The message that was recently posted by the official PlayStation support account from Sony made it clear to the players once again that they can use PS5 and PS4 for playing videos and listening to music in various media formats like USB drives, Blu-ray discs, and DVDs. This announcement of very basic functionality surprisingly opened up a huge discussion in the gaming community about what is already present in modern consoles but not in the older PlayStation models.
The @AskPlayStation tweet pretty much revealed the media capabilities that have been around for PlayStation consoles for years. You can easily put your Blu-ray movies, watch DVDs, or even connect USBs for videos and music. Isn’t it very simple? But then again, gamers immediately grasped the one very important thing that was excluded from the list – audio CDs.
The replies have been unfathomable. Players have been quick to point out that the previous versions of PlayStation, especially the PS3, have provided the most extensive media-related functionalities ever. For instance, AthenaPortly completely scorched Sony when she said, ‘Did you know that the PS3 could do all those things, plus, connect to a local media server, pick-a-variety-of-media-files-directly-from-the-internet via the web-browser and even perform-the-impossible-reading of audio CDs? Crazy, I know.’ Ouch.
It was around this whole issue that CDs suddenly became a very fierce discussion. Based_On_Cringe and some other users spent quite a long time arguing about why the modern-day consoles could not play music CDs while the older models could. The different kind of lasers was mentioned in their debate referring to the technicality but still, a large number of gamers just want to revive that old CD collection without the trouble of using separate equipment.
The nostalgia of the past glorious days with PS3’s media capacities was very much expressed in the replies. Fallova pointed out that one could rip music from CDs onto the PS3 and listen to it without the disc being inserted. On the contrary, the users of today, according to Psilaxs, are being deprived of even the most basic Bluetooth headsets input and a ‘update the fing firmware so we can play music CDs and attach Bluetooth headsets already!’
However, it was not all bad news. A number of users were happy about the features that are already in place. Milton Thornton Jr. saw and appreciated Sony’s ‘always including those features’ policy and hoped they would progress in this manner, while Jaylan just said ‘I love playing my dvds off my PlayStation.’ Thus, the media functions are definitely there and they are getting positive feedback.
The discussion also paved the way for players’ requests for other features. KL20MA9 proposed to have YouTube Music supported on PS5, YTfinished asked for the Discord screen sharing, and mansche1 was curious about the 3D playback for PSVR2 which has yet to come. This one tweet on media playback has somehow led to the unveiling of all the players’ feature requests that have been held back.
In the midst of the discussion, there were some bewildered queries like GamerStyle1980 asking if the mentioned features also apply to the digital PS5 (they do not, as there is no optical disc drive) and Calvin Milledge out of nowhere talked about PS4 Pros and PS5 Pros (the same features as in the regular models). A clear sign that not everyone is completely aware of their consoles’ capacities and limitations.
What is new here is that the announcement about the opening up of basic functionality got transformed into a discussion on the evolution and regression of consoles’ features. The players’ requests are no longer out of date – they want the old features back. Apparently, PS3 was a media monster that could read CDs, stream over the network, and do a lot more, while the current-gen consoles, even though they are using newer technology, still tend to be more limited in their capabilities.
There were some who refuted the CD argument, for instance, OmarWGC said, ‘Like I’m 56 and I haven’t played a CD in like 15 years,’ which is a reasonable point – not all people want CD playback in 2024. Nonetheless, there have been a vast amount of comments concerning the non-existent support for CDs that indicate a strong possibility that there are still players who would use this feature if it was made available.
The entire discussion shows how over the years, gaming consoles have evolved from being the ultimate entertainment center to just a gaming device. Each time a new generation is released, Sony reduces the media features and this is a trend that players are becoming more aware of. It is not just about gaming anymore – for a large chunk of the audience, PlayStation is their main entertainment device which they use for movies, music, and everything else.
On top of that, there were some random questions like Gamer_Velma asking about PS6 (still too early for that!) and the real Anjrue having issues with Xbox account linking. It is as if all these devices have become tech support for everything.
To sum up, this conversation was a clear indication that people want their consoles to be multifunctional and not just gaming machines. The transition from a media playback announcement to discussions on missing features indicates that Sony needs to be more in tune with the customers’ actual wants from the hardware. The company may have to face a choice between the revival of CD support or the addition of new streaming features since there is a clear demand for PlayStation to be more than just a gaming box.
So, yes, your PS5 and PS4 can both play movies and music from a variety of sources but apparently that is still not enough for the majority of players who remember very well the times when PlayStation consoles were capable of much more than that. This is one of those situations when technology moves forward but sometimes leaves behind certain useful features that gamers surely notice as missing when comparing their current setup with the past one.
