Herp Derpington
Member
Same. Unfortunately convenience trumps quality the majority of the time.
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Has Sony ever said why the PS4 doesn't play CDs?
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Same. Unfortunately convenience trumps quality the majority of the time.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Pushing people towards music streaming wasn't neccesary. The market was already headed in that direction. It was a cost cutting issue. Whatever cost would have been associated with getting audio CD compatibility, however small (and when you multiply it by the 100 million+ PS4 units Sony is likely to ship this generation, it becomes a lot less tiny) simply wasn't worth the completely non-existent marketshare or mindshare they would lose by not including it.
You'd be wrong. I forgot it doesn't play CDs and tried once. Then I remembered when it didn't work.
I'm thinking of a hypothetical future where I've made enough money to buy a decent sound system. Near future. I don't want to have to buy a CD player or hook up an old console when my PS4, my main media device, is right there. I could just not play CDs, but I like having the option.
I actually didn't know it couldn't play CDs until just now. Pretty lame for a thing with an optical drive in a family of devices with a history of support for the format.
I actually didn't know it couldn't play CDs until just now. Pretty lame for a thing with an optical drive in a family of devices with a history of support for the format.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
I still buy CDs, because I'm the sort of person who likes to own his own library of music and also support the bands I enjoy. Sure, after the first listen I rip and upload the album to Play Music, but I like having the CD there on the shelf.
If PS4 supported Play Music I wouldn't have any issue with this. But it doesn't, and Spotify is not my jam.
I dunno. You make it sound unreasonable to expect an optical drive to play optical media. OP's not asking for his PS4 to play vinyl or 8-tracks or Sony mini discs; he's talking about a ubiquitous format standard that has been available for over 30 years and is still being manufactured today. CDs aren't quite dead yet.
As for using a console as a cd player, I do it sometimes on my PS3 when I have an album that has a Dolby 5.1 mix or something along those lines.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Optical drives don't automatically play every kind of optical media.
unapersson
Member
I'd imagine they could be a bit mechanically wearing on drives, especially if they're old and covered in dirt or scratches.
I wonder if that's why the PS3 pretty much encouraged you to rip them to the hard drive when you put a CD in.
I wonder if that's why the PS3 pretty much encouraged you to rip them to the hard drive when you put a CD in.
You mean like the Xbox One, or Sony's latest 4k bluray player, both of which can play CDs?
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/blu-ray-disc-players/ubp-x800/specifications
Spiritual_Chaos
Banned
If you asked me why any of the devices you just mentioned don't play CDs in 2017 I'd answer "They do! You're all set."
Reading DVDs is much more trivial to the process of making PS2 games playable on PS4. In comparison for PS1 they already have an emulator that they used in the past, that would just need to be ported to PS4 and have it read from the disc drive and suddenly everyone's old collection would be playable on a modern device again.
I don't think they stopped doing it so that they could sell you something like PS2-on-PS4 ports (as they have not been many "PS1-on-PS4-esque" titles) but rather they still have that mindset from early on in the PS3 cycle when PS3 game sales were poor and everyone was playing their old games. They took out PS2 support then so that people would be encouraged to buy new 60 dollar games, not so that they could sell you remasters (though that was nice too).
Uhhhh not even close
They took out PS2 BC from PS3 because it was an expensive hardware based solution and they needed to get the BOM cost down on their ludicrously expensive over-engineered console. Nothing to do with software sales.
joecanada
Member
I already gave my whole CD collection away months ago for free so I agree
Wowfunhappy
Member
When done at scale, I'd bet CD compatibility costs closer to 1¢. Yes, over millions of consoles those pennies add up, but that's a misleading way to look at numbers IMO. 0.001/100 and 10/100,000 are both nearly zero.
Thats a Greay Area
Member
Perhaps not, I know I haven't tested every drive out there. But I'm pretty sure that the PS4 is the outlier vs. being the norm. And even more so on a high-end product.
But hey, they also sell you a 4K entertainment device that does not play 4K disks, nor do they offer the content in their store.
I think it's safe to say that Sony's ambitions for the PS4 family are a games machine first and foremost, everything else is nowhere near as important.
not silly, laws of physics
The different colors aren't required for reading physical pits as long as the wavelength is shorter than the diffraction limit. In other words, a blu-ray laser can read DVD and CD pits perfectly fine, but a CD laser can only read CDs. The blu-ray laser does have the problem of having a much thinner layer on the actual discs so different optics are needed, but DVD and CD are much more similar.
The reason drives have all three lasers is the dyes in recordable discs do tend to be very frequency sensitive, so to read them all three are required. Obviously not a problem for pressed CDs and actual games.
And I'll mention again, the manual included with launch PS4s included a mention of a CD frequency laser.
Hayama Akito
Member
PS Classics. They want you to buy your PS1 games again from a digital source because is money. Using your old PS1 disc is not business for Sony.
It's illegal to that in Britain and anyone trying will face the wrath of May and her strom troopers
Sony have never pushed their system as a pure gaming machine and that hasn't changed with the PS4.
The only reason why Blu-Ray isn't advertised with the PS4 is because Sony already did that with the PS3.
Mihael Mello Keehl
Banned
Honestly? Its not powerful enough and just too weak. They wont admit it though. Wii was the same way.
shouamabane
Member
It's so weird to see Xbox support so many media formats while Sony, a media company, doesn't.
The last 5 PS4 games that I have bought came with a cd music
mikezilla2
Member
This
just ask MS why we dont Have native DVD playback Or native BLU ray playback on windows 10 for that Matter !
RoadHazard
Gold Member
It's weird that there's a big store just up the street from me that sells tons of brand new albums on this supposedly dead format. Sure, there are few stores left that do that, and those that do have replaced half (or more) of the CD shelf space with vinyl to ride that wave, but CD is not a dead format. Among music enthusiasts (especially fans of metal and its subgenres) it's alive and well. You really can't compare it with those other formats. There are no stores selling new laserdiscs or VHS tapes.
That said, I understand that the appeal of CD playback on the PS4 would be very limited. So I bought a BD player that does everything (including the even deader formats SACD and DVD-Audio).
Goldenroad
Member
The PS3 played c.d.'s and the PS4 plays the same other media (DVD's/Blurays) as the PS3 did, so how is it unreasonable to expect them to play c.d.'s as well?
Some people will just blindly defend these companies no matter the reason. If this doesn't effect you then why would you even care enough to come in this thread and post? It's insane.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
Sony's 4K BD player supports it, and I'd call that a modern device. But one that is intended for AV enthusiasts, of course. The PS4 is clearly not, what with it doing neither CD nor 4K BD (in the Pro's case).
This is it.
However it would be nice if they allowed us to pay $5-10 for a CD player.
Trust console warriors to tell you to throw away the best quality audio.
Wowfunhappy
Member
Does iTunes disable CD ripping functionality in the UK?
Well I make 2 then - I put one having no idea that it wouldnt play. It was a cd for my daughter. Not had to play a cd for years and then when I needed to I realised I had nothing at home that could play them (was expecting my PS4 to do it though)
Cant stand posts like this. Its pretty obvious plenty of people still buy cds or else they wouldnt exist. Stop trying to be all superior.
davidwhangchoi
Member
it doesn't?
According to this thread, Xbox ONE is a 1999 system.
AmuroChan
Member
It's not about logic. It's statistics. If you look at what percentage of music purchases are digital vs physical, it's a no-brainier why Sony wouldn't spend the extra dollars to support the format in a mass-produced product where every part costs money. Physical copies of games still account for a large chunk of game purchases in 2017. It's nowhere close to the ratio that the music industry is at today.
Noisepurge
Member
I would prefer a vinyl turntable. Could we get a PS4 SuperPro with a platter on top.
KillerMan91
Member
They took PS2 emulation out of PS3 because high manufacturing cost of PS3 and taking all possible options to make price cut for 2007 holidays. PS2 BC was based on hw emulation during early PS3 life. Launch US and Japan PS3 models had full hw BC (had both PS2 CPU and GPU on the motherboard). For European launch they took out PS2 CPU and so it was partially software based and then in fall 2007 they took that also out and abandoned PS2 BC.
No its not.
I was actually going to correct the guy who said it was illegal but reading up on it apparently the UK government made it legal and then the high court made it illegal again. Bizarre. Its seems like one of those daft old laws no takes notice of anymore, like being able to shoot a Welshman across the English border with a bow after midnight.
Adding pennies to an individual console is fine but when you're going to be making 100 million of them, those pennies add up and considering the marketplace even at the time the PS4 launched, who would even use it as an audio player? Of course there's always going to be a subset that do or want to, but it's not worth it.
autoduelist
Member
"Pennies or less". Let's call it... what, 2 pennies?
PS4 has sold... what, ~60 million units?
Those pennies add up to $1,200,000. Do you think it's worth over a million dollars so that an extremely small % of people might play a cd in their PS4? More importantly, do you think the -lack- of CD cost them a single sale? Even more importantly, do you think if they spent this additional 1.2 million dollars, do you think anyone who hasn't already bought one would have bought one?
I realize there is some room for 'good will' type additions to a device. But remember, there's always something else people want. You have to draw the line somewhere, and cutting costs like this allowed them to keep a $400 price tag at launch, allow them to drop the price sooner, etc, all of which benefits the end consumer. Sure, they could have included this, and a built in PS3, and a better mic, and.... eventually, the price needs to go up. All in all? I think cutting the ability to play CDs is pretty darn inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
VHS is outdated technology. New CDs come out literally every day.
Just because Jack said that doesn't mean I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure he said that to keep third party publishers happy, many of which were flocking to 360 in 2007.
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