PS4 Firmware Update 5.50 Apparently Features System-Wide Supersampling

Well I have ps pro and have not yet upgraded my tv so yes this sounds good.

Ha! Farewell Playroom, I told you I'd have the last laugh!

who cares about your childish usernames that you made when you were 12...THIS IS GREAT NEWS! YES!

Can't wait to see bloodborne with this update.

Instead of hiding beta and demos why don't they just fix it so they don't actually add to your purchased list completely. Or move them to a seperate list hiding is so cheap surly they could do better than that. And does this feature cross over to PS3 because if so it would take over 100+ that's if it hides themes as well. Oh and where the CLEAR ALL in uploads for god's sake.

@Nickolaidas this doesn't change anything for bloodborne as it isn't pro enhanced

@Flopsy i have never seen a more ignorant comment. besides, personally i'm looking for a 4K/HDR (10, but preferably also with Dolby Vision)/FreeSync/low latency MONITOR which simply doesn't exist right now.

will supersampling have any effect on PSVR?, hiding items one i been wanting, not bothered with name change, sounds good so far,

Sounds better than the big 5.0 update, hiding thing in the library and deleting notifications gets a big fat thumbs up

@Flopsy I know right? I saw a guy at a food bank the other day, and I was all like, "hey, don't you know there's a Michelin star restaurant down the road?"

oh btw: I think we now should all thank Microsoft (and the concept of competition) for making the One X and having system-wide supersampling there because there's no way Sony would have ever worked on that if it wasn't for what Microsoft did.

@manu0 but don't all pro enhanced games already have supersampling?

@manu0 thank MS for the Pay to Play online subscription model, which sony also copied eventually

I'm not sure why'd you would have bought a Pro if you didn't have a 4k tv, perhaps in preparation?
Does seem a backwards step and not what i'd hoped the power of the pro would have been utilised for, but if it benefits others so be it. Can we play CD's yet though Sony?

Finally I can hide my demo/beta items in the library. Next, I want the old download tab back, it's so nice to see what game I've downloaded and save games that the ps4 uploaded separately rather than all mashed together like now.

@manu0 Yup, competition is great

Changing a username does NOTHING! to improve the way we interact or experience games and other forms of digital entertainment on PS4. Sick of hearing about it, come up with better/ creative suggestions and then maybe PS4 updates won't be disappointing.

@Flopsy Because resolution isn't everything, HDR is the real upgrade that benefits all screen sizes. Currently the best HDR sets have Dolby Vision but they are quite pricey at the moment, no point going for a £400 "4K HDR" TV when it can't even reach 1,000 - 10,000 nits peak brightness and features HDR 10 instead of Dolby Vision which is superior to HDR 10 in every way along with all the other solutions, upgrade once rather than twice.

I still don't understand why PSN name change should be a firmware update. It would make more sense to make this an option on PSN website.

@manu0 Thank you, well said.

Just think if Sony were to provide name changes though. Couple that with them providing Knack with Feb PS Plus. I don't think people could handle it. What an amazing time we live in though eh (partially)?

@Gremio108 Yeah, forget everything else, getting rid of The Playroom is great news! First they let us delete the 0% trophy list I got when I accidentally clicked on it one time, and now this!

Also, being able to keep a tidy notification list is everything to me.

Any benefit from this for those of us still using the PS4 peasant edition?

@Gamer83 You can hide demos and betas

I wonder why it's hiding demos, not delete demos. Well at least hiding them is a good first step.

@Gamer83 peasant edition? Bruh, up until November 2016 that 'peasant edition' was the most powerful console in the world

Can anyone here that's on the beta program say if the 5.50 firmware does anything to speed up the PS4's sluggish dashboard?

@Flopsy because they are bloody expensive not everyone can afford to throw that amount of money on a new TV especially people working in minimum wage/ low income jobs, it's only possible for us to even get games and consoles because we start saving what little we can MONTHS in advance of release, heck the ONLY reason i even got a PS4 when it came out is because my family banded together and gave me some money as an early Christmas present

how ignorant can someone be?

@Nickolaidas nope! a lot of them do, but not all. this is what this new option is for

@Turismo4GT
Yes, but now we are the lowly peasants. The PS4 Pro master race people get all the good stuff.

I wish I could check how crisp they will look. That almost makes me want to upgrade to a Pro.

@RogerRoger Maybe we're being unfair, I've never actually tried The Playroom, it could be awesome (doubt it)

@sinalefa: Good point,well worth saying three times!

@Ryno

My internet connection thought that, but it felt like overkill so I deleted the extra two ASAP.

Well that would have save me £3k on an oled if it happened earlier.

@stevejcrow the pro promises better performance and a better image even on 1080 screens due to supersampling. As well as this, it has 3x usb slots meaning that using a pro controller, usb platinum headset, and external hdd is feasible on the pro. Add to that boost mode and a larger hdd than the launch model and yes, there is an advantage to owning the pro.

@Gamer83 While I guess there will be an increased degree of envy among standard PS4 owners that will be looking at the better capabilities of the Pro, I consider the 'good stuff' is the games, and I'm suitably impressed with the capabilities of the standard system.

@Turismo4GT
I'm only being half serious, just for clarification. I'm still on a 1080p tv so I'm fine with the launch PS4 that I have, though I won't lie, I might be temped to pull the trigger when PS4 Pro hits $300. If I actually get a Pro would depend on when that price drop happens and how close PS5 is when it does.

@Gamer83 I feel similarly, except that a Pro here in Barbados is still freaking $1200 with no game (regular PS4 is about $1000 with a pack-in game). Even though PS5 is still a few years out, that may still deter me from going for a Pro when my CUH-12XX series PS4 is working just fine.

@Turismo4GT
Yeah, it's costly. Even over here. I still need to buy a new tv also to take advantage of newer hardware and on top of luxury items I have other obligations more important like car insurance, the lease on the car, student loan bills (still), credit card bills, etc, etc, etc. So by the time I get around to getting that tv, it could be 2019, 2020 and by that point you're looking at PS5. If I'm going to make massive investments, I'm going to try and be smarter about them than when I was an idiotic young man and didn't always think purchases through.

@stevejcrow I sure hope that last sentence was meant ironic.

@Nesstark88 while I agree with the sentiment about not to waste money on a £400 "hdr" TV there's no tvs on the market that get anywhere near 10000 nit peak brightness you seem to suggest people should look out for. The higher the better yea but dolby vision doesn't give an edge there.. Both specs allow 10000 nits peak brightness.

The best new led tvs (of both specs) barely reach 2000 nits as it is.. The top sets topping out at about 1700 cd/m2. Have a look if you don't believe me... HDR is in its infancy.

Also dolby vision for as good as it is isnt "far superior" to hdr, that's just uninformed snobbery.. Firstly, it's heavily based on hdr and hdr10 content is naturally compatible on a dolby vision set however the big selling point is that it allows dynamic metadata per frame. This is being addressed in HDR+ anyway.. Oh and dolby vision sets must be true 10bit to get the dolby badge which I guess for a buyers point means atleast it won't be a 8bit +frc set. But that's not really hdr fault as such.. Thats just manufacturers being greedy and jumping on the bandwagon as its an open standard. For the equivalent look for "HDR premium" which will mean its a decent TV up to the minimum spec ie minimum peak brightness and colour gamut of a dolby vision TV.

I don't know what the point in my post is but for while I wouldn't ever think of telling someone to buy a sub £500 set for hdr... Theres some half decent sets for just under double that though that don't always feature dolby vision. It's no way the be all and end all.

@solocapers "Hell even the best new led tvs barely reach 2000 nits as it is.. The top sets topping out at about 1700 cd/m2. Its really in its infancy." This is exactly why I'm holding out for a while, plus I would like to upgrade my sound system from a 7.2 channel to a 11.2 channel system. Dolby Vision is 12 bit if memory serves me right, those who wait for the tech to mature more will get a much better deal especially if they are on a tight budget like myself. Not only the hardware but the content will mature as well and require better hardware in order to make the most of the movie or game. Gran Turismo Sport is mastered at 10,000 nits with true wide color gamut far beyond what we currently have is capable of producing. There is already talk of 8K so it wont be too long before another big shake up lol

@Nesstark88 yea nothing wrong with holding out. I guess the question is when... As there's going to be a lot of improvements in the next few years.

Dolby vision standard again supporting 12 bit is great.. But there's no TV even nearly capable of that wide a colour gamut yet. Again the best sets at the moment are hitting about 70 to 80% of the 10bit colour space as it is so we are probably 6 to 10 years or so from that even becoming an issue. And the updated hdr spec will also support that anyway.

Its a minefield just now with the tech being so new but that's always the case... Even going back to 1080p vs cheaper early 1080i HD tvs.

I guess if someone wants to make the plunge just now all I could advise is that they steer far clear of 10 bit (8bit +frc) sets.. Thats the real biggie at the moment as manufacturers are being quite sneaky about it.

I wish you could do it on a per game basis, or at least blacklist certain games. For example, have it on but not for games that aren't brilliant in terms of performance even on Pro, like MHW.

@stevejcrow I bought mine because so many PS4 games run like crap on a regular PS4, even exclusives like TLG and Bloodborne. Plus, you also have enhanced graphics modes separate from resolution, as seen in MHW.

Plus resolution is relative to the size of the display in terms of image quality. I have a 1080p 24" monitor. That's the same PPI² (pixels per square inch) as a 48" 4K display, thus the same image quality and sharpness. If it was larger than 48" it would of course have a lower PPI². Funnily enough, you pay more to get a bigger display and are actually paying to have a worse image quality.

@solocapers Agreed, to be honest a really good 1080p bluray master of films and especially TV shows still blows me away, Season 4 of lost on bluray is amazing picture quality, you can actually see that jack's beard is fake lol, I'd be happy with a 60'' 1080p HDR TV which is actually a thing lol. It's going to be up to each person to decide how long is long enough for them to wait.

Hopefully there's more to this update than supersampling (which such a small fraction of players will use) and the ability to delete notifications. I mean, really? They needed an update for that? If they weren't such dunces, we would have always had that "feature". And the "hiding" stuff in our library, too.

How bout something else that's simple and should have been there day one: moving the tiles in our freaking home screen.

@Gamer83 Yep, we peasant edition owners don't get much of anything. Some PS2 BWC would've been nice, but... 😒
My current TV and PS4 are fine, so I see no reason to sink $1500 to upgrade them. Oh and let's not forget PSVR. Yeah... No.

All I really want is to be able to delete certain demos/trials/betas from my games played list in my profile.

Can't stand not being able to remove them. THEY DON'T COUNT AS A GAME!

@Nesstark88 Clearly you haven't seen 4K yet. Yes, I enjoy 1080p as well. But 4K is nice.

@Valyrious Never said 4K wasn't an improvement but I personally feel that it is not a very big one when viewed from far distances on 40-60 inch screens, HDR however can be noticed from across a room and regardless of TV screen size. During my 3 months working at superfi I spent allot of time with 4K TV's from LG, Samsung and Sony in particular and like I said before I would be quite happy with a 60" 1080p HDR TV, (which do exist) just my personal preference. It's not the resolution that people get sucked into it's the HDR and the wider color gamut that makes people buy a "4K" TV but many only understand things from a consumer level. Let me ask you this, have you seen a 4K movie scaled on a 1080p display, go check that out and then come back to me, I think you will be surprised at what you see. I would hope that my years spent as a film projectionist of 35mm film would count for something in terms of my eye for detail.

P.S when people are choosing a 4K TV in a shop they are usually standing a foot or two feet away from the screen vs when they are sitting at home 10 feet away sometimes more, something to take into account...

Supersampling is a good addition though there seemed to be no reason why this wan't available anyway and I suspect it's inclusion is due to devs not giving the option when they should do. Not to mention that so few games will actually benefit from this as most on Pro seem to favour 1440p which won't make much difference, so you'll be better of with whatever performance mode is on offer.

@Sunnyviji it will have no effect on PSVR as those games are already 1080p

@Nesstark88 whilst I agree 4K isn't a huge jump for movies, for gaming the difference is pretty big. The problem for the Pro is that so many games get nowhere near this, usually resolving around 1440p and when upscaled give a soft image and this coupled with assets which were designed with 1080p in mind offer little difference. Having played a few games on a certain X, I can say that full 4K paired with upgraded texture details and increased levels of anisotropic filtering create a night and day difference between the image quality of the two consoles on many titles, with HDR being the rather large cherry on top of the cake. Though I will admit that I would give up 4K long before HDR

@carlos82 Ok, I have not had the chance to do any testing with games but I will say that the best results I've seen of supersampling so far were in Rise of the Tomb Raider. WOW! the textures went from ok to crisp and clear, overflowing with detail.

@Flopsy Maybe some people got brought the console? Maybe some just can't afford it?

@Valyrious They're not hurting you, aside mentally and you can get medication for OCD now.

@Valyrious @Nesstark88 I upgraded my TVs to 4k last year when I upgraded to a PS4 Pro and I don't notice any difference. I think the image is a little clearer/sharper but nothing that I would be able to point out unless I had a 1080p and a 4k TV side by side. Overall its a bit of a disappointment. I am looking forward to HDR though.

I am certain there is a difference, there has to be, the math is all there, but damned if I can tell.

So what happens if you turn on super sampling on an already 4k TV? If anything?