Playstation 4 PRO Update Adds 4K Video Playback

Sony's latest update for the Playstation 4 Pro console that was released last year, includes the option of 4K video playback among other things. Earlier major updates to the console included seeing an increase in performance thanks to "boost mode." For some time now, there are a lot of ongoing debates about whether the new 'Pro' variant was worth the cost due to the fact that, it only upscaled the content to a higher resolution than native playback.

Sony also let players customize their menu backgrounds,  installing games directly from USB3.0 drives, expanding internal storage to a more higher capacity etc. In the recent update, however, a system update will play back content on a 4K resolution as reported by TIME. While all users will be able to play videos through MP4 format whether, via streaming service or a USB stick, the Playstation 4 Pro will not be supporting physical 4K Blu-ray content.

Going into the details, the report revealed about such a feature already existing on their competitor, Xbox One S' devices that support 4K Blu-ray playback, but that said, the Playstation 4 Pro will now be able to play VR content at the said resolution provided users have a PS VR headset. Meanwhile, details from TechCrunch stated that the following update to the media player should now play content at a resolution of 4K. However, the same will be downsampled to 1080p due to Playstation VR's native resolution.

According to Sony, however, they believe that the following procedure would still be clearly better in comparison to standard HD VR content. The Playstation 4 Pro already supports 4K streaming for Netflix, Hulu and YouTube. Previous updates to the console included the Notifications app condensing to a single simplified list, making it easier to see all of your notifications all at-a-glance.