Sony won't offer option to disable DualShock 4 light bar


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That is true, but its hard to forget how good the battery life was for the DS3 and not to mention the X1/360 controllers.

I guess its more about comparing it to what has come before more than anything.

I just keep my ps4 controller plugged in, no reason to even mess with it.

No argument me that longer battery life is better, and even with my limited time I have noticed it does seem to have not the best of life. I was really just saying (un)fortunately now I do not really see the affects. I am lucky to get 2 solid hours these days. And I am pretty sure it would bother the hell out of me if I did see the reflection, but I think it is a combination of being far from my TV and my couch is very much sunken so I am pretty low when sitting in it and playing games, and I also rarely play in the pitch dark either. Actually now that I think about it most of it has to do with how low I am in the couch I guess, as when my camera does the auto sign in I have to lift the controller up for it to be recognized. If I somehow did see the reflection, it would be annoying and it to me it is pretty common sense it should not be activated unless it has to be. But I guess maybe they were going for something to distinguish themselves. Glowing controller = PlayStation. Just not the best idea overall.

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Seriously? :huh: Netflix needs to get that fixed ASAP.

I don't know for sure, just something I read. :-) I guess one of the PS4 owners here can check.
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Whoever did these measurements obviously doesn't have a good understanding of circuit design.  That or Sony is atrocious at simple circuit design, but I find that hard to believe.

 

Here's why:

 

The claim is that the LED(s) draw a constant 40-50 mA more when on than off.  That's cool and all, but no intelligent designer will design it that way.  There's a little concept called "persistence of vision" that plays a big part here.  At a certain point, the human eye can't distinguish between when a light is blinking or constant.  Because of this, any smart designer will integrate a timer that will pulse the LEDs with short "blips" such that it looks constant to the human eye.  If you looked at the LED with a high speed camera, I guarantee it blinks. Without doing the math, I'm guessing the summation of the current draw, over the life of the battery, is 75-90% less than the constant 40-50mA that is being claimed here.

 

Ask yourself this:  Why are there so many LED flashlights and toys on the market that use tiny batteries, but yet last for days, months, or even years?  Hmmm... maybe because they use timers to exponentially increase the battery life.

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I don't know for sure, just something I read. :-) I guess one of the PS4 owners here can check.

 

If you turn the controller off manually Netflix pauses, letting it run for 10 minutes just now to check what happens when it automatically goes off (power saving settings).

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If you turn the controller off manually Netflix pauses, letting it run for 10 minutes just now to check what happens when it automatically goes off (power saving settings).

 

Nothing happens, it just shuts off the controller.  You have to power it back on to use it.  Or at least that's what happened when I used it.  Mine is set to 10 mins auto-shut off.

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I dont like bright lights on anything wish there was an off instead of electrical tape fix

 

I agree.  So many LEDs and indicators are covered with electric tape in my house.  I don't see why the hell the television needs a bright light indicating it is on.  If the screen is on, its on... I get indicators for troubleshooting, but thats just poor design.

 

 

When it was later implied such a feature would help extend the controller's battery life, Yoshida added, "The LEDs do not use much battery".

The light bar's primary function is to serve as a trackable beacon for the PlayStation Camera, which provides motion controls similarly to the glowing orb of the PlayStation Move controller for PS3.

 

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Whoever did these measurements obviously doesn't have a good understanding of circuit design.  That or Sony is atrocious at simple circuit design, but I find that hard to believe.

 

Here's why:

 

The claim is that the LED(s) draw a constant 40-50 mA more when on than off.  That's cool and all, but no intelligent designer will design it that way.  There's a little concept called "persistence of vision" that plays a big part here.  At a certain point, the human eye can't distinguish between when a light is blinking or constant.  Because of this, any smart designer will integrate a timer that will pulse the LEDs with short "blips" such that it looks constant to the human eye.  If you looked at the LED with a high speed camera, I guarantee it blinks. Without doing the math, I'm guessing the summation of the current draw, over the life of the battery, is 75-90% less than the constant 40-50mA that is being claimed here.

 

Ask yourself this:  Why are there so many LED flashlights and toys on the market that use tiny batteries, but yet last for days, months, or even years?  Hmmm... maybe because they use timers to exponentially increase the battery life.

 

ummm all leds blink. always have always will, I'm not even sure a LED can be on constantly, if you look at the rear lights of a car in front of you that's LED, when you look left and right instead of leaving a streak, it will leave dots in your vision. so I'm pretty sure the draw was calculated with the refresh rate of the LED in mind. 

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I agree.  So many LEDs and indicators are covered with electric tape in my house.  I don't see why the hell the television needs a bright light indicating it is on.  If the screen is on, its on... I get indicators for troubleshooting, but thats just poor design.

 

 

 

I think my TV has an option to turn off the standby light. I thought that option was pretty common.

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ummm all leds blink. always have always will, I'm not even sure a LED can be on constantly, if you look at the rear lights of a car in front of you that's LED, when you look left and right instead of leaving a streak, it will leave dots in your vision. so I'm pretty sure the draw was calculated with the refresh rate of the LED in mind. 

 Uh... no it wasn't calculated with that in mind.  His calculation clearly uses a constant current draw value, which is highly inaccurate since the duty cycle of the PWM signal isn't accounted for.

 

The flicker you see on LED vehicle lights are the same concept.  They control the PWM signal going to the LEDs to minimize the current draw from the battery.  That's the major advantage of using LEDs...

 

So as I said before, any smart designer is going to manipulate the power signal for the LEDs to minimize the cumulative current draw.

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got used to the lights on the controller, kinda like them now except of course the trade off is the battery life. the lights don't get in the way or overly reflect on the TV or something, and its not bright enough to hurt when you look at it. An option to turn it off for sure would be nice, but not a must.

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