Playstation Remote Play

 

One of the things that I love most about the Switch is how easy it is to pick up and play. The Playstation is a bit more cumbersome. This isn't completely Sony's fault, however. A lot of it has to do with where I have the consoles connected. The Switch sits in our living room, always just a few steps away. When Sarah is watching TV, I can still play the Switch in the living room next to her in portable mode, which is a huge advantage it has over the Playstation. For us, it makes mores sense to place the Playstation downstairs so that the kids can use it has a BluRay/DVD player. Before switching to Apple TV, I would occasionally use it as a streaming device too. However, placing it in the basement makes it a bit less accessible. I understand that this may sound ridiculous on the surface. What is the big deal about walking downstairs to play games? Generally speaking this isn't a big deal. However, on a day to day basis where I may only have 20 minutes to play, I am much more likely to grab the Switch in the living room than I am to go to the basement. This is where PS4 Remote Play comes into the conversation.

Remote Play allows remote access to your Playstation. I was interested in this as an option to play my Playstation in the living room on my iPad or on my Mac.  I was able to download the software on both platforms and connect to my Playstation without trouble.  I was even able to connect my Playstation controllers to both devices easily.  This is where the simplicity ends, however. When I've attempted to actually play a game this way, not only are the frame rates horrendous, the connection to the Playstation always drops. When researching the issue, there are suggestions to plug an ethernet cable directly into the Playstation. This isn't an option, as the only way I'd be able to do this is to run an ethernet cable through the house into the basement. I will admit, my wireless network may be the problem. With my Playstation being in the basement, the wi-fi connection isn't as strong down there as it is on the main level. Also, it sits in a pretty big entertainment center which I am sure isn't helpful. I've placed this idea on pause for now, as likely the work it takes to trouble shoot will outweigh the amount of time actually spent playing remotely. Once I get a PS5, I may return to remote play to see if it works better with the newer PS5 hardware, or may look into my wireless network to see if I can solve the issue that way.