Sony's NeoGeo Pocket's (PSP2/Vita) business/non technical ramifications talk

[patsu]

When I played around with the PS3 and DLNA servers for the Mac, the experience was inconsistent and it sounds like it's not bulletproof reliable for others either.

*nod* *nod* Early DLNA software was flakey.

Also depends on what media you want to play. If they are home encoded, or downloaded somewhere from the net, then you'll need to know what you're doing.

Videos straight from digital cameras should be fine. Those that are compliant with MPEG4 standard (Main profile level 4.1 and below) are usually ok. Recent DLNA software seems robust too.

The DLNA link between iOS devices and PS3 works on first try, and snappy too.

I haven't bought an AppleTV so can't comment if AirPlay is more reliable, though people say when it works, people would pull out their iPhones and send media out to the big screen at parties and people would gather around.

I don't have AppleTV either. People on iOS typically play licensed or application videos. Their job should be easier compared to playing arbitrary media from elsewhere. e.g., iPad can't play 1080p videos.

I'm sure I'm not alone to want to play iOS content elsewhere though. ;-)

 

[jonabbey]

I have a great deal of video content in h.264 avc mp4 format (mostly rips of DVDs that I own, but a fair bit of hd science videos from the web), and I've not yet had much luck finding a DLNA player on my Gingerbread Android phone that can display that stuff.

XBMC on my Macs and Linux boxes work great, but having a handheld device with good performance and a good UI would be handy.

 

[Brad Grenz]

Data shows Vita's missing backward compatibility could cost Sony sales
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/...kward-compatibility-could-cost-sony-sales.ars

That is such a weirdly flawed article. It basically makes no acknowledgement of the fact that the Vita IS backwards compatible with hundreds of digital PSP titles, which the study they are citing in no way anticipated or accounts for. It also seems completely ignorant of the fact that UMD games sales, in the US especially, were actually terrible. The average owner has maybe 2 or 3 UMD games which is hardly a terrible loss in the transition to Vita. They cite the Gameboy color's software sales, but that was a really weird half-step console mostly used to play dual compatible original gameboy games, and which was replaced by the GBA in just 3 years.

People just want to have their cake and eat it too. If you bought UMDs because they were so cheap used and could be resold, despite it being obvious the format had no future, you should probably suck it up and sell those games if you want to defray the cost of a digital purchase. After years of claiming digital copies had no advantages, all of a sudden everyone is begging for a way to trade their ill-conceived physical purchases into a future-proof PSN version...

 

[patsu]

I have a great deal of video content in h.264 avc mp4 format (mostly rips of DVDs that I own, but a fair bit of hd science videos from the web), and I've not yet had much luck finding a DLNA player on my Gingerbread Android phone that can display that stuff.

Yes sir, you need to know the supported profile and level for the player (at least). e.g., PS3 supports Main Profile level 4.1. Handheld devices are (much) weaker.

The playback problems may or may not be DLNA related. Do the converted files play on your Android phone when you copy them to the device HDD ?

EDIT: Might as well add Vita's supported codecs...
http://www.sys-con.com/node/1947549

Audio: MP3 MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3, MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC), WAVE (Linear PCM)
Video: MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC), H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High/Main/Baseline Profile (AAC)
Image: JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG

People will fill in more details post launch (e.g., supported levels, resolution, etc.)

Many DLNA servers transcode the video if they know the target device can't play the video. It's an implementation feature, not part of DLNA specs. OTOH, AirPlay does not do any transcoding at all.

 

[Arwin]

I did a quick search the other day. It looks like media:connect is a candidate. It's a DLNA controller, player as well as server. There could be others. I haven't tried these DLNA servers yet.

Yes, media:connect is the one I tried (only tested the free version so far, to see how far it gets - full version costs 5.99). The good thing about it is if you install FlexPlayer as well, then it uses that to play the video streams the iPhone can't handle normally, and that seems to make most things work without having to install something on the server side.

Now I remember the issue with Apple and DNLA though - it doesn't support it out of the box, and it can't host DNLA out of the box, right? I knew there was something.

Glad that the Vita supports DNLA standard anyway, will be useful. But I do have 1080i videos from my camera, so I hope it will support those native eventually. Also I think I have to look into updating my network storage box, because it's DNLA doesn't seem to support large photos (default 14MP shots from my CyberShot) ... though I haven't checked if it is the box or the PS3 that has issues with that (I think the box though).

 

[Prophecy2k]

That is such a weirdly flawed article. It basically makes no acknowledgement of the fact that the Vita IS backwards compatible with hundreds of digital PSP titles, which the study they are citing in no way anticipated or accounts for. It also seems completely ignorant of the fact that UMD games sales, in the US especially, were actually terrible. The average owner has maybe 2 or 3 UMD games which is hardly a terrible loss in the transition to Vita. They cite the Gameboy color's software sales, but that was a really weird half-step console mostly used to play dual compatible original gameboy games, and which was replaced by the GBA in just 3 years.

People just want to have their cake and eat it too. If you bought UMDs because they were so cheap used and could be resold, despite it being obvious the format had no future, you should probably suck it up and sell those games if you want to defray the cost of a digital purchase. After years of claiming digital copies had no advantages, all of a sudden everyone is begging for a way to trade their ill-conceived physical purchases into a future-proof PSN version...

You took the words right out of my mouth Brad Grenz. I completely agree

 

[eastmen]

Dunno if this is the right place to talk about it , however has anyone heard of the screw up over at taco bell. Alot of people who won are now being told they didn't win and alot of people were able to hack the server.

I personaly won through the AR game they had up and have not recieved information yet back.

 

[Brad Grenz]

From what I've been reading, it sounds like the contest had some sort of glitch on January 30th. My guess is it erroneously told a bunch of people they won, but Taco Bell and the people running the contest have no way to verify who may have gotten the false positives, and they can't just start giving out Vitas to everyone who claims they won. Especially since, independently there were probably people trying to game and/or hack the system, and screenshot can't be trusted because the "you one!" page wasn't protected and could be viewed by anyone who knew the address.

How long ago did you win through the AR game?

 

[eastmen]

From what I've been reading, it sounds like the contest had some sort of glitch on January 30th. My guess is it erroneously told a bunch of people they won, but Taco Bell and the people running the contest have no way to verify who may have gotten the false positives, and they can't just start giving out Vitas to everyone who claims they won. Especially since, independently there were probably people trying to game and/or hack the system, and screenshot can't be trusted because the "you one!" page wasn't protected and could be viewed by anyone who knew the address.

How long ago did you win through the AR game?

I won this past friday.

Apparently everyone who wins the AR game gets a connection error when they try to submit further information.

For me it went like this . Was ready to take the trash out around 5:30 and saw the big box sitting there. Said wtf and played the game. The app was horrible slow loading on my epic 4 g and I died quickly . It asked if i wanted to enter to win and I pressed yes. It asked for my email and phone number and I inputed it and pressed continue. It came back that I was a winner and then asked for more information. At that point it wouldn't send anymore. Everything else would work . I could check websites , get email and talked to my gf on the phone. After about 10 minutes of trying the game crashed on the last try.

Now I believe they have my number and email since they asked for it before checking to see if i won. I hope they don't screw me out of this. I mean by the time i won the contest was already going on for 15days.

 

[Brad Grenz]

I think people who won with codes didn't get confirmations for as much as a week after winning, but you can probably call 1-800-TACOBELL if you're concerned.

 

[eastmen]

I think people who won with codes didn't get confirmations for as much as a week after winning, but you can probably call 1-800-TACOBELL if you're concerned.

yea the faq says to email them also. I've done both with no reply . Oh well

 

[patsu]

I've got Vita for about a week now. I see that at least 2 other folks on B3D also have a unit (I saw your activities in the Near log ).

Will post more detailed write up when I have more time. Meanwhile you can check the monster GAF Vita thread for more info:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=462031

It should have details like settings to transcode videos to Vita, game library (including PSN PSP backward compatibility list), and other feature overview.

I'm pleasantly surprised by Vita so far. It is a very powerful, sleek and usable system. The web browser is miles ahead of the PS3 one (although its HTML5 score is lower). There are some bugs and hiccups, but I actually prefer to surf on my Vita than my iPhone 4S now for various reasons. Have been browsing in bed every night since I got it. It was a painful experience one night because I dozed off halfway and the Vita landed on my nose.

Toyed with FIFA and Escape Plan. I like them but need more time to dig deeper. Also played with Near. Near is amazing, but Sony doesn't know how to sell the concept (again !).

EDIT: Yes, it does remind me of the original iPhone. The OS is very responsive and pleasant to use. At the back of my mind, I call it "The iPhone of Handheld Gaming". ^_^

 

[patsu]

And yes, deals for Vita and games here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=463714

Target, GameStop and Toys R Us have assorted promos (e.g., Buy 2 Get 1 Free) starting Wednesday although they advertised earlier.

I'm waiting for the deals to pick up Uncharted, Rayman Origins, and one more game myself.

EDIT:
Vita wallpaper thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=462902

 

[patsu]

Near is a complex animal.

Gaf created a dedicated thread to understand it better:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=463600

The official manual is here:
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/psvita/near/index.html

People have compared it to StreetPass. Near does the same thing in a different (IMHO, better) way, but also encompasses richer social elements and analytics. In particular, it also includes a mini game analysis of your friends list, plus strangers you have played against in other games.

EDIT: I commented that Sony doesn't know how to sell Near. As a matter of fact, I also don't know how to sell Near. I think they cramped a lot of things inside, so it has a bit of everything social, but yet is different in other ways. Very strange. ^_^

I think Sony may have to reorg some screens, but the core functionality is pretty neat.

 

[Gitaroo]

the location reading is way off on for my location, like a couple hundred miles off, I tried it on the map apps too, its gives the same results, strangely the google map on my andriod tablet is pretty accurate. I Hope they can update NEAR later so it can read system to system without going over the net like street pass though, since I take the train everyday.

 

[ERP]

The location data is based in Wifi signals, mine shows me located in California at my old house, because apparently that's the last time my Wifi router was scanned by one of the trucks. Same mechanism used by iOS devices without GPS.
The 3G one might use cell assist, I haven't checked.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Does the Vita come with a CD where you can install the PC software from?
I looked for some download link from the Vita website but there's nothing.
Can you use the PSP Media Manager software?

Edit: Found it!
http://cma.dl.playstation.net/cma/

Apparently you can not use but one location for each, music, video and pictures. So if I have videos in for example two different drives it can only search from one.
Well, I probably won't be using Vita much for videos or music, I have my iPhone and iPad for those.
Heh, the days I dreamed of just one portable device that'd do it all, now I have three I'm taking with me for longer trips

 

[patsu]

the location reading is way off on for my location, like a couple hundred miles off, I tried it on the map apps too, its gives the same results, strangely the google map on my andriod tablet is pretty accurate. I Hope they can update NEAR later so it can read system to system without going over the net like street pass though, since I take the train everyday.

There is a reason I posted GAF's Vita official thread here. Many of the problems people encountered are addressed in the first few posts. The thread starter updated his posts to reflect the community's latest findings.

For your "inaccurate WiFi positioning" problem, you need to submit your hotspot location to SkyHook:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=34863755&postcount=2

Registering access points (used by Near) @ Skyhook

I don't know how long you have to wait for SkyHook to process your submission.

The location data is based in Wifi signals, mine shows me located in California at my old house, because apparently that's the last time my Wifi router was scanned by one of the trucks. Same mechanism used by iOS devices without GPS.

The 3G one might use cell assist, I haven't checked.

See above.

The 3G Vita uses both GPS and SkyHook to locate you. This is primarily because the GPS can't see you if you're indoor.

EDIT: That means I found [strike]2[/strike] 3 more B3D Vita users. ^_^

Gitaroo, if you check the Near settings, you'll find more customization options... like auto-location update, private zones and games configuration.

 

[patsu]

Does the Vita come with a CD where you can install the PC software from?
I looked for some download link from the Vita website but there's nothing.
Can you use the PSP Media Manager software?

Edit: Found it!
http://cma.dl.playstation.net/cma/

Apparently you can not use but one location for each, music, video and pictures. So if I have videos in for example two different drives it can only search from one.
Well, I probably won't be using Vita much for videos or music, I have my iPhone and iPad for those.
Heh, the days I dreamed of just one portable device that'd do it all, now I have three I'm taking with me for longer trips

You can't use MediaGo. It's incompatible with Vita.

You have to use the new Community Manager Assistant, which you identified above. This is because Vita "controls" the USB bus now, probably for security reasons. It's the one that decide what to copy over on the USB bus. The PS3, PC and Mac are more like "slaves" to Vita.

It took 4 hours to copy all my family media, PSP games, and pr0n over [Thunder clasp].

My official music and video library will mostly be streamed from YouTube, Hulu Plus and Music Unlimited. Unfortunately, none of them are available on Vita yet. >_<

EDIT: btw, you can also copy PSN rental and purchased SD videos from PS3 to Vita to watch on-the-go.

 

[wco81]

Does it work on the Wifi models, without the GPS in the 3G?


So when Sony takes advantage of a die shrink, they could save themselves money and get better battery life. That would be the traditional console/handheld model.

But the Vita is competing against mobile devices, which are using die shrinks not just to reduce costs but to increase performance.

Maybe a year or two from now, Sony would need to increase clock speed or improve/increase cores to put out a more competitive product, even at the cost of fragmenting its installed base?