What do you think folks, fear mongering or has Bradley gotten lucky?

Sony’s long-awaited and much-debated PS4 Pro console has finally made its way into stores (and seemingly an impressive number of homes). Unfortunately, though, it seems as if Sony might have to keep its champagne on ice, as gaming forums and social media are awash with people reporting that they can’t get their shiny new PS4 Pros to work properly.

I’m not talking here, either, about the already widely reported problem where the ‘breakout box’ you get with Sony’s PSVR system doesn’t support the High Dynamic Range (HDR) signals now output by both the original PS4 and the new PS4 Pro. No; the latest problem is that many PS4 Pro owners are finding themselves staring at blank screens rather than basking in the lovely 4K HDR pictures that are supposed to be the PS4 Pro’s key selling point.

The Sony PS4 Pro is capable of producing 4K HDR visuals. If you’re lucky. (Pic: Sony PlayStation)

The issue is being reported with an alarmingly wide range of different TV models from LG, Samsung, Sony, Philips and Vizio, as well as with multiple brands of AV receiver and sound bar. As if this wasn’t bad enough, many other PS4 Pro users are reporting that while they are getting an HDR picture, the PS4 Pro is incorrectly recognising their TV as being incapable of handling 4K in HDR and so limiting them to 2K HDR signals. Even with TVs that handle Ultra HD Blu-rays in 4K HDR with no problems.

To make matters worse, it seems that the compatibility issues aren’t consistent across different samples of the same TV model. For instance, one LG OLED65E6 will work seemingly fine with the PS4 Pro while another one won’t.

The problem was already so widespread by the end of Thursday November 10 – the PS4 Pro’s launch date – that it had garnered an official response on Sony’s EU PlayStation Forum. Online Support representative KingGobbo admitted the issue’s existence and suggested a convoluted temporary fix involving switching the console into its Safe mode and changing its digital rights management setting from HDCP 2.2 to 1.4.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2016/11/13/ps4-pro-suffering-widespread-tv-connection-failures-and-everyone-is-blaming-everybody-else/#52f5d59d3662

On the bright side this seems like something that could be fixed in a firmware update.

Whats the deal with Bradley?

@rethla: he passed on a PS4 Pro

I don't know why this was prefaced with something about Brad but yes the issues with this thing are fucking stupid especially as being someone who got one of these things (I had to do the safe boot hot fix to get an image on my 4KTV).

I'm not as mad as others would probably be because this thing won't ever be my primary place to play games but as a PC gamer I'm finding it hilarious to see consoles begin to slowly close the gap with PC in terms of complexity, troubleshooting issues, and pace of releasing new hardware.

If I were primarily a console gamer I would be livid about this bullshit because you don't get new somewhat stronger hardware to be bogged down with these kinds of issues, especially for a console which is supposed to streamline this stuff for those that don't want to fuss with PC's

There's never been a better time to be a gamer on message boards looking for solutions to their machine's problems.

@theanticitizen: Did he decide to cancel his preorder? I remember him tweeting he was thinking of cancelling but I didn't see him pull the trigger on it.

I'm pretty sure he did buy it. Unless he is returning it.

Quick someone call Steve Ballmer!

Man, that sucks. Hopefully they get it fixed soon.

Pretty sure Brad did buy one.

Brad broke his own rule.

roomates have a Pro hooked to 1080p tv currently and havent had issues. using the hdmi it came with. have only so far been playing mafia 3 on it though but it seems to run smoothly and sharper than it was on the ps4.

@rethla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha4W_gbG9F0

I'm pretty sure Brad got one.

@ripelivejam: The current issues are mainly exclusive to 4KTV sets. Setting the resolution to 1080p or safe booting into hdcp 1.4 are the only known fixes.

Reading about all these issues with the PS4 Pro makes me kind of glad, I mean it obviously sucks if you bought one, that I can't afford to buy a Pro right now anyway. I think I'm just going to stick with the regular PS4 for now. I'm still perfectly happy with it. I'm sure Sony will get all these issues solved eventually but it is kinda crazy that there are so many issues with the Pro as of right now.

I will wait till the Scorpio hits the market and then see which console I will buy. A Scorpio would make more sense for me since I have never owned an Xbox and it is capable of playing 4k movies. I still like to buy physical copies of movies, I know I'm in the minority in that regard, so I think Sony fucked up when they didn't include the ability to play UHD discs in the PS4.

If the PS4 Pro could play UHD discs I would seriously consider saving a little up and selling my old PS4. But as it is right now, I don't think there is enough value in the Pro for me to justify an upgrade.

I take it this is the hdcp issue still? Even though its build as an *upgrade* early adopters are still early adopters as if this is a brand new console. Hope all this gets fixed as it seems to be an issue with this hdcp stuff not beong universal.

The problems he speaks of of routing through a sound bar are just problems with his sound bar. Any TV would have this problem, and any 4K source.

If some of these LG TVs have a problem and others don't, perhaps it's in the TV? Just because it's the same model doesn't mean it's the same TV. It could have different internals or it could just be the TV's firmware requires an update.

I had two problems:

First is that on my TV (which is actually listed in the article) HDR is off by default. You must enable it for the input in question. The second problem I had is that one of my HDMI cables clearly isn't 4K capable. I just moved that cable over to another console (which doesn't do 4K) and put the new included Sony cable on my PS4. I did both of these things and I've been off and running.

After that it works fine, even though it switches modes when Uncharted 4 launches to turn on HDR mode.

There certainly are TVs which don't support all the modes out there. And if your amp/soundbar you are routing through doesn't support the mode in question, that'll break it too. And yeah, the HDMI switch in PSVR also doesn't support routing it.

The weird thing to me is that HDR seems to be the more demanded feature and problem generator. People seem to be just looking right past 4K and concentrating on HDR (HDR10)?

Ye, HDCP is a bit of a mess of versions and partial support (early 4K TVs didn't have the finalised spec to work from so had to patch it in, despite advertising they did have working support at their launch - some of these issues are resolved via firmware updates on affected TVs).

Very annoying. For gaming, it is definitely a good thing that the PS4 can now turn off DRM. Imagine this issue pre-1.70 firmware when you just had to live with HDCP always on.

Other way round. Many things that claimed to pass through or display any 4K signal can't actually deal with all 4K signals and people are pissed.

@rethla: Brada mentioned a few times that he likes to take a wait and see approach to new hardware. Buying a couple of weeks later mean any big issues are known.

We need the BENZ

I've had my Pro since launch and been using it frequently and I am not running into any of these issues people are reporting. No issue whatsoever with overheating or HDMI connection. I am happy with my purchase even if it means I lose 2 FPS in some games compared to the base model.