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

[quest55720]

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 it is hard for me to get my PC to out put on a 4 tvs in the house. MS half ass did the 360's streaming capability and setup. This is an area where sony could come in and kick ass. Instead of wasting time on something few care about and those who care would rather use a pc for media server. Spend that time and recourse to make the PS3 a bad ass media extender get it to play as many file formats out of the box on as many os as possible. I would love to use my 360 as a media extender but refuse to pay MS for a copy of xp media edition. Unless I am missing something and I can stuff 2+ hard drives inside a ps3 external drives are an option for me. To messy and expensive to have a bunch of external harddrive attacted to the PS3. Most people have some sort of video files on thier PC and I am sure would love a nice easy way to watch them on thier tv time to time.

 

[Gradthrawn]

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.

What I meant was do you have to select a file to share/stream to the PSP first, and then go into the PSP connection mode, thereby only being able to view 1 (pre-selected) file at time. The last part of your statement, however, answers my question. If you can see the PS3's XMB and have access to all of its stored media content then that's a truly wonderful feature. Now, we just need background support along with full Location Free functionality.

(Yes Sony, I want you to work for that $600 dollars you're getting of mine )

 

[Tap In]

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.

exactly

more people will be playing at 480i thinking that it is in HiDef than not (average consumer)

MS added a clever HD switch to the component cable that let's you know when you are not in HD mode and to remind you to set it up properly.

 

[Tap In]

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

you can get notification (which we knew) but not read nor reply while in game as I understand it.

 

[hey69]

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

oh shit, i never thought it this way.

imagine all those emus they will port in the future... wow

 

[rabidrabbit]

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.

oops sorry, you're correct of course, don't know what I was thinking

 

[valioso]

ok this is just a question about backwards compat and I am probably understanding wrong but they havent said otherwise

after reading this article: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3154561

it seems is going to be backwards compatible in the future when the emulation software is perfected.. but that either way, in order for back compat you have to rebuy the games as a download?

 

[Bad_Boy]

Most if not all PS1/PS2 games will be backwards compatibility out of the box. I think what they mean for ps1 games is that when they are downloaded specifically from the store, for the moment they are only playable on the psp until emulation is updated in later firmware to allow PS1 games downloaded from the store to be played on both the ps3 and psp. PS3 is still PS1/PS2 backwards compatible on day one.

 

[Titanio]

ok this is just a question about backwards compat and I am probably understanding wrong but they havent said otherwise

after reading this article: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3154561

it seems is going to be backwards compatible in the future when the emulation software is perfected.. but that either way, in order for back compat you have to rebuy the games as a download?

No, your discs will work, of course. But they are also offering a service to purchase PSone games and download to play on both your PSP and PS3 from the same file.

 

[Titanio]

There's a little more info on downloadable pricing here:

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=14163

Basically Dille says that PSone downloadables will likely be under $10, and many even under $5.

He also confirms that you will be able to download directly to your PSP, not just via the PS3, if you don't have one.

 

[RobertR1]

I find the lack of upscaling for standard DVD's to be a major letdown.

Now I'll sit back and happily wait for someone to tell me that upscaled DVD's do not look any better than at their native res.

 

[Ben-Nice]

I find the lack of upscaling for standard DVD's to be a major letdown.

Now I'll sit back and happily wait for someone to tell me that upscaled DVD's do not look any better than at their native res.

Isn't that only with VGA cable?

 

[Tap In]

Isn't that only with VGA cable?

what?

 

[RobertR1]

Isn't that only with VGA cable?

DVD upscaling is possible via VGA/DVI/HDMI.

 

[PeterT]

I find the lack of upscaling for standard DVD's to be a major letdown.

Use mplayer in YDL and you can choose between 10 or so different upscaling filters

imagine all those emus they will port in the future... wow

Hmpf, again I see that no one reads my posts. In #105 in the YDL thread:

I just thought about what this means for emulation: I'd expect pretty much every system before the dreamcast to be emulated just about perfectly (or better than that) on PS3 in less than a year. Perhaps a bit more grey area - by association - than the Wii alternative, but also a lot more fair for those of us with stacks of SNES and N64 cartridges around.

 

[Titanio]

I don't know if it's new to anyone else, but it was new to me, and it's nice - a quick overview of the XMB with Richard Marks:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/...=6160224&id=6160224&tag=video_main;download;0

Shows the video browsing with the realtime thumbnail playback. Also demos background music playback, which I don't think was confirmed before. Confirms some of the supported video formats too (mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4/avc), and supported photo formats.

edit - and if like me you were very confused about some aspects of the friends lists and game integration etc. this interview might be quite helpful:

http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200610/N06.1020.0101.55287.htm

GI: As far as the actual community aspect of things, will you be able to interact with your friends while you’re in a game? Will you be able to see when they hop online, what they’re playing, that sort of thing?

Smedley: Yes. The cool thing is they’ve added the ability to hook into your friends list in multiple ways. You’ll see games in cool and different and weird in multiple ways for the friends list. And what’s even more important is we’ve also opened things up to third parties, so, for example, we’ve put into Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom the five million strong Xfire PC community, so they can see PlayStation 3 friends playing our game, and soon in other games.

GI: Say you and I are playing Resistance, and after we played a game, I’m like, “This guy is cool, I want to add him to my friends list." Can I do that in the game, or do I have to jump out of the game to add that friend?

Smedley: It’s going to be game by game. You can always hit the PlayStation Store button and add him. Or within the game if the individual game supports this functionality. So it’s very game dependent.

So it sounds like it's a bit like the Playstation Store, in that games provide their own interface to your friends list. He also makes it sound like you can get some friends list functionality out of the in-game XMB (adding friends), but I'm guessing it's quite limited at the moment there if they're making it the domain of the application.

The rest of the interview is good too, raises some interesting ideas, like integration with other IM systems etc.

 

[Tap In]

good info T.

sounds a bit more like Xbox LIVE 1 than X360 Live.

Live 1 had game dependent friends features and it was very frustrating actually. The new system wide functionality of 360 LIVE is much more friendly.

Hopefully they will create a more integrated fully functional system in the future with upgrades and whatnot.

 

[Titanio]

I don't think extensibility for specific game features is a bad thing at all (quite the opposite), but I just would like that your in-game friends list 'actions', so to speak, are persistent. So, for example, if I send a message to you in Resistance using its interface, and you receive it in Resistance, when you exit out, you'll still have a record of it via the XMB. I can't remember how this worked on Xbox, but perhaps that's what you're thinking of..it certainly sounds like things like adding friends etc. will be persistent, hopefully everything bar the game specific stuff is.

 

[Tap In]

but I just would like that your in-game friends list 'actions', so to speak, are persistent. So, for example, if I send a message to you in Resistance using its interface, and you receive it in Resistance, when you exit out, you'll still have a record of it via the XMB. ...

exactly

that's paramount IMO. Having the friends lists (and all subsequent features associated with it) consistent through any and all games was a big step up from xbox 1 when I went to 360.

Also, any news on if you can voice chat with friends while each in a different game?

Again, I'd imagine Sony will continue to evlove this system over time and respond to feedback in the future... much like MS did when redesigning it for 360 after learning from version 1 and as they continue to do. Sounds pretty solid for a launch effort for sure though.

 

[Titanio]

I've heard nothing about voice chat inter-game etc. I imagine it would at least require the in-game friends lists to both expose that, if it's not exposed in your in-game XMB friends list (which I doubt it is right now..but hopefully as that matures we will have an enforced standard set of functionality regardless of what a game does or doesn't expose).