Playstation 5: Thread 01

[BearBoy]

I bought the officially licensed PDP remote for PS4, the official Xbox One remote AND the officially licensed PDP Xbox One remote this generation. All of them were, without exception, terrible, for various reasons.

What was wrong with the PS4 remote you bought? I too much prefer a remote to a pad when using media apps and was somewhat halfheartedly looking for one the other day and came across two PDP ones:



and

[Cassius_Smoke]

I had the official PS2 remote which was a bag of balls. I think the main issue with all these remotes is that they a just after thoughts. They've never really put any effort into making them.

[wakka]

What was wrong with the PS4 remote you bought? I too much prefer a remote to a pad when using media apps and was somewhat halfheartedly looking for one the other day and came across two PDP ones:



and

The one I own is the first one. To be honest, it does the job, but has a few niggles.

It uses Bluetooth - not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it takes a long time to connect compared to the official PS3 remote, and disconnects again quite quickly. It also doesn’t have particularly deep integration with the system - not all media apps work correctly with it, and almost all lack compatibility with its dedicated play/pause/stop/etc buttons. The buttons also don’t feel that great to use, and the overall construction is fairly cheap.

On the other hand, it’s inexpensive and it does work. It also can be setup to control the volume on your amp, which was an absolute lifesaver for me when I no longer had the remote for my old amp (it got lost in a house move). A bit of a curate’s egg at the end of the day - I think more than anything it annoyed me that it felt like a step back from the excellent PS3 remote.

I’ve not tried the second one you’ve posted, although I see it’s also a PDP joint, so I would think it will be fairly similar.

[BearBoy]

Thanks Wakka. It sounds like it might be fairly frustrating tbh and a lot of the reviews on Amazon are fairly scathing (plenty seem to rate it too, mind). I don't actually need one atm but was thinking of having a reshuffle of my kit which might mean I was using the PS4 more for streaming video, hence was looking around.

[randombs]

My PS4 remote is by Hori and I think it’s the same as a Western PDP model I’ve seen.

I’ve dropped it loads so the buttons need stronger pushes. It connects quickly over Bluetooth but the IR range(angle for recognition) was rubbish until I removed the IR cover when cleaning the remote. The range is much better without the cover.

It sometimes makes the PS4 ejects the disc when I press ffwd.

Media apps have so far been decent, but a recent Hulu update broke remote support so only the controller buttons work(circle, X, etc). No response from the media playback buttons.

[wakka]

Yeah @randombs, I now use my Xbox for media stuff due to my PS4’s noisiness - I own an equally underwhelming PDP effort for that which has now given up the ghost entirely - so I don’t use the PS4 remote much any more. But I do recall having similar issues with one button also triggering another, e.g. eject, plus having to use the symbol buttons for some apps.

It’s a tough one to recommend to be honest [MENTION=288]BearBoy[/MENTION]. If it’s in budget, maybe look at something by Logitech Harmony with Bluetooth compatibility? @QualityChimp I know is a fan.

[Digfox]

*cough*....HDMI-CEC. I can use any of my Samsung TV remotes with the PS4. Might save some money or be more useful if you only want to use the one remote.

[wakka]

*cough*....HDMI-CEC. I can use any of my Samsung TV remotes with the PS4.

I did end up using this in the end! It didn't work at first, I think a later software update added support for Panasonic TVs, by which point I already owned the PDP.

It was still far from a perfect solution though. At least on my TV, it was quite limited. Only the d-pad bit of the remote and the 'Select' button in the middle worked, and to quit out of apps I would need the pad so that I could use the PS button.

I imagine the depth of support varies between TV brands though

[Digfox]

[MENTION=5490]wakka[/MENTION] Yea woops, I just realised there are potentially some buttons it doesn't possibly replicate and does vary by manufacturer.

It seems to work well with Samsung and uses the arrows/select, media controls for play, ff etc. You can power up the PS4 from the remote and the power button also puts the PS4 into rest mode by default so you have to select the 'Power' option on the PS4 to power down fully. Also my 'Smart Remote' on my phone also works really well too in the same way (haven't tried the Samsung Smart TV app).

HDMI-CEC only seems to work with my PS4 or Raspberry Pi and just wanted to shout out for it as it may be enough for some.

[wakka]

@wakka Yea woops, I just realised there are potentially some buttons it doesn't possibly replicate and does vary by manufacturer.

It seems to work well with Samsung and uses the arrows/select, media controls for play, ff etc. You can power up the PS4 from the remote and the power button also puts the PS4 into rest mode by default so you have to select the 'Power' option on the PS4 to power down fully. Also my 'Smart Remote' on my phone also works really well too in the same way (haven't tried the Samsung Smart TV app).

HDMI-CEC only seems to work with my PS4 or Raspberry Pi and just wanted to shout out for it as it may be enough for some.

Definitely - plus, if it works, it’s free! And as a bonus, because it routes via your TV’s IR, no messing with Bluetooth connecting/disconnecting.

Sounds like it works very well with Samsung remotes.

[Lebowski]

It's horses for courses but I don't like using pads for a few reasons:

- Their battery lives are short. They turn off quickly when not in use (you can disable this but you'll just run the battery flat really fast).
- Once they're off you need to switch them on again before you can do anything. Which takes time and is annoying when you just want to pause a film.
- You need two hands to operate them which is overkill.
- The PS4 pad has a ****ing massive LIGHT on it which needs a cushion put against it or something in a dark room.
- It's too easy to trigger FF/RW when you set them down due to the triggers (more of a PS4 thing again).
- They lack dedicated keys for bringing up playback information. You usually need to navigate into a menu system for anything more than play/pause/FF/RW.

Honestly it's all the definition of first world problems, I know. But those are my hangups. I like a nice remote personally.

I think I'm just going to get a dedicated Blu-Ray player though, which will solve my problems in this regard.

If you hold down the PS button on the ps4 pad for ten seconds it turns off the pad off!!!

its great for watching films as before i knew this the amount of times i knocked the pad and set the film to fast forward or skip scene was to dam high.

[wakka]

I actually did know that, but not until relatively recently! Def a good tip.

[fishbowlhead]

If you hold down the PS button on the ps4 pad for ten seconds it turns off the pad off!!!

its great for watching films as before i knew this the amount of times i knocked the pad and set the film to fast forward or skip scene was to dam high.

What, the, actual! why isn't this everywhere so the world knows?

[wakka]

If you hold down the power button on the system for ten seconds it fully powers it down, too. Instead of going into rest mode.

[MartyG]

Bloomberg have an article claiming that the PS5 price is likely to be between $500-550 with limited supply on units in the first year, given parts costs and availability.

I'd image the Xbox Series X being at a similar price point.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-in-first-year - they paywall, but you should be good if you haven't been reading articles on the site recently.


picture to url

(Must. Resist. Gah, it's probably too cheap).

Dammit.