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Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Sony didn’t want to make a big deal about this (so humble, that Sony) but the PlayStation 3’s recent 2.50 firmware update has a few extra additions aimed straight at home theater buffs. First up is a place to enter your DivX VOD Registration code — necessary if you want to get any of that Sony Pictures or Warner Bros. DivX-encoded video that’s on the way — along with new Sequential Playback and 50Hz video output settings, plus support for chroma upsampling & Mosquito Noise Reduction video enhancement on homemade Blu-ray discs and DVDs. On a more minor note, the BD/DVD settings section has been renamed just Video Settings, while the Cinema Conversion and Upscale options are getting all their mail delivered to BD/DVD Cinema Conversion and BD/DVD Upscaler, respectively. Peep the PlayStation site for the rest of the exciting details (there’s a German keyboard layout change that is not to be missed), and then go back to watching Hulu in a tiny box with a poor framerate in your newly Flash-enabled browser.

[Via PS3 Blog]

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Source: Richard Lawler

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Even with today’s wireless video game controllers, you can’t stay untethered forever. After a few hours of gaming on the PlayStation 3, you’ll have to plug in that SIXAXIS or DualShock 3 USB cable to charge. Starting December 18th, Sony Japan will offer an AC adapter intended for PS3 controllers at a price of ¥2,800 (just under $30). Like third party solutions we’ve seen, it has two USB ports so you’ll be able to do two controllers or toss in a Bluetooth headset. Nothing yet on availability outside of Japan, but if we get word we’ll be all over it, ’cause we feel slightly guilty for leaving the PS3 on overnight to charge — what with the world’s dwindling energy supply and all.

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Source: Samuel Axon

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Filed under: Gaming

Well, color us surprised! Here we have yet another “limited edition” PlayStation 3 bundle, this time with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune packed in alongside a PlayStation Network voucher for PAIN, a DualShock 3 wireless controller and… a 160GB PS3 console? Yep, Sony’s formally introducing us to the new king, which will start shipping to North America this November in the aforementioned kit for $499.99. Curiously, there’s no word as to whether it’ll be released separate from the bundle (we’re guessing yes), and there’s no mention of PS2 backwards compatibility (so don’t count on it). In related news, the “new” $399.99 80GB version is finally shipping to retailers, so you should be able to snap one up in the very, very near future.

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Yeah, you read that correctly — the obsessive audiophiles / videophiles at the Criterion Collection use Sony’s PlayStation 3 as its reference Blu-ray player. In all honesty, we can’t say we’re too surprised. Time and again, Sony’s latest console has been rated very highly as a dedicated BD deck, and the plentiful firmware updates ensure that it’s always at the forefront of whatever interactive functionality is next. This snippet of factual goodness was extracted from a recent writeup that took an in-depth look at how the CC would be revamping its home theater, and even famed calibration guru Joe Kane gave his approval at using the console for playing back Blu-ray Discs. The real kicker? They also settled upon a DVIGear HDMI cable over one of those obscenely overpriced Ogre cables — and that was after running clean out of coat hangers.

[Via CNET]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Gaming

We got a chance to sit down with Sony Computer Entertainment of America’s CEO Jack Tretton, who gave us the lowdown about a few things we’ve had on our minds.

PS3
On backwards compatibility: Jack explained that Sony looked at how to “not take a greater hit on production cost, without losing PlayStation’s heritage … Hardware / software for backwards compat wasn’t all that expensive. … but we’re selling PS2 software to PS2 customers, and selling PS3 software to PS3 consumers.” Still, Jack seems to feel like it may have been the wrong move. “I would like to have had it in there, but Sony’s collective strategy determined we could afford to lose it. We’ve now gone down that road, and we’re not going back.”

On DRM and the video store: As of right now, Tretton is a firm supporter of the need to DRM content on the PlayStation platforms, and Sony believes that “the drm for a song maybe isn’t as important for a movie and a game… this is way too hard a business to make money in to allow people to own multiple copies for the price of one.” (That’s what they all say!) “I’m all for allowing an individual consumer having the freedom to do with their content what they want,” but Sony has no intention of opening its video up any more than it has to.

PSP
On drive or flash storage: Sony has “definitely thought about storage on the PSP,” and understands the inevitable “march towards digital content delivery device.” But in terms of a drive-based PSP, they have “nothing that’s imminent.” (Read: don’t hold your breath.)

On how downloadable video affects the already sad state of UMD: UMD “has struggled, and it wasn’t handled effectively from the beginning. … I firmly believe in a digital model” as they’re rolling out, but Sony is “still going to support UMD” as a device for movies.

What’s preventing PSP software sales: Three things. Title ports from PS2 games (people don’t want to buy the same title twice), and the PSP’s media functions. But Jack put the most emphasis on “piracy in the hundreds of thousands of units are preventing software sales. it’s a problem that affects our software sales right now.”Continue reading SCEA CEO Jack Tretton dishes: DRM is in, backwards compatibility is out, and video UMD lives on

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Source: Ryan Block

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Filed under: Gaming

Sony just announced at E3 that it’s cutting the price of the 80GB PS3 to $400 in September, and that the new model will have the “current functionality” of the 40GB PS3. So it’s really more like the 40GB PS3 is getting a capacity bump, since we’re taking that to mean backwards compatibility is going out the window. That also means that the 80GB PS3 now costs the same as a 60GB 360 and an Xbox Live membership, which should make the decision a little harder for some people. We’re also wondering if that’s the end of the line for PS3 backwards compatibility entirely — we have a feeling launch consoles are about to get a little more precious.

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Storage

Nyko’s got a knack for delivering some of the ugliest, most preposterous third-party peripherals on the planet, yet — for whatever reason — we can’t help but love ‘em. The latest abomination from the outfit that begins to grow on you almost immediately is the Media Hub for PlayStation 3. For those that went cheap on the 40GB PS3 and missed out on a multicard reader and the full array of USB ports, this here adornment presumably connects to one of those USB sockets and adds three more while tossing in the card reader you’ve so dearly missed. Thankfully, Nyko’s only charging $19.99 for this, so you should be okay even if your ship has yet to come in.

[Via Joystiq]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Gaming

It’s here kids, in-game XMB demonstrated on a firmware 2.40 PS3 for the first time. Yup, that’s the clock and date displayed upper-right with a quick hit of the PlayStation button. Sony also reveals that the 2.40 firmware update will deliver the Google search bar (like the PSP update last week) and the ability to play and control your own music stored on the hard drive in-game. See that and more in the video after the break.

Continue reading Video: In-game XMB demonstrated on PS3 v2.40

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Source: Thomas Ricker

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