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PS2 Getting DVD Upgrade & Progressive Video?
blues5150 writes "ZDNET is reporting that Sony is going to be upgrading the PlayStation 2. According to the article "The new design will support most recordable DVD media, including DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW. The new PS2 will also support "progressive scan", a playback method used by some TV sets for clearer images, and it will come with a built-in infrared receiver for using a remote control to control DVD playback." The bad part of all of this is that they don't have dates for availability in North America or Europe."
This is a weird step, all of the protection schemes sony has been putting on the PS2, and now they are taking steps to allow dvd-r/dvd-rw to be completly supported, maybe they think backing up is fair use? Isen't sony part of the RIAA? I am a bit confused.
Posting useless rant since 2003.
Wonder if it will support VCD's this time... that would be great
Hmmm, is the removal of the firewire port a sign that Sony is moving away from making PS2 a digital hub type appliance. Perhaps they are focusing on PS3 instead in this regard. It's interesting that they never really did anything in this regard. Even having simple dv editing (once you add a hd) would have been possible and one could have imagined that you could have done some cool effects.
Sony's also getting rid of the iLink/FireWire/1394 port, some people used this for linking multiple PS2's for multiplayer.
why upgrade the ps2 when the ps3 is coming out this year ?
At least mine does. Had an original one that didn't. Got this one at BestBuy about 4 months ago, and it has progressive scan as an option in the setup. It requires the use of a component cable, such as the monster GameLink(TM) 400.
Will there be an upgrade path for those of us with existing PS2's. Also I hope Sony are going to make this a PS2 - Special Edition, i.e. upgrade the CPU/graphics as well and as such they give it the ability to play new special games that won't work on the original PS2.
Now if they could have a special mode on new games that would take advantage of that cool.
Also the i.Link (firewire port is going). Only time I've seen it used is in a 3 screen display og Gran Turismo 3
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
And of course this will be another $300 for those of us who already bought the thing.
If we want the new features that is.
I'm not even THINKING about it until I hear it supports VCDs. I know the quality of a VCD is terrible compared to DVD, but a VCD is comparable to my camcorder and is sometimes the only format in which some Chinese and Japanese material is available.
I was PISSED when I tried to play a VCD of my sister's wedding in my PS2 and it didn't work.
The sickening thing is that the DVD player in the PS2 was based on hardware that CAN play VCDs, they just disabled it.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Sony SCPH 50000
Why age they getting rid of the Firewire Port? I actually have games that us it! I never understood the logic of putting expansion bays on products, then, because of "lack of support" remove it later, after I have something that uses it, forcing an interesting situation. Probbably I won't be able to use the Linux kit with the new model either. I'm willing to bet that the US release ditches the HD slot as well, as it seems that there is little chance of it being used outside of the linux kit.
Bork Bork Bork!!
I'm really suprised that burned DVD's will be supported. It looks like the reasoning is for DVD movie playback, but to me it looks like its inviting movie/game piracy. There must be more to it then just playing any burned DVD, but whatever protection is used is just asking to be hacked. I really don't see where Sony is going with this one.
take off every sig for great justice
I think due to the design of the PlayStation 2's highly-integrated mainboard you can forget about upgrading the video output of current PS2's in the North Ameerican and European to support progressive scan video. =(
It's more likely that we'll see new-production PS2's that will sport progressive-scan outputs using the three-RCA connector component video connection found here in the USA or the special component video connector used in Europe.
The bad part of all of this is that they don't have dates for availability in North America or Europe
From i4u:
On May 15th Sony starts selling the SCPH 50000 model of the PS2 in Japan. The biggest improvement is the support of DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R und DVD+RW. DVD-RAM. Additionally the annoying Fan noise was reduced significantly (30%). The TV Output supports progressive scan now for better screen quality on high-end TV-Sets. The updated remote control (SCPH-10420) features an eject button and can also power down the console. No date available for the US release of the SCPH 50000. In Japan it will sell for 25,000yen.
Progressive scan and a quieter fan. This makes the PS2 much more compatible with home theatre setups. One of the things I don't like about the current PS2 is it's extremely loud fan (well if you're watching "quiet" movies or listening to music).
One "benefit" to Sony with supporting dvd-r is that they will probably sell more dvd-r burners now. Someone mentioned vcd, it makes no sense to support vcd as doing so will not drive more sales of other Sony products. I know that I'm more likely to buy a burner now since we use the PS2 as our primary dvd player and we are constantly worrying about the kids scratching up their dvd's.
The current PS2 IR remotes require a receiver to be plugged into one of the controller ports. The receiver allows a normal controller to be plugged into it as well so you can still use both ports, though. The integrated receiver is just a matter of convenience, I would think. Having a controller plugged into the receiver makes it a little bulky too, IMO.
Sony sold a huge number of PS2s in Japan for the launch, but didn't see the launch game sales to match the console sales. DVD movie sales in Japan, however, skyrocketed at the launch of the PS2.
The PS2 was never used as much for DVD playback in North America. Neither was the Xbox. The DVD video quality in both consoles isn't as good as stand alone players; and the Xbox requires a $30 remote just to open up DVD playback. DVD playback is a nice little feature to have, but it certainly isn't necessary. I want my game consoles to play games; I have a DVD player to watch movies on.
That's strange - I wonder why they would want to support more formats that are currently be used for piracy, especially when most DVD-R's work fine. What they should really focus on is the quality of the lasers they use in their drives. They are already on the 7th or 8th revision of the PS2 board, and they STILL haven't gotten a decent laser that doesn't crap out after a few months of heavy use. When I bought Xenosaga (their first dual-layered DVD game), I had to swap my PS2 with a friend's whose was only a month old. It would skip on my PS2 and two others I tried the game on. I even returned it for another disc with the same results. Get your laser to work with existing media properly before opening the door to even more piracy!
No. It was an add-on that went into a joystick port. Aftermarket versions had a joystick pass thru, but I don't beleive the Sony branded ones did. You could always use your remote as a controller though.
If you bought your wife a PS/2 for Christmas this year, I'd bet you're STILL sleeping on the couch.
Seriously. Even the most
advanced PS/2 Models only had a Pentium-60 chip.
Next time, don't be such a cheapskate. At least get one of those Lintendo systems from Walmart....
~NBVB
The Xbox has already been through a major hardware revision (v1.0 to 1.1) which offered many of the same improvements: it eliminated a 40mm fan from the GPU, which quietened the unit considerably, and replaced the bloody awful Thomson DVD drive with a shiny Samsung that can, for the first time in an Xbox, play CD-Rs (note that some units do still come with the middle-of-the-road Philips drive though). Oh, and it has a 20gig hard disk instead of the 8 in the original Xbox, too.
Funny how Sony made a song and a dance about it and Microsoft didn't, though. Not like MS to miss a marketing trick.
You win again, gravity!
Yes but you must use one of the controller ports for the infared receiver. This one apparently will be built in.
by this year they meant this decade.
Damn...Companies sure know how to screw their loyal fans. I bought my PS2 the week it came out. First, there were the price cuts. These are somewhat understandable, with competition and all, but it burns my ass paying $100 more for the same product. Then, it was a cheaper PS2, plus games bundled in. Now, it's a PS2.1. Shoot, I can understand lower prices or pack-in games, but giving the system features, ahhhhh, it screws over the loyal.
3VIL N3V3R SL33PS...PH33R TH3 3VIL
especially in Japan where it is looked down upon. Improving the drive read ability isn't really going to increase piracy anyway, your console would still need to be chipped - and the sort of person who chips his PS2 is the sort of person who's going to have been fiddling with resistors to get it working now anyway.
Sony is probably responding to the person who's bought his lovely Vaio laptop, bought his lovely Sony DVD writer to record his holiday video shot on his Sony Video Camera and is very pissed off when his DVD doesn't work in his Sony Playstation2.
whooooa, wait a second... on one hand, sony is a major critic of recording media, citing in their case against Napster (along with the RIAA) that CD/R sales are up but CDs are down. The music industry, which Sony is a major player in, has been trying to devolop CDs that won't work in a PC, and CD players that won't read CD/Rs.
Then on the other hand, now they're implementing DVD drives that can read actually DVD/Rs. Jesus, next thing you know, Sony might start devoloping devices that help you listen to mp3's...
Seriously, does anyone else see the irony?
"In a Democracy, people get the kind of government they deserve." -Winston Churchill
I can't speak for everybody - but when I chipped my Xbox I dropped in a big 120 Gig drive. I toyed with the idea of buying a DVD writer, but it seemed way too much trouble and expense. Much easier just to store everything on the Xbox Hard Disk and have your own Gaming jukebox.
For reference, I believe The Getaway, SOCOM: US Navy Seals, and Guitly Gear X2 are examples of games that do prog scan output. And only in 480p.
My guess is, since the hardware support is already built in, this is a dvd driver update and might become available to all of those who had already bought our PS2s. Of course, I could be wrong completely...
It's less than a month to E3 and Sony will want to make any announcement about a western version of this system there, to maximise publicity.
The SCPH-50000's big difference is that it supports progressive scan for DVD playback, has an integrated IR receiver and removes the firewire port.
Games have always been able to do 480p on all consumer PS2s. Very few games do this because you need a 720x480 framebuffer instead of the usual 640x448 or 512x448. This is because the pixel clock is 1440 units per scanline in 480p instead of 2560 in 480i - you can only set whole multiples of clocks per pixel, hence the constraints. No consumer PS2 has ever had progressive scan DVD playback. Since Xbox doesn't do progressive scan for DVDs either this is a nice little sales bullet point for Sony.
Sony absolutely will not change the CPU or GPU in any way games can detect. Their whole business model is based around games having as large a potential market as possible. As soon as you split the hardware base like that you split your market. This is also why they won't add controller ports.
The removal of the firewire port is surprising to me given that GT3 uses it for system link play (and for the cool 3-monitor single player view) but I would imagine market research told them not enough people are using it for it to be worthwhile. Either that or people are standardising on USB or Ethernet.
Graham
I bought my PS2 the day they came out, as a dual-use DVD player and console. Worked fine for about a year and then I got bit by the now-infamous Disk Read Error.
After the usual cleanings and whatnot the problem degraded to the point where I just got fed up and bought a brand new PS2. This time, I checked the model numbers very carefully. Here's what I found... there have been at least 7 revs, all with new capabilities. The first number of your serial indicates what you have:
Serial Number on rear of machine begins with:
version 1 = serial number (refer to yellow rectangle in right of image) start with "U1" and has 10 case screws.
version 2 = serial number (refer to yellow rectangle in right of image) start with "U0" and has 10 case screws.
version 3 = serial number (refer to yellow rectangle in right of image) start with "U2" and has 10 case screws.
version 4 = serial number (refer to yellow rectangle in right of image) start with 'U3' 'U4' 'U5' or a 'U6' and has a total of 8 case screws.
version 5 = model number contains the letter 'R' (refer to the red rectangle in right side of image) at the end (example SCPH-30001 R).
version 7 = 3900X is the new PS2 Version 7 (what I have)
Once you have esatblished what version you have, examine the limitations using this chart:
Version 1 - Basic playstation 1&2 Games no dvd-r,dvd-rw compatability, NO DVD+R, NO DVD+RW COMPATABILITY
Version 2 - Basic playstation 1&2 Games dvd-r,dvd-rw compatability, NO DVD+R, NO DVD+RW COMPATABILITY
Version 3 - Basic playstation 1&2 Games dvd-r, compatability, NO DVD+R, NO DVD-RW,NO DVD+RW COMPATABILITY
Version 4 - Basic playstation 1&2 Games dvd-r compatability, NO DVD-RW, NO DVD+R, NO DVD+RW COMPATABILITY
Version 5 - Basic playstation 1&2 Games dvd-r compatability, MILD DVD-RW, MILD DVD+R, MILD DVD+RW COMPATABILITY
SECOND GENERATION PS2 VERSION 7 - (SECOND GENERATION PS2) Basic playstation 1&2 Games DVD+R,DVD+RW,DVD-R,DVD+RW compatability
Also, the latest version (available now) does away with the 2MB code that had to sit on your 8MB card just to use the DVD remote. It also seems a bit faster to load, and the fan noise is quieter.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Will there be any way to upgrade exististing PS2s when the new drive comes out, or will the purchase of a new unit be necessary?
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
v8 seemed to be a test bed for some new anti DVD-r protection. They added some extra checks for DVD media on this model (which have already been cracked by two mods).
Bottom line is that new DVD game media checks were added on the v8 console, these are most deffinatly going to roll over to the v9 if not getting improved in the process. This is to protect sony from burned games since the console will read burned media so well now.
As for progressive output, yes the ps2 had support for progressive output but in games only, DVD progressive output requires a de-interlacer which the current PS2 models do NOT sport. It is impossible for the current ps2 models to output progressive DVD movie output.
This new model will also allow the remote to turn the console on/off and eject the drive tray with a newer model of remote. The older remote requires the controller port IR dongle and does not support eject power on/off features.
As far as modding is concerned, its a wait and see situation. Hope is always there for compatability with v8 compatable mods but sony may have very well added some other sort of check.
If it supported mp3 and dvdrw then happy days. Alas it appears not
With a mod you can boot the divx player and play mp3s from there
There is a new model comming soon (unknown when) SCPH-55000 that is speculated to include a 40gig HDD and NIC (Maybe modem also?). Exspected retail price is around US $350
Uncle Thursday
---Too many posts, not enough witt.---
The problem with making it a driver update is that it's not just a matter of magically transforming the video. Creating progressive scan output requires use of one of several different possible algorithms to 'de-interlace' the video, and some methods are better for some video formats (movie, television, etc) than others. A 'generic' progressive scan DVD player could just use a single deinterlacing method, but the results could be worse than a standard interlaced player (I've heard of one Philips DVD player with just that problem). I'm not sure how easy it would be to create a 'driver' to handle all of that for the existing PS2 model.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
You could always use your remote as a controller though.
Either you have that backwards, or I just found the worst way to play Gran Turismo.