June 10, 2014

PS4 Share Factory

How-To 

With the last PS4 update a lot of changes have been made to increase the functionality of its gaming sharing capabilities from its Playstation Live feature to a new video editing suite called PS4 Share Factory. Some of the changes are cosmetic such as the look of the gaming streams or a simple upgrade like being able to add streamers by selecting ‘Options’ to go directly to their information. But the change to how your recorded videos and screenshots are organized and can be shared was a much-needed upgrade. The size of the upgrade is about 980MB and adds two new icons to the home screen, Capture Gallery and SHAREFactory. Capture Gallery is the revamped Share feature storage, which maintains the sorting of screenshots and videos by game. But now you can organize them within that folder by last played or by name so it’s easier for you to find the videos or screenshots you want, and it’s possible to preview all the pics with the push of a button instead of starting the process of uploading them just to have a bigger view of the image. And I can’t stress how being able to scroll through them using R1 and L1 makes the entire process much more enjoyable. You can also delete them in bulk as well by selecting Options and then Delete, and then you just check the files you want to remove. And now saving files on a USB drive is an option instead of uploading files you don’t want others to see just yet to either Facebook or Twitter, or just don’t want to spam your feed. With a USB drive connected you just select the options button and then Copy to USB Storage Device, and then select the files you want to copy and you’re all set.

Now, SHARE factory gives you the capability to edit your videos before uploading by adding intros, commentary or other features so you can truly make the video your own. When you open SHARE factory you’re given the option to start a new project or select one from My Projects. You can edit a video up to 20 minutes long (or 40 different clips), which includes the intro and outro, and can be clips from any games you desire. You start by selecting a theme, determines which intro, outro, custom stickers and transitions are available for use in your video. There are standard themes that are immediately available but some games have their own themes available for use such as Infamous: Second Son. After selecting a theme, you can select the various clips that you want to add to your project you can then start editing the video by pressing the ‘X’ button.  There are a number of options to editing your video and you can select Choose FX to add filters, text, change the layouts, or various stickers. You can also add your own music by choosing the music option and then USB import, and can choose the music’s beginning and ending point in the video. If you want to edit the FX that you add such as opacity, color, etc. you have to select the ‘square’ button and then choose edit FX. And if you have the PS4 camera you can add your own commentary at various points.

If you want to trim a clip to make it look better before showing your friends or posting online you can just select the ‘square’ button, choose edit and you can use the left and right stick to choose the starting and ending point or L1 and R1 to trim video more accurately. Even though you can choose up to 20 minutes of video you’ll only be able to render 15 minutes of video so you’ll definitely have to trim the video before you can finish it. The 5 extra minutes makes it slightly easier to edit video clips in one shot instead of just trimming one and then going back and adding it to the project. And if you just want to trim a video without any special effects or commentary you can do so outside of SHARE factory as you’re given the option to trim right before you upload video. The tools are pretty straightforward to use, and with the recent announcement that Youtube will be coming to the PS4 you’ll be able to upload your videos directly to Youtube. I loved how easy it was to use the screenshot feature, and now with the addition of SHARE factory it’s almost as easy to edit video but it’s a lot more fun.