I was wondering about that myself... The license fee cannot be that expensive. It is interesting that in order to use BDs or DVDs you have to activate that feature online (or buy an activation disc). I suppose they do not want to pay licensing fees unless the user wants to watch movies.
I don't think that is it. Anyone who connects their PS4 to the internet will get the software update whether they watch movies or not. Sony includes software updates on first party games for people who don't connect to the internet too. Another option is to download the update to a PC and install it to the PS4 via a USB flash drive. I think it's safe to say that almost 100% of PS4 owners will get this update one way or another.
I think the reason this wasn't included from the start probably had something to do with them trying to get as many consoles built as possible before launch. Because of software updates, they are able to start production on hardware even before the software is ready to get as many units built as possible.
Here is my guess on the CD issue and I'll admit I don't understand how optical drives work. I don't know if one laser is capable of reading Blu-ray, DVD, and CD disks. The disks are the same size but the formats are different. Maybe they had to include additional hardware if they wanted CD support. These companies try to cut down every bit of production costs they can. That might explain the lack of CD support, especially if there weren't a ton of people using that feature.
I still think CD functionality should have been included but I would have been fine without it if the PS4 had DLNA support. This is the craziest omission out of all of them to me. Most of us store our music collection on our computers these days. The lack of CD support wouldn't be as big of a deal if we still had access to our music libraries over a home network like we did on PS3.
I streamed music from my PC to my 360 all the time during online multiplayer games and I loved that feature. Sony is finally giving us background music support like the 360 has had for years and they take away every option to get our library of music to the PS4. No CD playback, no DLNA, and no MP3 support? The only way to use their new custom music feature on the PS4 is to subscribe to Sony Music Unlimited for $10 per month. No thanks.
The good news is that MP3 and DLNA support are probably things that can be added via a software update. The president of Sony Computer Entertainment is giving a little hope on twitter so hopefully this will be fixed soon. If CD support requires additional hardware we will never see that addressed though.
