While the big April update coming to Sony’s PlayStation 5 this week certainly focuses on game-centric improvements, the full release notes reveal some TV-friendly additions as well. Sony announced the 900MB update earlier this week and it started rolling out on April 14th. In its announcement, the company focused on major upgrades, including the ability to store PS5 games on external USB drives.
However, the full release notes, available to peruse when you download the update to your console, reveal a host of other additions. On the TV/display front, you’ll get the option to switch the always-on HDR output so that it only engages when using an app or game that supports high dynamic range video. We’ve seen recent dedicated streaming devices like the TiVo Stream 4K, Roku Ultra, and Chromecast with Google TV ship with always-on HDR as the default setting as well. Fortunately, those devices all allow you to turn the feature off when there’s no HDR-supported content actually being displayed. TiVo added the option to its Stream 4K via a post-launch software update and it’s nice to Sony do the same here.
Elsewhere, you also get more options when using a display that supports the HDMI Device Link feature. Now, you can set a supported display to turn on when you power on your console. Separately, you can set it so your PS5 places itself in Rest Mode when you turn your connected TV off. The update also adds support for some 120Hz monitors, expanding options for gamers looking to take advantage of 120 frames-per-second gameplay.
Those display-focused improvement all come alongside the update’s headlining features, including the ability to store PS5 games on an external USB drive. It’s not quite the storage solution gamers have been waiting for — there’s a super-fast M.2 expansion slot inside every PS5 that Sony has yet to enable. However, it should give users a little more flexibility to manage their libraries considering the console’s limited onboard storage.
The April update should be available as of April 14th, 2021.