PS Portal Update Appears to Have Quietly Improved Video Quality

Definitely noticed an improvement but thought it was just my internet stability. Glad to hear I’m not the only one! And Im one of those people that play games almost exclusively on the Portal.

@Doctor_BK there are dozens of us. Dozens!

Hey weird Sony remembered they made a piece of hardware.

Just got one of these the other day. I haven't had a chance to play much on it - newborn baby life! - but looking forward to booting it up after this update and experiencing the new-and-improved.

@GMaster7 congrats on the baby and the Portal! Great timing on your purchase. My newborn and I love Portal naps.

It was a surprisingly solid update. Nonexistent lag, image quality was already great but looks even better and (this ones minor but I personally loved it) it felt like it took a while for the Power Off button to appear when you held the button but now it responds instantly

Noticed the update but didn't notice much difference. But then again I never thought it was that bad. Haha. I'll have to pay closer attention and see.

Taking a 3 day vacation to Atlantic City tomorrow. First time taking my Portal out the house, since I picked it up in November.

I noticed a big difference when I played this afternoon (and first downloaded the update), but figured it was because I was at home when I had been using it the past few days at my parents'.

@GMaster7 enjoy being w your kid. That's the best.

Nice to have this improvement, but bad image quality is the smallest of my complaints with the Portal. Here in order:
1. Sound lags more than video, both are out of sync. Very annoying and maybe not that hard to fix.
2. Permanently dropping frames
3. Input lag
4. Image quality
UPDATE: The sound lag wasn’t fixed. Frames are still dropping.

Haven’t had the chance to try it yet, but I didn’t really notice any pixelation and very very few stutters. Interested to see what’s been improved.

Well, Sony is still eating the dust of open source Devs. Chiaki ftw

@Max_the_German
Maybe you have a bead router or not having your ps5 connected to the router with a Ethernet cable?
Coz im not experienced Anybof these problems you’ve got mate, except micro stuttering on rare occasions which is kinda gone now after this update tbh

@ReNik PS5 is wired to a dedicated Wifi router which is only connected to the Portal over a distance of 5 m, on a 5 GHz Wifi channel which no other router uses in the whole neighborhood. Ergo: There cannot be a better configuration. I‘m just sensitive on frametime issues and latency. Compression artifacts are the least annoying problem for me.

I’m still waiting for stock to be available in the U.S., Sony. I’ve got $200 with your name on it but I can’t hold onto it forever! 😄

When it first launched, I wasn't satisfied with the experience at all. Occasional dropped frames I could live with, but the stuttering was too much for me. After the next update, stuttering got better but you could clearly see dynamic resolution changes to make up for it. I am really happy with it now. The Portal manages to keep the resolution at max, stuttering has become negligible and only the occasional dropped frames here and there have persisted. That said, still pretty embarrassing that single team third party devs have delivered exactly that for years now.

@Doctor_BK @LikelySatan Thanks, guys.

@Th3solution I started checking Best Buy and Amazon and GameStop (in addition to just PS Direct) and ended up getting mine in a Best Buy restock. Came within two days. Just FYI!

@Max_the_German
Yeah that’s the same setup I’ve got mate, I’m also sensitive to latency since I’m a R6: Siege player, but I’m not experiencing any lags or frame rate issues after this update tbh, I did tho sometimes before the update tho, I’ve got a brand new router from my VM internet provider tho that might have helped

I am honestly surprised Portal is this popular.

@GMaster7 Thanks, that’s good to know. I’ll keep an eye on those other outlets. I assumed PS Direct would get them first so didn’t think to keep track of other storefronts.

@GMaster7 and @Doctor_BK,
Hey I’m in the same club too! PS Portal is perfect for keeping an eye on my newborn anywhere in the house while still getting my game on!

@LikelySatan
Thanks, Satan! You always had the best advice for raising kids. 🤣

@Th3solution I made friends with the guy at a GameStop near me and he called me when he got a shipment in. He said stores in my area get 1 per month to sell. They got two the month I got one.

@Doctor_BK portal naps rock 🍼

@Max_the_German do you have your PS5 hardwired into your router? Also you have to force the PS5 to default to LAN else it still uses WiFi even when LAN plugged in

@Luigia Of course

Anyone having issues with using the touchscreen for the touchpad button? The overlay lights up but takes several taps for it to recognize the button press. I would say the touchscreen is broken on mine, but it works very well for when I'm in the Portal's menu.

Still can't find one to buy. It sells out constantly

Had one sold it, the stuttering got beyond a joke. Shame as its a nice piece of kit. Bought myself Steam deck instead, absolutely loving it.

@koverby it’s the device I never knew I needed until I saw what people were using them for with their babies haha

@Luigia the best!

@koverby I'm actually a big ol' soft serve family man. I work at a shelter and have seven kids and a wife, lol.

@Doctor_BK I think people are convincing me. I prefer portables big time anyway.

@LikelySatan I’d recommend it. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

@Doctor_BK i just remembered the thing was that I couldn't use my new $200 headphones on it. It's like when I went to buy a Vita again having totally forgotten about the memory card prices
Or am I thinking of VR2? I can't remember.

@LikelySatan idk but it works great with the new Pulse Elite headset or my wired Sennheiser’s

@Doctor_BK okay so long as it has an aux. Ty.

@LikelySatan ya

I thought it worked great before but Nice with improvements! Only issue I’ve had was on a trip and connecting using 4g on my iphone, that caused some lag and low res image at times but at home or on a 5g phone it works super 🤓

@Doctor_BK I have pair of Sony XM5's and works great with those too.

I was pleasantly surprised by the portal...hey, it's not essential but it's a nice gadget to have right?! 👍

Considering that most folks are using this thing at home - and it is being sold to the market - it's goofy AF that the internet even factors into the connection when being used that way. The same goes for when I remote to my PS5 from my PS4 just a couple of rooms away.

It's entirely possible to stream games via LAN only, no internet needed. There are third party apps that do this for Playstation, so the hardware can already do it. Other systems like Steam has been doing this for years. In all cases, the quality difference is no comparison to when over the internet - sending a signal that far and then drawing it back down is utterly pointless.

Maybe the new update to the Portal shifted things to LAN or something similar? If so, that would be a great step.

I’ll attest to this. FF7 Rebirth is now running flawlessly although it seems like a crime playing this game without HDR. I read an article a few months back about the internal download/upload speed being capped. Meaning it didn’t matter how good the internet connection was. I’m not sure how true it was 🤷‍♂️ but this seems to add credence to it.