PS3 Firmware Update, Heavenly Sword Demo This Week

PlayStation 3 owners are getting a couple of new toys this week. The official Sony blog has announced that the US will see firmware update 1.90 within the next few days. Gamasutra has further details on the patch, which includes a number of functionality improvements: "Ability to rearrange games on the XMB, Option menu now includes 'eject disk', Press triangle to eject games/CDs/movies in the XMB, XMB backgrounds, Change the folder classification, Emoticons, Change CD output to 44.1/88.2/176.4kHz, Force 24Hz output for Blu-ray over HDMI, Change PS3 video settings in-game, 'Bit Mapping' in the 'Music Setting', Save AVCHD type animations from a Memory Stick, Change settings like upscaling while playing PS and PS2 games, Add bookmarks, Web browser security function in the browser's tool section." Indications are also that a demo for Heavenly Sword will be coming soon. Europe is getting it this Thursday, with no firm word on a US date yet.

Comments

Re:24 Hz?

[snarlydwarf]

You do know movies are 24fps, right?

Do they fool your eye?

Guitar hero controller

[Groghunter]

support would be nice, wonder if any of this does that, with rocks the 80s coming out tommorow and all...

Amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe how fast and how many features Sony is adding to the PS3 system software. Sounds like 2.0 is up next with the in game XBM access, and then Home hits. Rock solid and very quiet well built machine. Can't wait to get my hands finally on Heavenly Sword, looks incredible. It feels like the PS3 is the only next gen machine on the market right now.

Re:Amazing

[HTH NE1]

I assume XMB does not stand for XYBASE Message Broker? That just leaves Xtreme Math Baseball, Xtreme Math BasketBall, or Extreme Message Board as the less likely alternatives to Cross Media Bar (Sony user interface).

My PS3 is expected to arrive tomorrow, so I'm not that familiar with its features yet. I even transposed a couple letters and thought was talking about X-Windows BitMapped (XBM) graphics files.

Re:Amazing

[Doctor_Jest]

My slim PS2 (1st-gen slim) gets hotter than my PS3, I've noticed... though, the exhaust port of the PS3 is easy to find. ;) heheh. I think they did a PHENOMENAL job in cooling the system. Microsoft could learn a thing or two about cooling from Sony this go round... whisper quiet, and efficient at expelling heat.

I love my PS3. :)

Re:24 Hz?

[Chris Burke]

I'm just here to point out that there's a big difference between fps in a movie/tv show and a video game. Video games create still images that are perfectly sharp based on where every object is at the instant in time that the image represents. For a video game, 30fps is a bare minimum for what we would call "playable" today, though the human eye can easily distinguish frame rates above 100 (probably higher than your monitor refresh rate). Movies and TV, by virtue of being filmed, are blurred due to the motion of whatever is being filmed over the period in which that frame is exposed. This inherent blur means that you can get away with a much lower frame rate and still fool the human brain, and is why a normal movie filmed at 24 fps provides a much more convincing impression of continuous motion than a video game at 70fps.

Re:24 Hz?

[Chilijohn]

1080p24 content from Blu-Ray is best viewed on a display compatible with 24fps output to reduce motion artifacts like judder. 24hz playback is already available, but some display devices do not negotiate display modes properly over HDMI. This option is necessary for optimum playback in some instances and GREATLY appreciated by those who need it.

Re:24 Hz?

[Anonymous Coward]

Theater movies:

24 pysical frames per second, but each frame is shown twice for an 48 frames seen per second. This reduces flicker and helps trick the eye.

TV:

29.9997 dude... go read ntsc

Re:Any reason...

[Chilijohn]

The DVD Copy Control Association's CSS license, required for legitimate DVD playback, limits DVD output to 480p over component video. DVI/HDMI or VGA can legally support upscaled output, however, a DVI/HDMI standalone must use HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, such a terrible acronym) encryption for the upscaled digital output AFAIK. Of course not everyone fully abides by these rules. Zenith had a model DVB-318 that did component video 720p/1080i upscaling, but they got the hurt put on them and "fixed" that with future firmware revisions. Also, the Oppo Digital OPDV971H player does not utilize HDPC on the DVI output.

Harumph

[goldcd]

Only thing I'm waiting for from the PS3 is the ability to replace XBMC on my old Xbox (which is wonderful, but doesn't quite have the grunt for x264).
Media Centre extender is clever, but way too fussy with it's formats (and transcoding is a pain in the arse) - PS3 supports x264, but is a bit fussy with the wrappers (from my understanding).
Maybe that much touted Linux thing will help, but I want something more than games to justify an expensive place under my TV.

Re:Harumph

[Fulg]

Fully agree with you on the need for something like XMBC on the PS3. Actually, you don't even need to; it's already there in the XMB!

I was quite surprised to find that the built-in media streaming features of the PS3 are an almost perfect replacement to XBMC (I just got my PS3 last week, taking advantage of the "fire sale"). The PS3 can already access all your media shared via UPnP, like the Xbox 360 (and "recent" XBMC builds).

There is absolutely no comparison to the built-in streaming of the Xbox 360 -- the PS3 interface is actually usable, and the connection to your media server always works (on the 360 the "discovery" process is very hit-and-miss, and it often loses the connection after a PC or 360 reboot).

It's not quite XBMC yet, but it's close. I can finally stream HD content that my old Xbox 1 was struggling with....

Regarding transcoding, I've set up TVersity (which I already had for XBMC and Xbox 360) and couldn't be happier. The PS3 sees my DivX or x264 or mkv stuff as MPEG-2 streams, which (I assume) is less taxing on the CPU to transcode to than WMV. I can now stream 720p HD in realtime, something I couldn't do on the Xbox 360, using my "puny" P4 3.4GHz. Compared to the 360, there is no delay when starting a video, despite the fact that it is transcoded...!

So far the only problems is that transcoded media loses the AC3 sound (apparently this is a TVersity limitation, but I didn't really look into it), and you obviously can't REW/FFWD until the transcoding is completed. Videos can also be copied (thus transcoded) locally to the PS3 and then viewed with all features enabled, including a live preview in the XMB (so not safe for pr0n!). Apparently TVersity also has a transcode-and-save option but I didn't find it.

Another "awesome" feature (for tech-loving geeks) if you have a PSP is Remote Play. You can basically remote-control the PS3 from the PSP, and media played on the PS3 is streamed to the PSP, including your HD videos! Naturally they are downscaled quite a bit to be streamable, but it was quite amazing to be able to access all of my media, including videos, anywhere around the house from the PSP.

I think by now I sound like a Sony shill, but I assure you this is not the case, I am just truly impressed. With all the crap Sony is pulling recently, the last thing I expected is for the PS3 to actually replace my trusty XBMC box :)

Re:24 Hz?

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Movies are shot at 24fps, PAL/European HDTV at 25fps (50i or 25p), NTSC/American HDTV ~30fps (60i or 30p). For PAL, movies are speeded up by 4%, for NTSC at 30fps a 3:2 pulldown process has to be used.

People complain that 3:2 causes judder, yes to some extent, but the original content suffers from judder also. Judder is a problem with 24fps, the cinematographer has to follow pan tables (it states how fast to pan when using a lens at x focal length and shutter speed) to avoid judder. Judder is also problem with progressive HDTV. Most TV camera operators do not have experience with film, and are used to the 50i/60i video style. They film, pan the image and judder is seen. Also, judder is more noticeable with higher resolution images and small depth of field produced by HD cameras having a small sensor (compared to 35mm of a movie camera).

Re:Folding@Home, autoplay, and Video Switching

[powerlord]

When you are turning on the PS3, just keep holding the power button on the front of the unit for a few seconds. After about 4-10 seconds (I forget how long), the system resets the video input so it will display over whatever video outputs are currently connected and active.

Alright, eject!

[TraumaHound]

Fucking finally! I've been watching Talladega Nights for eight months!

Re:24 Hz?

[jackbird]

Actually, the rotary shutter on the projector has two cutouts, so the image flickers at 48 Hz, even though the image only changes every other flicker.

Re:24 Hz?

[Trogre]

And it's been that way for far too long. I find pans and tilts difficult to track in theatres as they come across horribly jittery unless they're done extremely slowly.

The only way I can really enjoy sweeping pans in movies is with an interpolating TV like 100Hz ones with the Philips Natural Motion chip.

This is where both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD really missed the boat. They should be pushing film studios to change to a much more natural-looking 48fps (or 50 or 60 for TV compatibility if necessary). Or failing that interpolate the motion themselves. Hell, they already have the motion vectors from all that MPEG compression.