PS4 Media Player – The PS4 can finally play your videos & music
Sony announced the release of the PS4 Media Player, a dedicated Media Player to play your offline files on the PS4. As you know I am a big movie fan, and I have personally been using other ways so far, mainly using Plex as a PS4 Media Server. But this is a welcome update to the PS4
PS4 Media Player – features
The PS4 Media Player lets you play a variety of video and music files, as well as display photos, from a connected usb storage or a network media server.
On the PS4, Music can be played in the background, meaning you can start playing music in the PS4 Media Player, hit the home button, and start playing the game while listening to the music. This is a feature that had been critically missing from the PS3 (even though it was available – through unofficial plugins – on the PSP!)
PS4 Media Player supports more file types than the PS3 application, which is great but was honestly not a difficult record to break. PS4 Media Player supports the following file types, according to the documentation:
Videos
- MKV
- Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
- Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
- AVI
- Visual: MPEG4 ASP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
- Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
- MP4
- Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
- Audio: AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
- MPEG-2 TS
- Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2, MPEG2 Visual
- Audio: MP2 (MPEG2 Audio Layer 2), AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
- AVCHD (.m2ts, .mts)
Photos
- JPEG (DCF 2.0/Exif 2.21 compliant)
- BMP
- PNG
PS4 Music
- MP3
- AAC (M4A)
PS4 Media Player – Installation & usage
The PS4 Media Player button should show up directly on your PS4 screen. If it doesn’t, search for “Media Player” in the PSN store. The download is pretty straightforward (just like any other app on the PS4).
Once installed, you will need to connect either a USB storage, or have a Media Server up and running on your network.
From the documentation:
- If you press the PS button while music is playing, you can start a game, the Internet Browser , or other applications while continuing to listen to the music in the background.
- While music is playing in the background, you can pause playback, adjust the volume, or change other settings on the screen that is displayed when you press and hold the PS button for at least 1 second.
- Background music is not included in video clips or broadcasts.
- Some languages are not supported in Media Player.
- For details on connection methods for media servers, refer to the instructions supplied with the device you use.
PS4 Media Player – Limitations
The PS4 Media Player only accepts FAT formatted usb drives. So long for my NTFS disk…
The official documentation lists the following limitations:
- Both FAT and exFAT formatted USB storage devices are supported.
- Be sure to fully insert the USB storage device into the USB port. In some cases, the device might not be compatible due to its shape or design.
- Depending on the state of the application or the system, playback might not be possible.
- It might not be possible to play some files due to their data type or file size.
- Some types of content distributed over the Internet and by other means have playback restrictions. For details, contact the content provider.
- Depending on the media server, you might not be able to play certain types of files or perform certain operations during playback.
Again, I do not expect the PS4 Media Player to be perfect, and I’ll probably stick to using the Plex PS4 Media Server for some time, but it would be interesting to test the Media Server support on the PS4 Media Player. Stay tuned for a full review. I would have done it today, but the usb limitations meant I had to copy my Movie folders to a FAT32 hard drive, so it kind of sidetracked me.
We’ve also updated our “Watch Movies on PS4” page with details on the PS4 Media Player. This is the ultimate guide for those of you who like to watch movies and TV shows on their favorite console.
I saw this app last night on my dash and I thought there was a fw update and that my ps4 updated itself well I’m glad they have this app now since I’ve been using my ps3 to stream movies from my phone to ps3.
MKV?? Finally Sony, now the PS4 is in heaven!
About Time!!!
I’m shocked there’s not someone screaming “FIIIRRRSTT!!!”
FIRSSSTSTSTSTSTSTSTSTSTSTSTS
Probably nitpicking, but: Did Sony maybe also include a way to read a normal audio CD? Or just copy an audio CD to internal or external HDD as MP3/ACC?
No they didn’t. Audio discs are still viewed as unsupported. Same goes for video discs in MP4 format. I usually back up my Anime onto discs to save space. They all play well on my PS3 but sadly they are unsupported on the PS4. Hopefully that will change with an update. But it’s unlikely. Sony is focusing most of their video & music content on streaming services. So don’t be surprised if the PS4 will not copy your music or movies.
Does music stay on ps4 after removing usb flash drive
Just as an FYI for people, this works perfectly with Plex. Already had Plex set up for other uses. Started up this app and it found my Plex media server instantly and steamed everything perfectly. Good job SONY!
I don’t recall hearing anything about this at e3. Kind of surprising. Oh well, glad to see it! Now gief me ps1/ps2 B/C!
Happy fathers day to me!!!! Finally!!!! Been waiting for this since day one, if you read my posts you already knew that.
PLEX!!! screw this media server app too little to late ye scervy bastards
anyone know if data discs will work like on the PS3??
Also unlike ps3 you have to have Internet connection to use media player. Really sucks. Where I live I can’t get Internet so I use my 30gb data plan off my phone when I play online but it doesn’t last long.
Noticed that when I start up my PS 4 and it’s offline it’s locked. Do I always have to be online for me to use it? Can I change the settings?
Hi, Good article. The PS4 media player works awesome with me using my external HDD (Though i had to convert it into ExFat) but One Question. How do I increase the volume of the Media Player. My speaker is full and even when I am using headphone the volume is very low in compared to the game audio. Any suggestion??
jUST press square button to get further volume options.. u can increase or decrease from there..
My media player is showing My real name instead of my online id when i leave a comment on live broadcast….dont happen with twitch just media player
Can i do it without connection?