PlayStation 4 Firmware 1.70 Now Available, We've Got the Details

Turn on your PlayStation 4 after April 30 and you will find some major changes to the system, some of them a long time coming. Yes, System Update 1.70 is here, bringing with it some of the new console’s most requested updates — along with a few that hadn’t been advertised but are welcomed as well. Hop on past the break to see what’s new.

Over on the PlayStation Blog, SCEA VP of Platforms Marketing John Koller detailed the major features of Firmware 1.70, which include the following:

SHAREfactory: as seen in the PlayStation channel’s video above, SHAREfactory is a rich video editor that allows you to take your saved game footage and cut segments together, add intros, record commentary, and add your own music tracks to customize your clips how you want. SHAREfactory will show up on your PS4 Dynamic Menu after you’ve downloaded 1.70, but requires an additional download–and it’s a significant-sized app, so be prepared for it to eat up a bit of your system’s 500 GB hard drive.

Option to Turn Off HDCP for Game Capture: One of the biggest advantages of the Xbox One, to date, has been the lack of restrictions on capturing game footage over HDMI output, due to disabled HD Copyright Protection for games. With firmware 1.70, you can now go to Settings and manually turn off the system’s HDCP to allow for use of external capture cards, like the Elgato HD, to grab screenshots and video of your PS4 gameplay separate from the system’s integrated Share features.

Pre-Load Pre-Ordered Games: Have you ever bought a game digitally through a PSN pre-order, then come the night of release, you have to wait for an hour to actually download a game? With 1.70, that’ll be a thing of the past. For games you’ve pre-ordered–starting with Ubisoft’s upcoming Watch_Dogs–you can actually download the game ahead of time, and a countdown timer will tell you when it will unlock for you to play. The countdown timer is actually a pretty awesome idea…

Upload Videos and Screenshots to USB Drive: One thing that still hasn’t come to PS4 yet is a YouTube app, or the ability to upload clips to the mega-video site. But 1.70 allows Let’s Players and others to take those clips you’ve labored over and store them on an external drive, where they can then go wherever you please. This includes clips you’ve edited together in SHAREfactory.

Updates to DualShock 4 Functionality: YES! This includes being able to dim the brightness of your DualShock 4’s light bar! In addition, you can also use the touchpad to navigate the on-screen keyboard, and more than one user can now sign in using the same DualShock 4.

There are a lot of other updates as well, including:

Live Broadcasting in HD and Archiving Support
New SHARE Options
New Friends Options
New Trophies Sort Option
PlayStation Store Payment Support
More PlayStation Camera Commands
New PlayStation Plus Icon
Music Unlimited SHARE Options

For more information on all of these other features, be sure to check out the post at the official PlayStation Blog. If you haven’t set your system for Automatic Downloads, check out our Instagram video that shows you how to find and download PS4 firmware 1.70. This is the PS4’s biggest update yet, but there’s sure to be more coming down the line. For the latest information on what to expect from future PS4 firmware updates, be sure to keep it tuned to SonyRumors.