Who else has issues with PSN party chat?

cokecan

cokecan

cokecan

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I really like my PS4. It was a welcomed change from the 360 and the few games I've played I'm enjoying.....

.....until I get to online chat. Ignoring the fact I can't use a slim Bluetooth headset (why?!), I've spent ages looking for a half decent wired headset (single basic earpiece and mic) that doesn't cost the earth. Now that I've finally found one I like, it seems every week I arrange to do some gaming with friends only to find we spend an hour fiddling with settings because party chat has stopped working again for the nth time! I don't get much time during the week to game so this really pee's me off.

I'm fed up of testing my internet connection, fed up of double checking the ports I have open, fed up of reading forums for fixes, fed up of restarting routers. I'm just generally fed up of it.

Rant over!
Genuine questions:

Does anyone else experience any issues with the party chat on PSN? I find the audio quality to be shockingly poor some nights, others its crisp as anything, then tonight one of my friends can only hear every other word I'm saying while another friend can hear everything fine while I can hear them fine.

Exactly what ports need to be open? It seems that depending on which regions page on the Playstation support site you look at you get different ports:

http://faq.en.playstation.com/app/a...-and-udp)-port-numbers-to-connect-online-with

https://support.us.playstation.com/.../~/firewall-port-numbers-to-play-games-online

I assume I only need the SCEA ports in the first link?

We've all got a type 2 NAT and I'm pretty confident that we've all got our routers configured correctly (though the stuttering chat does feel like a port issue). We all use Asus routers with Tomato installed, I'm on Plusnet and they are both on Virgin Media. A couple of friends have tried the DMZ with no effect also.

A few times we've recieved the NAT-type limitation error even though nothing has changed bar the date that we are gaming!

Anything else I can try or test?
 
Honestly its your connections/setup, other than when PSN gets really busy or was DDOS its been (surprisingly) bulletproof.

The only recurring issue I get is sometimes a random person (usually someone with a crap connection IME) has a NAT error where dropping in and out of party chat normally resolves it. If that doesnt work we normally just get them to reboot PS4s and/or routers.

Whenever Im on Destiny Im in some party so outside the last couple of months pretty much all my PS4 gaming has been within a party chat...

N.B. Im on VM and always had my PS4 wired and DMZed

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Everyone does, PSN and all of its connected services like party chat are awful an years behind live :(

Today was ok, only one person in our chat got randomly kicked out!
 
I haven't used it as much as some people here I imagine, but I can't say I've had a problem with voice comms at all on the PS4; it's far more reliable than on the PS3.
 
I only use Party Chat once or twice a week but having owned the ps4 since launch I've never had a single problem with it.
 
Based on what it's been like it does feel like someone has a NAT issue but all the tests come back clean which isn't helpful.

Has anyone added any ports and if so what ports did you use?
 
I can't see stuttering and audio issues being related to NAT - it'll either work it won't.

Only time we do get stuttering when someone with a low upload speed has something else going on which is saturating their connection. The other times have been their ISP throttling or interfering with the PSN traffic during certain hours.
 
cokecan said:
Based on what it's been like it does feel like someone has a NAT issue but all the tests come back clean which isn't helpful.

Has anyone added any ports and if so what ports did you use?
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Id recommend just DMZing your console - no one is gonna hack it :p. About as clean as you can go without resorting to direct connecting your PS4 to your modem...
andshrew said:
I can't see stuttering and audio issues being related to NAT - it'll either work it won't.

Only time we do get stuttering when someone with a low upload speed has something else going on which is saturating their connection. The other times have been their ISP throttling or interfering with the PSN traffic during certain hours.
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Agreed...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
I've never had a problem with quality hearing and/or mic problems.

Normally just have problems with how long it takes to create a party, invite and/or join one in the evenings. If it wasn't for that i'd say it is normally faultless.
 
ps3ud0 said:
Id recommend just DMZing your console - no one is gonna hack it :p. About as clean as you can go without resorting to direct connecting your PS4 to your modem...

Agreed...

ps3ud0 :cool:
Click to expand...

lol not worried about someone hacking my console. I can't DMZ it because it breaks my VPN access annoyingly. Opening the correct ports and making sure upn enabled should be more than enough, I just need to confirm the correct ports
 
I used to have issues with party chat. It was down to having 2 routers on the same network. Got rid of one of them and all has been fine since.
 
My network is pretty simple, with just an OpenReach modem and Asus router. The only complexity is that I have a Cisco Meraki access point providing wifi instead of the Asus router but that won't be adding any complexity into this situation as I'm cabled up lol

The others that are on VM have the superhub in modem only mode and the same Asus router that I have running.

I wish it was just a case of multiple routers on the same network :)
 
I can't actually remember the last time i had a problem with PSN chat. It seems to be quite reliable as far as i'm concerned.

Messages however.....one day they'll load really fast, the next day it can seem like ten minutes for a message to come through. :(
 
Are you using the DS4?

Well the audio quality and bluetooth connection on it is crap. If you have a lot of bluetooth devices in your home then you will have irregular issues when it all of a sudden drops connection for a split second or goes all weird then be normal again. There is nothing you can do about the SQ issue other than use a USB headset or buy a mixamp or a DAC, DS4 outputs terrible SQ.

I'm used to using an AUNE T1 with a decent tube valve on my pc connected to AKG Q701's
 
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I am using the DS4 with a simple 4-pole 3.5mm jack/headset. I use an AV amp with some decent Mission speakers for all game audio and have no interest in a gaming headset.

USB is also not really an option because the console is maybe 2 meters away from me and I'd rather not have cables trailing everywhere.

While I see what you mean about Bluetooth, I don't think this is the issue. Currently this is what we are seeing:

Person A can hear Person B and vice versa
Person B can hear Person C and vice versa
Person A can hear Person C but per Person C gets stuttery mic from Person A

I've got a bit of time this evening to check settings on my network and also one of my friends so we'll see if there's anything out of place
 
Ask them how many Bluetooth devices they have in their home?

I have 2 smart tvs, 3 tablets, 5 smartphones, Bluetooth sound bar, Bluetooth speakers, etc etc.

I do get issues with it all the time
 
I have not had a single problem with it. Me and 2 friends often have a party chat while we are playing COD/Driveclub/Etc and I get clear audio with no issues at all with my old Sony Wireless Stereo Headset. My friend has some slight issues where he will drop out of the party at random but I am certain that is to do with his router and once he reboots his router it works fine.
 
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