last-gen system for a number of reasons: the PS3 has a surprisingly nice sorting system for music collections, I've grown attached to the background visualizations, and I love how easy it is to back-up new CD's I've bought over the years. Yes, someone still buys CD's! I have exactly 205 unique artists/bands, many of them comprising of full discographies. Somewhere in the ballpark of 14,000 songs. Even if I could transfer my music to my PS4, I wouldn't due to the sheer magnitude of the project, but I doubt this is a problem everyone has. In fact, most people seem to have the opposite problem, that they funded their PS4 by selling their PS3. Here's where I find the argument a problem because they perceive that audio is necessary on what essentially is a fairly dedicated device (Bluray movies and Apps aside).
Something to remember is that early PS3 models included SACD support, a format that was eventually dropped because of cost and due to the lack of consumer demand. Perhaps Sony--yes, the company who ushered us nearly all things audio for roughly half a century--noticed a trend in music-listening habits, which have gone mobile. Thanks, Apple! Suddenly, people don't buy albums; they buy songs. When you consider that most people use iPods or a phone for music, be it purchases off iTunes, or streaming via Pandora or some other similar service, I can see a growing argument against MP3/CD support. Sometimes I feel that nobody really uses MP3 anymore, outside of broke-ass pirates. But even most of them moved on to FLAC or some other lossless format.
Something I wonder about MP3 on PS4 is if the system can playback music at 44.1/88.2/176.4 kHz vs. 48 kHz. You know, since the PS4 doesn't even play CD's. Considering video games and film use 48 kHz sampling, whereas CD's run off 44.1/88.2/176.4 kHz, perhaps there could very well be some technological issue that might eventually be worked around on the firmware, but would take away resources at a time when other things take higher priority--you know, like games. But then again, I'm not entirely familiar with sound processing on a current-gen video game console so I could be completely wrong.
But consider this evidence: using 48 kHz sampling on PS3, it's clearly less taxing on the system because songs start up immediately and you can access the XMB during song playback. On 44.1etc kHz, there is a slight delay prior to playback and you must stop the song before accessing the XMB.
Sure, you might say you can up-sample 44.1 kHz files to 48 kHz, considering that's an option on the PS3, and then you can play your music that way. Do me a favor, and listen to music on your PS3 in 48 kHz, and then in 44.1 kHz. If you have good equipment, music will sound brighter and fuller. If you can't hear a difference, just stick to listening to music on your phone.
But if you really want to be hardcore, you can simply buy an audio receiver with network functionality, and then set up a NAS to share all of your music straight off the network, no transferring required. And suddenly it doesn't matter if PS4 plays music.
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