PS3 to upscale DVDs, says Phil

Well, sort of. Phil Harrison naturally couldn't just announce the future feature straight out, he had to work it into a clever demonstration of how Sony doesn't usually talk about stuff that's in the pipeline. In a talk with N'Gai Croal, Phil conjectured that to "engender trust in our users, we have to share some things that might be not quite perfect." He continued: "So we could say, 'You know, we're not sure when it's coming, but we're going to have DVD upscaling on PlayStation 3.' There you go. There's a scoop for you." If Phil digs the idea enough to drop some info like that in an interview, we're not sure why he doesn't just go ahead and adopt it as a policy, but we're sure there are powers at Sony that even our shiny-headed little friend here cannot conquer. Of course, this gives us very little knowledge in the way of timing and implementation, but it's nice to know that DVD upscaling -- which Xbox 360 users have been enjoying for a few months already -- is coming to Phil's shiny PS3 boxen all the same.

[Via Joystiq]

[Alex @ Mar 2nd 2007 8:38PM]

Very good. I'm glad I can see my DVDs in better quality than 480p now, that's a good add-on. We need some PS2 upscaling as well, maybe to 720p.

[CharlieX @ Mar 2nd 2007 9:00PM]

Just because something "upscales" does not mean it does it better than the TV's internal scaler - especially in higher end models. I'm sick of everyone thinking this is the holy grail in HD - I've got an Oppo DVD player which does a great job of scaling 480p to 1080p - but it's still obviously a standard def source.

[Daikon @ Mar 2nd 2007 9:44PM]

Right. And we were promised 98% backwards compatibility with PS2 titles also but now EU gamers get PS2 software-based emulation only.

Liar liar pants on fire.
I'll believe it when I see it.

[mcheddadi @ Mar 2nd 2007 10:01PM]

My photo is vewy clever, yes..

[Jiffylush @ Mar 2nd 2007 10:01PM]

Ok, I am a PS3 owner and I have something to say about this.

Stop TALKING about upcoming features and just SHOW them to us.

Supposedly this could be available as early as next week(3/3). Wouldn't it be better to see news posts about the PS3's new feature or game or demo or whatever instead of more meaningless non-announcements?

I am a fan of my PS3, and I have already pre-purchased motorstorm, but I am sick of the constant news about the PS3 (good or bad).

So, shut the fuck up and just let the product and your updates and the new games speak for themselves. Your constant announcements aren't changing anyones mind.



@CharlieX -
The reason we want upsampled DVDs is so we can get rid of our other DVD players, and until we get a lot more Blu-ray releases we are going to do most of our movie watching on SD DVDs. In case you didn't notice, upsampled dvds look better, which is probably why you bought your upsampling player.

[CharlieX @ Mar 3rd 2007 12:06PM]

true upsampled DVD's *might* look better... it all depends on the scaling method... The Oppo looks fantastic because they've implemented things like the Genesis chip - but I'm willing to bet most of these "upsampling" players simply just blow up the image with a mitchell algorithm, in which case your TV would probably scale 480p just as well.

Now if you can get your hands on a Tenarex converter - that little mofo can turn SD into some HD thunder.

[Castle @ Mar 3rd 2007 12:21AM]

>>Stop TALKING about upcoming features and just SHOW them to us.

err. . read the article (and calm down); Phil addresses that Sony has been pretty mum on what they were developing until they actually showed it till now. He says he wants to be more forthcoming with the consumers on stuff thats in the pipeline.

Either way people will complain it seems. . .

[Bill @ Mar 3rd 2007 2:08AM]

Big friggin' whoopdeedoo! If he thinks this feature is going to even remotely make up for the high price, lack of good games, and poor online functionality of this console, he is out of his mind.

[ph @ Mar 3rd 2007 3:02AM]

I think we need a sony rumor generator....


:p

[John Doe @ Mar 3rd 2007 3:19AM]

So we would have three columns with 1 row in them right? Sony leading up to | new firmware update | that will fix a known issue.

[diamondmm @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:45AM]

Microsoft is shady when it comes to upscaling DVDs, its limited to the VGA cable.

So if you buy the Premium that comes with the HDTV component cables, you will not be able to upscale DVDs from the DVD player. It will only show them at 480p.

[Sinbios @ Mar 3rd 2007 5:10AM]

Would be also nice if they unlock the progressive and HD modes for ps2 games that support them, and upscale the ones that don't.

[Murc @ Mar 3rd 2007 6:21AM]

Hey Sony, I just had this crazy wierd idea....how about you put "good games" on the of the "what the PS3 needs" list.

[KineticOnline @ Mar 3rd 2007 6:48AM]

What they didn't blackball you (or at least threaten to) for putting up the story?

[Bill @ Mar 3rd 2007 12:00PM]

The Xbox360 may do a relatively crappy job playing DVD's, but at least it has lots of great games and unbelievably good online play.

[�COM-4 @ Mar 3rd 2007 11:51PM]

The reason why the X360 only upconverts over VGA is due to restrictions of upconversion only through HDMI. That's why every upconverting DVD player prevents upconversion through component, it has to be through HDMI.

[Thomas S @ Mar 4th 2007 10:07AM]

that makes no sense. vga has about as much to do with hdmi as component does to hdmi. their both analogue.

[�COM-4 @ Mar 4th 2007 2:40PM]

Actually it makes sense you just don't get it. Every PC that can playback DVDs using a software DVD player like Cyberlink or Intervideo can scale "upconvert" to your computer monitor's resolution through VGA. That's why when you playback a movie inside of a window you can resize the window to ANY arbitrary resolution since it just scales it. This is similar to what Xbox360 is doing using the VGA cable eg it's scaling except it doesn't allow arbitrary resolutions like on a PC.

In standalone DVD players, upconversion is not allowed through component due to copy protection restrictions. That's why all upconversion needs to be through HDMI with HDCP. If you don't believe me then find a standalone upconverting DVD player that does it through component...you won't find any.

[javier.guillermo @ Mar 5th 2007 2:52PM]

At daily tech, it says that upconversion will only work if you use a VGA cable and by doing so you won't be using the HDMI one...true or false?