PS3 Firmware 2.7 announced

[Shifty Geezer]

I also like in Killzone where you can hear your opponents when they're in close enough range, which typically includes after they killed you.

I didn't know that. nice feature and good for immersion, where when you talk becomes important if it will give away your position. Complimenting people on good play in often quite hard in online games where team chat is separated. In WH, I always set my server up with cross-team comms for that reason, but that then destroys tactics. I guess games would benefit from a deliberately 'broadcast to the opposition' option, suitably differentiated and managed so they know its the enemy speaking. the multiple chatrooms of 2.7 almost point to that as an option. It shouldn't be hard to be able to broadcast into another chat stream. There'd need to be an access junction between rooms/streams though.

 

[patsu]

I usually use the standard XMB messages to compliment the opponents after the game. If messaging is built into the game (like RFOM), I find that I complimented people more often.

* The room/clubhouse/apartment/public space that serves as a shared context where people contribute together in some ways. This may be across game (e.g., the text notifications specwarGP2 mentioned vis-a-vis in-game voice chat). In Playstation Home, the game itself can be hosted in the space (e.g., A Buzz! quiz can be hosted in Home)

* The party. Home allows users to create a session/party to launch into games. The XMB text chat does not have such a concept.

* The friends list, which is essentially an address book.

Just to add that... to complete the community experience, what Sony will need is the Highlights section. They usually come in the form of Activity Highlights or even Calendar of Events. They can be implemented as a web page on playstation.com (More organized than the PS Blog), RSS feed, or a dedicated channel in Life with Playstation (!). Right now, Playstation Home kinda emulate it using the Announcement pages in Home and the Xi Hub. They are fragmented this way (instead of having a consolidated Calendar for example). The Information Bar is a very very very poor way to do it.

The other way is to have background video running as a XMB transparent backdrop. The XMB is designed like a TV interface. If you don't do anything after the PS3 starts, it should go into "TV" mode (like a screen saver) automatically.


EDIT: Plus stuff to enhance:

* Longer messages

* Auto-login to chatrooms when I sign in to PSN (let the user set using the ^ button for each room, up to 3 of course)

* Let Home share the same text chat backend with XMB. I prefer to hover in Home and chat with people in the rooms (via private chat) and in the home spaces (via public/open chat) using the same UI.

 

[itch]

I'd like to see the PS button drop you straight into the open chatroom from the game and then back out.

It does. At least that's what I've been doing the couple times I played with it. Once in the chat room I never left. Hit the PS button to go back to the game. From the game the PS button took me straight back to the chat. It seemed real simple.

 

[tirminyl]

Yeah, the PS button takes you to wherever you were last.

I would like to see it automatically log me into the chat rooms when I sign in as Patsu mentioned.

 

[kierank]

I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems getting highdefnow to work on your PS3 and we'll be looking into these issues ASAP.

Hello,

It looks like the issues that you guys were seeing have been fixed.

You should be able to view all the HD videos on http://www.highdefnow.com without a problem on your PS3.

Thanks for your help. If there are still any problems please mention them either here or on the highdefnow forum.

Regards,

Kieran K

 

[Lucid_Dreamer]

I don't think this was mentioned, but there was an audio improvement for CDs and MP3s, in firmware 2.70.

Your music can now be 2-channel bitstreamed to your receiver, allowing you to use the matrix effects of your equipment. It works for MP3s and CDs, but set the Audio CD output frequency to 48kHz only.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=16176500&postcount=1

Previously, the PS3 use to only output 8 channels to your A/V receiver with 6 of them empty. This would prevent you from adding certain DSP effects to it (playing through subwoofers for extra bass, etc.).

 

[upnorthsox]

That's cool as I was listening to music thru Life on Playstation yesterday and I did notice that the sub was cranking and was wondering what was up.

 

[phat]

Previously, the PS3 use to only output 8 channels to your A/V receiver with 6 of them empty. This would prevent you from adding certain DSP effects to it (playing through subwoofers for extra bass, etc.).

Glad to see I wasn't the lone savant inconvenienced by this.

 

[patsu]

Hello,

It looks like the issues that you guys were seeing have been fixed.

You should be able to view all the HD videos on http://www.highdefnow.com without a problem on your PS3.

Thanks for your help. If there are still any problems please mention them either here or on the highdefnow forum.

Kieran, I tried access hidefnow.com again.

The videos still don't show when I click on the thumbnails. All the video pages loaded with no video area. However if I refresh the page, the video area will appear (Yay !).

Unfortunately, when I clicked on the play button in the middle of the poster image, I only saw a black video screen. I could hear the audio. The poster image would return once the video finished playing.

Also when the "High" quality video appeared, the 2 links below the video area were "Medium Quality" and "High Quality", implying that I was really playing the "Low Quality" video. The UI may be a little messed up.

 

[tirminyl]

I guess text-chat has really stirred people up. I like it and really enjoy it. I prefer Home chat for communication as I run around and do stuff, but it's nice to jump in and out of conversations whenever I please and have a log that I can ready to see what was recently discussed.

Of course I am a person that prefers written communication over voice. I rather text, email, or post on a forum to any of my real life friends and family vs using any voice communication with them. That would lead you to believe I am some anti-social guy but I am pretty outgoing in person.

 

[tha_con]

That's what Irks me the most about Tycho's comments, is that he seems to suggest anyone who enjoys the feature is a lemming. I suppose that's what got me riled up. I do not have Stockholm Syndrome...

I usually log into the B3D chat just to save the transcripts, it's awesome to log in later in the day and see what everyone was talking about

 

[obonicus]

That's what Irks me the most about Tycho's comments, is that he seems to suggest anyone who enjoys the feature is a lemming. I suppose that's what got me riled up. I do not have Stockholm Syndrome...

I usually log into the B3D chat just to save the transcripts, it's awesome to log in later in the day and see what everyone was talking about

What's irksome about the comment is that Stockholm Syndrome describes almost everyone who plays videogames, no matter the platform.

 

[AntShaw]

I don't think this was mentioned, but there was an audio improvement for CDs and MP3s, in firmware 2.70.


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=16176500&postcount=1

Previously, the PS3 use to only output 8 channels to your A/V receiver with 6 of them empty. This would prevent you from adding certain DSP effects to it (playing through subwoofers for extra bass, etc.).

I can't believe it took this long, but THANK GOODNESS.

 

[Arwin]

I think the problem with Tycho is exactly that it isn't just the cartoons. The cartoons are obvious comedy (although there are subtle hints that indicate how serious we are expected to take what's being said in the comic). However, in the accompanying texts Tycho tends to take both himself and the subject matter rather more serious. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it leaves a whole lot more room for disagreement than a comic does. Once you stop being funny, we can't just judge the product based on the chuckle it raised. You need something else, like, say, an argument.

But in all fairness, this particular one was written after a night out, apparently, as he states so himself at the bottom of the post. Being in the living room though, I'm much more likely to benefit from the text chat for non-gaming related stuff than from party chatting, that's for sure.

I do think his key argument is interesting - that you can block someone across all games, instead of within a single game ... weird!

 

[Asher]

There's nothing wrong with his post. It's perhaps a bit offensive, but only to people who are hypersensitive (which adds a delicious level of irony to the whole thing).

It's true. For the vast majority of people, text chat on a game console is beyond worthless. It's utterly bizarre why the PS3 doesn't have cross-game voicechat in 2009.

 

[obonicus]

There's nothing wrong with his post. It's perhaps a bit offensive, but only to people who are hypersensitive (which adds a delicious level of irony to the whole thing).

It's true, but it's overselective. As I said above, almost everyone who plays games suffers from Stockholm Syndrome (especially on consoles). Singling out PS3 owners as the only ones to make excuses for the flaws in their system is hypocritical. I'm not saying Tycho is biased or anything silly like that, just something about glass houses and throwing stones (it wouldn't be the first time PA was hypocritical, either).

It's true. For the vast majority of people, text chat on a game console is beyond worthless. It's utterly bizarre why the PS3 doesn't have cross-game voicechat in 2009.

It's certainly not 'beyond worthless' - text chat isn't removing value from your experience. At best it's worthless, and even that's overstating things -- text chat is a net positive, though not a huge one. And it's not so bizarre, either. Just looking over this forum you can come to a few good conclusion why things are what they are -- it's unreasonable to expect a consumer to 'feel sorry' for Sony, but the reasons behind them certainly aren't 'bizarre'. Finally, I'm pretty certain you don't speak for the vast majority of people so I don't think hyperbole helps the discussion here at all.

 

[tha_con]

There's nothing wrong with his post. It's perhaps a bit offensive, but only to people who are hypersensitive (which adds a delicious level of irony to the whole thing).

It's true. For the vast majority of people, text chat on a game console is beyond worthless. It's utterly bizarre why the PS3 doesn't have cross-game voicechat in 2009.

So then you haven't used text chat much on PS3, and you don't know how useful it can be. Well, that settles that!

Also, why exactly is it "bizarre" that the PS3 doesn't have cross-game voicechat? Not one of us knows what hurdles there might be. Technical, legal, etc.

Either way, the gaming experience on both consoles isn't that far apart, even with these silly features.

 

[inefficient]

I like the new text chat. I prefer it now over sending single messages to my friends, even if it was just a 2 person thing.

I went and bought the official text pad accessory too. Seems nice except for the "touchpad" type functionality it has which doesn't work that well. I'm sure I'm not the only one went and bought this because of this FW update. Sony must be pleased.

 

[specwarGP2]

There's nothing wrong with his post. It's perhaps a bit offensive, but only to people who are hypersensitive (which adds a delicious level of irony to the whole thing).

It's true. For the vast majority of people, text chat on a game console is beyond worthless. It's utterly bizarre why the PS3 doesn't have cross-game voicechat in 2009.

Don't you text on your phone? Texting on a console seems like the same the thing, and I (and many others) definitely prefer to text instead of making voice calls.

 

[patsu]

I went and bought the official text pad accessory too. Seems nice except for the "touchpad" type functionality it has which doesn't work that well. I'm sure I'm not the only one went and bought this because of this FW update. Sony must be pleased.

Not only Sony. Logitech should be getting some sales too. I met 2 people in the chat room who went out to buy a USB or BT keyboard in the middle of a chat.