Sony makes Media Player available for the PlayStation 4

Sony has announced a media player application for the PlayStation 4 console. The so-called Media Player can stream media from network sources or from USB storage. Containers like mkv and avi are supported, but DTS audio playback is missing.

The PlayStation 3 has had a media player application for a long time, but it was still missing for the PS4. That will now change; Sony has announced that the Media Player application is available to download directly from the PlayStation Store.

By attaching a USB stick or hard disk to the console, video files, music files and photos can be viewed or listened to. DLNA servers are also supported, as well as video content compressed into mkv, mp4 and avi containers based on h264 or mpeg4 codecs. Dolby Digital is supported for audio playback, but the media player cannot handle DTS soundtracks. Sony also reports that playing music, where only mp3 and aac files can be opened, can also happen in the background.

The PlayStation 4 can already play DVDs and Blu-rays without the media player application. However, there is no support for CD audio.