Since the launch of the PS4 back in November 2013, one of the notably absent and most requested features has been the ability to play your own video files. It wasn't mentioned in Sony's E3 2015 press conference, presumably because they were too busy showing off The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy 7 remake, and Shenmue III, but a new Media Player app has appeared in the PS4 content area and is ready for download right now.
Once installed, simply fire up the Media Player app and either plug in a FAT/exFAT formatted USB drive or connect a media server, then browse to your files (which must be stored in folders) and get watching. The Media Player supports video, photo, and music - you'll need to put audio files under a folder labelled 'Music' for them to be recognised, but once there you can use them as background music and control from the Quick Menu by holding down the PS button.
The Media Player is compatible with more file formats than the PS3 - here's a complete listing of what's you can use with it:
Videos
• MKV
◦ Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
◦ Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
• AVI
◦ Visual: MPEG4 ASP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
◦ Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
• MP4
◦ Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
◦ Audio: AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
• MPEG-2 TS
◦ Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2, MPEG2 Visual
◦ Audio: MP2 (MPEG2 Audio Layer 2), AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
• AVCHD (.m2ts, .mts)
Photos
• JPEG (DCF 2.0/Exif 2.21 compliant)
• BMP
• PNG
Music
• MP3
• AAC (M4A)
Get caught up on the rest of E3 2015 – and there's a lot of it – with our hub page.
