Summary: It’s a wonderful idea to play videos on PS4 via USB driver. However, some common high definition video formats such as MP4, MKV, AVI, M4V, VOB, Tivo, WMV, MPG, FLV, WebM and M2TS etc. are not supported by PS4.
Sony PS4 is a home video game console which is the successor to the PlayStation 3. Although PS4 has more powerful features like SharePlay which is a great way to experience video games, the PS3 is a little better in terms of the media machine than the PS4. Although it claims to support many files formats, but we still run into incompatible issues as we mentioned at the very beginning.
Q: No way to watch videos on PS4 via a USB drive?
“Can I play movies from USB Drive on Sony PlayStation 4? I have got the Sony PS4 video game console a week ago, now I want to watch movies on my HDTV via PS4, I have collected some movies on my computer, they are MP4 formats, are they supported by Sony PS4 from USB Drive?”
According to PlayStation support website, PS4 has strict requirements of MP4 files, only supports playing MP4 files encoded with H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile (AAC LC):
Video in MPEG-4 SP (Simple Profile) and audio in AAC LC (Low Complexity) format.
Video in H.264/AVC HP (High Profile) and audio in AAC LC (Low Complexity) format.
MPEG-2 TS format with video in H.264/AVC and audio in AAC LC (Low Complexity) format.
While MP4 is a container video format which may contain various video or audio codec. If the MP4 video is not encoded with PS4 compatible codec, we will fail to stream MP4 to PS4 or cannot play MP4 on PS4 even if successfully transferred MP4 to PS4. In order to successfully play various MP4 files or other format files on PS4, a widely used solution is to convert videos to PS4 recognized formats. Here, we strongly recommend Pavtube Video Converter (Mac version) to help you convert videos to PS4 to solve “PS4 won’t play MP4” issue.
More details are allowed here for you to take the advice:
Step 1: Download and install the program. Click “Add video” on the main interface to load video files to the program. You can also drag the files to the program’s window list directly. This program can also support the batch video clips.
Step 2: Select the right formats for playing on PS4. Here we suggest you to go to the “PSP/PS3” list, you will get the “PS3 Video (1080P) MPEG-4 (*.mp4)”as the best output.
Step 3: In the “Settings” button, you can adjust video and audio settings, including codec, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, and audio channel.
Step 4: With all the preparations work done? Why not go back to the main interface to click the “Convert” button to get the work started?
Conclusion: Once the conversion is finished, click “Open” to quickly find the converted files. Then, PS4 will recognize, catalog, play and stream them just fine. Insert USB Drive into USB port, turn PS4 on and then go to the main menu, select “Video” and find your USB Drive, select “Display All” to see the video files that exists on your PS4, please choose the file that you want to transfer and press the triangle button, choose “Copy” and confirm the transferring, the movies are transferred to your PS4 hard drive, and then you can play MP4 movies on PS4 from USB Drive.
Further Reading:
- How to Import MPEG-2 Video to iMovie on Mac?
- Import Sony HX400V 60p AVCHD to Aperture 3 for Editing
- Ingest MKV to FCP X/Apple TV for Editing and Playing
- Work Sony Alpha 77 Mark II AVCHD with DaVinci Resolve
- Edit Sony HD1550 XAVC 4K Video in Avid MC on Yosemite
- iMovie Won’t Import MP4 Files? Solved!
- Convert Sony EX3 MP4 to Avid Media Composer
