PlayStation 4 (codename Orbis) technical hardware investigation (news and rumours)
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Bagel seed
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The medium prevents the practice of completely slamming songs to the max when bring mixed Ie. Loudness Wars. So as a by product of this, vinyl versions can actually sound better..
Gradthrawn
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CD audio playback license? And how much is that supposed to be?
Rather cheap per unit I would assume. But, lets say its a $1.50 USD per unit license fee over the course of 15 million (PS4) units (~12 months of production) on top of whatever annual fee you have to pay to be a license holder in the relevant association. That would be USD 22m. Their annual profit for their last financial year was USD 435m. Which means USD 22m would be ~5% of their annual profit! Even a USD 50c per unit cost would be USD 7m over 15m units. (~2% of annual net) The numbers are speculation on my part, but I think you see my point. Its the same reason there's no DVD/BD playback license included in Windows 8 by default. With the type of volume we're talking about, small numbers add up quickly, especially to a profit starved company. If they're going to cut, I'd rather it be something like that. I suspect we won't see a very well trimmed PS4 as we did with the original PS3 (I miss those lost niceties with the Slim). Would be nice if they sold the license as a separate option though. People criticized for the original X Box for doing that, but I thought it was a good idea. Pay if you want to use it. If not, don't worry about it.
Gradthrawn
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Since they've had a (standard) hard drive. So, since this generation.
You have, however, always been able to play audio CDs on any Playstation console.
Good question. Not sure how the licensing would work in that situation.
I doubt we'll have anything more than 1.6GHz/800Mhz from either Sony or MS. Right now, 8GB GDDR5 and 1.8TF have been enough to spoil the xbox unveiling a bit, but that's only for specs geeks, and based on leaks about Durango. Sony would be wise to wait and see what MS unveils and THEN play their remaining cards. It was definitely risky to unveil first.I was hoping Sony might have thrown out some more juicy hardware info this week as a spoiler to the Xbox unveiling next week.
2Ghz CPU clock speed confirmed, would have been nice!!..
Anyway there's E3 already in 3 weeks, so if Sony has any more surprise, I think that's a better place for it.
CD players where introduced in 1982 (by Sony). All patents have expired. If Sony are still paying license fees they made some incredibly stupid deals back then (which I have no reason to believe they did).
Still is. Vinyl gets between 9 and 16 bits of resolution, depending on frequency. The higher the frequency, the better the resolution - This is also where the "warm" tone audiophiles love so much in Vinyl comes from, at low frequencies the noise floor is at -54dB (A whisper is around -60dB). On a CD, with a good dither, the noise floor is at -132dB across the frequency band. The 30 year old CD format still has more resolution than any vinyl ever made.To mp3, ironically enough.
okay, that's not true. SACD was for the high-end audiophile, and vinyl won there. But it's more dramatic to suggest that next-gen audio was the worst quality rather than the best.
As a person that collects vinyl, I will agree with this 100%. I buy records because I like the large artwork, the novelty coloured wax, the poster inserts and all of that. To me, it sounds good enough, but I'd never argue that it sounds better than a CD. There is just something enjoyable to me about flipping records. I've been at it for 15+ years, and I probably won't stop. CDs, SACD and DVD-A just feel disposable and worthless to me. I do really enjoy mp3s though. Music on my phone for at work and in the car is pretty much the best thing ever. Glad lots of vinyl records come with download codes now. Saves me the hassle of acquiring the mp3s from nefarious sources.
Gradthrawn
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Interesting, but the CDDA trademark is still owned and licensed by Phillips. Not sure what the licensing agreements are.
EDIT
Actually, I'm not sure what the licensing agreements are or if that would even effect playing back CDDA. Non Redbook compliant/licensed player?
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The bluray playback license (which they obviously have) cost $9 per player, and it automatically includes Bluray, DVD and CD.
I have no idea why they'd remove the ripping feature, unless it was pressure from the music industry, which still wouldn't make any sense, because they sell their MP3s unencrypted.
I have no idea why they'd remove the ripping feature, unless it was pressure from the music industry, which still wouldn't make any sense, because they sell their MP3s unencrypted.
Gradthrawn
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Well that just complicates things further. You have a link to the relevant BD licensing info?
Also, to clarify, what they've announced removing is audio playback. Ripping was not mentioned but is assumed.
Yes I was assuming they'd remove the CD ripping, I don't care about playback, but I still buy CDs. I put the CD in my PS3, rip it with all my default presets... then I copy to my cellphone. No computer involved. I will miss that.
I was talking from memory, it's from a few years ago... I can't find it on the bluray site but here's the "news" about the 2009 licensing changes.
http://betanews.com/2009/02/25/unified-blu-ray-licensing-is-remedy-to-bag-of-hurt/
The goal of that unified license was both to simplify and lower the total licensing fee, so it's strange they they would go back to the old way of licensing and go through every holder individually. Maybe they just didn't care about writing an interface for CD playback.
Gradthrawn
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Very interesting, thanks for the link.
Looking back at the Cerny Watch Impress interview I see I read too much into it. Could have sworn licensing was mentioned, but it wasn't (at least not in that interview). The easy solution might be to just tweet Yoshida and ask why CDDA support was dropped.
Perhaps after E3.Maybe they just didn't care about writing an interface for CD playback.
They could just about copy and past one!
EDIT
It just occurred to me that there could be no technical or financial reason behind this at all. Could just simply be corporate maneuvering to push some silly agenda or idea. I didn't even consider that until now since their approach with everything else about the PS4 has been logical or at least directly financially motivated. Perhaps a little bit of "Old Sony" is showing through?
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anexanhume
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