PS Portal Update 3.0.1 Allows Connection to 5GHz Public WiFi, Here Are the Patch Notes

Yes, I’m still using it pretty much every day. It’s no exaggeration to say my gaming time has tripled since I got it.

Just wish I could use it when someone else was using the ps5

Unfortunately I returned mine as I couldn’t cope with the screen tearing and no update can fix that.

My laptop, with VRR, gives me much smoother streaming and so I stuck with that instead. It is sad because the Portal is designed from the ground up for one purpose and gives a worse quality stream than a third party device that isn’t built for it.

The Portal is the only PlayStation peripheral I’ve returned because it just isn’t built for purpose (or at least the purpose I want: smooth streaming).

@Kienda
Weird. I’ve never experienced any screen tearing that’s exclusive to the portal. Did this occur in all games for you, or just games that have screen tearing on a larger screen where it is harder to see because the screen isn’t right in your face?
I did hear tell about something exclusive to the portal but only on certain games, but I’ve never experienced it. If it is limited could you tell me what specific games it happens on, it could actually stop me purchasing those games given how much utility the Portal has for me. It’s already got to the point where not being able to play it on my own portable screen would almost be a red line.

@Artois2
I don’t think any console allows for two independent games to be played at once and output to separate screens. And if one did it would obviously massively limit the quality of those games. I think what you are looking for is another dedicated console, just in portable form. There’s a Switch for that.

@Shepherd_Tallon
Yes, I definitely wouldn’t have played as much football manager, bolatro, Monster Sanctuary, or even Jeanne d’Arc if it wasn’t for the Portal.

@thefourfoldroot1 I think it is something some people notice more than others. Kind of like 30fps and 60fps.

The problem was it happened everywhere in exactly the same way. Whether I was at home or at work. Even tried it on my brothers PS5 to see if it was my connection. I then used my laptop and tried it on all three places and didn’t have the problem.

The reason for it is lack of VRR integration. They designed it without it likely to save money as most would see past it. But it’s a known issue.

Unfortunately for me it’s a deal breaker and it’s a massive shame because I was really happy getting it. The screen is amazing. The controller felt great.

Gotta wait for the Portal 2 now.

Edit: It was all games I tested: Horizon Forbidden West, Final Fantasy 15, Rocket League and Astro Bot’s Playroom.

@thefourfoldroot1 Me neither!

@Kienda
That’s strange, but sorry to hear some people are susceptible to that. I don’t really understand as I have a VRR capable TV but haven’t seen any difference, and I also presume most people don’t have VRR TV’s yet but I don’t hear anything about the same issue there. Do you also have issues on the PS5 if it’s connected to a non-VRR TV?

Edit: I played astros playroom on it too, just to check the rumble of the portal is the same , and didn’t see any screen tearing. I guess it is an individual person thing. I still find it strange that people find VRR so necassary though, as far as I’m aware it wasn’t even a thing prior to this generation of consoles.

I wonder if the ps4 does a decent job with remote play. I will need to use this feature in my new home and i have a spare ps4 but with no controllers.

I definitely will be getting a portal towards the end of the year I think, definitely seems like a better on the go and portable gaming for work, long train travelling and holidays. I would do so for my switch but since I have the very first one I have buy the charging station etc separately.
Also there’s plenty of games I’d love to play on the go via the PS portal

@Dragoon1994
I wouldn’t recommend it for train journeys. Yes, you could hot spot it to your phone, but it would rely on a constantly good phone connection, which in my experience is impossible on the move. Even on trains that have their own wifi connection I wouldn’t really trust it would be good enough.

As a father of two. Portal was a lifesaver for me to extend my play time. I hesitated at first to get one but few months later I use it on a daily basis.

Only thing that's stopping me from buying one is not being able to use more than one account on it, me and my son have accounts on the PS5 but with the portal only one of us can use the thing without fully signing out each time, which means need to manually connect it to the PS5 every time. Makes it kind of useless.

@thefourfoldroot1
Fair enough

@Kienda Is the screen tearing perhaps related to the "Stutter Cause: PS5 Outputting 59.94 fps/hz"?

There is a whole reddit thread regarding this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PlaystationPortal/comments/198mohz/stutter_cause_ps5_outputting_5994_fpshz

@Yusuo
Yes, as a streaming device it is very strange it restricts the swap profile thing on the PS5. Strange and very stingy, but as I’m the only one in my household who would use it it isn’t an issue for me. If you bought it it would definitely be a “you present”.

@Czar_Khastik
I would imagine it might be the same thing, just because it is also something that I, and the vast majority of people, can’t discern. Seems logical to me it would be the same cause. At least it’s just a software thing that could be updated I guess.

@Czar_Khastik The fact that Sony hasn't fixed this yet means they likely never will. It's present on all portal no matter how good your network is. 99% of people just don't notice it, but if you do, it's so annoying that the Portal is basically trash.

@thefourfoldroot1 yeah, that's why I can't justify it, I game now and again but my son definitely is a bigger gamer than me and can't be bothered with the whole swapping back and forth, tried it when they first came out and was more of a hinderence

@Yusuo
Yes, it’s a one per person thing, it would be a great thing for you, or for him, but not both.

This is great. I use my portal every day, and it gives me a reason to try out other games I normally wouldn’t devote my time to on the bigger screen. It’s been an absolutely fantastic device for me, and the more updates the better!

Been tempted to pull the trigger on one of these for a few months now but theres something just holding me back. I dont know if its the lack of native play, the fact i will almost always need to teather it to my mobile when im out the house or the fact i dont want to be disappointed if i get any dreaded lag or the fact my wife will turn my nuts in to a pair of earing if i drop 200 quid on more gaming stuff.

@Shepherd_Tallon been playing Tunic in my home office, watching a live-streamed webinar, whilst my PS5 is downstairs. No issues whatsoever.

Note that my PS5 is wired, got mesh network set up and your own experience / mileage may vary

All i want is the ability to switch HDR off via the Portal. Its a pain to have to go onto the PS5 with a controller, change it and then back again when I switch between the two. Otherwise the colours are off. It was really noticeable on FF7 Rebirth. Other than that, love my Portal. Gets a lot of use!

I'm surprised this acc sold really well. I guess the idea of playing portable PS5 is really exciting for a lot of people.

@thefourfoldroot1 @Yusuo Ok how can Sony make a streaming device that doesn’t let you sign into any account after you connect it to the PS5? How?

My kid was away at college and while 400 miles a bit much to stream from PS5 to their laptop they wanted to try out the Stellar Blade demo. At first they couldn’t get their laptop to connect but then I did some research and it turned out the PS5 wouldn’t let them connect b/c I had it default to log onto my account when I turned it on. So I changed it to not log into anyone, just boot to the “choose your avatar” screen, and no more problems. And now that they’re home I’m glad I have it set up that way, seems the most fair.

So I could understand if the Portal had the same problem with a PS5 account set to auto log in, but the Portal SHOULD work the same way as remote play on mobile or PC. But it wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t b/c Sony sucks at this. I returned my PSP b/c I bought into the hype of “It’s a PS3 on the go” only my PS3 had 4 accounts on it, my wife also games a bit, but the PSP was locked to one. So I returned it the next day. Wasn’t easy, lots of trouble trying at several stores, but finally got my money back.

The Portal is so limited as it is fora $200 screen, if Sony didn’t have 5GHZ, and they made it worse than every other remote play device on the entire planet by locking it to 1 account, well screw them. 😝

@rjejr
Yes, as I said, it’s bad it’s only connectable to one account at a time and Sony clearly did this deliberately to prevent easy sharing of games with multiple people. Not saying it’s a good thing, just that I understood that before buying it and it’s fine in my situation. If I had to split the purchase cost with someone else, or justify it by saying multiple people could use it, then that would be different. That just wasn’t the case for me.

I want to love mine so badly, but it freezes about once a minute for about three seconds so it's unplayable. Tried every trick on the net to no avail with bullet fast internet also. I guess I can just look at it every now and then and think about what could have been 😥

@Goosepies I haven’t had a good enough experience with remote play on my phone to take a chance on the Portal, and what you’re describing sounds like what happened to me. The audio would stream but the picture would freeze for a couple of seconds.

Turned out, my PS5 wasn’t connecting to the 5 ghz Wi-Fi. Now that I’ve gone into the ps5 settings and fixed that, it happens a lot less often. Still not good enough to spend $200, but since you already have the Portal, maybe check that in your network settings?

@KidRisky
Yeah it sucks, I spilt my home network so I could have it connected to 5g. PlayStation is hardwired. Portal is on 5g. As you said too audio keeps going but picture doesn't. Think I'm just outta luck. Thanks for trying a suggestion though I really appreciate it 👍

@Mikey856
Yeah I wish I could find out what I've spent dozens of hours on it, nothing worked.

I don't have a PS Portal yet, but I'm in the market. While I could just go to the local Walmart or Bestbuy, I'm having fun trying to get one cheaper on eBay. I've come close three times, but strangely if the auctions aren't above retail, they get closed early and reposted straight away... While others seem to think they can still command over-retail for an item that is now readily available on store shelves.

Portal is such a strange thing. It's somehow selling well. The idea is great. The price isn't horrible. But there's other better products out there to do the same thing through far better software than Sony's, and the implementation of the portal is pretty close to terrible. Proprietary headphones, poor bitrate streaming, the framerate issue, Heck, the base model Ally doesn't cost THAT much more, and is a literal PC. And can stream PS better. And can Stream Plus Premium games........

@Yusuo @thefourfoldroot1 @rjejr That problem is one (of multiple) that pushed me hard toward XB for years. RP on XB is just a remote desktop. You log in and use it same as local with the exception that the store gets locked out so you can't remotely buy anything through it.

@NEStalgia
I don’t think it’s that strange. It’s a device with perfect dualsense form factor, a great screen (I was concerned it was LCD, but the colours pop and blurring none existent), just connects easily and effectively, and is so much more comfortable than trying to use a seperate controller and screen, or even laptop…these people who see some kind of stutter or something, well, I believe them, they are clearly very sensitive to such things, but neither I nor anybody I know has noticed anything.
Are their more feature rich devices? maybe even better remote play apps? Quite possibly yes, especially if you want to play games natively, but if you just want to stream in bed, or on the couch while the wife is watching something, it just works. And works very well with all dualsense rumble, adaptive triggers etc. that you can’t get elsewhere.

This thing is advertised nowhere. It is selling through pure word of mouth, which should tell you something.

@thefourfoldroot1 My problem with it (and maybe all of Playstation these days) is that they didn't make a product and sell it as "experience the best, performance, the best quality, the remote player that only Sony could make." They released it as "Here's the product. It gets the job done well enough we guess." While existing products from janky Chinese companies already did the job better and cheaper, if less plug and play. We're not really talking about it being some miracle all in one solution to phone clamps, we're comparing it to a half dozen other devices that are literally the same form factor minus the exact layout of a Dual Sense. And none of those require proprietary headphones.

But even aside that the main thing that plagues it is it's basically just Sony's Android remote play app. That app has ALWAYS been awful. They don't fix it. They don't improve it. Fine, ok, they don't care about Android remote play, fair enough. Then they release their own Android device that relies on it. At the worst they could have at least let you buy the superior third party Android app that sucks far less so you could run that on it. The screen may be nice, but it doesn't matter with that low bitrate overcompressed youtube video quality it streams. Which has ALWAYS been a problem with their Android app.

Portal to me summarizes all of Modern Playstation:

PlayStation(TM)
It's Mostly Good Enough For Most People(TM)

I would be using it, but I've been mostly playing Helldivers 2, and since I'm terrible with stick aiming I use motion controls. Unfortunately the motion controls on the Portal are extremely wonky - the axis seems weird, and it isn't intuitive at all compared to Dualsense. It's not viable. So I'll either sell it or maybe only use it for games that aren't shooters.

@NEStalgia
But the app works really well for me?! And also it allows you to plug in any headphones you like. Which I usually do, even though I have the elite headset, just because it’s more convenient when lying in bed. Plus that “not exactly dualsense layout and features” is kind of a massive deal for many.

@Mikey856
Thanks man, I'll do that, willing to try for sure. I'm with sky also so it's worth a shot.

@Mikey856
Haha cool, I will do 👍 yeah just did another reset earlier after the update. I'll have to see if the update actually affected anything also.
Thanks again man

@NEStalgia I use iOS, but have also found that a 3rd party app (Mirror Play) works much better than PlayStation’s Remote Play. I can’t understand that.

@thefourfoldroot1 Aren't you the one that can't tell a difference between 30 and 60fps and doesn't notice 60hz reprojection in VR with Sony's horrible reprojection algorithm?

I realize it works just fine for you and Stevie Wonder , but for everyone else the official Sony app's stream quality is awful, and the Portal just enlarges the same sloppy image quality onto a larger screen than the average phone it was meant for. Even Sammy'd written a story about PS Play being so much better, back before Portal was a thing.

Also, not that I'm not right there with you but, "headphones" and "plug in" are kind of a different way of saying "back in my day!" I, too, prefer wired much of the time, for most reasons, and I'd MUCH rather have devices with a jack than without one (glares at Applesung (Sampple?)) BUT, those kids today with their hippity hoppity music to wrap with and whatnot.....do not own wired headphones. They own wireless bluetooth headphones. And if they want to invest in good audio they buy $800 wireless bluetooth headphones. Which works with everything. It even works with #%#! Nintendo! Everything except for the $#%$ $#%#$ PS Portal. Because Sony. Sony can't even Nintendo now!

@KidRisky Exaclty! It's astounding that the worst way to stream Playstation is with the official app.

@NEStalgia
I can’t really tell the difference between 30 and 60 no. Apart from the motion blur when turning the camera at 30 in many games, which I hate. I can absolutely tell the reprojection. To the point that ghosting in games like Kayak make it annoying for me to play when others like yourself don’t really see it.

Have you used the Portal? Because I would agree with you if you were talking about the phone app. On my IPhone it’s awful. For some reason Portal is miraculously so much better. I presumed it’s because there is no background stuff going on like on a phone.

Can’t comment on “the kids”, I try to avoid them all, but it was only 8 years ago the first AirPods released. Before that there were millions of them using iPhone wired earphones. Surely it’s not unheard of now?

@Khwarezm89 likewise and love the Portal. I finished Cyberpunk on it and would have never been allowed on the main screen

@thefourfoldroot1 Gah, when fps drops to 45 my teeth start grinding. More actually goes into FPS, had an issue with a game on the PC side of things where it was running at a 59-60 average fps but it still felt like a bad, choppy 30fps game. Then I realized the 99% was 37 (99% of frames were above 37fps, meaning some were below, and despite the 60fps average, many frames were well below 60.) That's just as bad as running the whole thing 30 or worse. ANY fps deviation, I know it instantly.

Yeah before I realized Portal required proprietary audio (I mean come on, even VITA supports BT audio. How is Portal behind Vita?!) I thought to try it because I wanted the bigger screen for some streaming, and then discovered the audio thing the hard way, but in the meantime was appalled at the fact that it's just using the same awful phone software with all the same issues. I ended up returning it and then buying a Legion. Just a liiiiiiiitle big more expensive........ but so worth it. And it's still a better streaming device than Portal. And also plays PS cloud. And also just plays GoT natively. At 120fps...........

@thefourfoldroot1 Oh and about audio...yeah, these "revolutionary" changes happen fast. Basically once Apple and Samsung removed the wired headphone option, and that accounts for 2/3-3/4 of the whole personal audio market at this point, basically everyone changed to bluetooth headphones all within a year because, you pretty much had no choice other than USB dongles to add a jack which wasn't going to be the popular choice.

Now even the hi-fi market is starting to lean into that. Obviously, there, large around-the-ear wired 1/4" jack cans still lead, for the moment, but that's changing fast.

Now if you run wired the only reasons are: You're cheap and not on the name brand products with the latest trends; you're a hi-fi audiophile snob and can hear the lossy quality on lossless 24/192 audio on a lossless uncompressed stream, you buy Sony products.

(For myself, it's kind of all 3..... I have the stupid phone without the stupid jack, and a stupid breakout dongle for a jack that stupidly broke. And I'm an audiophile that has lots of good wired cans and good wired amps, and don't want to by crummy amps that are built into my cans, and recharging headphones is irritatingly inconvenient when they can just hang there always ready. But when portably gaming I actually DO want wireless for function over form reasons.)

@Shepherd_Tallon Dredge was amazing!! But I think Dave the Diver was my favorite out of the 2 by a small margin.. is on PS Plus Now and has Dredge DLC now.. definitely play Dredge first so you can appreciate the DLC for Dave the Diver.. I played them backwards 🤦‍♂️

@NEStalgia @thefourfoldroot1 It's so weird though, and consumer unfriendly, in particular to Sony's consumers. 😝Every other device you log onto the PS5 and THEN choose which account to log into, and Sony paid people to impalement some software lock on THEIR OWN DEVICE to keep people from using it like all the other devices out there? I mean, come on man.

My autocorrect turned "implement" to impalement and I don't even think it's wrong, Sony paid it's employees to impale it's consumers. 😂

Had mine since day 1, it turned my ps5 from a dead weight to a daily device. I rarely turn on my ps5 on the big screen.

Really hoping msft follows suit. Using xbplay on my deck for that, but the deck is nowhere near as nice as the portal.

I’ve been playing a lot using SteamDeck + Chiaki to stream from my PS5 and it is a very acceptable experience.
Just wondering how better could be the experience with the Portal.
Did anyone try both to say how better Portal is?

@Mikey856 Unfortunately, no, I didn't buy the portal yet. I'm waiting for some kind of a discount because the stock is high in my country. Until then I fiddle around with remote play on my low-end tablet just to see will it also work on a dedicated device.

So no, I didn't experience the screen tearing but the reddit community did find something odd with the FPS so it must be a thing. It's apparently something that can't be unseen once you see it.

@fabiotc Chikai's stream (same with PS Play on Android) is much, much, much, better than the official Sony software's streaming quality. You've got the better version unless you need the larger display or the feedback triggers. Sony's own streaming software both on PC and mobile is definitely mediocre at best.

@rjejr Sony's been impaling customers since the Minidisc.

My brother has this device and really likes it. I play on my good phone both in home and on holiday. I play games that are suitable for this: used to be Slay The Spire and is now X-COM 2 WOTC.

Remote Play is great and has been for a while. It is by far my favorite feature of the PlayStation brand. I fear the day they paywall the feature, but for now it is cool every time I breach the black wall and play with my home console away from home.

@NEStalgia Well at least they were trying with the Minidisc, I think the Vita storage was their most egregious, unnecessary and downright stupid product. 😝 I'll give them credit for selling the Portal as well as they have, wonder how long before it outsells the PS VR2? 🤷‍♂️

You know, it is possible that Portal sells well enough for Sony to make an actual worthwhile follow-up system that streams from the cloud and has some basic apps. I think they have enough games in the PS+ Premium backlog that they wouldn't even need to make games for it, just let people play those. You know, like this system should have done. I still don't understand a $200 Portal.

@rjejr When they designed Vita storage was long after they acquired Konika-Minolta, and went full throttle into cameras, and new proprietary storage media seemed like the next big thing....but....they already HAD their own memory storage format with Memory Stick and MS Duo...so why not...just use that?

Portal outselling VR2 is so sad when it happens but defines the current gen. Innovative, experimental, fun, interesting product? Nobody buys it. Dedicated streaming device that can't actually cloud stream and streams worse than the phone everyone already has? Sells out in minutes. I think if gaming just consisted of Mario and different skin packs that's the only game anyone ever would need. Oh, wait, that's Fortnite and Minecraft, isn't it?

I get the the portal to a degree, I mean I was in line for WiiU just for the play on a small screen. And loved the idea but not the buttonless reality of Vita remote play. And bought a Retroid mostly for remote play. I mean I get the purpose of the device. But what I don't get is the poor implementation, missing the obvious, and that, I guess Apple-minded-like-consumer mindset of not wanting to think about it at ALL and get a "just good enough" device that just does a thing without having to use a brain cell to do it. There's other devices that do it better. There's other devices that do it cheaper. There's other devices that do it better and cheaper. But no, because it's just one button and it works without thinking about setting it up. Or because "haptic triggers."

@NEStalgia " "haptic triggers "

The standard reply to every time I ask "Why has the PS5 been out for 3 years yet I still can't buy a Power A wired controller for $50?"🤑

@rjejr Funny thing is Flydigi makes a (expensive premium "Pro") controller for Switch/Android/PC that has......haptic triggers....

So you can't get a haptic-less controller for PS5, but you can get a PS5 haptic controller for every other platform but Xbox...

@NEStalgia Or there are a whole lot of 3rd party controllers for the PS5 in the $150 to $200 range, there just isn't a single one under $69.99. Well that's not entirely true, there is a $50 one that has no thumbsticks, think pad, but who wants that?🤷‍♂️