PS3 1.5 firmware beats those backwards compatibility blues
By Paul Miller 
posted January 24th 2007 1:36PM
posted January 24th 2007 1:36PM
[Via Joystiq]
posted January 24th 2007 1:36PM
Sony PlayStation 2 1st-gen
Sony PlayStation 3
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Sony is the George W Bush of electronics.
They can never admit they were wrong.
Republicans never admit they are wrong??? ARE YOU SERIOUS! Look at almost ALL of the democrats! Slick Willy freaking UNDER OATH said "I did not have sex with that woman" and it turns out he did. Should have been impeached...people were all gung-ho for this war in the beginning, but nothing comes instantly. They are just getting fed up with the war lasting so long!
Back on topic...I could care less, the PS3 was designed for PS3 games...not PS2 or PS1 games.
i actually saw an interview where he did in fact admit he was wrong... along with the rest of congress.....
Ah, Don't be so hard on Sony...they're not that bad! And ya gotta love the classic republican who is worried about a BJ. haha
well thats good news, im still bumbed out that PS3 units had problems from the start of launch, same with X360, but hardly any from Wii.
gonna have to call my friend n tell him the good news, hence he has a Wii n PS3, while i only have Wii.
Now if they could only get the PS3 to stop burning my Panini's I'd call it a success!
Can't wait to get home and try the update! I'm a hopeful pessimist. Does anyone think maybe Sony does this on purpose? Maybe they use these fixes as a way of forcing people to make FW updates they may not otherwise download. Like how people keep the old psp FW to run homebrew, Sony released the psp web browser, then the flash player, in order to entice people to upgrade and give up there ROMZ. Comments?
Great news!
Just in time for God of War 2!
well now we know that Sony is going to fix this problem in March when the update becomes available.
hope Nintendo decides to ever update the Wii from 480p to 720p, which i highly doubt will happen because the hardware wont probably support it.
OFF TOPIC:
ive heard around on wiichat.com forums that the Xbox was able to send signals of 720p n get that resolution on HDTVs, this true? Because if it is, then the Wii will have no trouble reaching that resolution, as the Wii is more powerful then the Xbox.
The Xbox had a game in 1080i, as well as a few in 720p.
The XBox was designed to output a couple of games at 1080i and 720p, however it was never heavily used (can you imagine the strain on the system when rendering Halo 2?). However, it's highly unlikely the Wii will ever do 720p. First, it was designed to run at 480p, where the XBox was intended to (eventually) do 720p. Second, when you increase resolution, it puts more strain on your GPU, so in order to keep a decent frame rate you need to reduce the graphical complexity, which means crisp, high resolution jaggies (which is partially why the XBox didn't do a lot of HD).
i dont think so. If Sony did this on purpose, they wouldnt go through all this hell to try to fix it in a big update to 1.5 to fix the problem. They didnt know that the PS3 would have so much problems lol.
last time i heard about when this update will happen, is in March right? Japan already got theirs.
PRAISE THE LORD!
The 1.5 US update is already on the playstation website.
@Brennan - I understand your thoughts comparing the issues with 360 launch to the PS3 launch, but I think it is important to make a distinction between the two. 360 had SERIOUS hardware problems at launch, problems that cuased them not to ship the 2nd after-launch batches for quite some time. Huge percentages of those of us that picked up launch systems had hardware problems (my initial launch unit crashed constantly, since replaced twice). PS3 has not had any reports of widespread hardware problems, merely software issues such as the jaggies on PS1 & PS2 non-480p capable games.
If we are truly to compare PS3 launch to 360, it's interesting how many of the knocks on PS3 are put in perspective:
Backward Compatibliity-- 360: Very few Xbox 1 titles playable at launch, 1 year later still MANY major titles remain unplayable.
PS3 - Nearly all titles playable at launch, with jaggies. Some peripheral compatibility issues remain (Guitar Hero anyone?) but are being solved by 3rd party solutions (Nyko GH adapter)
System flaws: 360-- High percentages of hardware failures at launch, still significant hardware issues (certain dvd-rom models fail at high rates to this day), many _well-documented_ instances of system bricking on software update.
Online Service: 360-- No background downloading at launch, limited demos, some service issues. PS3-- No background downloading at launch, slow downloads, limited offerings.
I could keep going on, but suffice to say I think it is quite fair to make the argument that Sony executed a better launch than 360. Replenishment at retail was far faster than 360, and the hardware has NOT been plagued with nearly the issues that 360 has. Software limitations, such as the revert to 480p issue been quickly addressed (you can now force 1080i on sets that don't handle 1080p for movie watching and game playing), and the jaggie PS1/PS2 output has already been resolved... resulting in a FAR FAR higher backward compatibility rate to what the 360 has.
Yes there are limited games, but comparing that to 360 launch it again is quite comparable (solid racing games, fps', decent rpg), only we get far far better backward compatibility and BluRay playback.
Don't get me wrong, I like my 360... But Sony is not doing badly so far with PS3. Once the games come it will be quite a compelling platform.
ya u see? If the Xbox can withstand having (some) of their games in 1080i or 720p, so can Wii, which i hope to see in the future have effect to all Wii games.
Sure, the Wii is powerful enough to do HD. But does it graphics card support it?
AFAIK, Opera can not be output in HD. If anything could, it should be the browser. We'll see if they include it in the final version.
Although I'd be willing to bet that the Wii will never output resolutions of 720p+.
Did anyone say ALL Republicans?
Someone's OVERLY defensive, and of course, not admitting they are WRONG! :O
ummm....he was impeached http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton
sorry for the off topicness
wrong? what are you refering to as wrong?
war on terror?
where were they wrong?
no weapons of mass destruction?
unproved, they easily could have been moved else where or are still in hiding(we still haven't found Osama bin Laden yet does that mean he doesn't exist?)
exit plan?
when did Bush or anyone else say something about an exit plan?
never that's when, never did he say that we would be able to completely pull out of Iraq(it is not practical to overthrow a government and then just leave it fend for it self, vulnerable.
were we wrong to go to war?
see this is where you socialists really bug me. all you all do is complain about everything no matter what the issue is. You want us to step in and solve world hunger, stop aids, etc but when we do attempt to solve an injustice and a threat you whine and complain that we did it wrong.
get your priorities in order then maybe I would have some respect for you.
Nice I guess, but making old PS2 games look slightly better isn't really a substitute for actually having new games. When do we some worthwhile releases? March?
The firmware has ALREADY been released in the USA. Firmware updates are released worldwide or at least on the same day. The problem is resolved and the March update will address adding other features. Sony only includes added features in their changelogs for all of their products and admitting you're wrong doesn't resolve the issue. I prefer less talk and more solutions, then someone that constantly says that a problem exist. As soon as you say that people will be demanding when the fix will arrive and if for whatever reason its late they'll hang you for that.
Sorry but part of your original comment is bass-ackwards to me.
QUOTE: "a much-desired feature for the HD-friendly PS3"
Pardon me, but if the big issue is that the PS3 has no scalar chip, wouldn't that make the PS3 HD-UNfriendly?
If not then please describe to me how a PS3 is more friendly to HD than a Xbox 360 or a HD-DVD / BlueRay player?
Uh... HDMI output? Native support for HD by all the PS3 games? A Blu-Ray player built in the darned box?
Or does none of that matter just because it doesn't have a scaler implemented?
Remember not to make foolish comments, else someone step up and point it out.
>>Joystiq notes that the fix does not include upscaling of PS1 or PS2 games
One thing I noticed is that the PS3 does deinterlace PS1/PS2 games to 480p for 480i games.
>>Nice I guess, but making old PS2 games look slightly better isn't really a substitute for actually having new games. When do we some worthwhile releases? March?
This is just more fanboy bashing, System has been barely out for 2 months, the 360 had ass for games the first two months it was out (Kameo, Perfect Dark, CoD, etc); same goes for the Wii (though Warioware is cool). Also, VF5 is already golden and coming out soon, as well as Motorstorm coming soon as well (already out in Japan).
>>Pardon me, but if the big issue is that the PS3 has no scalar chip, wouldn't that make the PS3 HD-UNfriendly?
Not an issue if you have any modern set that supports 720p/1080i (required to be called "HDTV" in the US and Europe) or 1080p. Also, vast majority of sets have a scaler in them to begin with, one current problem however is that Blu-ray is only displayed in 180i/1080p and doesn't downscale to 720p; however, this can be fixed without a scaler since you can just have it decode video at 1020x720 (720p) instead of 1920x1080 (1080p).
So "buy a newer HDTV" is your fix for Sony's lack of foresight and compatibility? No offense but I'll pass. A $700 dollar device (PS3) should be the "swiss army knife" of video resolutions, just like every other device (360, PS2, HD-DVD / Blueray player, HD projector) sold on the planet. EXCEPT the PS3 of course. ;-)
It was a serious Sony gaff, don't apologize for them.
My TV doesn't have a built in scaler. It's a standard def TV. I can still see an image just fine. Sony didn't mess up at all, they have scalers for output in there.
What they don't have are upscalers for the PS1/2 games. So, it would actually be foolish to buy a newer set, if that was you main reason for upgrading.
I'm not sure about this, but I don't think that the 360 has an upscaler for the regular XBox1 games. Nor do they have to worry about the sheer size of the library of games that the PlayStation has.
There's no gaff, no need to apologize.
"Not an issue if you have any modern set that supports 720p/1080i (required to be called "HDTV" in the US and Europe)"
Wrong. First, it's not required in the US. Second, your "required to be called HDTV" regulation only happened a couple years ago, way after most of these sets were sold.
>>Wrong. First, it's not required in the US. Second, your "required to be called HDTV" regulation only happened a couple years ago, way after most of these sets were sold.
Nope, 720p/1080i is required to be labeled "HDTV" by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), a United Nations treaty organization, TVs that do not support both 720p/1080i are usually labeled "HD monitor", "EDTV", or "HD-ready" sets.
Also, most sets that don't support 720p natively have a scaler built in them that can resolve the signal to 1080i; If your set doesn't support 720p (or can't upscale it to 1080i) then you have a bigger issue then the PS3 being that many HDTV stations only broadcast in 720p(Fox, ESPN).
Man you guys must be having some pretty crappy HDTVs then. My 32 inch LCD HDTV from 5 years ago supports 1080i. Nearly every single projector downscales a 1080i picture. Its now not that big of an issue right now though... Not that I support PS3 anyway. All the games up to date frankly suck, and there's no substitute for that. Maybe when compelling games comes out I'll finally purchase one.
"If not then please describe to me how a PS3 is more friendly to HD than a Xbox 360 or a HD-DVD / BlueRay player?"
The PlayStation 3 has HDMI. While the Xbox 360 can output 1080p via component AV, it uses an analog signal, whereas the PlayStation can output HDTV resolutions with both analog and digital signals.
aww man, but it still would be nice to play SSBB on the Wii in 720p in the future if it ever happens, hypothetically that is.
having a few games in 720p is still possible.
I would have to agree with erac3rx. When my friends and I got home at 12:30 at night on (360) launch day we struggled to play all night because the wireless controller's battery pack only had one contact. We had to use cleverly folded tinfoil to complete the circuit. Not to mention the fact that I can't play Gears of War because it requires an Internet connection. No, I really don't have one at home :((
With the PS3 you may have to deal with crappy jagged lines, but at least you get to deal with them for a while instead of dealing with nothing at all.
To the non-PS3 scaler issue. The Cell can do scaling, thing is Sony is too lazy to get it in time for this update.
YES...loving the fact ppl are finally sticking up for Sony. Despite the burning that is going on, if u look at it in perspective, PS3 launch is not all that bad. ppl are comparing a grown and developed 1 year old console with a brand new one (o ya..and wii don't count...nintendo have that knack of getting things perfect the first time around...any one ever hear of gamecube issues?). Give it some time to burn-in! Remember all those power adapter issues that fried ohh so many times during the X360 launch?
Be nicer on sony...we know they can't admit their mistakes...they're trying at least :)
Why would someone "take what they can get" from the company that sold them a $600 gaming console. If I had spent $600 on my console, I would be pretty freaking pissed that it had any bugs at all.
So if you paid $400 for a console that gave you a pretty red light and refused to work, that's OK... as long as you don't pay $600 for a console with some issues that can be worked out through firmware updates.
Nice...
@Brennan
Um, the Wii has issues. It's just that Nintendo is great about shipping the consumers a new console quickly to satisfy their customers. We had to call twice, but our Wii had video artifacts appearing all over the screen. How about the report that many Wii's bricked themselves on the first update? The Wii also has a cooling issue - did you realize that nice little white box never actually shuts down completely? It goes into stand-by mode. If you don't keep that thing properly cooled, you are going to run into problems. Ours got so hot, it bulged on one side. The Wii is fun, yes. But it does have issues. But we had our new Wii in 3 days from Nintendo - so who is going to complain with such great service!
What, so that means that ALL PS1/2 games will play on PS3 with that firmware update?