Re:Sony to slash smartphone workforce
by milleramp on Saturday March 30, 2019 @05:25PM
(#19531961)
Perhaps for the OS, but from a photography point of view not at all. The Xperia’s do not fully support the camera2 api, and none support camera raw. I cannot understand why Sony would choose to do this on a camera centric phone. Bulletin boards are full of people who came to this realization after purchasing phones and begging for raw support.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
> The Xperia’s do not fully support the camera2 api, and none support camera raw.
Actually on AOSP (the version Sony releases), they all support both of those things.
That makes the lack of support in the stock ROMs doubly bizarre.
It's because they use completely different camera stacks. Stock has DRM-protected enhancements but minimal Camera2 support and no raw while AOSP has no enhancements but full API and raw support.
Re:Sony to slash smartphone workforce
by radiorental on Saturday March 30, 2019 @05:34PM
(#19532023)
Sony is well known for avoiding cannibalization of other divisions to the point of shooting itself in the foot. E.g. the PS4 doesn't have a Blu-Ray drive because Sony also sells Blu-Ray players at roughly the same cost at the PS4 (keep in mind the business model for the PS4 is to sell at a loss and claw back profits on the games)
The XBox pays royalties for it's blu-ray drive - and a significant sum goes to Sony who it part of the Blu-Ray consortium, go figure!
Re:Sony to slash smartphone workforce
by WillPostForFood on Saturday March 30, 2019 @05:41PM
(#19532050)
PS4 has a blu ray drive, and will play standard blu ray movies. What they didn't do is support 4k blu ray in the newer PS4 Pro. Unclear why they made the choice, could be cannibalization, could be cost cutting.
Re:Sony to slash smartphone workforce
by radiorental on Saturday March 30, 2019 @05:47PM
(#19532091)
I stand corrected. That said, I do remember that while the OG PS4 shipped with the Blu-Ray hardware, the PS4 would not play the Blu-Ray format. I guess at some point they started shipping a software update to support the format.
Re:Sony to slash smartphone workforce
by hawaiianbrah on Saturday March 30, 2019 @05:54PM
(#19532121)
Maybe it couldn’t for a week or two. It launched early November right? This article is from mid November saying it’s possible with the firmware update. https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=12614
BluRay playback was enabled in the Day One patch, which also basically contained the rest of the OS. The hardware was shipped as a brick, essentially, and the Day One patch was mandatory.
There was really no period of time where it couldn’t play movies. OP is misremembering facts to fit a conclusion they they’re reasoning backwards from.
Re:Sony to slash smartphone workforce
by ryanmclovin on Saturday March 30, 2019 @05:58PM
(#19532154)
I think you're misremembering things. PS4 was able to play blu-ray films from its day 1.
The ps4 definitely has a blu ray drive, not sure where you got the impression it doesn’t?
PS4 has a bluray drive since day one.
Re:Sony to slash smartphone workforce
by radiorental on Saturday March 30, 2019 @05:43PM
(#19532061)
Forgive me, you are right, it does now. When it shipped it did not support Blu-Ray for the reasons mentioned above.
This is still completely incorrect. It obviously shipped with BluRay from the beginning, as all PS4 games are distributed on BluRay disc. Further, launch reviews mention not only the slot-loading BluRay drive but the day one patch enabling movie playback:
https://www.engadget.com/2013/11/14/sony-playstation-4-revie...
There are also launch contemporary reviews of the movie playback experience on the PS4:
Re:Sony to slash smartphone workforce
by scarface74 on Saturday March 30, 2019 @05:48PM
(#19532094)
PS4 supported Blu-ray from day one. You just needed to get a free software update.
They were in the middle of fixing that before this however: https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/sony-xperia-phones-final...