PS3 multimedia features confirmed.

[patsu]

I'm waiting for PS3 DLNA info too since some elements of it has been demo'ed in CES 2006 on a PSP

CD ripping is something I forgot about, but it makes sense from Sony's perspective if they want people to start accumulating their digital assets on a PS3. My guess is we will hear more about extra/optional multimedia hardware and software over the next few months.

 

[DigitalSoul]

I hope they add MPEG4 playback in later updates of the OS. That would be nice.

 

[J_Saint]

I hope PS3 can stream audio/video off of networked storage. No way will I rip my music again when I already have it on my PC. While I can already stream to my 360, the system even in quiet mode is still too loud.

 

[Titanio]

I'm a bit surprised IGN (or is it famitsu?) describes both system startup and BR movie playback as taking less than 10 seconds, which according to them is 'fast'.

I guess you people could call me impatient...but upwards of 10 seconds isn't fast, okay?

It's faster compared to some other consoles, AFAIK.

 

[London Geezer]

And definitely faster than the Toshiba HDDVD player which takes up to a minute to get the movie started.

 

[rabidrabbit]

I doubt that 10s before the BR movie starts.
That so much faster than the current HD-DVD and BR players, and I think even faster than some DVD players.
I think it's more realistic, if that time is from when you already have the Blu-ray movie disc inside the PS3, showing on the XMB and it's ten secondes from when you select the disc icon from the XMB.

 

[Arwin]

If the PSP is anything to go by, then you'll be able to autostart a BD by inserting it and then hitting the reset button. When the PSP boots, it will autorun any inserted UMD. I'm expecting the PS3 to have this feature as all the Playstations have pretty much worked like that. Even on the PS2, if you'd booted it without a game inside, it would open up the browser, and if you then insert a game, it would show up next to the memory cards and selected it automatically, and you could start it with one button press from there, just like on PSP.

I'm personally hoping that you can change this behaviour as a preference because I would actually prefer games not to autostart when I have them inserted.

As for supported movie formats, again if PSP is anything to go by, you'll have at least MP4 and AVC in the mix for video, and AAC, ATRAC3, MP3 and WMA for video playback. On the PSP you can only use WMA and Flash if you confirm a licence agreement by the way.

 

[pipo]

I'm a bit surprised IGN (or is it famitsu?) describes both system startup and BR movie playback as taking less than 10 seconds, which according to them is 'fast'.

I haven't timed it, but I don't think the 360 is a lot faster...

 

[Bad_Boy]

I'm pretty sure games wont autostart unless you set them to in the settings. Ive seen two videos where after the game disc was inserted, the game did not start playing until the user pressed a button to (probably X like on psp).

That said, I have a feeling autostart and not-autostarting settings for blu-ray will be available as well.

 

[DemoCoder]

Many of the el-cheapo DVD players I have take like 10-15 seconds to start, but nothing is as agonizing as stupid FBI warnings that you can't skip, and in Paramount's case, 15 fucking TRAILERS FOR "NOW ON DVD" THAT CANNOT BE SKIPPED, ONLY FAST FORWARDED.

 

[London Geezer]

Many of the el-cheapo DVD players I have take like 10-15 seconds to start, but nothing is as agonizing as stupid FBI warnings that you can't skip, and in Paramount's case, 15 fucking TRAILERS FOR "NOW ON DVD" THAT CANNOT BE SKIPPED, ONLY FAST FORWARDED.

I can skip them!! The FBI warning is very stupid, i mean how many times do they think we are going to read that?? But the trailers are totally skippable. Might depend on the DVD player though. I do think it's silly to put them right at the beginning before even the menu comes up. If i want to see trailers, i go into the menu and look for them, i don't want them to shove them down my throat as soon as i put the DVD in... That's SO VHS...

 

[DemoCoder]

No, whether you can skip trailers is dependent on the disc author. I can skip most trailers, but I have found a few Chinese DVDs that slap like 5 intermediate imported by/produced by/etc screens on and disable skipping. Then, I had a few paramount DVDs that have trailers before the main menu which cannot be skipped by any combination of buttons, however you can fast forward them.

Now, if you have a hacked DVD player or one with easter eggs/backdoors, you can get around this. But there are many poorly authored DVDs that force you to sit through advertising. (not to mention bad DVDs which don't have any chapters. I have an Elmo DVD that I let my son watch once in a while. He only likes one of the Elmo skits on it, but the entire DVD is one 30 minute chapter, even those it consists of like 6 different "episodes". There is no chapter menu. If you skip, it jumps to the end of the whole DVD. And yes, it is a DVD not a VCD)

 

[London Geezer]

No no no you're totally right! I remember now, i can't actually skip them on some discs, and not just cheapo ones, but i can fast forward them, which takes a bit even at 32x speed... Real pain.

 

[Titanio]

I haven't timed it, but I don't think the 360 is a lot faster...

I don't think it is unless it's been improved since launch. I was looking at the bootup sequence from a launch-era video and it was at least past 15 seconds (the video cut away then, but you still weren't in the guide).

Yeah, because so far what's 'confirmed' is kinda the minimum bar for a console such as the PS3 and fully expected.

Are you setting particular standards for PS3? Even just video playback off the HDD wasn't necessarily to be expected based on what other home systems are offering! (Though yeah, PSP had that, so it was a no-brainer..but my point is that some of these features aren't standard).

 

[rabidrabbit]

The authoring on DVD's really is inconsistent, and depending on studio, title...
Sometimes the FBI warning (well, here it's just Warning) can't be skipped or ff'd, some discs allow it. Sometimes the trailers are the same, sometimes you can skip them all by pressing the disc menu button on remote, sometimes you cant.

In recent discs, they've introduced the "Stealing is crime, You wouldn't steal a car, etc..." video against piracy, and it's never been skippable, only fast forwardeable.
So in worst case, there's first the anti piracy video, then some five trailers, the Warning screen and only then the main movie menu that often is introduced by some nice lenghty video clip/animation in the theme of the movie, and not to mention the menus itself that are soo slow when going from say language selection to main menu...

I kinda miss the VHS already, where starting the movie was more instant

 

[Graham]

well, if you believe this video hasn't been edited, the time between inserting a disk in the 360's hd-dvd drive, to movie menu is 3-4 seconds... (right at the end of the video)
And no silly menus to go through

One thing that would be a nice thing, is I can imagine having the 360 tucked away somewhere, and the hd-dvd drive sitting next to me on the remote table, connected with a wifi adapter That would be fun (assuming it's a quite drive :sly. You don't even need to get up then. But damn it'd cost (even more if you can't run wifi->ethernet - would hope this isn't the case)

 

[PARANOiA]

Well, on the plus side, I guess that's another reason not to buy a PS3 Here I thought it was destined to wipe the floor with the 360's media functionality. Bleh.

Guess my Xbox still has a home after all!

 

[rabidrabbit]

Obviously, that video was edited. The camera didn't pan realtime from inserting the disc to the "Tokyo Drift" disc menu screen, there was a cut and it would have made no sense to leave the waiting seconds there. Also after the menu, there was some fast cuts of video clips.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

No no no you're totally right! I remember now, i can't actually skip them on some discs, and not just cheapo ones, but i can fast forward them, which takes a bit even at 32x speed... Real pain.

I've had a few DVDs where you can skip them with Top Menu but not Menu or Next Chapter. The FBI thing is the worst. Firstly it actually glamourises DVD piracy, making it out to be cool and hardcore crime despite being a sissy thing to do; and secondly, as is typical of media, it punishes those who buy the original. Go grab a pirate copy without all this intro nonsense - it's thus a better product! And the worst ones are those with the copyright notice in 32 languages! Like you're supposed to sit through that entire list for 10 minutes seeing if you languages comes up?

The stupid thing is, the more anti-piracy junk thrown on, the more aggravating it becomes for end users and the more they are likely to turn to piracy.

As for PS3, I can't see a reason why it shouldn't work like all the other playstations. Put in a disk and the hardware autodetects the type and launches it. Whether I put a game disc or DVD into PS2, it runs straight away - no menu is needed. Though I suppose if you have a movie in there that you finished watching, and then start up PS3 with it still in intending to do something else (seeing as PS3 isn't dependent on the disk, unlike PS2), you wouldn't want it to jump to the movie. Having to select the option is probably necessary. Not a big thing, and expected for a multifunction device (how long would it take a PC to startup and allow a movie to be played?) but not as ideal as a straightforward disk-in-and-go. Though that technology died with VHS, and DVDs wonderful animated menu screens that just slow you down...

Being a DVD author must be a really demoralizing job. The boss must be asking for a swanky interface with loads of movie clips and motion, and yet you know that the more effort you put in as requested, the more annoyed the end users will be!

 

[hey69]

i would love to upload divx movies, wma movies and so on and play localy from my media hub.(ps3 in this topic)
(like I used my xbox1 modified to xbmcenter)
streaming i dont care , but putting al your simpsons collection and choosing your movie localy is convenient i think.
-I can understand lots of people like the streaming Idea but
I hate to lay another cable in the house to my pc and i hate even more of having powered on my pc all the time (me & my pocket want to be energy efficient, and lets not discuss the extra sound it generates) . a cable temporary is no problem but having a pc in one end of the livingroom and my tv , consoles etc on the other..