PS3 firmware 2.20 bringing BD-Live interactive Blu-ray this month
The Blu-ray 2.0 spec (or BD-Live) is just days from launch. Sony just announced that the next PlayStation3 firmware updated -- v2.20 -- will add the new interactive features to your PS3. As such, PS3 owners should expect downloadable video content, ringtones, interactive movie-based games, and the always intriguing "more" when the software is released in "late March." In other words, in the next 11 days. The update will also allow you to copy photos and music playlists over USB from your PS3 to your PSP. The rest of the new features after the break.-- "Resume play" will enable PS3 system to start playing a Blu-ray disc
and DVD at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been
removed.(*1)
-- "Audio Output Device" will be a new Remote Play setting, enabling PSP
to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3.
-- PS3 system's Internet browser will be enhanced: Video files directly
linked from a Web page will be able to be streamed, and the browser's
view speed will be improved.
-- DivX and WMV format videos that are larger than 2GB will be playable.
-- "Mosquito Noise Reduction" will be added as an AV setting in the
control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback.(*2)
*1 BD-J format disc is not supported.
*2 BD discs recorded with BDMV format are not supported.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jove @ Mar 20th 2008 5:46AM
oh hell yeah! man i can honestly say i want to see what truth teller's gonna say now about the kiddie console! awesome!
Truth Teller @ Mar 20th 2008 8:34AM
You make sure you enjoy your over-priced kiddies game console (with few decent games) now.
Just remember to really grit your teeth hard and pretend you love the expensive DRM-infested mess.
1stGreg @ Mar 20th 2008 9:35AM
Over-priced?
How so Lie Teller, when to have an equivalent station with a Xbox it actually costs you more
(and with a mere dead HD DVD add on vs a built in Blu Ray player)?
Keep on the BS, Fud Teller, we all love to have a good laugh at your expense ;)
Truth Teller @ Mar 20th 2008 10:08AM
The only people giving anyone a great big laugh are the game console kiddies who have decided to pretend that their fav toy is all about movies and not games (which are still laughably thin on the ground).
HD DVD has sadly left the field but my stand-alone player & movie collection have cost me (still) far less than any equivelent Blu-ray option (which, given their profile mess & if you could for a moment be honest about it, still does not yet even exist).
As for movies, all but the most determined have said a firm no to having a kiddies game console as their main movie player.
There's no rush and absolutely no need for Blu-ray & all the BS it brings.
Fail.
mntwister @ Mar 20th 2008 10:45AM
Why do you guys feed into Truthteller's ridiculous posts? The simple fact is that everything he predicted over the last year and a half about this format war did not happen for hd-dvd, so why waste your time with people that cannot accept that they were totally wrong all along?
Mark @ Mar 20th 2008 11:09AM
"Truth Teller" your angry and bitter dismissals of the PS3 simply don't wash. The PS3 is an excellent console and an excellent blu ray player. I thin its great to have one device which is so versatile. Maybe you love your HD DVD player to much to acknowledge the PS3 for the quality kit it is but that's your problem not anyone elses. Maybe its time to grow up?
Truth Teller @ Mar 20th 2008 11:19AM
mntwister
I have no problem with people enjoying their PS3s, why would I it's not exactly any of my business and it's a relatively free world here in the west.
I do have a problem with fanboy cretins who act like it is perfection itself and who insist on trying to evangelise to the rest of us who are not interested in a game console as our movie player.
Even more laughable are those who imagine that just cos I have no interest in the PS3 that I have for the XBox 360.
Too funny.
.....and as far as your 'wrong' comment goes?
Couple of things.
1) just before CES every senior guy on the HD DVD side went off on their planes 'knowing' Warner had signed for HD DVD. That was the inside info - and the Ken Graffeo interview proved it.
2) It was so close to going the other way.
You just happened to be in 'love' with the CE corp that won out in the end.
You did nothing.
You could so easily have bet wrong (and came within a whisker of doing so).
3) It is far from decided yet whether Blu-ray has or has not also lost with HD DVD.
The win in the little squabble with HD DVD has not guaranteed Blu-ray will go on to take over from SD DVD at all.
The high def market is heavily fractured as it is (and this can only get ever more so) and there is no indication whatsoever that the general public have any appetite for paying the laughable prices the Blu-ray side expect to charge for their sub-spec clunky cr@p.
I've seen it said umteen times (just as it was with HD DVD) 'wake me up when the (full spec = profile 2.0) players are $100.
How many years do you expect that to take, hmmmmmm?
By then it will be too late. Too little too late.
Blu-ray = PS3 proprietary niche format and very very little else besides.
Get over it.
The Blu-ray win was the worst thing possible for the uptake of HDM on disc.
You too bought into a format going nowhere
(it's just taking a little longer for you lot to realise it).
JimC @ Mar 20th 2008 12:40PM
Truth Teller,
I have ZERO games for my PS3, in fact, the game controller is out of power because it sits in the cabinet unused. The PS3 is our media PC to play movies and stream family photos and videos from my Vista machine.
No doubt you'll say I am a minority but since you don't own a PS3, then your opinion means very little....
tifosiotaku @ Mar 20th 2008 12:54PM
Dude, Give. It. Up. Already.
DrXym @ Mar 20th 2008 4:30PM
I see Truth Teller is cranking out stupid immature comments like usual.
Kris @ Mar 20th 2008 6:16AM
Awesome, now what about HD AUDIO??? PCM uncompressed audio is great, but Sony and Warner are starting to use Dolby True HD more with their future BD releases. I have a Onkyo TX-SR705, and I still haven't seen/listen to what it can really dish out in sound.
Nfinity @ Mar 20th 2008 6:18AM
Well as far as I know.. PS3 should be doing TrueHD..that was enabled with some update a while back..
In any case.. I think this update is A MUST and it's good news considering that we won't be seeing standalones for a WHILE to support everything PS3 does for Blu-Ray.
locke6854 @ Mar 20th 2008 7:28AM
the PS3 can do truehd fine, and output it as PCM. The problem is it can't bitstream it, and if you set it as bitstream, you'll get regular DD 640kbps. You have to set to PCM to trigger internal decoding.
What we NEED is internal decoding of DTS Master HD. And a more intuitive way to browse/sort music, because its so frustrating, I'd rather use my ipod and line-out.
kcmurphy88 @ Mar 20th 2008 12:05PM
If this release does not bring DTS-MA to PS3, it may be there is some hardware limitation and it will never work. For some reason DTS-MA is much more difficult to decode than TrueHD. Sad, because so many BD discs have DTS-MA encoding.
Maybe the studios should just drop DTS-MA entirely and just use the more common Dolby TrueHD. Why support 2 lossless codecs when the resulting sound is identical?
Killer @ Mar 20th 2008 6:20AM
Still No DTS-HD Audio Support? That seems a little wierd. If it was just code with the Cell, it should be easy to make it happen, So Sony is the Ps3 really really able to do DTS Master? It would be nice to hear some type of confirmation sometime. If you're able to put BD-live 2.0 on the ps3, why not the DTS-HD Audio? It just seems fishy, thats all.
alienclays @ Mar 20th 2008 9:40AM
yeah, what's up with this? what's so fancy about dts hd md above dolby true hd? that makes it so hard to implement? licencing fees to high? it nifs me quite a bit that the most popular BD player is being handicaped by something that it has the physical ablity to rock, and studios like FOX keep putting their audio out on.
Mr. E @ Mar 20th 2008 10:38AM
I think Sony's just waiting until their standalone players with internal DTS-HD decoding are released this summer. They'll probably enable DTS-HD in the PS3 soon after that.
kcmurphy88 @ Mar 20th 2008 12:06PM
I suspect that DTS-MA has very low mastering royalties, and that they hope to make their money on the decoders. Shame on Fox for using such an unsupported format.
EEL @ Mar 20th 2008 1:22PM
@ Killer,
I agree. The consumer deserves a capable machine.
Galley @ Mar 20th 2008 6:42AM
Holy Schnikes!
HEY!!!! @ Mar 20th 2008 7:34AM
from what i understand the PS3 do not a a decoder for DTS-HD so you will never be able to fully use the new sound formats.
Andy @ Mar 20th 2008 12:01PM
It has more than enough processing power to decode it. It seems to be a licensing issue though for some reason.
HEY!!!! @ Mar 20th 2008 7:35AM
*does not have
Sufs @ Mar 20th 2008 7:47AM
I think the day they enable DTS MA internal decoding is the day they hurt standalone player sales. Everyone knows that the only real disadvantage with the PS3 compared to a standalone. Even Engadgethd called it the only reason why the PS3 is not the best Bluray player. Think about it they need to give some kind of edge to standalone players otherwise everyone looking for a full featured player Will buy a PS3 since its so much cheaper.
Don't get me wrong Sony wants to sell as many PS3's as possible it's just if they pull a move like this all its hardware partners will get pissed especially the ones competing in the under $500 players. In the end once we have some 2.0 players with all the bells and whistles the PS3 will internally decode DTS MA, thats why good things come to those whom wait.
Ben @ Mar 20th 2008 8:10AM
Nah, the inability to turn it on with an IR remote is enough for many. Plus only a few players on the market can bitstream all the codecs and none of them can internally decode all the codecs.
takamaru @ Mar 20th 2008 7:48AM
thank god for resume play. as for ring tones and the such....meh.
Sufs @ Mar 20th 2008 7:57AM
I think the day they enable DTS MA internal decoding is the day they hurt standalone player sales. Everyone knows that the only real disadvantage with the PS3 compared to a standalone. Even Engadgethd called it the only reason why the PS3 is not the best Bluray player. Think about it they need to give some kind of edge to standalone players otherwise everyone looking for a full featured player Will buy a PS3 since its so much cheaper.
Don't get me wrong Sony wants to sell as many PS3's as possible it's just if they pull a move like this all its hardware partners will get pissed especially the ones competing in the under $500 players. In the end once we have some 2.0 players with all the bells and whistles the PS3 will internally decode DTS MA, thats why good things come to those whom wait.
Andy @ Mar 20th 2008 12:07PM
What we need the PS3 to do is also bitstream everything and allow the receiver to decode/process.
Is that possible? Is there any hardware requirement that the PS3 may not meet?
That way you can say, PS3 outputs all codecs, or if you dont have a receiver that can take care of it, it can decode most of them.
zargon @ Mar 20th 2008 8:20AM
Meh, still will not get me to buy a medicore gaming console just to use as a blu-ray player.
Just release the darn Panasonic BD50 already!
JesterXR @ Mar 20th 2008 8:43AM
Please excuse my ignorance, as I am a huge AV guy, but I'm confused. I have been able to output sound using every codec, including DTS Master HD. I was ONLY able to do so using Bitstream. Using Linear PCM GREATLY reduces the sound quality (unless my selected output is PCM Uncompressed, then it doesn't matter if it is bitstream or PCM they both are equal in quality). I guess I'm confused on why everyone says that neither Bitstream nor DTS Master HD will output. I keep my PS3 in bitstream all the time and have never had a problem, it is the only way to get the DTS and Dolby codecs to output correctly. What am I missing here? Once again, please excuse my ignorance and enlighten me on this subject, so I can help others understand also.
Kyle @ Mar 20th 2008 9:26AM
The PS3 does not output DTS-MA via bitstream--all you get is the core DTS 5.1 track if you try this--not the real DTS-MA track.
Kyle @ Mar 20th 2008 9:26AM
The PS3 does not output DTS-MA via bitstream--all you get is the core DTS 5.1 track if you try this--not the real DTS-MA track.
Patrick @ Mar 20th 2008 8:51AM
Does anyone know how much memory the "resume play" when a disc is removed feature takes up on the PS3?
Andy @ Mar 20th 2008 12:00PM
A few kb? All it does is keep a list of disc id and time stamp where it was last. So hardly anything. Most DVD players have this feature, so its not something rare or unusual.
zoran @ Mar 20th 2008 8:52AM
I agree with the comments. PS3 is a great player but it needs bitstream True HD and DTS-MA. We have waited almost 2 years and nothing. All the extra features are great, but for people that care about audio (which is half of the next-gen experience) needs to be there. I paid $600 for my PS3, was that not enough. Anyway, one more thing. True-HD and DTS-MA just need to be uncompressed so that we can fully enjoy it. Both of these are like zip files on your computer and PS3 just need to uncompress them and play it as uncompressed. Kind of like unzipping files on your computer and you have the exact file before it was compressed. The reason why these are available is because they save space on the disc, not because they sound much better/if any than PCM 5.1 or 7.1 It's so they can fit more crap on the disc like trailers, music videos and extra features. A lot of people keep talking about DTS-MA or TRUE-HD, but truly, how many of you have ever heard full blown DTS-MA or TRUE-HD. And if you have, please tell me the diference and how much better it is than PCM. Honestly. Many people are excited about something they never heard or they might have the same sound at home using HDMI. Comments welcome.
Jason Stanfield @ Mar 20th 2008 9:44AM
As I understood, the PS3 will likely never be able to output bitstream TrueHD or DTS MA due to the variant of HDMI 1.3 the unit has. We're stuck with internal decoding of the HD codecs and output over HDMI to a capable receiver.
I tend to agree with the other posters that DTS MA won't happen until the PS3 is priced towards the high end of standalone Blu-Ray players, not the low end.
locke6854 @ Mar 20th 2008 10:18AM
First, PS3 will not bitstream trueHD or Master HD due to a hardware limitation. The Silicon Image 9132 chip doesn't support it. Now, if the PS3 gets re-released with the SI 9134 chip, we'd have our HBR bitstream.
Second, I have heard quite a few lossless soundtracks, and I can tell a big difference. I have nice speakers, though... I'd imagine that the difference wouldnt be as great with, say, a $500 home theater in-a-box.
CrymeLord @ Mar 20th 2008 9:24AM
Jester,
PS3 only outputs standard Dolby Digital and DTS bit stream. True Dolby HD is out via PCM. DTS:HDMA is output as regular DTS because the PS3 can't decode it currently.
The thing that people can't see to get through their skulls is that to take advantage of special multimedia functions that happend during movie playboack the sound must be processed and output as PCM from the player or you aren't going to get all the sound which is why you get that message on the PS3 when you switch to bit stream.
JesterXR @ Mar 20th 2008 11:06AM
CrymeLord,
I see what you are saying and I get it now. But here is my next question... how come when paying ANY Dobly Digital/DTS codec (including TrueHD) through the PCM output setting does the sound seem to worsen (become less powerful/full)?
Also, I don't think that it is a matter of just getting it through our skulls, but more like we just don't completely understand the processes at work. For example, what do you mean by "Special Multimedia Functions" and what does the message that the PS3 gives really mean? Does it mean that at some point the audio will just drop out, or does it mean that certain audio tracks will not be processes and played, such as background sfx, etc.?
locke6854 @ Mar 20th 2008 1:09PM
@JesterXR
Because 1) when listening to PCM over optical, you'll only get 2.0. So you'd miss the fullness of a center/surround/discrete sub channel.
2) dolby digital tracks bitstreamed are usually louder than the PCM 2.0 track. The average person perceives this volume boost to be "better". Its louder, but still highly compressed music. Turn the PCM volume up to the same volume level.
Michial @ Mar 20th 2008 10:14AM
The ps3 may not be perfect-but what is, and to get close you will be shelling out 3-5 times what you do for the ps3. With Sony's commitment to firmware giving us this update in particular Iam excited. As for a gaming console it's great. I only have a few games but who cares-if only a few good ones come out a year so be it. I have an awesome HD hub for movies, music, and games-plus I have a PSP I can remotely access my ps3,etc and watch and play on it too. Mock the ps3 all you want -there are many of us who enjoy it and see it future proof for at least a few more years, and in this sector that is saying a lot.
mntwister @ Mar 20th 2008 11:00AM
I agree, after having used a friend's x-box for a month, and then buying my PS3, there is no comparison. The PS3 is one awesome piece of equipment, but I do have to agree that DTS MA audio is way overdue. Sony owes this to us, and also owes it to Fox and New Line, who are releasing discs with only DTS Master audio (and the core track). I have a nice collection of discs with only DTS MA and I am running out of patience. If the PS3 is not equipped with DTS MA by the time the new Sony 350 blu-ray player comes out, I plan on using the PS3 for gaming and buy the stand-alone.
Wryker @ Mar 20th 2008 11:31AM
My receiver supports DTS-MA so i'm 'set' either way. If they can turn on DTS-MA via PCM and do bitstream later why the hell won't they do that?!?!
Ryan Waddell @ Mar 20th 2008 11:37AM
I'll have to check out the new functionality when it's available. Although right now, my PS3 is serving as an upconverting dvd player. Maybe I'll have time for games once I get my new house settled in. But then, Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 just came out, so I may have to stick to the 360 to keep playing online with my buddies. :)
h4ldol @ Mar 20th 2008 12:33PM
Oh stop all your b*tching about DTS-HD MA everyone. I doubt that almost any of you fanboys have decent enough audio systems to even distinguish DTS-HD MA from the DTS Core that your PS3 extracts now. And stop the whining about internal decoding versus bitstreaming and external decoding. There is no difference in audio quality when TrueHD (or DTS-HD MA) is internally decoded and sent over HDMI as LPCM. The day that the PS3 gets internal DTS-HD MA is the day that it becomes the complete blu-ray player.
JesterXR @ Mar 20th 2008 12:51PM
I don't here anyone whining, I know I'm not. I'm just trying to understand better.
Andy @ Mar 20th 2008 1:36PM
I think some are asking for bitstreaming as a stopgap until internal decoding is available. Surely that would be easier to do.
eugene @ Mar 22nd 2008 4:36AM
Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong. There's two ways to find out, one would require me to buy a new standalone player just for the DTS HD MA support and the other is if Sony gives us software decoding.
DEEZNUTZ @ Mar 20th 2008 2:28PM
Resume play FTW! Don't understand why early HD players didn't include this, if they even have it now. I know the A3 doesn't do it... just silly not to have included such a simple feature to begin with.
JesterXR @ Mar 20th 2008 2:46PM
@Locke6854
1) I am using HDMI 1.3 and still the same thing, so I don't know. But it is interesting to know that PCM through optical is only 2.0 channel.
2) This is how Bose sells way overpriced audio equpiment (loudness that is).
Thanks man.