PS4 4.00 Beta

[Jason]

I know you're not allowed to talk about the new features, but can you blink twice if external hard drives are supported in the beta?

[Jason]

I know you're not allowed to talk about the new features, but can you blink twice if external hard drives are supported in the beta?

Looks like I got my wish: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2017/02/03/ps4-system-software-update-4-50-features-detailed/

[Brad Company]

[Jason]

Just got the email... I'm in.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Brad Company]

2TB portable HDD heading my way.
Time to test Boost(Beast) mode on non-Pro enhanced games.

[Jason]

I can't believe Sony didn't mention Boost mode on their own blog when discussing the new features of the 4.50 update. Boost mode has the potential to make the PS4 a mandatory upgrade. You can argue that this feature should have been there from the beginning, but Sony didn't waste much time getting it implemented. It was also very smart of them to allow you to toggle it on or off in case some games don't work correctly with it.

[Brad Company]

Yeah, the Pro is now a no-brainer. I like how some comparison vids show "PS4 Pro vs. PS4 Amateur". 

[Jason]

Here's a list of games that have been improved with Boost mode: http://thisgengaming.com/2017/02/04/heres-a-list-of-ps4-games-that-have-been-tested-using-boost-mode-what-has-changed/

[Brad Company]

The BF4 improvements are notable. Time to re-install.
I'm also hopeful Project Cars will get some love.

[Jason]

Project Cars was mentioned in that article as running better with Boost mode:

Running much better. There’s still issues with the framerate when racing with wet tracks with a lot on the screen. Overall it’s noticeably improved compared to the non boosted version.

I wonder if The Show does too. I haven't seen anyone mention it yet.

[Brad Company]

The biggest boosts are to games with uncapped frame rates, apparently.
Rainbow 6 Siege is a noted example, going past 100fps in terrorist hunt mode.

Here's a better list;
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=229715679&postcount=46

[Brad Company]

Unbelievably easy to add an external. I got a 2TB the size of a deck of cards up and going in about 1 minute.
Gonna download the rest of my library, now.

[Jason]

You've got yourself an impressive little setup now.

[Brad Company]

That's what she said.

[Jason]

Be careful of this:

BUT there is a very annoying issue that I’ve come across. If you have an external drive connected and you have your PS4’s power saving settings configured to put your console into rest mode after a certain amount of inactivity, when you turn your PS4 back on from rest mode it acts like you’ve turned off your PS4 without safely disconnecting the drive and it has to repair.

This is very annoying as I have to remember to disconnect the drive safely every time I get ready to sleep and watch Netflix. I know it sounds like a minor issue but I don’t want to risk losing all of the games installed on the drive, nor do I want to sit through a lengthy repair process every time I turn my console back on.

It seems like an oversight on Sony’s part that rest mode doesn’t keep the HDD connected if you have your USB power set to on in rest mode.