Sony to ship major PS3 firmware update next March + Update 1.3 talk*

[patsu]

The proposed scheme overrides any automatic decisions made by software or hardware scalers. It seems that different people prefer different settings when viewing different materials such as Blu-ray movie, gaming, Linux apps, web browsing (plus also native res vs highest res, internal scaler vs low-end/high-end external scalers, ...).

Not sure what approach Sony will take ultimately. I'll be setting up a HDCP LCD monitor today (if all goes well).

 

[Clockwork]

I found out another area that is affected by this change in the way output resolutions are handled:

Web browsing.

Because I have the PS3 set to automatic (therefore outputting 1080i to my 720p tv), the web browsing has become horrendous. The text/page format is now way too small to make web browsing comfortable.

At least before when it was set to 720p on my tv, I could make pages take up the entire screen and read the text.

 

[patsu]

Yap ! That's what I meant. Until they upgrade it further, looks like your best option is to set only 720p and then switch to 1080i before viewing Blu-ray.

 

[Sis]

... don't you just love technology these days... seriously, it was SO much better when we had a TV, no resolutions to worry about... or all the other things we have to worry about these days... It's unbelievable how consumer-unfriendly things have become in the last few years.

I'm resisting pointing out another device that handles this perfectly...not all things became more complex.

 

[Clockwork]

Comments on 1.3 Update....

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3&thread.id=839081

Something's up with this new firmware update. It's forcing all of my games to 1080i except for the ones that were made for 720p, like Resistance. What the heck is up with this update? I though I could fix this by going into the display settings and removing the 1080i as a display option but that just forces all of my blu-ray movies down to 480p because the PS3 won't display them in 720p. I'm starting to get really upset now because it's forcing me to do all types of modifying and settings changing just to switch over from watching blu-ray movies to playing games. Why did the mess up something that didn't need fixing? I'm a die hard PS3 fan but if problems like this start coming up then I may give up video games until 2012.

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3&thread.id=839095

1up.com has reported that the new update prioritized 1080i over 720p and that you have to switch between the two when watching movies or playing games.

Is it me or does 1up always have the bad news about the ps3, how inconveniant is it to just switch video settings, if indeed that is the problem, between the formats?

Its actually a big problem for me. I should be able to customize what i want my display to be in. Before the update all games played in 720p while blure ray movies played in 1080i. Thats perfect. Now it makes me use 1080i for my games instead of 720p. My hdtv only supports 720p and 1080i. I prefer progressive over interlaced any day for games but for movies 1080i is best. Of course 1080p owns all.

I know what you mean. I loved how it was before the update but now I got to switch my settings to play my games in 720p and then turn around and switch my resolution again to 1080i just to stop my blu-ray movies from going to 480p. This update screwed my entire PS3 experience up and I hope it's fixed very soon, like before next week, and not a month or two from now. Also this didn't fix he 1080i scaling issue. People with 480p/1080i HDTVs still can't play 720p games in HD, talk about a total mess up.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3155685

Sony snuck version 1.3 firmware upgrade online last night to the worldwide masses, but while the patch attempts to make prioritizing resolution changes easier, it only makes it more difficult for 720p users and doesn't fix the actual scaling issue itself.

The patch changes PS3's prioritizing of resolutions. Before, PS3 assumed 720p was preferred -- but that's become 1080i. Helpful for 1080i-only HDTV owners, annoying for the larger majority of 720p consumers, as they must manually switch to 1080i before watching a Blu-ray movie or the machine will scale back to 480p, and then have to switch it back on before engaging in something they'd want to experience 1080i with (i.e. web browsing, compatible game, etc.).

 

[inefficient]

Let see if I get this straight.

Previous situation
1080p native, 720p supported - Happy
1080i native, 720p supported - Super pissed off!
720p native, 1080i supported - Happy

Current situation
1080p native, 720p supported - Happy
1080i native, 720p supported - Happy
720p native, 1080i supported - Annoyed when they have to toggle a setting to watch BR movies

I don't know - it sounds like what they did was a reasonable bandaid considering the situation.
I guess it does cause an annoyance for 720p TV owners that also take 1080i inputs.

Of course those still with only 480p/i or someother old tech probably deserve unhappiness due to bad karma and can't really be helped.

 

[pipo]

I don't know - it sounds like what they did was a reasonable bandaid considering the situation.
I guess it does cause an annoyance for 720p TV owners that also take 1080i inputs.

But almost 100% of the recent (last couple of years) HD sets is 720p native...

 

[scooby_dooby]

... don't you just love technology these days... seriously, it was SO much better when we had a TV, no resolutions to worry about... or all the other things we have to worry about these days... It's unbelievable how consumer-unfriendly things have become in the last few years.

Not really, try a 360. Go to display menu, select your resolution, and you're done. It initially boots up in 480i, and you switch it over to whatever res you want, simple.

If you choose the wrong resolution which your TV can't support, 10 seconds later it will pop back to your previous resolution. Foolproof.

There's really no reason it needs to be complicated, it's all a matter of implementation, and Sony just didn't think their's through very well.

 

[Geo]

While that's not terrible, it really ought to be the two devices figure it out for themselves what the highest common mode they have is, and you only go hunting into menus for a manual override if for some reason it doesn't work right --which better be damn rare. *That's* "friendly".

 

[patsu]

While that's not terrible, it really ought to be the two devices figure it out for themselves what the highest common mode they have is, and you only go hunting into menus for a manual override if for some reason it doesn't work right --which better be damn rare. *That's* "friendly".

That's what the "Auto" mode is for. I used it initially and it chose 720p for me (which is correctly). But the Blu-ray playback doesn't handle 720p (yet), so they either need to upgrade the app in question (i.e., Blu-ray on 720p), or have a app-specific override at the OS level.

The basic resolution selection process works fine. The "user friendly" layer needs some more polishing, that's all.