The Digital Foundry Supporter Program has grown once again with the arrival of a brand-new show exclusive to backers. It’s a companion to DF Direct – hilariously entitled DF InDirect – and its initial format should be recognisable to viewers/listeners of our weekly show as it’s an extension to our existing Supporter Q+A section. The show is available to all backers on all tiers and it’s available to watch or listen to right now – and there’s a small sample on this page.
The idea for InDirect came about owing to the sheer wealth of excellent supporter questions we receive each week. The truth is, we get far too many to answer on the main show (which already tops two hours) while some of the questions require a bit of research before we should respond. That’s the case with the sampler below – supporter DaJaCo informed us of discussion surrounding a new upscaling patent lodged by Sony Interactive Entertainment and wanted to know what the idea was and its application in a potential PlayStation 5 Pro.
You can see our response below, but ultimately, the recent announcement from AMD itself that it’s looking for machine learning-based upscaling solutions for ‘game devices’ isn’t a particularly good fit for the mechanics of the patent. On top of that, many patents are filed but very few constitute detailed ‘tell all’ descriptions of actual shipping products. Based on our own thoughts and those of developers we’ve spoken to familiar with upscaling technology, this looks like an interesting thought experiment – but we’d be surprised to see this actually manifest in PlayStation 5 Pro.
Anyway, I hope you find the clip insightful – we answer nine more supporter questions in the full 87-minute show covering topics as diverse as resolution vs viewing distance (that old chestnut!), Microsoft’s collaboration with Intel, why we don’t see more 40fps game modes and the big 1440p vs 4K display debate. And this is just our first show – similar to DF Direct, we’ve got plans to build and evolve the concept over time, perhaps introducing a livestreaming element for supporters when we film.
So, yes, we’re finding our way on this one. InDirect may be monthly or bimonthly, for example, but the show itself will always be exclusive to our supporters. The one caveat? Excerpts may filter through to DF Clips, if it’s a good fit.
It’s at this point where I feel compelled to address how important the DF Supporter Program is. In the current environment, YouTube revenue is declining and the idea of being wholly reliant on an algorithm-based platform over which we have zero control has always been daunting for us. We don’t do clickbait titles, we don’t do sensational thumbnails and sponsorships are few and far between. All of these things are proven to work, but they aren’t a good fit for us.
DF is what it is – a small team trying its best to deliver unique and valuable work – but the Supporter Program is a massive enabler for us, not just in terms of making the numbers work but in creating a brilliant community that gives as good as it gets. Some of our best content has come from ideas generated by supporters – be it the AMD 4800S desktop kit piece, the Switch 2 T239 breakdown or most recently, the RX 6700 vs PS5 GPU head-to-head.
It’s also fun to share some fun mini-videos exclusively to supporters, whether it’s John Linneman’s first interactions with Palworld or just talking about an interesting HDMI device we found on Amazon. Our experiments with 4K 120fps and 8K 60fps capture? Our supporters joined us on that journey and it was fun to share behind the scenes progress.
DF InDirect is our latest ongoing project in giving back more to our community and to increase the value in backing our Supporter Program. I hope you enjoy it!