I was a technological neophyte having just built my first computer so I could play Starcraft 2 at above 5 frames a second. I'd not long since moved into my friends house, who it so happened was an avid Playstation gamer(Dare I say Fan-boy?! But that's a discussion for another time and braver souls than I!). He had let me create an account on his Playstation 3,to play Demon's Souls and suchlike.
Being of a inquisitive nature (less charitable people would say a nosy sod) I was poking around in the settings for the system, when I happened upon an option to turn on the 'Media Server'. So I did. Nothing that I could see had happened. A little bit of Google action later and I'd installed a small piece of software on my PC called 'PS3 Media Server'. I started it up, pointed it at the folders containing my music, my films and lots and lots of 'Star Trek:The Next Generation'.
I then went downstairs and to my amazement I could play all that content flawlessly on the PS3, It seemed like utter magic. Utter time saving magic. Utter convenient time saving magic. It even converted formats that wouldn't have played on the PS3 natively if I'd used a USB Memory stick, on the fly, in real-time (a little trick called 'Transcoding'). My PC was upstairs and at the other end of the house. This was all achieved through the modem we had installed already. It was a serious value add feature which improved the PS3's functionality greatly. One that would lead to it being used constantly for years on end.
Fast forward to the launch of the PS4,in November 2013 for the UK, my house mate bought the PS4 immediately(Did I mention he's a big fan of Sony everything?). No media server was to be found. “Well that's inconvenient”, we said, “but hey it's a new system,I'm sure it will be patched in with a system firmware update soon”,we thought.
We're well over a year into the PS4's life cycle now and still no sign of the much missed Media Server. This is made worse because you cant just plug a USB memory stick in to play your AVI's or MP4 either. All this on a £300 bit of hardware, in an age when even the cheapest phones have this feature.
Aside from playing games, which it does very well, the whole PS4's ancillary functionality(say that after a few beers!) is a bit spartan to say the least. It needs proper themes, and some improved customisability. That way it can be an indispensable part of the front room experience for years to come, just like its direct ancestor. That's my opinion anyway. What do you think?
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
I agree it should have it eventually but keeping the focus on making good games. Is the reason me and everyone I know bought a PS4. In the meantime I have a 100 other devices that do it just fine.
Both new consoles are a huge let down.
PLEX does exactly what you're asking - and they claim it's only temporarily paywalled. It's free to download and use on most platforms after tiny client purchase.
Plex does it better than DLNA really, it's just the awkward money thing. :) it does a damn good job at updating metadata and cover art, screenshots etc.
It would be a nice addition to the PS4 but most modern TVs these days have DLNA functionality so it's not something i'm going to miss.
This i a feature i wish i had know about earlier...it would have saved me so much time...:/