I was really looking forward to the Playstation Portal. However, the missing bluetooth functionalty is a dealbraker!
I already have great Sony WF-1000X. why should I buy extra headphones just for the portal? (which I then have to carry around as well…)
Now the real questions:
- Playstation Link should be better in terms of lag. Is the difference really this big in comparison to bluetooth?
- is it possible that Sony will enable bluetooth-support via a software update (or is the hardware for bluetooth missing?)
I’ve tried Bluetooth on my phone with remote play and it has been a horrible experience with huge audio latency. There is definitely an argument to be made against Bluetooth for gaming. Even on the Switch, which added Bluetooth after launch, has issues. Now what they should have done is support USB-C audio out so that people could use the USB-C dongles that come with many gaming headsets like the Arctis 7. Unfortunately the USB-C port is for charging only.
With all that being said, I bought the portal for mainly use within the house, and I just leave my Arctis 7 USB-C dongle in the actual PS5 and turn the portal volume down to 0. When I establish the remote play connection I just go to audio out settings and tell it to send audio to my headset. Audio has been flawless. If you are looking to game outside the house, you’ll have to go wired or pony up for PS Link compatible headsets. Or just use the external speakers.
To answer some of your questions.
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- All current information released as of now says that PlayStation Link is a WiFi connection not dissimilar to how wireless headsets work with USB-C dongles. It’s a form of WiFi direct connection, not to be confused with wifi going over the internet. The difference in latency between Bluetooth and usb-c wireless dongles is significant…as in almost zero with the dongle, and noticeable and distracting to unplayable with Bluetooth. Obviously there are low latency Bluetooth codecs that can work around this, but most people don’t have devices or earbuds that support these.
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- It is possible but if they do, they risk consumers experiencing latency with Bluetooth and then blaming the portal for the poor experience, instead of focusing their blame on Bluetooth or the headphones. Until a teardown happens we won’t know if hardware for Bluetooth is missing but the suspected SOC is supposedly capable of it.
If you have any other questions let me know. I have the portal available to test. I have been loving it mainly for the gorgeous screen, ergonomics, and haptics. They do need to allow for higher bitrate streaming to make the stream more fluid, and they need to auto disable 120hz and HDR modes on the PS5. Right now if you leave those modes enabled you get weird frame rate issues that some are confusing with lag, and you get blown out whites and crushed blacks (the same as if you viewed HDR content on a non HDR display). I expect those issues to be fixed in software as third party remote play applications, like PSPlay for Android and Chiaki for PC, don’t experience these issues.
Thanks a lot for the comprehensive reply.
I have a follow up question: Why is latency not a problem while watching a video on your Smartphone using a bluetooth headset? If I don’t have any problems wahtching a movie with a bluetooth headset I don’t expect to have any problems while gaming. Whats the difference between watching a movie and gaming?
There is smart technology on phones that calculates the delay in audio and it delays playback of the video feed to match the audio feed. This is possible because you can buffer a video. With a game you can’t buffer the gameplay as it all happens instantaneously and it needs to constantly watch for your inputs, which likewise can’t be buffered.
There are some Bluetooth codecs that do support low latency so I don’t want to say this is a universal Bluetooth problem, but it is a pervasive one. Cheaper Bluetooth earbuds and even most mid to high end ones prioritize sound quality over latency and therefore don’t support low latency codecs. Likewise the transmitting device ALSO needs to support the codec, so even if you found earbuds that work, the device isn’t guaranteed to be compatible. For the consumer this is a very confusing process and I personally think Sony just didn’t bother with it to avoid the confusion…and to push their own standard (PS Link) and sell their own headsets because they are a profit oriented business after all.
If you want, download the remote play app for your phone and test it out yourself to see what I mean.
Bluetooth itself is not the problem with the layency, it’s the used codec that is optimised for music,. Latency doesn’t matter in that case. It would be easily possible to implement a low latency bluetooth that is suiter for gaming.
LL bluetooth is still horribly bad, which is why all wireless gaming headsets skip it in favour of other setups.
sony does their own audio codec over bluetooth - that works well, but bluetooth LL just sucks
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- Playstation Link should be better in terms of lag. Is the difference really this big in comparison to bluetooth?
BIG YES
I watched the Linus Tech Tips review and if I remember correctly, Sony are claiming it’s all to do with their proprietary streaming codec used to communicate with the PS5. It does have a 3.5mm audio jack.
thanks, I just watchted the LTT video. I’m with Linus on this one: Sony should at least give the user the option to use bluetooth headphones.
Moreover, the Snapdragon 662 has support for bluetooth. Why nor use it?! Just to make us buy another pair of headphones? :-(
Sony are claiming it’s all to do with their proprietary streaming codec
Sooo… Sony doing the same Sony bullshit they’ve done for 30+ years now?
Nothing new under the sun there.
It sucks, but I’ll take that over Microsoft’s dumb decision to not only have a proprietary wireless protocol for Xbox like Sony, but also restrict audio streaming over USB to signed devices only for “security”.
At least on PS5 I can plug in my wired headset using USB.
I did not know that about the restriction of signed usb devices. I guess the word “Security” can be used for all vendor lock-ins
Yeh it’s all a bit iffy. Then again, Bluetooth is the worst thing in the world for security. Getting better now.
It depends. Sony used to have their own proprietary SD-Card: Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo. And the got rid of it (now using regular SD-Cards.)
So I do have a little bit of hope ;-)
You can get a 3.5mm to Bluetooth dongle for, like, $9. They’re pretty small too.
Just make sure the transmitter and your headphones both support a low latency Bluetooth codec
If I got one, I’d probably just use wired headphones. The things I think Sony should have done was an OLED screen, a faster WiFi chip, and a place to put in passcodes for captured networks.
Sucks but they want you to buy this shitty 200 bucks earbuds.
