PS3 2.70 firmware adds in-game text chat, video backup

Sony's just released the details for its upcoming PlayStation 3 2.70 firmware update, and while it's nothing that'll knock your socks off, they are some goodies here to look forward to. Additions include text chat for letting you make the best of that new Wireless Keypad -- or some other physical / on-screen keyboard -- with up to fifteen online friends and / or three chat rooms, in-game or out. Speaking of online friends, those can now be sorted by online status to see who most recently logged on, and the file attachment size cap has been upped from 1MB to 3MB. Additionally, you can now back up your PS Store video purchases to an external drive and restore later for playback, and similarly your PSP video purchases can now be transferred to PS3 for a larger-screen experience. No word on the release date for now, but in the meantime, check out video demonstration after the break.

Update: Well that was fast. Firmware's available now, let us know what you think.

[hellfroze Posted Apr 2nd 2009 1:52PM]

The problem with on-the-fly transcoding for streaming is that you can't seek. Which is fine if you never need to rewind or otherwise jump around in your video, but if you ever need to, man are you in for a world of hurt.

I saw this very problem exhibited by PS3 Media Streamer this past weekend - try to rewind a little bit and you end up at the beginning of the video.

Fail :(

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 5:54PM]

the fast forward and jump in is working... it's just the rewind who is buggy and trickier to implement

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 3:18AM]

Wake me up when Sony brings back PS2 support on PS3. Or start selling backward compatible versions of PS3. A lot of new owners are having buyers remorse.

[Saltboy Posted Apr 2nd 2009 8:35AM]

Sigh....still waiting for them to leave the USB ports hot while the system is in standby so I do not have to charge my controllers on my Wii.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 1:24PM]

I know what the F!

[hellfroze Posted Apr 2nd 2009 1:54PM]

Agreed. that's annoying. You can also use your cable/satellite box- all the ones I've seen with USB ports keep them hot in standby.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 8:54AM]

Did FW 2.70 add support for NTFS or exFAT formatted harddisks / usb sticks?

[macgregger Posted Apr 2nd 2009 9:17AM]

any word if this affects the ps2 iso loading through usbExtreme for launch consoles?

[me2 Posted Apr 2nd 2009 9:37AM]

I can't believe I'm still seeing messages about people wanting backward compatibility. My God people, buy a Sony PS2 for $99 and a frickin' $30 automatic switch box if you need to play PS2 games so badly and don't have enough ports for more than one input. Sony IS NOT GOING TO PUT BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY BACK INTO THE PS3! They included it originally so people being early adopters would have games to play on their new PS3. Now that there's a decent PS3 library it's not needed anymore.

[Zepaly Posted Apr 2nd 2009 10:15AM]

How about getting the battery meter out of the way of the clock??? It still annoys the hell out of me!!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 11:25AM]

how about we get SKYPE for ps3

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 11:57AM]

READ THIS SONY,

Ok this is THE best controls for text chat, look at Beyond Good & Evil, use the analog sticks to select characters, R1 = backspace, L1 = Spacebar. This is just a basic idea, ou could play with it some more but the Beyond Good & Evil stick controls ARE THE BEST WAY if you arent using a keyboard.

[pekosROB Posted Apr 2nd 2009 2:07PM]

I really wish the Xbox 360's onscreen keyboard was QWERTY like this! I complained about this almost two years ago...

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 3:43PM]

The New Update Freezes my PS3 whenever I plug in my PS2-to-PS3 controller adapter...........does that happen to anyone here?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 3:56PM]

Well the In-game text chat freezes up my PS3 when playing Tiger Woods 09. It's the only game this happens and i know a number of other people who are having problems with same game.

The only thing i'm disappointed about is no Voice Messaging.

[SpydaKat Posted Apr 2nd 2009 4:06PM]

Nice

[snakebite Posted Apr 2nd 2009 8:52PM]

Nothing for me really, but a step in the right direction.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 10:19PM]

Ok, I stream using Mediatomb from an Ubuntu Server box and my PS3 is now not even detecting that I'm serving UPnP. Either something is f'd with the UPnP portion of the system now, or perhaps its the problem people have listed above stating that Mediatomb will need an update. If anyone has some info please let me know.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 3rd 2009 3:39PM]

I might be missing something, but... How are you suppose to back up your HD Movies you've bought on the PS3 to an external if it can only except FAT32 formated drives?

Someone please explain this...

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 4th 2009 11:59AM]

Ow Fuck! Sony is missing points with me! I just put my PS3 to update firmware while I as having dinner, and after that I was planning to watch "House MD" from my media stream server (Linksys NAS200), but for my surprise... my divx and avi files aren't working anymore!! I'm getting a lot of "unsupported data"!
Instead of increase compatibility sony just cut of them!

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 16th 2009 4:02PM]

PS3 STREAMING ISSUE AFTER UPGRADE RESOLVED

I had the same problem when trying to stream after 2.70 update. I am using TVersity. I havent updated it since I first installed it. I downloaded and installed latest version of TVersity, it re-built library after installing, and now all is well. Hope this helps....