Good news: if you’ve been hoping for a way you could play your PS4 without leaving your PC or Mac, you can finally do that. Bad news: there’s a catch.
[credit provider=”Sony/PlayStation Blog”]
Remote play for the PC, and OSX versions 10.10 and 10.11, is included as part of the latest software update for the PS4. But the element that will annoy a fair amount of PC users is the lack of support for Windows 7.
Here’s the full list straight from the PlayStation blog:
Windows 8.1
Windows 10 or later
OS X 10.10
OS X 10.11
Resolution options: 360p, 540p, 720p (Default: 540p)
Frame rate : Standard (30fps), High (60fps) (Default: Standard)
You can use a standard DualShock 4 as the Remote Play controller, although Sony stresses that it has to be connected via a USB cable. Another point to note is that while you’ll be able to stream gameplay at 60fps, it’s limited to 720p maximum — not the kind of standard PC gamers expect.
Not supporting Windows 7 is a shame given many PC gamers still haven’t upgraded to Microsoft’s latest offerings. Valve’s most recent hardware survey shows that almost 40% of respondents are still using the older operating system, with Windows 10 only having overtaken Windows 7 in the last month.
It’s especially curious given that the unofficial Remote Play app for PC supported Windows 7. On top of that, there are plenty of gamers who refused to upgrade from Windows 7 partially because they couldn’t guarantee software or drivers would work with the newer OS — including the third-party drivers for the DS4.
But as more and more gamers upgrade to Windows 10 to take advantage of newer features including DirectX 12, the demand for Windows 7 support will decrease. But what about yourselves? Are you still running Windows 7? And will you be taking advantage of Remote Play on your PC or Mac any time soon?
Comments
62 responses to “PS4’s Remote Play Doesn’t Support Windows 7 Or 1080p”
Dammit -_- Has anyone used this? This might be the thing that makes me finally update.
It’s not out yet, later today or tomorrow.
I use remote play on the vita and the only thing thats missing is the ability to use the DS4!!!
I have used Xbone remote play with my Surface pro as well and that worked a treat – so to get to a point where i can use my fave gaming system in bed WITH a controller on a decent size screen like the surface(as opposed to the pissy little vita display) I’m pretty stoked!
Dont be scared of Win 10 either – I’ve found it really ncie
ofcourse you can use the DS4 on vita via remoteplay. Just have another user account on the ps4 that’s logged in to your vita.
I just tried it with bloodborne. seems to run fine but the graphics are a bit underwhelming but all in all it’s great to play on pc
I love Windows 7 I’m not a big fan of Windows 10 but I finally upgraded to 10 just for ps4 🙁 lmao it’s not so bad . But I do prefer Windows 7
The unofficial remote play app is merely a wrapper around the Android remote play apk, so it would run on almost anything the dev wants, the official app is likely native and better. Also note the PSTV and the unofficial app are subject to the same 720p 60fps limitation – likely a limitation on the PS4 side, as playstation products have notoriously bad network hardware.
So blame the PS4 instead of acting like this is a new limitation.
Yeah, I believe the PS4 has a dedicated chip for encoding H.264 video and the 720p limit is a limit on that hardware, so probably not a lot that can be done to change that until PS4k roles around.
Interesting, I assumed the limitation was due to the required network throughput. For high quality 1080p the Steam Link uses around 30mbps, which only works consistently if you have a lan setup, or near ideal 5ghz wifi. So my guess was they’d built in a few assumptions about network performance of the average user and decided 720p would get the best out-of-the-box experience. That coupled with the fact that at the time they made the PS4, the Vita was the only known remote play usecase, and the most it can handle is 544p.
Personally, I am pumped for this feature, I have always done most of my gaming on my Alienware laptop because it’s convenient to sit at the table when wifey wants to watch Jane the Gossip OC or whatever, sharing the TV for the PS4 was always a bit of a bummer for one of us, and moving it to another room isn’t the best solution as we like that we are in the same room each night, even if doing different things.
I assume that even though the DS4 HAS to be connected via USB, it will just be plug and play and won’t require any specific software for it?
60fps for the remote play is a good thing, 720p Max is a bit balls though, I’m interested to see how this actually looks on my Laptop screen.
I guess I’ll find out when I try it, but it would suit me more if you could select your PC as a monitor, rather than having to control it though that as well, much like the VITA can assume the controls, or just act like a screen. This would eliminate the need to have the DS4 plugged in as you would only have to be close enough to the PS4
There’s an easy way to see how it will look on your laptop screen…record some in-game footage on the PS4 and then just whack it on a USB stick and watch it back on your laptop. It’s all the same hardware and that’s why you can’t record gameplay while using remote play.
But if your laptop has a decent screen and over a 1080 resolution it will probably look a little shitty.
yeah i’ve uploaded a few recorded bits of footage off the PS4 and it’s fine, but not amazing, Youtube has undoubtedly also stolen it’s share of quality, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2Tl-FVrXlI is the video for anyone interested) But ultimately it’s definitely good enough quality to play on, however if it’s the only way you play, you will probably lose some of the prettier wow moments the PS4 has to offer (insert PC Master race slur regarding consoles terrible graphics)
Just an FYI to everyone, regarding driver compatiblity:
DS4 works perfectly on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, & 10 no issues at all. The only issue is that the drivers do not support XInput which is required for games that only support xbox360 controllers/xbox one controllers as they default to xinput.
for xinput, download InputMapper,
https://inputmapper.com/
just run it, plug controller, and program takes care of the rest… has a bucketload of features, supports hundreds of controllers, is lightweight (about 5mb).
put it this way, its a free program, and i was so impressed that I donated $15 instead of the necessary $2 to get the registered version that removes a tiny ad banner on the bottom of the app.
Lol – why you trying to sell something to use a Xbone controller with when we are talking about PS4 remote play?!
dont think you read the full article; i was addressing this specific part which is not in refference to the remote play app:
s
so yeah. also the tool is handy if you wont to use an xbone xontroller on the Remote Play app… it works both ways.
not selling anything here to anyone, just showing my appreciation for a guy that puts a lot of work into a free product, and thought he deserves a shout out.
you’ll be suprised at how many people have xinput issues with their DS4’s,
Fair enough – I did read that – How many people actually have had issues with DS4/xbox one controller?! Ive used both on my older laptop for a few shitty old games i had on there (judo is amazing with a controller lol) and ive found they work fine on my surface pro 4
Excuse my ignorance 😉
to be honest i thought the same; never had any problems myself… ive use my ds4 on w7,8,8,1 and 10
xinput compatibility problems ive heard of but never driver related…
Why the crying of rivers over 7. It’s an OS in extended support at this moment, which essentially means no new features and only security patches.
On top of that, Win 10 is free. No one stopping you from upgrading.
But paranoia is!
Exactly. People just like to bitch on the new OS … makes them feel legit 😉
Except most of my components are old enough that there’s no drivers for Windows 8, let alone Windows 10.
I’m waiting for the new AMD/Nvidia GPUs before I build a new machine.
Tried it yet? Funnily enough my wifes five year old i5 Dell laptop which has no windows 8 support runs 10 better than my two year old Lenovo i7 which was released with 8.
That’s fine, but you can’t complain about new software not supporting an old OS just because you don’t want to upgrade.
I can complain about whatever the hell I feel like thanks, whether it’s realistic or grounded in facts is a different matter.
I upgraded my alienware m11x r2 released in 2010 and it had no issues with windows 10. In fact, I had more trouble updating my gaming pc I built 2 years ago.
At the moment, I’m using a Gigabyte EX58-DS4 motherboard from 2008, and I’d rather not waste my time formatting and installing an OS that may or may not work, when Windows 7 Pro works perfecty right now.
Wow! You’re really getting some good mileage out of your pc!
That’s fine, as long as you don’t whine that things aren’t made for your platform when your two OS revisions behind
Because people dislike it when change is forced on them, especially if it can easily break things that they rely on. I held off upgrading my gaming rig from 8.1 to 10 for a long while because the process of doing the same for my laptop in the weeks after 10 released was a nightmare.
My favourite attempt was the one that failed to include the desktop icons, start menu and taskbar – I could log in and look at the wallpaper, because that’s the only UI it gave me, tho I could browse the filesystem (via Win+E) and run programs (via Win+R). Even now my laptop only “mostly” works – windows update doesn’t work at all, and I’ve learned to never boot with an external monitor attached because some issue (that I assume to be with the graphics drivers it selected) causes it to bluescreen randomly if I do that.Thankfully, 8 months seems to have given MS time to make their upgrade method more robust – upgraded my rig last month without any obvious issues. One day I’ll get round to doing another full reinstall on my laptop, now that 10’s install procedure seems a bit more stable, but the first 3-4 months didn’t exactly fill me with confidence in Win10.
No one’s forcing anyone to upgrade. However, you need to live with the consequences.
1\ Upgrade. Potential issues during upgrade process, but new features.
2\ Don’t upgrade. But don’t expect new features just because you won’t maintain your technology
It’s people who expect new features on a 8 year old operating system that annoy me.
They’re not forcing people per se, but they’re certainly making some very … contentious decisions regarding the future of their desktop interface.
Personally, I expect new features when the OS launches, and bugfixes and application support thereafter, so I don’t really understand why people get annoyed about not getting new features on an EOL OS… but at the same time, this not a windows feature, it’s a third party application that is eschewing the OS that still runs half the world’s desktop PCs, despite its upgrade path being “free”.
May be third party, but you forget that technologies such as DirectX & .Net have surpassed in version last supported version on 7.
To provide to those users who refuse to update would mean compromising the experience.
In short, no sympathy. Especially when upgrade is free (and if you feel really strongly, Stardock Start10 for $5).
But… the current version of .NET, 4.6.1, is still supported on Win7 SP1, as is the preview build of 4.6.2 that released last week. And what advanced Dx11.1+ features do you need to display a video stream and pass controller input to a network-device?
As for the start menu, it’s a minor annoyance. I’ve been using win+”type application name” since 7, so I can get over its UI problems… tho I wonder how hard it is to understand “large icons or small container, not both.”
I’ll save my rant on what I actually find irritating, but suffice to say it’s got a lot to do with their ever-increasing desire for from over function, the preference for pretty visuals over useful information, the upgrade procedure that spent twenty minutes telling me it hadn’t moved any of my files instead of telling me what it was actually doing for all of that time, and the lackadaisical bluescreen emoticon.
Except I have legacy apps and softs that I use for WORK and that might not work or have problems with 10.
As a SOE Architect by trade that deals which such issues, I’ve run into very limited amounts of software which won’t work under 10 that does under 7.
Damn you are incosiderate. Yea 7 is too old but what about windows 8? and then there are people like me. I dont WANT to update to windows 10 because I payed like 500 fucking dollars for a server OS. I have no where to update to as the new server os is not out yet -_-
Why the hell are you using Server 2012R2 as a desktop os is the real question.
Having to connect controller with PC is still a few steps behind Xbox’s offerings. I can choose whether to use a corded controller or just use my laptop as a screen. Sony are getting well left-behind all of a sudden and the sordid little evil bastard in me loves it.
what are u talking about? sony don’t have an operating system so i don’t understand how they are being left behind.
I think he’s referring to the XB1 being able to do 1080p 60fps over stream as well as being able to wirelessly stay attached to the XB1 rather than the streaming device which removes any input lag.
Yep 🙂
but microsoft (xbox) have an ecosystem built on years and years of development that sony doesn’t. (that was my point).
sony are playing catchup .. i’m pretty sure they know that
Just fyi, the xbox one is unplayable due to lag and tearing unless you actually plug both the xbox and the pc into your router via cables.
Looks at AC router with no cables attached… Looks at 1080p 60fps streaming to laptop… *shrug*
Goddamn I hate approved vendor hardware lists. Wireless N until a new laptop 🙁
If you read the comments below you see it’s not just me! Weird.
ummm, yeah? of course they’d have to be plugged in, no way wifi would be able consistently handle that. If you play online a lot your consoles / pc should be plugged into the router
I can’t even get the XB1 to perform well even cabled. And I have a pretty ridiculous network setup for home use.
Umm.. what? I stream just fine on wireless n with my surface and xbone. On occassions where my connection hasnt been strong in the bedroom the quality has dropped just temporarily – otherwise it works and looks great! I use it regularly.
Same as @Chivo and @DatHuski here. I have had zero issues – everything wireless. But no, it must be Microsoft’s fault for not throwing in a free rub-and-tug with their service improvements.
Thats all I wanted.
I’m still running Vista…
If it looks anywhere near as artifact riddled and muted as what comes out of the Xbox One’s remote play then it’s probably not worth your time.
From the trials I’ve run with the Android Remote App.. It probably won’t be. Keep in mind the WiFi signal where I have my consoles is abysmal at best. So no harm in trying. Kotaku should do a better piece after trying it out.. You know, like they did the XBone.
I question what kind of connection you have and streaming to what? My surface/xbone combo has been fantastic. I stream to my projector in the bedroom which give a decent 90″ screen and picture. Only had issues where the connection hasnt been as strong.
It’s a hard line to both endpoints. Realistically it’s not too bad for a solution that was never part of the original system design, but stacked up against streaming from my PC to my Shield TV using Nvidia’s solution it’s a distant second. At the end of the day I was interested to see if it was worth doing instead of going to another room to play Xbox but the quality just wasn’t there for me.
I’d say the bit rate is probably a lot lower than Shield streaming (which sits at 30mbps) which would account for the greater amount of motion artifacting and colour pallet muting.
It’s a hard line to both endpoints. Realistically it’s not too bad for a solution that was never part of the original system design, but stacked up against streaming from my PC to my Shield TV using Nvidia’s solution it’s a distant second. At the end of the day I was interested to see if it was worth doing instead of going to another room to play Xbox but the quality just wasn’t there for me.
I’d say the bit rate is probably a lot lower than Shield streaming (which sits at 30mbps) which would account for the greater amount of motion artifacting and colour pallet muting.
Uhhh no – I’ve used remote play on the xbox one and it was ten times better and smoother than the PS Vita from my bedroom…
Tried it and it’s not too bad. Had it on 720p and “high” framerate – a little blurry, but no framerate problems, no artefacting. What’s weird is I didn’t see my PC’s network download jump by more than 4Mbps when running it… which makes me wonder why they’re not offering a full-res output…
Would rather this worked the other way. Stream pc games from my pc steambox style.
So is there some sort of app I need to download for my PC for remote play to work?
Yes. Follow the first link in the article to go to the PlayStation Blog, and they have the direct download link there for the Remote Play app.
Well, I have nothing to say other than “This is lame as fuck”. Sry 😉
Everyone, remote play currently only supports 720p at 60frames max but SHAREPLAY was patched to support 1080p. It works, it’s incredible and I’m sure they will patch this as well. Play MK all the time and it’s like being in the same room. Maximum output for broadcasting to Twitch.Youtube is 720p however.
I Tried it last night once the update was available (I was playing the Division and it never came up, I just checked for system update and it was available). Set it to 720p but forgot to change frame rate, the lower frame rate was pretty horrendous to look at, any reaction based game would be a definite no go, but after I changed it to high frame rate it ran much smoother. Quality wasn’t amazing, looked a bit blurry but if your doing it for convenience and not the only way you play it, then despite being a bit ugly, it is functional.
Having said all that, once setup, I loaded into the game and walked around outside the BoO for a minute or so, I went to load into a matchmade mission and on the loading screen it shit itself and disconnected. I restarted the app a few times but it just wouldn’t connect again, simply said the network speed was too slow which is odd given that everything internet based was fine, speed test on the same PC showed 44/17mbps, game ran fine, PS4 was about 5 meters from router (on Wifi), laptop was also only about 5 meters from the router (on Wifi) all in the same room. Only thing I didn’t do was reboot the router (it was late and I just couldn’t be arsed) so i’ll try that tonight, but given that everything else was running beautifully, I’d be surprised if a router reboot fixes it. If I need to run cables between router and PS4/pc for this to work, then It’s completely useless to me 🙁
Windows 7 is still a valid OS. Until it hits end of support, everything should work on it. Windows 8 doesn’t even count as a real OS, and 10’s interface is still sht.
Yes it does support 1080p!!
I will not use Windows 10, as it is spyware NSA BS!!!! I will stick with Windows 7 plus my desktop does not support windows 10 at all it with 8.1, but not 10 Microsoft made the biggest mistake ever releasing 10.