The Xbox One And PS4 Don't Need To Make 4K A Priority

Forbes writes:"Yesterday, I read a great piece from our own John Archer about how Netflix is making bold predictions about the future of 4K, namely that they expect both Microsoft ’s Xbox One and Sony ’s PS4 to support the format within the year."

[Neonridr]

How about they focus on 1080p/60fps first..

[JoGam]

I hope they bring 4k for movies.

[Neonridr]

yeah, I was only kidding. It would be nice for sure, as more and more people are jumping on the 4K train.

[Army_of_Darkness]

I'm still more than okay with 1080p/60fps. the games still look fantastic! like metro redux for example, just got that game on ps4 and it look gorgeous and plays awesome at 1080p/60fps!

As long as we can play 4K movies, I'll be good :-)

[brads4]

These consoles are not powerful enough for 4k.

[reallyNow]

how does 4k look streamed though? I have a really good internet connection and 1080p looks bad compared to 1080p from a bluray. i mean, straight cable signal cant even make good looking 1080. (at least anywhere ive lived) I have a REALLY hard time believing netflx is capable of delivering actual 4k resolution + high quality audio.

[UltraNova]

@^^^ Dont ever compare 1080p streams or even downloads to blu-ray. The disc based uncompressed code is leaps and bound ahead.

OT even if they manage to enable 4k with a firmware update the HDMI version found on the ps4 and xb1 cant handle it. Even then nearly no one y has a 4K screen yet to begin with so there you have it... lets save 4k for 2020 shall we?

[MasterCornholio]

As long as the frame rate is solid I'm OK with 1080P.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

4k for Netflix would be amazing.

Buuuut my TV is no where near 4k.

1080p is just now become a standard for most TV viewing

The consoles don't support such format.

Netflix is jumping a 3 to 4 year gun with that expectation.

4k test here: http://youtu.be/0vrdgDdPApQ

lol I'm struggling super hard to run ultra HD I don't wanna watch netflix frame by frame.

[JoGam]

I think they should bring movies though. 4k tvs are a lot cheaper now. Just seen one for $999 Samsung

[Braid]

If only they could see how any method of AA isn't even required that much at 4K resolution. Any game looks like a movie without those terrible looking jaggies and trust me when I say that it makes a HUGE deal of difference combined with crystal clear image quality on games. When you go 4K you'll never ever want to go back to 1080p. It instantly looks like 720p when you switch back to 1080p from 4K. Try it at home with your GPU using DSR just to see how it is, you don't necessarily have to own an expensive 4K TV set, any monitor or TV could work as long as you own a GPU that supports DSR (AMD cards support that as well with Omega drivers).

[generalthadeape]

Fucking aye Neonridr, fucking aye!!!

[RjK311jR]

Funny there own Magazine cleared that up! Gamers know that though! But in theory if these consoles have the streaming ability such as netflix and amazon then they can. So if a 4K game were streamed via a streaming service like say, Playstation Now could that work? AHH didn't think that far or did ya? LoL! Seriously, in that circumstance what would stop 4k gaming if its being processed somewhere else? For example even if xbox doesn't use azure cloud for a streaming service like PSNow, couldnt they stream their games too? Its just they can't physically render that themselves?

[MitchellK]

It would be really expensive to do that anytime soon imo. They need machines on the other end running the games at 4k which would be quite expensive and i believe just to stream 4k on Netflix uses about 5gb an hour of bandwidth so it would be really unusable for people with data limits on their internet. It wouldn't be worth the investment, at least not in the next few years. It just doesn't make sense to invest in machines capable of running games in 4k to be streamed when hardly any of the customer base would have the internet to do it.

[RjK311jR]

Thanks, appreciate the response. Totally understand but with TV costs dropping companies invest in these things for the future. But totally understand and agree with you i was just throwing that out there. It seems this whole net neutrality thing looming is really holding things up! But thats good because it gives time for Google and ATT Uverse (gigabit) services to keep building and growing so by the time anything happens we won't rely on the scummy isp's such as comcast and fios. At least Fios has never capped theres! Comcast has tested markets yet denies doing so, they do it all the time, in fact, if you go over 300 or 500 GB things may slow down, if so, call them cause it is not supposed to do that! At least thats what i thought.

[TheCommentator]

Microsoft has 300,000 servers running already. That's more power than every electronic device in operation in 1999. That's more than enough power to support 4k via the cloud (If you have the bandwith)and MS confirmed native 4k support for everything the system can do. Sony said PS4 doesn't support 4k for games, but I'm sure they could patch that in later.

[RealisticGamer]

@TheCommentator

So the 300,000 servers microsoft has are powerful enough to fully render a modern game in 4k at 30fps minimum and then allow millions of gamers to stream the game at full 4k at the native framerate as well? Seems very unlikely.

[MitchellK]

@TheCommentator. Maybe your right, but what are they going to use to run the games that need to be streamed? It takes a lot of power to render a game at that resolution with the graphics we have today and then the system would also have to have the processing power to stream it while running it, maybe i'm just not well informed on the subject but i feel like that doesn't work. Whats the game running on? The servers alone?

[TheCommentator]

We all know neither console will run native 4k.

MS only launched xbox one with 300,000 servers; factor in things like 4k adoption rates and internet bandwidth limitations at the moment and ultimately you will not have "millions of people" playing for several years at best. My point is that MS is already prepared for the transition to 4k in every way. They can add servers as necessary when the time comes.

[lemoncake]

Maybe at end of this gen these consoles will be transformed into game streaming machines using something like psnow to play the next gen of games alongside the more traditional next gen of console. I dont see any reason why in 8 years time that wont be a real possibility, you only have to look back at the last 8 years to see how far technology can advance in that time.

[Hoffmann]

Just give me Mortal Kombat X already.

[Eonjay]

Does anyone know what the adoption rate for 4k TVs are? Prices have fallen, but with 1080p sets hitting rock bottoms, it may be a minute before 4k becomes a standard. Also, I have an issue with cable companies shipping a lot of content in sub 1080p as is. So, where is the content to get the mass market to convert.

[Kingdomcome247]

If I had to guess I'd say in the 5% range. I bet the number whatever it is triples in the next 1-2 years with the prices beginning to decline.

[lemoncake]

I don't see any reason why the xbox and ps4 won't be able to do 4k movies as both have hdmi 1.4 and the hardware processing power would be more than enougth.

[MitchellK]

For movies, they will most likely release a software update, i don't see why they wouldn't. As you said, they are both capable of it.

[VJGenova]

My PC can't do Netflix or Amazon streaming at 4k because they block it. You need one of their approved devices as they're worried about video pirates. Assuming these consoles will have the same troubles.

Everyday, I find another reason why I'm glad I returned my 4k tv. The primary reason was that there was no way to hook my R9 295x2 to it as it only supports HDMI 1.4b and not HDMI 2.0. 4k for video games in the ps4 and xbone is physically impossible for that reason too. At least at anything beyond 30 FPS anyway ...

[DEEBO]

Get 1080p/60fps down for every game then come back and talk to gamers about 4k.

Movies go for it but some movies are not even hd yet,tv stations might be 1080p and that's just a few of them.

[mysteryraz11]

4k is to expensive

[tee_bag242]

Is that what your mom tell yous when you ask her for a PC?

[Greyfoxdbz]

Some games are barely hitting 1080p. how is this even a topic right now?

[RealisticGamer]

Since it's Netflix talking about it, i'm pretty sure this is in reference to streaming movies or playing blu-rays in 4k not games.

[coreyweb]

Of course they don't. 4k isn't gonna be mainstream for at LEAST 2 years.

[uth11]

I don't get this rush to 4K
It's not like we have been at 1080p all that long, and suddenly some people want to rush us to 4K, including buying all that equiptment to support it (the real motivation probably).

1080p looks great. I feel no need for 4K now

[aftershock]

The hardware is just not there for ps4 or xbox one to run games at 4k. PC is just now venturing into that pool and it takes a pretty hefty graphics card to run games at 4k with respectable frames.

[theFAYEsorceress]

my tv doesn't even support 4k and i'm not gonna be getting one anytime soon either~

[cruzngta]

They cant consistently hit 1080/60...forget about 4k that is just a pipedream people.

[extravalue]

at least read the summary. its right below the title lol

[crazychris4124]

4K gaming on the current consoles is never going to happen, they are having enough problems with just 1080p60fps. But we better see 4K 60 fps in the next generation. Im gonna guess we get them in 2020 at the earliest. Right now to get 4K 60 fps on PC you need to drop at least $2K on the computer alone, more likely going to spend $3K. 4K 60fps G Sync IPS monitor is another $750.

[headblackman]

ive got a 4k tv, so if they can somehow figure out how to give us 4k games, movies, or both, then im good with that. im ready for it :) but if not, then give us the best you've got without sacrificing game play and or frame rates.

[level 360]

Honestly 4K resolution came in too early I think.

[TheCommentator]

Seriously, just look it up already:

Larry Hyrb on polygon said Xbox One can support 4k for anything they want, including games.

Mark Cerny on ps4daily said the machine could not do 4k gaming.

I'd post links, but I can't copy/paste on my Xbox One.

[aftershock]

Larry Hyrb is an Xbox hype man. Nothing more...he doesn't know what he's talking about the Xbox one hardware is far to weak to run games at 4k. The ps4 can't either

[ThePresentIsAgift]

Alot of people have speculated (myself included) that the dropping value of 1080p driven panels is causing the manufacturers to seek the next big thing. I am very much of the opinion though that 1080p is still new in the broadest sense, yes maybe a PC CRT monitor could do 2000 x whatever way back when, but that was never mainstream. It is only now that 720p+ is the defacto, last gen consoles saw lots of sub HD content.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

What good will 4k resolution do on a TV with a maximum resolution of 1080p? I may get a 4k HDTV when the price of a 40 to 50 inch model is less than 500 bucks, until then, i'll stick with my 1080p 3D tv.