Sony sent out a puzzling tweet through their AskPlayStation account, and I have no clue who on the internet asked for this. The official PlayStation account needed to tell us all that, yes, you can still put in a Blu-ray disc, a DVD, or even a USB stick to play a video or some tunes on the PS5 or PS4. Truly groundbreaking! There’s even a link to get started, and honestly, it feels like someone at Sony stumbled upon this feature and thought it was some new discovery.
But I bring up this matter because instantly with this tweet, the replies went off the rails. And it isn’t people getting hyped over watching movies on their console. No, it’s over what you CAN’T do. Dillanology’s very first reply sets the tone immediately “No CD’s tho… 💿” and this gets echoed repeatedly throughout the comments. Karras616 throws out the real question: “But not CDs. Why is that?” and Genishi just adds “But no CD-ROM 😭”.
It is a real question. The PS5 and PS4 can read a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc, but a technical limitation prevents them from reading a 90’s era audio CD? That seems intentional. As DarkKnight90309 pointed out, “Yet we still can’t use our physical music CDs on the consoles ps4 and ps5.” It’s one of those absurdities you get when your attempt to play a 20-year-old mix CD on the console ends with cold indifference.
One after the other, the responses spiraled out of control for no reason, and that’s what we expect from Twitter. Jay was well, Jay, begging to be the angriest person on the planet for angry tweeting about their missing PS3 avatars, which ended with, Next time, I’m gonna get angry 😡🫵🏿. Will, on the other hand, took it upon himself to ask the very serious question, “How much porn am I able to watch on it?”, and the internet remains the same.
Some people brought up the PS3 which added to the confusion. One user, peachy, asked “why doesn’t my ps3 disc don’t work on it” which, yeah, that’s not how backwards compatibility works unfortunately. And Gina lamented the absence of PS3 avatar support on newer systems, which is a shame for anyone who for some reason purchased those avatars a long time ago.
Then came the complaints about the hardware. ‘ª’ asked if it was normal for the PS5 disc drive to make “A LOT of noise when reading a disc,” which, from what I’ve heard, yeah, kind of is. The disc drive sounds like a jet engine and it’s wild. And Asclepius took a shot at the disc-less PS5 Digital Edition, saying “You guys figured charge more for a system that has less. Oh but i can buy it aftermarket. Oh joy more money.” Which, fair point.
But the hero of the replies was Samuel, who saw the tweet about media playback and knew what to say. “Give us 3D blu ray playback on the PSVR2🙏🙏🙏🙏” he said, tagging the comment with a million prayer hands. That’s a smart suggestion, and PSVR2 is exceptional hardware; at least watching 3D blu-rays would elevate the device from being just a gaming peripheral.
Then, taking a completely different direction, Zïq decided they should ask about DVD playback in a tweet because it could delay the release of PS6. Their argument was that, “The early years of the PS5 launch were disrupted by COVID-19 (reduced/slow production), so giving us time to enjoy the PS5 first would be great.” While, yes, agreeing PS5 was in extremely short supply for a long time, bringing that up in a post about Blu-rays is so out of place.
What is humorous is how this draws attention to the fact that our consoles have turned into multimedia centers. We use them for video games, for streaming apps, and now for digging into our collection of DVDs. Yet, ‘gamers’ seem to have a handful of minor grievances with the devices they love. They crave the ability to play CDs. They want their yesteryear avatars. They demand the disc drive be quieter. They want VR to support 3D movies.
This, I guess, means the tiniest detail can make a huge difference. For this individual, as with numerous enthusiasts, retaining a physical pas collection makes this very useful with a PS5 disc Blu-ray player. For all other persons, this means a license to complain about the things they cannot do which is something that every online gaming community cherishes.
When you find your games tedious, maybe you can insert The Dark Knight on Blu-ray and watch the movie. Consider this a caution: don’t try to play a CD. For some inexplicable reason, they still can’t do that.
