Ласкаво просимо на PS4

Хочете дізнатися, з чого почати роботу з новою
PS4 або PS4 Pro? Ви зможете почати грати вже зовсім скоро.

Налаштування

Дізнайтеся, що в комплекті, як налаштувати PS4 і підключитися до мережі.

Розпаковування PS4

Крім вашої консолі і бездротового контролера DUALSHOCK 4 вам знадобиться ще дещо, щоб почати:

  • Кабель HDMI: ідключіть PS4 до телевізора за допомогою кабелю HDMI , щоб відтворити зображення і звук в чудовій високій якості – а якщо у вас є сучасний телевізор і PS4 Pro, то ви зможете насолодитися приголомшливим зображенням в 4K і з ефектом HDR.
  • Кабель живлення: тут все зрозуміло – без електрики ваша PS4 не увімкнеться.
  • Кабель USB для зарядки: бездротовий контролер DUALSHOCK 4 працює дистанційно, але як тільки його акумулятор розрядиться, вам знадобиться цей кабель.
  • Навушники з мікрофоном: спілкуйтеся з друзями, обговорюйте вашу тактику під час мережевих матчів і слухайте звуки гри – гарнітура PS4, що входить в комплект поставки, дозволить вам робити все це, а також багато іншого.

Підключення до мережі

PS4 можна підключити до вашої домашньої мережі Wi-Fi або – для більш стабільного з’єднання і більшої швидкості завантаження – безпосередньо до модему за допомогою кабелю Ethernet. Для цього перейдіть в «Налаштування» > «Мережа» в меню вашої PS4.

Як тільки підключення буде завершено, ви зможете почати грати по мережі, переглядати відеоролики, спілкуватися в соціальних мережах і багато іншого.

Створення облікового запису

Створіть безкоштовні облікові записи PlayStation Network для всіх користувачів, щоб у кожного з них був унікальний мережевий ідентифікатор, який з’єднує їх з миром PlayStation.

Приєднатися до PSN

Ідентифікатор PSN – це ваш ключ до мережевого світу; створіть унікальний користувальницький профіль, завантажуйте ігри і фільми і спілкуйтеся з друзями.

Параметри облікових записів сім’ї

Створіть облікові записи для кожного члена сім’ї і вкажіть, у що вони можуть грати, а також що вони можуть дивитися і робити в мережі.

Спілкуйтеся з друзями

Після того, як здійснили налаштування, ви зможете почати спілкуватися і грати з друзями, а також стежити за їх досягненнями завдяки стрічці новин «Що нового?».

PlayStation Network (або PSN) – це ціла мережева екосистема PlayStation. Після створення свого ідентифікатора PSN ви зможете почати роботу з усіма нашими мережевими сервісами, наприклад, грати по мережі завдяки PlayStation Plus, завантажувати ігри та фільми в PlayStation Store, користуватися відеосервісами для перегляду телепередач і фільмів і використовувати інші мережеві функції PS4.

Все готове до гри

Ви закінчили налаштування, тепер час грати.

Диски Blu-ray

Зберіть свою колекцію фізичних видань ігор для PS4 на дисках Blu-ray, купуючи їх в магазинах вашого міста або по мережі –саме для них і призначений дисковод на передній панелі вашої PS4.

Цифрові завантаження

Найновіші ігри для PS4 стають доступні для завантаження в PlayStation Store відразу ж після виходу – також там ви зможете знайти безкоштовні гри і демоверсії, за які вам абсолютно не доведеться платити.

PlayStation Store

PlayStation Store – наш інтернет-магазин, де ви зможете знайти будь-яку гру, випущену на PS4, відразу після її виходу, а також завантажити демоверсії ігор і доповнення, оформити передзамовлення і багато іншого. А завдяки регулярним розпродажам і пропозиціям з цифрових версій ігор ви зможете зібрати свою колекцію ігор, і для цього вам не доведеться довго збирати гроші (або спустошувати гаманець PSN).

Ви можете перейти в PlayStation Store просто з початкового екрану PS4, на ПК або на смартфоні за допомогою додатку PlayStation App.

Sony PlayStation 4 Pro review: Should you buy a PS4 Pro? It’s complicated

The PlayStation 4 Pro promises enhanced 4K visuals for certain games. But at launch, it’s a tough sell.

Jeff is CNET Editor at Large and a host for CNET video. He’s regularly featured on CBS and CBSN. He founded the site’s longest-running podcast, The 404 Show, which ran for 10 years. He’s currently featured on Giant Bomb’s Giant Beastcast podcast and has an unhealthy obsession with ice hockey and pinball.

Closing in on 50 million units sold, it’s safe to say Sony’s PlayStation 4 has been a huge success, significantly outpacing its closest competition, Microsoft’s Xbox One .

Sony PlayStation 4 Pro

The Good

The PS4 Pro outputs a 4K- and HDR signal that’s compatible with high-end TVs, and promises better visuals and increased frame rates for certain games. The console includes a 1TB hard drive, and it works with all PS4 games, apps and accessories to date.

The Bad

Out of the gate, only a handful of titles offer dramatic improvements. In reality, most games that support Pro enhancements don’t offer a drastic difference in quality when comparing standard and Pro games side-by-side. Specific information on game improvements can be shoddy. The PS4 Pro does not play Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray discs.

The Bottom Line

The PlayStation 4 Pro only shows noticeable improvements in a limited number of the games we were able to test, but that could change with titles coming in the months and years ahead.

But just three years since its debut, Sony has released a hardware step-up model of the PS4, aptly called the PlayStation 4 Pro. As you can guess by the name, this isn’t the PlayStation 5. It’s fully compatible with all of the existing games, apps and nearly all the PS4 accessories currently on the market (or in your personal collection). The new model hit stores on November 10 for $399 in the US, £349 in the UK and AU$559 in Australia.

But the PS4 Pro promises to deliver better, smoother graphics than its predecessor. You’ll only get that graphical upgrade on games with a free downloadable software patch installed. The most noticeable improvements will also likely require TVs with support for 4K resolutions and HDR, the high contrast mode that can offer bright whites and more gradated blacks.

The PlayStation 4 Pro is being labeled as a step-up model, and is not a PlayStation 5.

For console gamers who have always looked with envy upon a $3,000-plus PC gaming rig with daisy-chained video cards running games at super-high resolutions, it’s certainly a compelling upsell. But — spoiler alert — the PS4 Pro didn’t leave my jaw dropped. In fact, I often struggled to see any discernible difference between the same games on a Pro and a regular PS4 when played side by side on nearly identical 4K TVs. Out of the gate there only a limited number of titles that are noticeably improved.

So what, exactly, does that mean in terms of a buying recommendation? The short answer is this:

  • If you already have a PlayStation 4, there’s little reason — so far — to upgrade to the Pro. But.
  • If you’re buying a PlayStation 4 for the first time, the Pro is a solid investment, if only for its larger 1TB hard drive and some promising new Pro-enhanced games coming in 2017 and beyond. But.
  • If you’re looking to take the PS4 plunge for the first time and you don’t have a 4K/HDR TV now — and have no plans to buy one in the near future — save some money and get the PS4 Slim, which also includes at least one game.
  • There are plenty of PS4 holiday shopping deals for the Slim and the Pro, making this the best time to buy either model. The same goes for the Xbox One S, which now competes with the PS4 better than ever before. (Check out related Xbox One holiday shopping deals.)

Update, November 21, 2016: Added more impressions of PS4 Pro games and ratings, and acknowledgment that some games have been found to run worse in their enhanced Pro versions.

There just aren’t enough games that take advantage of the PS4 Pro’s specs, yet.

What’s new and different about the PS4 Pro

The PlayStation 4 Pro is essentially a PS4 with better hardware inside that’s designed to improve the performance and visuals beyond what’s currently possible on a standard PS4. Not every PS4 game can take advantage of the Pro, but it will play any PS4 game you throw at it.

A regular PS4 game will need a downloadable patch to support the PS4 Pro’s upgrades, but it’s still unclear what exactly each patch will provide. For any given title, a Pro update will bring some or all of the following enhancements: better frame rates, higher output resolution, better textures and HDR support. That latter feature, however, is also available on the non-Pro PS4 consoles following a September software update. Judging from the updates we’ve seen so far, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason in regard to which games get what.

Only a small number of games with Pro patches were live for us before review time, but Sony promises that 30-plus games will have Pro patches at launch, totaling 45 by the end of 2016. Starting next year with games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone and Mass Effect Andromeda, you’ll start to see a “PS4 Pro Enhanced” badge on the box art of games that have Pro support already built in. Sony says that almost every game released on PS4 from here on out can have Pro perks.

This badge will help label games that are enhanced for the PS4 Pro.

Physically, the PS4 Pro looks like a beefier PS4 Slim. Its footprint is a bit larger but it’s not much bulkier than the original 2013 PS4. It casts a thin, horizontal LED light (blue, orange and white) from the front of the unit when in different modes of operation.

Thankfully, the Pro brings back the optical audio port that the Slim omitted while adding an extra USB port around back. Like the Slim, the Pro also supports the fastest Wi-Fi protocols (802.11ac), and it also has dual-band support (it can use both a 2.4GHz or 5GHz signal).

Sony has confirmed that the console makes use of the SATA-III specification too, which theoretically means you could install a solid-state drive to take advantage of quicker read times. (Although all PS4s support user-upgradeable storage with standard 2.5-inch drives.)

We’re testing that out separately and will report on what we find. Either way, it’s good to know anyone can still swap out the stock drive for a new one.

The PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro side by side.

Other exclusive features

The PS4 Pro will launch with Netflix support at 4K resolution in addition to a YouTube app with 4K and HDR compatibility. More apps will open up support for 4K and HDR features as the platform matures.

Also exclusive to the PS4 Pro is improved bandwidth for the Remote Play and Share Play options, which let you stream gameplay over the internet. Both modes will be able to share, stream and play at 1080p, which is a bump up from the standard PS4’s 720p cap.

Of course I need to bring up the most glaring of missing features: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray playback. For whatever reason, the PS4 Pro cannot play these discs (unlike the Xbox One S ). Standard Blu-rays will be upscaled to fit 4K screens, however.

The technical gap

One of the big frustrations of my initial experience with PS4 Pro-compatible games was trying to manage my expectations. That’s because Sony’s labelling of which games support which video upgrade is vague at best.

By looking at a title’s version history from the PS4 menu, you can get a tiny bit of insight as to what’s been added. For instance, The Last of Us: Remastered says the latest version offers “PS4 Pro Support,” but Shadow of Mordor simply states “4K Support.”

There’s an inconsistency here that’s tough to follow, not to mention I don’t know if 4K really means what you might think it means. On Sony’s PS4 Pro site, a disclaimer reads that the console offers “dynamic 4K” which means, as it explains with a footnote, “Dynamic 4K gaming outputted by graphic rendering or upscaled to 4K resolution.”

I’m not sure that means native 4K (3,840×2,160-pixel resolution), which is four times what you can get from a “standard” HDTV’s 1,920×1080 resolution. Considering that PCs with much more impressive hardware than the PS4 Pro can struggle to even reach native 4K at 30 frames per second (the absolute minimum required for smooth gameplay or video), it may seem hard to believe the PS4 Pro can output such a technically demanding video signal without some serious compromises. Well, it doesn’t.

Indeed, the Pro uses some common tricks of the trade , including anti-aliasing, checkerboard rendering and geometry rendering. Effectively, that means that the games have horizontal resolutions such as 1728p, 1800p or 1952p. Then the games upscale to 2160p as needed, all the while balancing graphical sharpness with the all-important frame rate. (Indeed, this same upscaling technique is also widely used in the last generation of game consoles, too.)

Real-world comparisons

At some point you just need to tune out all of the resolution data and flashy jargon. Just concentrate on what you can see in front of your eyes.

None of the junk I rambled about above even matters if you can’t see the difference for yourself, so I set up two nearly identical LG OLED 4K TVs side by side and attempted to discern a noticeable difference in performance and visual quality between an original PlayStation 4 and PS4 Pro.

Close-up to the front of the PS4 Pro.

For the most part, it’s very difficult to suss out a considerable difference in the picture quality and performance of the games we tested. Even with the help of our TV expert David Katzmaier (who literally does this kind of thing everyday), there was not necessarily an obvious disparity when looking at the screens side by side.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what we noticed:

The Last of Us Remastered

  • Extremely subtle improvement in image quality with PS4 Pro, but no noticeable frame rate or performance increase
  • HDR provided noticeably brighter highlights

Shadow of Mordor

  • Better frame rate and slightly improved visuals on PS4 Pro
  • No HDR support

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Infamous: First Light

  • HDR support not very noticeable (on both PS4 and PS4 Pro)
  • Pro update provides a better frame rate/higher resolution toggle in options menu

Battlezone (PSVR)

  • Slight improvement in frame rate and visual fidelity, and text was easier to read in the Pro version

VR Worlds (PSVR)

  • Menu room looks crisper
  • Tough to notice differences in each of the mini games

Rise of Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration

  • Noticeable uptick in textures, overall sharpness and performance
  • Adds option for 4K resolution, better frame rate or richer visuals — up to you to choose. We preferred the 4K setting

Infamous: First Light and Rise of the Tomb Raider were the only games we tested that offered the option to choose between enhancements in the options screen. I’m told that is something other games will do, but it’s at the developer’s discretion.

By far, the most dramatic difference I’ve seen so far is in Rise of the Tomb Raider. There was an impressive amount of detail, crispness and overall performance improvement in the Pro version of the game. I’m also happy with the results I’ve seen in Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

But while Pro-enabled games are expected to perform better overall, there have been a number of reports where Pro games actually performed worse, in the case of The Last of Us Remastered and Watch Dogs 2.

Aside from the updated hardware under the hood, there’s no difference in the console’s menu performance, nor were there noticeable improvements in load time when I started games simultaneously side-by-side.

If you’re looking for a dramatic visual difference, that will likely come in the form of HDR. Games that make good use of the technology can really appear to pop.

Sony says that customers with 1080p HDTVs will also be able to benefit from a PS4 Pro, but just like the negligible results we found in comparing two 4K TVs, David and I didn’t notice much of a difference using a 1080p TV either.

It’s definitely worth noting though that a game could have a separate graphics profile when a Pro is forced to output 1080p. This leaves the door open for a scenario where a PS4 Pro game could appear to have a more drastic increase in quality on a 1080p screen as opposed to a 4K one.

I didn’t see a huge improvement in PlayStation VR performance, but could discern some better text clarity and an occasionally crisper image in the limited number of games we tested. I expect PSVR games released down the road to better benefit from the Pro’s horsepower.

Judging from the small sample size of games that have been retrofitted to support Pro enhancements, I’m still hopeful that games developed with the PS4 Pro in mind may have more dramatic improvements. Of course I’m just speculating here, but I’m anxious to see the smattering of 2017 games that will have PS4 Pro specs introduced during their production.

The three PlayStation 4 systems: (L-R) The Pro, the 2016 Slim model and the original.

Should you buy a PS4 Pro?

From what I can tell at this stage, only a very limited number of people should even consider buying a PS4 Pro. If you already own a PS4, the recommendation is even harder to make.

If you own or plan to own a 4K HDR TV and don’t yet own a PS4, the $100 on top of the standard PS4’s US price is an easier pill to swallow.

You can obsess over resolution specs all you want, but the fact remains that I did not see a real world difference in the majority of titles I tested. Of course, my sampling was only a slice of the games that will offer Pro enhancements out of the gate, so it’s entirely possible that more noticeable improvements will appear down the road, especially with games that have been developed with the PS4 Pro in mind from the start.

Indeed, CNET’s Sean Hollister was wowed by games such as Days Gone and Horizon Zero Dawn at a closed-door PS4 Pro demo a few weeks ago. But both of those titles were apparently developed with the Pro in mind, and neither will arrive before 2017.

Days Gone is enhanced by the PlayStation 4 Pro’s higher specs.

It’s worth reinforcing that PS4 Pro games will not receive any kind of advantage other than cosmetic ones. You won’t see a special mode of a game in the Pro version that isn’t in the standard one. But you’ll also be able to play online and communicate with any of your friends running the same game on an “old” PS4.

Will we see a PS4 Pro “killer app” in that first wave of compatible titles coming in the next two months? Or will that have to wait for a 2017 game? I don’t know. But as soon as I do see a dramatic difference in a head-to-head test, I’ll update this review accordingly.

In the meantime, there’s no reason to run out and buy a PS4 Pro if you already have an older model. And remember that Microsoft has its own amped-up Xbox console, codenamed Project Scorpio , on deck to arrive in late 2017.

But if you’ve yet to purchase a PS4 and you’re in the market for one, this is definitely the version to get.