Backwards Compatibility

There are no backwards compatible hardware parts inside the PS4

Backwards compatibility

Hardware

• Does not support Super Audio CD (SACD)
• Does not support PS3 DualShock 3 or PS3 Sixaxis
• Supports PS Move

Software

• PS3 disc/media will not work directly.
• PS1/PSone, PS2/PStwo, PS3 game support via cloud service.

Comparison Table

"you can emulate with a PC, 90% of the things that the PS4 will never do, by just turning it off."

Controllers
Function \ Platform	PC	PS1	PS2	PS3	PS4	Wii	WiiU	Xbox	Xbox360	Xbox One	Remarks
Dualshock 1	Yes (with par.port or USB adaptor)	Yes	Partial (not all games)	Partial (not all games, only with USB converter)	No	No	No	No	No	No
Dualshock 2	Yes (with par.port or USB adaptor)	No	Yes	Yes (only with USB converter)	No	No	No	No	No	No
SixAxis	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Dualshock 3	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Arcadestick (PS3)	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Dualshock 4	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
EyeToy	Yes	No	Yes	Partial (as Chatcamera)	?	No	No	No	No	No
PS3 Eye	Yes	No	No	Yes	?	No	No	No	No	No
PS3 Move	Yes	No	No	Yes	?	No	No	No	No	No
PS4 Move	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Wii Remote / Wii Remote Plus	Yes	No	No	Partial (not all games, only with USB converter)	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Wii Nunchuk attachement	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Wii Classic Controller attachement	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Wii Balance Board	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
WiiU Game Pad	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
WiiU Pro Controller	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Xbox Controller / Xbox Controller S	Yes	No	No	Partial (not all games, only with USB converter)	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Xbox 360 Controller	Yes	No	No	Partial (not all games, only with USB converter)	No	No	No	Yes (but only a few titles and you'll need Xbox Live to download emulation profiles)	Yes	No
Xbox One Controller	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Disc Media
Function \ Platform	PC	PS1	PS2	PS3	PS4	Wii	WiiU	Xbox	Xbox360	Xbox One	Remarks
PS/PSone discs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
PS2/PStwo discs	Yes	No	Yes	Partial (only older models)	No	No	No	No	No	No
PS3 discs	Partial (Dump only, Theoretical)	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
PS4 discs	Partial (Dump only. Theoretical)	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Wii discs	Partial	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
WiiU discs	Partial (Dump only, Theoretical)	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Xbox discs	Partial (Theoretical)	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Xbox 360 discs	Partial (Dump only, Theoretical)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Xbox one discs	Partial (Dump only, Theoretical)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Used Game discs without repay	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Lending games to friend/brother without repay	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Games continue to work beyond lifetime	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
MultiMedia
Function \ Platform	PC	PS1	PS2	PS3	PS4	Wii	WiiU	Xbox	Xbox360	Xbox One	Remarks
AudioCD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	No	No	Yes	Yes	?
Compressed Audio (MP3/AAC)	Yes	Partial with MP3 addon on older models	Yes with homebrew	Yes	?	Yes with homebrew	Yes with homebrew	Yes with homebrew	Yes	?
Super Audio CD (SACD)	Yes	No	No	Partial (only older models)	No	No	No	No	No	No
DVD-A	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	?
VideoCD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	No	No	No	No	No
DVD Video	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	No (only with oldest patchable drive and added homebrew)	No	Yes (add-on required)	Yes	?
HD-DVD Video	Yes	No	No	Yes with 360 HD-DVD addon and homebrew software + firmware modifications	?	No	No	No	Yes with 360 HD-DVD addon	No
BD-Video	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Compressed A/V (AVCHD/H.264/MP4/DivX/WMV)	Yes	No	Yes with homebrew	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Homebrew / Linux / Community changes
Function \ Platform	PC	PS1	PS2	PS3	PS4	Wii	WiiU	Xbox	Xbox360	Xbox One	Remarks
Homebrew	Yes	Yes Caetla (or when modified)	Yes PS2 Linux kit (or when modified)	Yes OtherOS (or when modified)	No	Yes Only when modified	Yes Only when modified	Yes Only when modified	Yes Only when modified	No
Linux	Yes	Partial (bare kernel, only 2MB useable)	Yes PS2 Linux kit (or when modified)	Yes OtherOS (or when modified)	No	Yes with homebrew	Yes with homebrew	Yes with homebrew	Yes with homebrew	No
Drivepatches	Yes	Yes modchips, swapmagic	Yes modchips, swapmagic, softmods and isoloaders	Yes swapmagic, softmods and isoloaders	No	Yes drivechips, softmods and isoloaders	Yes drivechips, softmods and isoloaders	Yes drivechips, softmods and isoloaders	Yes drivechips, softmods and isoloaders	No
Peripherals
Function \ Platform	PC	PS1	PS2	PS3	PS4	Wii	WiiU	Xbox	Xbox360	Xbox One	Remarks
Mouse	Yes	Yes (proprietary)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Keyboard	Yes	Yes (proprietary)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Harddrive (Internal)	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Harddrive (External)	Yes	No	Yes (when modified)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Printer	Yes	No	Yes (with Linux)	Yes (some Canon, Epson and HP)	?	No	No	No	No	No
Storage
Function \ Platform	PC	PS1	PS2	PS3	PS4	Wii	WiiU	Xbox	Xbox360	Xbox One	Remarks
Memory	Only limited by userchosen hardware	3.5 MB	26 MB	512 MB	8 GB	91 MB	2 GB	64 MB	512 MB	8 GB
Disc Storage (max)	Only limited by userchosen hardware	650 MB	8.54 GB	50 GB	50 GB	8.54 GB	25 GB	8.54 GB	8.54 GB (15-30 GB HD-DVD)	50 GB
Audio + Video Output
Function \ Platform	PC	PS1	PS2	PS3	PS4	Wii	WiiU	Xbox	Xbox360	Xbox One	Remarks
Video Resolution	Only limited by userchosen hardware	256×224 to 640×480	256×224 to 1920×1080	480i/576i SD up to 1080p HD	up to 1080p HD (games) / up to 3840×2160 (Video/Photo)	up to 480i/480p/576i	up to 1080p	up to 1080i	up to 1080p	up to 3840×2160 (unsure which content)
Audio	Only limited by userchosen hardware	analog stereo + Dolby Surround/Dolby Pro Logic	analog stereo + Dolby Surround/Dolby Pro Logic, optical Dolby Digitial/DTS	analog stereo + Dolby Surround/Dolby Pro Logic, optical Dolby Digitial/DTS	analog stereo + Dolby Surround/Dolby Pro Logic, optical Dolby Digitial/DTS, LPCM 1.0, 2.0 and 5.1 over HDMI	analog stereo	analog stereo, LPCM 1.0, 2.0 and 5.1 over HDMI	analog stereo (optical with added Xbox Advanced AV Pack or Xbox High Definition AV Pack for optical Dolby Digitial/DTS)	analog stereo + Dolby Surround/Dolby Pro Logic, optical Dolby Digitial/DTS, on models with HDMI: LPCM 1.0, 2.0 and 5.1 over HDMI	analog stereo + Dolby Surround/Dolby Pro Logic, optical Dolby Digitial/DTS, LPCM 1.0, 2.0 and 5.1 over HDMI

Note:

• The GameStick, NVIDIA Shield, Ouya, and Steam Box are attempting to compete in this market; however these are seldom referred to as "eighth generation consoles".
• There are legitimate ways to enjoy media using XBMC/OpenELEC on many devices (e.g. Ouya, Raspberry Pi, PC etc.). You can watch virtually anything anywhere anyhow, without needing a subscription, signup, online connection or any other means that lock you out of your rights or trying to steal your money with monthly fees.

Non PS4 disc errors

inserting non-PS4 discs gives you a various errors.

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(What happens When You stick This Type Of Disc In Your PS4)

Disc	Icon	Result	Time
PS1-CD	"Unsupported Disc"	"This disc is not supported by the PS4"	0:37
PS2-CD	"Unsupported Disc"	"This disc is not supported by the PS4"	N.A.
PS2-DVD	"Unsupported Disc"	"This disc is not supported by the PS4"	1:14
PS3-BD	"Unsupported Disc"	"Cannot play Playstation®3 format disc"	2:41
DVD-movie	"DVD"	"Button Guide" and plays fine	3:17
Blu-Ray movie	"Blu-Ray Disc™"	"Do you want to allow Blu-Ray Disc™ videos to connect to the Internet while they are playing?" and plays fine	6:31
X360	"DVD"	plays the DVD movie track "To play this disc, put it in an Xbox 360 console"	10:00
Wii	"Corrupted Data"	"The data is corrupted"	11:03
Swap Magic DVD	"Unsupported Disc"	"This disc is not supported by the PS4"	11:48
Swap Magic CD	"Unrecognised Disc"	"Cannot recognise the disc"	12:32
PS4-BD	TitleID and param.sfo set images	(KillZone™ Shadow Fall)	13:11

Upgrade to PS4 instead of PS3 Backwards Compatibility

• http://us.playstation.com/digitalupgrade/ (only a select number of titles, for $9.99)

In-browser emulation

please report back if they worked or not

• http://blog.archive.org/2013/12/26/a-second-christmas-morning-the-console-living-room/