Sony's Gamers' Day 2006 (PS3 launch details etc.)

[valioso]

PS2 came only with composite. You had to pay for the S-video or component yourself.

PS2 wasnt HD

 

[hey69]

has nothing to do with it.

Sega released the Dreamcast with a full RGB scartcable in europe with amazing picture quality
sony just went with the boring composite

 

[London Geezer]

...Wait, the PS3 has no option to output signal in 480i (576i PAL), it has options to output 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p.
That means everything played through PS3 will be upscaled/deinterlaced up to 1080p.

Uhm sorry but where did you get that idea from? Of course PS3 will be able to output 480i or 576i. How do you think the vast majority of people with "normal" TVs will play otherwise? Besides, 480i/576i are the top resolutoon supported by composite cables, so it would be quite funny to get home after having spent 600 quid, only to find out that your PS3 can't work through the cables that Sony themselves put in the box.

 

[London Geezer]

Let's not forget that the component cables we are using on PS2 (if you have a PS2 and a HDTV plugged through component, which you should if you're so bothered about this whole thing) will work on PS3. That might be why Sony didn't put it in the box. They probably think that if people are really so bothered with component and they had a PS2, they will just take the same cable and use it on PS3.

Makes a little bit of sense, but still, composite on a machine marketed as The HD Thing To Own just looks silly...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

it would be quite funny to get home after having spent 600 quid, only to find out that your PS3 can't work through the cables that Sony themselves put in the box.

Quite funny indeed. I can imagine all the internet forum banter where PS3 owners good-humouredly chuckle at Sony's oversight in letting them buy the machine but not view it on anything. Ho ho ho!

 

[London Geezer]

Which basically settles the case really. "Normal" people without HDTVs (or so-called EDTVs), which are still by far the majority, will play PS1 and PS2 games like they did on PS1 and PS2, unless Sony steps up and comments on whether there are other type of enhancements to the games than just upscaling, which as rabid points out, is already done by HDTVs anyway if you have one. And that's hardly an "enhancement".
16X bi-cubic AA and 16x AF on all games would be an enhancement!!

 

[one]

16X bi-cubic AA and 16x AF on all games would be an enhancement!!

Let's begin porting PS/PS2 emulator onto PS3 Linux with Cell SPE optimization!

 

[Gradthrawn]

No downloading from the browser, it seems:

According to Phil Harrison the browser would allow you to check your email via a webpage based program like Gmail, but if someone sent you an attachment -- say a music file or photos -- there currently isn't a way to download those, save them, and add them to your PS3's media center. This is good news, because if it would the fear is that your PS3 would be exposed to viral threats.

And no, IGN, that's not a good thing. Streaming content, for the win, I suppose. I just hope several video codecs are supported. There seems to be a lot of ambiguity around codec support at the moment.

Here's hoping for a true Media Center PS3 in time for its real launch P), next year during the Holidays.

 

[Arwin]

It surprises me, as the PSP does allow this. But we'll see, probably won't take long then

When you send a message to a friend a small icon will appear in the upper right corner of their screen. We asked Phil Harrison if there were a way to adjust the settings to set this notification off while you're playing a game and he responded, "The notification is very small. It is in the upper right hand corner and won't interfere with play." We took that to mean "No."

So you can in fact get messages during gameplay ...

 

[London Geezer]

It surprises me, as the PSP does allow this. But we'll see, probably won't take long then



So you can in fact get messages during gameplay ...

THAT is teh crap.

I don't get messages while playing PC games and i wouldn't want messages coming up on PS3 games. As small as it is, it would make me think that i have to read a message, which is a total turn off as i couldn't possibly just leave it there hanging. No, i rather not know at all.

Knowing Sony, and seeing the good job they have been doing with PSP firmwares, these are all things that will be fixed.

 

[Hardknock]

No downloading from the browser, it seems:



And no, IGN, that's not a good thing. Streaming content, for the win, I suppose. I just hope several video codecs are supported. There seems to be a lot of ambiguity around codec support at the moment.

Here's hoping for a true Media Center PS3 in time for its real launch P), next year during the Holidays.

How do thy expect this to replace PCs if you can't even download anything? To get any media on the device you basically have to transfer it from your Windows PC. And if that's the case you might as well use your PC to begin with.

 

[London Geezer]

How do thy expect this to replace PCs if you can't even download anything? To get any media on the device you basically have to transfer it from your Windows PC. And if that's the case you might as well use your PC to begin with.

I find it a bit weird... How would we update the firmware if we can't even download it??

 

[Carl B]

I wonder if you'd be able to download attachments/files via Linux though, as that would be running on a secure layer? I would think so, and since that's the 'computer' aspect of the system, it would be ok in my book.

@L-B: Harrison's just talking about the browser and the 'world out there.' Obviously firmware/OS updates and other signed content (like games and movies through the store) would be freely downloadable just as a matter of normal connectivity.

 

[Gradthrawn]

I find it a bit weird... How would we update the firmware if we can't even download it??

Same way we do with our PSPs. Network -> Update. Doesn't even use the browser.

 

[Titanio]

They'll have to enable downloads via the web browser..even the PSP browser supports that. I'm hoping that's an 'email-attachment-specific' thing and not a general restriction.

To get any media on the device you basically have to transfer it from your Windows PC.

Or Linux on your PS3

 

[Arwin]

How do thy expect this to replace PCs if you can't even download anything? To get any media on the device you basically have to transfer it from your Windows PC. And if that's the case you might as well use your PC to begin with.

Well like I said, if this is true and stays this way, that would be rather ironic, as then I could download a 2 gig file on my PSP from the built in webbrowser, and then play it on my PS3 from there.

Of course, Linux wouldn't have this restriction. But anyway, we'll just have to wait and see what he just said here - Gmail is Ajax enabled right? And since he specified Gmail specifically he could be referring to that application's features from within the browser. Maybe they work in a certain way that the PS3 browser doesn't support, but you can still download regular files from a link, I don't know.

We'll see soon enough I guess. But being able to watch videos and such on the PSP streamed up from the PS3, wow, that's good news for me!

 

[Gradthrawn]

We'll see soon enough I guess. But being able to watch videos and such on the PSP streamed up from the PS3, wow, that's good news for me!

Yeah, that's the best news (in regards to media functionality) that I've heard. What would be even better is if said functionality could be used in the background, while playing a game. Really putting the 1 OS claimed SPE to work. What I'm curious about is if I can browse the PS3's entire media collection on the PSP, or if its a 1 file at a time thing? If its 1 file at a time, then, for me, that's practically worthless. But its a start. Full fledged Location Free support is going to be excellent whenever they release it.

 

[Titanio]

Yeah, that's the best news (in regards to media functionality) that I've heard. What would be even better is if said functionality could be used in the background, while playing a game. Really putting the 1 OS claimed SPE to work. What I'm curious about is if I can browse the PS3's entire media collection on the PSP, or if its a 1 file at a time thing?

How do you mean? You don't have to download a file to see it in the XMB, I think you select the file you want to playback from the selection on your PS3.

Reportedly in this mode, the PSP sees the full PS3 XMB, and this works for video/music/photos.

 

[London Geezer]

Oh. Well it's pretty evident that a firmware update will take care of that. They just haven't had time to sort out the browser to enable downloads. They've been tight for time!




/sarcasm

 

[Shifty Geezer]

How do thy expect this to replace PCs if you can't even download anything? To get any media on the device you basically have to transfer it from your Windows PC. And if that's the case you might as well use your PC to begin with.

I think there's a distinction between PS3's XMB-launched browser and Linux. The XMB browser might not have access to arbitary storage and so accessing files is not possible. FireFox on Linux will.

It's certainly a counter-intuitive move as people like to share files, though in my experience 99% of files sent are viruses from unprotected computers! If Sony provide a My Space like service where people can upload pictures to share, rather than sending as attachments, that'd be a fair compromise I guess, and I feel creating online communities is a priority for Sony so this might be something they'd want to encourage when choosing to prevent file transfers. Or maybe it's a way to get users to want to install Linux if it's not going to come preinstalled? Or maybe it's just paranoia! But seeing how the PSP has been hacked by viewing .pngs, I'm sure Sony are wanting to play safe when it comes to offering hacking points.