Category: Consoles

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Consoles Gaming Hardware

Where is the optical audio port on the PlayStation 5?

Before the PlayStation 5 was released, Sony announced details of existing hardware compatibility with the new console. Whilst the lack of Dualshock 4 compatibility grabbed the headlines, something else appeared to be absent… any suggestion of an optical audio port. And, now the PS5 is available (well, to some lucky people), we know that the port is, indeed, lacking.

Why do I need an optical audio port?

If you’re asking the question then, chances are, you don’t. But an optical connection provides digital surround-sound output via fibre-optic. This is separate from the HDMI, often the sole connection from your console to a TV. The port offers an additional way to share the console’s audio output. Many owners use it to connect their console to a sound bar or speakers. Many surround-sound headphones will also make use of it – I have a set of Astro A50 wireless headphones and these use the optical port.

The connector is also known as S/PDIF. The ‘S’ in that stands for ‘Sony’ as it’s full title is ‘Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format’, so you’d expect Sony to support it.

Does the PlayStation 4 have an optical audio port?

The initial release of the PlayStation 4 had an optical port but it was removed from the later version. It was included, however, on the pricier PlayStation 4 Pro.

Why would Sony exclude the optical audio port?

In the past, it’s been said that it was done to save cost. With the PlayStation 4 it was clearly an incentive to opt for the pricier PlayStation 4 Pro, with everyone else left with Sony’s own headsets being the only way to gain surround-sound output.

The one piece of good news here is that some of the existing headsets are compatible, as per Sony’s peripheral announcement…

The Platinum and Gold Wireless Headsets, as well as third-party headsets that connect via USB port or audio jack, will work on PS5

Many of the Sony headsets provide surround sound capability, which is one of the primary things that people often need the optical port for. Of course, this won’t help if you have another headset which doesn’t fit into this category. My poor old Astro’s – which use USB for the microphone and power and the optical port for surround-sound audio output – are needlessly redundant.

For a console costing £550, the lack of an optical port is hard to swallow.

What are the alternatives?

If you have existing hardware that requires the optical port or you desperately need to buy something that does, then you have a couple of options:

  1. You can buy an adapter. This connects to the HDMI port on your PlayStation 5 and provides HDMI output as well as an optical audio port. It doesn’t cost too much either.
  2. If your TV has an optical port then it may also pass Dolby Digital signals via the HDMI (you can contact the manufacturer to confirm this). If your TV does support this feature, then you can just connect directly to this instead.

NOW READ THIS: Where is the optical audio port on the PlayStation 4?

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Consoles Gaming

Can Xbox Series X owners play with Xbox One players?

xbox series x play with xbox one

Microsoft has made a big deal about the backwards compatibility of the Xbox Series X. Not only will the upcoming Xbox Series X be able to play almost every Xbox One title (anything requiring Kinect is out), but even the Pro and Adaptive controllers will work with the new hardware. 

But one question is still up in the air: can Xbox Series X owners play with Xbox One players?

Will Xbox Series X play nice with Xbox One?

While the general consensus on message boards seems to be ‘yes’, I can’t find an official Microsoft answer on this point – only crumbs that point to a mixed picture. 

It’s safe to say that some games will be playable between Xbox Series X and Xbox One. If you’re playing your Xbox One disc of, say, Modern Warfare 2 in the Xbox Series X, then it stands to reason that you’ll be playing the game with Xbox One players filling the multiplayer lobbies. It is, after all, the same version of the game, and thus will connect to the same servers. 

And I think we can safely say that in-game chat will work just fine between generations. The evidence for this? Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer tweeted back in May that he was “100% on XSX”, which would be odd if using prototype hardware blocked him out of current-gen multiplayer lobbies, chat and so on.

But what about games that have different versions for each generation? Well, presumably titles supported by Xbox Smart Delivery will work fine, but those that aren’t might be a bit trickier.

The Xbox 360 version of GTA V, for example, connects to different servers than the Xbox One version. And it’s worth remembering that EA uses a completely different engine on FIFA for Xbox 360 and Xbox One – if something similar happens with next-generation games, there’s simply no way the two will work together. Ball physics would be all over the place!

It’s very telling that both the developers of Fortnite and Destiny 2 have felt the need to confirm that cross-generational play will be a thing. That implies a certain amount of opt-in is required if one party is using a next-generation version.

So… maybe?

I think, reading between the lines, that it’s complicated.

It’s clearly Microsoft’s aim to blur the lines between console generations, and make the Xbox more like a PC where cheap laptops owners can theoretically play with owners of souped-up gaming PCs. View things through that prism and features like Smart Delivery make a whole lot more sense.

I suspect Microsoft hasn’t given confirmation that Xbox Series X will be able to play with Xbox One because rules will be inconsistently applied – and that makes for a muddled message at a time when the company is trying to get people excited for their future purchase. But for the most part, I expect the answer to the question to be a qualified yes.

I will, of course, update this if it turns out that I’m well off the mark.

READ NEXT How much will the Xbox Series X cost?

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Consoles Gaming

Where should I put the PSVR camera?

psvr camera

PlayStation Virtual Reality can be a fiddly thing, but the immersion when it works is so great that you should certainly take the time to optimise it. Here’s where to put the Sony PSVR camera for the best possible experience.

Where should I put the PSVR camera?

The most important thing for improving PSVR tracking is the placement of the camera. Surprisingly, Sony’s advice on this is pretty vague: “Set up your PlayStation camera where it will have a good view of the entire play area. On top of the television is usually best, but you can also set it up at the base of your TV.”

Suffice it to say, the wide consensus is that putting it at the base of your TV isn’t really an option. Reddit and developers argue that it needs to be high up, especially if you’re playing a game that involves standing. This is the setup recommended by Owlchemy Labs, developer of the excellent Job Simulator:

PSVR camera

In my setup, the camera is actually stuck to the wall, as high as the cable will stretch from the PS4. It’s pointing downwards, so it takes in as much of the play area as possible.

However, I can’t ignore the fact that I – at 6ft 4in – am taller than average, and that may play a part. Indeed, Android Central found that the height of the player had a direct impact on optimal placement of the camera. You need the camera to be a little above your head, no matter what your height.  

This seems to work best, but the consensus – unfortunately – is that optimum performance varies from game to game. So much so, in fact, that one Redditor has sought to keep an active Google Doc listing the best place for the camera in each title. 

One final thing to note: you don’t actually have to have the camera facing the same way as your TV at all. It may make intuitive sense that the TV is in front of you when you’re playing, but given you can’t see it anyway, the output is more for spectators than for you. If you can’t find a sweet spot by putting it above your TV, you could try attaching it to a tripod off to one side.

Any other tips for preventing PSVR tracking issues?

It’s not all about the placement of the PSVR camera, of course. It’s also about where you stand relative to the camera. Sony recommends a room space of at least 9.8ft by 6.2ft, and you need a bit of distance between you and the camera so it can take in the headset and your gamepad/Move controllers. 

How far you are from the camera varies from game to game too. It’s not an exact science, but one redditor reckons the sweet spot is 4ft for cockpit games, 4-5ft for seated gameplay, and 6-9ft for standing games.

The biggest issue for tracking, though, is ambient lighting. Basically: the darker the better, so if you’re playing in summer, you may need to draw the curtains and block out any light you can. Look for other lights which can confuse the PSVR camera too: charging lights, lamps and so on.

Even reflective surfaces can throw off the tracking if light bounces off them. If you have any mirrors in view of the camera, it may be best to cover them if you can.

To be clear, I still get tracking issues, even by following these rules to the letter. With only one camera for tracking, PSVR is never going to be as accurate as a Vive or an Oculus Rift. But given the low price of admission and the great game library Sony has pulled together, it’s a small price to pay overall.

READ NEXT: Which PSVR do I have?

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Consoles Gaming

Can I turn off PlayStation 4 gameplay recording?

PlayStation 4 gameplay recording
Short shrift: you can clip the amount the PS4 records

One of the cool things that a PlayStation 4 does is constantly record your gameplay, although it only saves it when asked. However, all of that recording places a strain on the console and if you never use that feature, it would make sense to turn it off, right?

Unfortunately, I come with bad news: Sony doesn’t let you switch it off.

But, what you can do is reduce the recording activity, which may help. Let me explain.

Sony is rather vague around how the gameplay recording is performed, but my best theory is that long stretches of footage – such as the default length of 15 minutes – would need to be saved to hard disk, increasing wear on the disk drive. However, if you crimp the recording to the minimum of 30 seconds, it’s possible that short recording can be stored in memory, meaning the hard disk isn’t taxed unnecessarily.

Time needed: 2 minutes

How to set the PlayStation 4 recording to the minimum duration

  1. Go into Sharing and Broadcast Settings

    With your PS4 switched on and signed in, press the Share button on your controller. Select ‘Sharing and Broadcast Settings’ from the menu that appears.

  2. Select ‘Length of Video Clip’ from the menu

    The default is 15 minutes.

  3. Change the new video clip length

    The nearest to “off” is 30 seconds.

Now, the PlayStation will continue to record what you’re doing but only retaining the last 30 seconds (or whatever you changed it to). Surely that’s going to be less of a strain on your poor old console?

NOW READ THIS: What’s the best way to boost the performance of the PS4?

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Consoles Gaming

What is Xbox Smart Delivery?

What is Xbox Smart Delivery?

The next-generation console war is nearly upon us, and both Sony and Microsoft are getting shots in early as they dance around the fact that neither wants to reveal a price first. Microsoft is hoping to lure buyers with Xbox Smart Delivery – but what is Xbox Smart Delivery, and how does it work? Read on to find out.

Smart Delivery in two paragraphs

Xbox Smart Delivery is a system that should, theoretically, mean you always have the best version of the game for the hardware you’re using.

So, if you buy a copy of Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox One then you’ll also get a copy (probably a download version) that’s optimised for the Xbox Series X when it launches at the end of the year. And all at no extra cost.

How does Smart Delivery work?

Microsoft goes into more detail on its news site here, but the long and short of it is as described above. You buy a supported game, and Microsoft will then deliver the best possible version to the console you’re using. 

Note that this almost certainly doesn’t mean that you’ll get a shiny new disc sent in the post (see more details below), but if you bought a physical copy then Smart Delivery should still work.

Nor do you have to worry about saved games: “As was the case with our current backwards compatible titles, you won’t have to worry about losing any progress either,” states Sony.

“Thanks to our commitment to compatibility across generations, you can be assured that when you purchase a game on Xbox One today, your game library, progression and entire gaming legacy moves forward with you if you jump into the next generation with Xbox Series X.” 

Will all games support Xbox Smart Delivery?

Here’s where it gets a bit tricky. In theory any game can support it. Whether they will in practice is up to the publishers, and whether they think it makes economic sense to do so. “This technology is available for all developers, and all Xbox Game Studios titles that are Optimised for Xbox Series X, including Halo Infinite, will support Smart Delivery,” Microsoft explains.

The current list is relatively healthy, though, and you can go ahead and buy Xbox One versions of the following games without having to worry about forwards compatibility:

  • Halo Infinite 
  • Cyberpunk 2077 
  • Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 
  • Destiny 2 
  • DiRT 5 
  • Scarlet Nexus 
  • Chorus 
  • Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon 
  • The Ascent 
  • Call of the Sea 
  • Gears 5 
  • Second Extinction 
  • Metal: Hellslinger 

Will Xbox Smart Delivery cover physical copies?

Yes – or rather it can do. Again, it’s down to the publisher.  “It’s not just limited to games that you purchase digitally; physical discs of Xbox games can also support Smart Delivery if the developer or publisher decides to implement it,” Microsoft says.

Whether that means that a supported game’s Xbox One disc will work in an Xbox Series X, or if it will just download a copy for you, is unclear. You’d have thought the latter would be open to abuse, but we shall see.

Will PS5 have Smart Delivery?

Nothing has been confirmed yet, and you’d think that if Sony did have a similar system in place it would be shouting about it pretty loudly. As of yet: silence.

That’s not to say that individual games won’t offer their own solutions. EA has already said it will be doing something for Madden NFL 21, letting players upgrade their copies to Xbox Series X if they do so within a certain timeframe. It would be surprising if individual titles didn’t do something similar for PS5, even if there’s no official solution directly from Sony.

READ NEXT Why does my Xbox One get warm even when it’s switched off?

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Consoles Gaming Hardware

What do the PlayStation 4 lights mean?

PlayStation 4 lights
Light show: find out what those console lights indiciate

The PlayStation 4 is the world’s most popular games console, but despite sitting in hundreds of millions of homes, people still struggle to understand what the different power lights on the console indicate.

The lights on the PS4 are placed in different positions, depending on which version of the console you own. The original PS4 has a long strip of light running from front to back, whereas the Slim and Pro models have a plain light on the front left-hand side.

Whichever you have, what the actual colours mean remain the same:

No light

I can’t believe I’m saying this but, yes, this means your console is turned off. Or, rather, has “no power” (which may be different to your expectations).

Blue and then white

This is the colour combination shown when the PS4 is starting up.

Solid white

Your console is on and working as expected.

Flashing orange

Your console is entering rest mode.

Solid orange

Your console is in rest mode. In this mode, your console can still download software and you can charge controllers from the USB ports. Press the power button on the console or PlayStation button on one of the controllers to bring it out of rest mode.

Flashing white and then goes off

Your console is powering down – unlike standby mode, the console cannot update in this state or charge controllers.

Flashing white, solid blue or blinking blue

If the indicator light only flashes white, or if the blue light never changes to solid white, your console has locked up. Power your console off at the mains to restart it.

Flashing red

She’s gonna blow – get out!

run

Okay, not really, but your console is getting rather hot. Flashing red indicates it’s overheating.

NOW READ THIS: How do I stop my PS4 Pro screen from flickering?

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Consoles Gaming Hardware

How do I know when my PlayStation 4 controller is charging?

PlayStation 4 controller charging
Charged up: check your controller batteries

Picture the scene: you’re desperate to jump into a game, but the last time you checked your controller its battery was as empty as a Dominic Cummings excuse. From no charge to full charge can take two hours, so how can you confirm that it the PlayStation 4 controller is charging and, then, when it’s finished?

Here we’ll give you two different ways of finding out this information:

Check on the console

Press and hold the PlayStation button on the controller, whilst it’s charging, and the charge level will show in the bottom, left-hand corner of the screen.

This will animate when the charging process is taking place.

Check on the controller

Take a look around the back of your controller. If the light is gently glowing orange, then it’s charging.

Once charging is complete, the light will turn off.

More PlayStation 4 tips

What’s the best way to boost the performance of a PlayStation 4? A database rebuild
How do I download and install PlayStation 4 games remotely?
What does the light on the PlayStation 4 mean?
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Consoles Gaming

Will PS5 play PS3 games?

will ps5 play ps3 games

We know that the Sony PlayStation 5 will support backwards compatibility in some form, but it’s an open question as to how much. All we know at the moment is that the PS5 will support the “overwhelming majority of PS4 games” – but what does that mean for the PS3?

Will PS5 play PS3 games?

Although this hasn’t been confirmed yet, my educated guess would be “yes” – albeit a heavily caveated one. 

I’ll immediately clarify that I don’t think the PS5 will have native support for PS3 games. However, Sony has invested heavily in remote streaming in recent years, purchasing both OnLive and Gakai before GeForce Now and Google Stadia even existed.

These technologies eventually became PlayStation Now: a subscription service that lets you stream a number of PS2, PS3 and even PS4 titles to your PlayStation 4. There are over 650 games on there, including a number of PS3 titles such as Ni No Kuni, Resistance 3 and Red Dead Redemption. Given PlayStation Now already works on Windows PC, it would be astonishing if it wasn’t available on PS5 from the get go.

Obviously that doesn’t include every PS3 game or anything like it. Fortunately, the best PS3 games have been given the remastering treatment for PS4, and hopefully that means they will work from your current discs with the backwards compatibility that has been promised. 

A non-exhaustive list of titles that have been remade so far:

What about my PS3 discs?

I wouldn’t hold my breath, personally. Even the Xbox One has limited support for Xbox 360 games, and short of putting all the original PS3 hardware inside the PS5 (which obviously brings the cost up), Sony simply won’t be able to guarantee compatibility.

Your best bet is probably to buy a pre-owned PS3 to ensure you can carry on playing your old favourites. At £50 to £100 on eBay, they’re not even that expensive any more… 

READ NEXT: Can the PlayStation 4 play PlayStation 3 games?

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Consoles Gaming

Can the Bose QC35 headphones work with the Sony PS4?

I love my set of Bose QC35 headphones. I love them even more as I got them free with a phone contract back in 2018, given I’d previously baulk at paying more than £80 for headphones. But the best compliment I can give them is that if they were stolen tomorrow, I’d replace them immediately.

As an equally happy owner of a PS4, I wondered: can the Bose QC35 headphones connect to a Sony PS4 as a gaming chat headset? Yes, but with caveats. Here’s what you need to know.

Will Bose QC35 work with PS4?

Good news and bad news here. The good news is that they can work as a chat headset, the bad news is that they can’t without a bit of extra expenditure on your part – don’t worry, it’s not too much.

The TL;DR version of this is that you need the Bose QuietComfort 25 headphone inline mic/remote cable for Samsung and Android devices. It’s *very* important that you don’t buy the iPhone version, which won’t work.

While it’s possible third-party solutions may work, I recommend you just swallow the extra cost and buy the official one. £21.95 is a bit much for a bit of cabling, but still significantly cheaper than, say, a PlayStation Gold headset.

“But wait,” you’re probably thinking, “why do I need a microphone cable when the QC35s have a mic built in?” As far as I can tell, it’s because the built-in microphone is disabled when a cable is connected – and to link your Bose QC35 to your PS4 pad, you’re going to need a cable. There’s no Bluetooth solution for anything but the official PS4 headsets, unfortunately.

Why does it have to be the Android/Samsung version? According to Bose, it’s down to the “differing pin configurations in the audio connector”. Which is a shame if you’re an iPhone user that wants your Bose QC35s to multitask, but there we are.  

The good news is that with the right cable this should work – and this comes straight from the Bose community. It even works with PSVR: happy days.

Are the Bose QC35 good for gaming?

Okay, so you know the Bose QC35 can work with PS4, but should you bother? Are the Bose QC35s good for gaming?

Well, as any owner of the headphones knows, they have an awful lot going for them: good sound quality and the best noise cancellation in the game, which is certainly handy if you can’t get any peace and quiet in your house. Because they only work when wired, you won’t drain any battery either.

But – and it’s a big but – they’re stereo headphones, meaning there won’t be any fancy virtual surround sound. That’s obviously not a big deal for FIFA or Rocket League, but I’ve been playing a lot of Hunt: Showdown lately, and knowing exactly where gun shots are coming from is very much the lifeblood of the “kill or be be killed” genre.

I’ll be sticking with my PlayStation Gold headset, and leaving the Bose QC35 strictly for the commute.

READ NEXT My PS4 is running slow: how can I make it run faster?

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Consoles Gaming Hardware

What’s the best way to boost the performance of a PlayStation 4? A database rebuild

PlayStation 4 database rebuild
Back to base-ics: You can boost PS4 performance

Is your PlayStation feeling more sluggish than usual? Follow this simple guide and we may be able to breathe new life into it with a database rebuild.

What is a PlayStation 4 database rebuild?

This is all a little vague as Sony hasn’t released much information about how all of this works, but the PS4 maintains a database of your disk contents. Like a PC occasionally needs to have its hard disk “de-fragmented”, a PS4 needs to have this database tidied up.

Sony says a database rebuild:

Scans the drive and creates a new database of all content on the system.

This option is useful for cleaning up the data on your PS4 as it reorganises everything on the hard drive. Select this option if you are experiencing issues such as game freezes or frame rate drops.

How to perform a database rebuild on a PlayStation 4

Thankfully, a database rebuild is easy to perform, although it can take a few hours to complete, so don’t do this ahead of a gaming session.

  1. Fully turn off the PS4 (i.e. don’t put it into standby)
  2. Hold down the power button on the front of the console – it will beep initially, as normal, and then, after about 7 seconds, beep again. You can now release the button
  3. Connect a controller to the PS4 using a USB cable
  4. The PlayStation will start in “Safe Mode”
  5. Select option 5 – “Rebuild Database”
  6. You will be asked to confirm this – select “OK”

Isn’t the database rebuild done automatically?

If you’ve ever downloaded and installed something to your PS4 whilst it’s switched off, when you switch it back on you’ll probably notice it pausing for a few seconds to do a database rebuild. Is this doing the same thing?

Well, we’re not sure – again, due to the vague information Sony offers on this process. However, this appears to not take very long at all – the likelihood is that is just rebuilding a part of the database for the newly installed game and not much else.

My PS4 is still slow!

Whilst this article is specifically about database rebuilds, if you’re still experiencing sluggish performance, you would probably want to look at disk capacity – is the drive almost full? In which case, you may want to consider using an external drive, or even upgrading to a large drive.

Other causes of poor performance could be a faulty hard disk, so you may want to think about replacing that, maybe for something quicker. If you own a PS4, look at replacing it with a hybrid hard drive; if you’re using a PS4 Pro, you may also want to think about an SSD, if you can afford it.